The preparations needed to check the clearances vs adjusting them is the same. Once you are at the point of measuring the gaps, the next step would be to simply adjust them if they are wrong, right then and there.
Greg
Valve Clearance
- Thread starter Dirtrider
- Start date
The preparations needed to check the clearances vs adjusting them is the same. Once you are at the point of measuring the gaps, the next step would be to simply adjust them if they are wrong, right then and there.
Greg
That is the beauty of the old-timely locknut style vs. the shim under bucket which is "technically superior" whilst being a total PITA to adjust with cam removal, shim selection, etc. I am glad they "went backwards" in technology.
mike5100
New Member
So if my dealer said to me after the 8000 service ' your valve clearances were within spec - we checked them with a feeler gauge, so we didn't have to do the extra work to strip the bike to adjust anything' ..... it would be bull$hit would it?
Mike
Mike
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by ignorance. For most modern bikes, that would be a true statement. He may just be uninformed or misinformed.
Adjusting as opposed to just measuring might take you a few minutes more - you have ^to slacken the lock nut and turn the screw until you get the right gap then tighten the lock nut and make sure the gap hasn't changed - maybe an extra 5 minutes but to get to the tappets you need to release the radiator mounts & drop the radiator to give space to be able to remove the valve cover....
mike5100
New Member
ah Chris .... now you've confused me. They knocked $100 off the service price they had quoted, because they didn't have to adjust them, but I'm worried that they didn't even check them. Do they have to take any bits off to check them?
Mike
Mike
To get to the valves you need to remove the cylinder head cover. To get to the cylinder head cover you need to at least unfasten and move down the radiator (several people on here say they found it better to take the radiator off entirely).
I thought maybe I'd mixed the procedure up with some other job but I just double checked the manual now.
MZ5
Well-Known Member
I wholeheartedly agree! It was always easy as pie to adjust the valves on my Z-car (Datsun 240Z) with its screw adjusters right on top of that beautiful inline-6. My shim-under-bucket Alfa Romeo, on the other hand, may rot in h311! I checked the clearance on that car exactly once, saw all the crap I had to go through to adjust it, and called it quits. It was a mechanical disaster in pretty well all respects anyway, so I wasn't exactly sorry to send it down the road...
ray
New Member
I'd say it'a BS unless you left your bike there overnight cos it needs a cold engine
