GS 550L Gets a make over

[dr_fosg8]

Looking good there. Like the pc on the frame. I have never done a top end job before but I think the valves need to be put back in the head before it goes back on right? I am not sure but hopefully someone will tune in here before you get too much further.

[Redneck]

Valves who needs Valves!

Yes I do need to go back and put the valves in. I was so excited that I was actually getting it back together that I did not even realize till this morning that " Hey dumb A$$ you forgot something, it might be kind of important." I have not put in the valves but I have not torqued the head bolts either. I just got in a hurry that and it was a my "cute apprentices" bed time so I was being hurried. I will get the valves all put on tonight hopefully before I take my son to his Parkour practice.

Paul

[Redneck]

Well as life would have it. One weel later I am finally getting to putting the valves back in the head. I managed to get two in after thirty minutes of struggling to get those little tiny pieces back in the whole. My back was hurting from bending over so I went back to the process of trying to get my shocks apart. That dad gum tin can at the top is making my life hell. I bought a lever arm spring compressor for the shocks pretty cheap. It works all right but that can at the top did not leave me much room to compress the spring. After a 20 minute struggle I finally got it apart. I am going to take the springs in and get them Plastisolled ( a rubber coating that can be put on the springs) and I am going to paint the rest of it black. I am figuring at the current rate of this reconstructive surgery I should be ready to ride again after the first snow fall.

[Redneck]

Is there a key to the keeper...

OH my lord those little keepers that go at the top of the valve springs that hold everthing in place, you know the two little curved plates that require tweezers to pull out.... they are kicking my a$$. I cant get them back in.... easily anyway. Is there some secret way of getting them back in? They are killing me. Last night after an hour I managed to get 21/2 valves reassembled.

Paul

[pete]

They're a right bugger alright!

Have you seen Steve's video on installing them? It helped me somewhat, but I found you just have to be ultra patient and you will develop a technique.

The only problem for me was I only have 4 valves in total, and I got the technique down pat on the 4th valve...

[Hoosier Daddy]

A small dab of grease either on the inside radius of the keeper or on the valve stem helps hold them in place during re-assembly.

[psyguy]

as Daddy said

[Redneck]

Valve Clearance issue...

After much fighting and much cussing.... and a little helpful advice from you guys I finally got all the valves installed. Put in the Cam timed it up per the Haynes manual I have. Found out I forgot to order a gasket for the chain tensioner... but I had gasket material in the garage so I shadow traced the opening on some paper, used a utility knife and wham I had a gasket.

Tensioner installed now time to check the valve clearance.... first one I check passes... woot.... then epic failure... all the other ones fail with little or no clearance, between the lobes and tappets. Could this possibly be from over tightening the Cam holders. I tightened them down to approximately 6-8 ft-lbs. but my torgue wrench is the spring type and it reads in 5 lb increments. Second thing is the bike did tend to bog alot before I tore it down this winter so this may have been the issue to begin with. My big question is how do I know which shims to buy to fix this issue? I am going to put the valve cover on for now get the engine painted while i have good weather and continue on with the reassembly and come back and visit the valve issue when I have more knowledge and money.

Paul

[Flyboy]

Hey Paul, wonder why you had been so quiet, nice to see you got some work done on the bike.
I hope you gave each valve a nice swift rap with the hammer to see that the cotters were well seated and not going to jump out at the first valve depression.
Did you do any head/valve work, like cutting the seats or even just lapping the valves in?
If so, your clearences will be up the creek on the tight side, this is normal, you have removed material, after all, so the valve sits a smidgen higher in the head.
Try and get your hands on the thinnest shim you can, and use that as a measuring shim, to get your sizes.
See if the shim that has clearance will fit into the other valves with clearance and use that one as your measuring shim, otherwise order the thinnest one you can get from your favorite parts dealer.

[SVSooke]

After much fighting and much cussing.... and a little helpful advice from you guys I finally got all the valves installed. Put in the Cam timed it up per the Haynes manual I have. Found out I forgot to order a gasket for the chain tensioner... but I had gasket material in the garage so I shadow traced the opening on some paper, used a utility knife and wham I had a gasket.

Tensioner installed now time to check the valve clearance.... first one I check passes... woot.... then epic failure... all the other ones fail with little or no clearance, between the lobes and tappets. Could this possibly be from over tightening the Cam holders. I tightened them down to approximately 6-8 ft-lbs. but my torgue wrench is the spring type and it reads in 5 lb increments. Second thing is the bike did tend to bog alot before I tore it down this winter so this may have been the issue to begin with. My big question is how do I know which shims to buy to fix this issue? I am going to put the valve cover on for now get the engine painted while i have good weather and continue on with the reassembly and come back and visit the valve issue when I have more knowledge and money.

Paul

Email Steve for one of his spreadsheets.Think it will help but I haven't tried it yet.

[pete]

Steve's spreadsheet won't help where you are right now, but after you've done it this time it will be a huge help.

Flyboy's tip is excellent, but in the meantime there is another way if you can't get one, which I got from Suzuki_Don.

If you can rotate the shim bucket but can't measure clearance, then you should at least have some clearance so one size down should be enough.

If you can't rotate the bucket, it's touching and you'll need probably two or more sizes down.

Been there done that... I had my valves faced and that tends to leave you in no man's land unless you were to measure the valve face to stem top length before and after. Even if you measure that it's still a guess because lapping them in will have a small influence on that too.

[Redneck]

Well I did not lap the valves seats i did run 1000 grit around them to polish them up a bit and make sure there was nothing sticking to them that would cause some leak by. I think I will try flyboys suggestion first, then move on to Pete's. Maybe I can come up with where I need to go from there. So aggravating.

Paul

[pete]

Good call, Flyboy's is the most accurate.

[psyguy]

So aggravating.

I was in a similar situation after having had the valve stems ground (as on some cylinders it was down to thinnest shims available).
Be prepared to not get it right the first time, regardless of how accurate you take your clearance readings. I got mine only in the ballpark (not dead accurate), then after running it for a few hundred kms opened it up again and had to do few more adjustments. Just make sure to err on the side of bigger clearances, not smaller.

[Redneck]

Its finally black

Well I decided to put off the valve clearance for a little bit since that can be done with the motor in the frame. so I started prepping the engin for paint. Realized like a dope that trying to paint the engine with the valve cover in place was not a good idea. So I too it off, took out the cams again left the chain bridge installed to keep chain from falling back through, taped up everything that I did not want black and went to town with some rattle can VHT. I think it looks pretty good. Pictures will be provided when I get home from work. I took em just did not get a chance to upload them.

Since the cams were out I took Flyboys advice and gave each valve bucket a good whack with the hammer. I will put the Cams back in tonight and look at the clearances again. If that did not help anything I will wait till I have everything back together to worry bout them.

So next problem. How do you get the old Exhaust gaskets out. I tried to pop them out with a small flat head screwdriver but they were not budging and I don't want to mess up my exhaust ports. Anyone got any ideas?