valve adjustment

[Anonymous]

Hello, how important is the valve adjustment? Purchased 82 gs1100gl with 34000 miles, previous owner has never had valves adjusted, bike seems to run fine, starts up right away, bike has slight popping using the engine to brake. How hard is the valve adjustment, and do the carbs need to be resynch after a valve adjustment? Thanks for the knowledge

[sharpy]

Valves

Valves adjustment is easy on the old girls. as soon as you buy a "new" bike you should treat it to a full service doesnt matter what the owner said. To check the valves you require a 10,12,19mm spanners, one phillips head screwdriver,a set of feeler gauges, new tappet cover gasket, a little gasket cement for the half-moon rubbers and a mate or workshop manual. Sounds easy and it is. Takes around 1.5-2hrs. Dont be scared and have fun. If the valves shims need replacing there a tools you can buy for the job.

[Anonymous]

I owned a GS1100 from 1983 till 1998. My memory is a bit foggy but don't recall EVER removing the cam end plugs to set the valve lash and may have only swapped gaskets once or twice during that time. These GS valve lash is FAR easier to set than my current KZ900 valve lash which uses SHIMS to adjust the lash. Checking isn't bad but if you need to change a shim, the bucket must be pried down with a special tool and the shim fished out and it generally is a half day job even when you know what you are doing. The smaller (KZ650) style Kawasakis use shim under bucket adjustment and that means removing the cam shafts... even worse. I miss my GS1100E. Keeping an eye out for a shaftie... 1100G I think...

[shaftzuki]

Re: valve adjustment

Hello, how important is the valve adjustment? Purchased 82 gs1100gl with 34000 miles, previous owner has never had valves adjusted, bike seems to run fine, starts up right away, bike has slight popping using the engine to brake. How hard is the valve adjustment, and do the carbs need to be resynch after a valve adjustment? Thanks for the knowledge

Your motor is the ole trusty 2 valves per cylinder - which means your going to have to deal with the shim over bucket adjustment. I suggest you purchase a manual - they are really helpful when it comes to the valve train and it's adjustment. It's not a difficult task but it is time consuming and does require patience. :?

If your going to adjust the valve train - might as well give her a complete tune up - remove and thoroughly clean the carbs, re-assemble and then sync the carbs ... 8)

[Anonymous]

Make sure you check the valve clearances when the engine is DEAD COLD. Something like 8 to 12 hours after last run.

Check the clearance at TDC for each cylinder (when the cylinder fires it's power stroke) - a manual gives you the method - good idea to follow.

Feeler gage should register a "slight drag" when inserted for the clearance measurement.

Number the cylinder locations and record the clearance measured.

You may (if shim and not screw style adjusters) be able to swap shims between cylinders to meet specs...if you are lucky.

[robinjo]

I owned a GS1100 from 1983 till 1998. My memory is a bit foggy but don't recall EVER removing the cam end plugs to set the valve lash and may have only swapped gaskets once or twice during that time. These GS valve lash is FAR easier to set than my current KZ900 valve lash which uses SHIMS to adjust the lash. Checking isn't bad but if you need to change a shim, the bucket must be pried down with a special tool and the shim fished out and it generally is a half day job even when you know what you are doing. The smaller (KZ650) style Kawasaki's use shim under bucket adjustment and that means removing the cam shafts... even worse. I miss my GS1100E. Keeping an eye out for a shaftie... 1100G I think...

You had a GS1100E 16v I think, that had tappets, this is a GS1100GL 2 valver, these have shims, but luckily shim OVER bucket.

[bwringer]

The shim UNDER bucket KZs were a royal pain in the patoot! The whole camshaft had to come out to change one stinkin' scrap of metal...

Shim OVER bucket GSs are dead easy -- the trick is to have a large collection of shims on hand that includes the very size you need. Otherwise, you have to order a shim or find a shop that carries them. Lucky for me that Cycle Recycle II is 15 minutes away from my office -- you won't find a Suzuki dealer that stocks shims.

Including the carb sync and breaks for taking in and expelling beer, total mechanical time shouldn't be more than 1 to 1.5 hours if you know what you're doing, maybe 2 hours if you don't.