Homemade tappet adjuster

[Anonymous]

Ha, my neighbour is smarter than I thought although he still doesn't own a Suzuki. :roll: I went over to visit him and his BMW, Kawasaki, and Honda today and he showed me his tappet adjusting tool that he made. The outer half is a socket for adjusting the jam nut with a 3" rod welded to it. The inner half is a screw driver bit glued inside of a 1/4" socket. You slide the driver bit in through the back of the bigger socket to create an extremeley expensive special tool.

Anybody know if there is a screw driver bit with an inside out 4 mm square available? (I think that's the size) We'd need that for this to work on Suzukis.

Cheers, Steve

[mpogue]

I just did mine the other day. Wondering what to use I found that the red (#2) robertson was about the same size. (3mm) I took a 2" long #8 wood screw with the #2 robertson head and screwed it into a 5/8" wood dowel about 3" long until it was in real tight. A wrench was all I used for the nut. Worked great. I know it seems a tad simple, but it worked.

As for putting a square hole in the end of a, say cutoff screwdriver, I would drill a 3mm or slightly bigger hole in the end. Get a broken drill, endmill or something thats hardened and grind the sides square to just larger than 3mm and then push it into the hole to cut out the corners. Also known as broaching. If you use a cutoff screwdriver, use a robertson since the shaft is soft and the tip is usually pressed in. Actually, I don't know what the tip size is that they push into the shaft, but it could work or at least make the job a little easier.

[Anonymous]

The wooden dowel is a great idea! It turns out that the Suzuki holder is only 8 bucks Canadian so I ordered one of those. I'll see about welding up a socket in the near future. It costs 55 bucks for an aftermarket kit of 3 holders and 3 wrenches so the Suzuki price is a steal.

Steve

[mpogue]

8 bucks? 8O I may just order one myself. The dealer I use has taken 3 to 4 weeks to get parts, so I figured I needed the tappet adjuster now and I wasn't willing to wait. I also figured it would have been over priced. Should have checked.

Thanks Steve

[Anonymous]

8 bucks? 8O I may just order one myself. The dealer I use has taken 3 to 4 weeks to get parts, so I figured I needed the tappet adjuster now and I wasn't willing to wait. I also figured it would have been over priced. Should have checked.

Thanks Steve

8 bucks! Dammit! I've done three (or is four) fiddly valve adjustments on my GSX1100F with a robertson screw held in a pair of small vicegrips. I also figured it'd be overpriced.

Thanks Steve, me too!
- Richard

[Anonymous]

Robertson screws, never heard of them before, so today hasn't been a complete waste of time!.........................

Anyway......... I used a length of 4mm dia brass tube to do mine. first of all you need to make the tool. Loosen a locknut and unscrew the adjuster all the way out and then you can form the end of the brass tube to fit the end of the adjuster and thats the basis of the tool.
All you need then is an offset ring spanner or the welded up socket to stick over the locknut and you can insert the brass tube down the middle.

I suppose you could use steel tubing as well but brass was the only piece of material I had to hand that was of small enough diameter!

I did try and put a dial on the end of the tube so that I could "guesstimate" how many thou I'd adjusted by the amount of travel through 360 degrees but it was more trouble than it was worth!

I also tried making a universal jointed one that I could insert down through the frame or get at the adjusters from an angle by using the remains of a speedo cable, once again more trouble than it was worth.

[scotty]

Re: Homemade tappet adjuster

Ha, my neighbour is smarter than I thought although he still doesn't own a Suzuki. :roll: I went over to visit him and his BMW, Kawasaki, and Honda today and he showed me his tappet adjusting tool that he made. The outer half is a socket for adjusting the jam nut with a 3" rod welded to it. The inner half is a screw driver bit glued inside of a 1/4" socket. You slide the driver bit in through the back of the bigger socket to create an extremeley expensive special tool.

Anybody know if there is a screw driver bit with an inside out 4 mm square available? (I think that's the size) We'd need that for this to work on Suzukis.

Cheers, Steve

Steve i have 3 diferent tools for that job if you need to use one.

[Jethro]

The adjuster on the shim itself is 3mm if I recall. I had to take a 4mm open end wrench (couldn't find a 3mm wrench or socket or nutdriver) and heat it with a torch, then sqeeze it in a vise until it was down to 3mm. Works perfect.