What is that ticking sound?

[dbarnes42]

I have a 79 GS850 that is completly stock. I have recently adjusted the valves and now there is a ticking noise that seems like it is coming from the #1 cylinder. I used info off of this website and changed 7 of the 8 shims to bring them within the .003 to .008 tolerance. Any ideas on what I may have done wrong or what the noise is? It didnt make this noise until after the valves were adjusted.

[gustovh]

One of the valves is a little on the high side of the shims is all. A little ticking won't hurt.
V

[bwringer]

Tappy valves are happy valves.


It might be cam end float, which is also completely harmless. Wear earplugs and stop worrying about it.

[Nessism]

I have a 79 GS850 that is completly stock. I have recently adjusted the valves and now there is a ticking noise that seems like it is coming from the #1 cylinder. I used info off of this website and changed 7 of the 8 shims to bring them within the .003 to .008 tolerance. Any ideas on what I may have done wrong or what the noise is? It didnt make this noise until after the valves were adjusted.

The suzuki spec is .03 - .08 mm. If you set your valves to .003 - .008 inch, the clearance is way above the spec limit so you should go back and check again using the proper range.

[Bribird]

The suzuki spec is .03 - .08 mm. If you set your valves to .003 - .008 inch, the clearance is way above the spec limit so you should go back and check again using the proper range.

Ya i learns that the hard way. I took a quick look at my manual and saw .003 to .008 and grabed my feeler guage set and went to it, followed the instructions to a tee with the exception of metric verses standard. Ya, the clicking made me really pay attention to the spec...doh!
Going back in and setting it to the metric spec helped a bunch but one valve I had to set at .008 (for lack of the shim I needed to put it closer to the .004 I was aiming for) and it does tick just a bit til it is fully warmed up. but it will eventually wear it self into a nice quiet spec

[Nessism]

Going back in and setting it to the metric spec helped a bunch but one valve I had to set at .008 (for lack of the shim I needed to put it closer to the .004 I was aiming for) and it does tick just a bit til it is fully warmed up. but it will eventually wear it self into a nice quiet spec

If you run the bike to redline on a regular basis, there is risk of spitting out a shim if you run too much clearance. I'm not sure if this is a real concern or just theoretical, but I'd set the valves properly to eliminate the possibility.

[doctorgonzo]

Pretty common (and this is what I did last time) to go to the next shim and be .09 or .1 versus being .04. I don't think I'd go above .1 though because of risk of spitting shim.

[reddirtrider]

My manual gives the valve spec in both inches and mm. In an effort to try to eliminate confusion on this, if your manual just supplies a mm spec, to convert it to inches just divide by 25.4.

For example 0.09-0.13mm converts to 0.00354-0.00511 inches or 0.004-0.005 inches rounded off.