Hey guy's, I just got my valves adjusted for the 1st time since I picked the bike up, and was given some bad new's.
Apparently my intake valves cannot be adjusted any further than .003
I know this can lead to hard starting, but with the warmer weather around the corner, that's not too much of an issue to me. What other issue's should I be concerned with? I plan on doing some work to the motor over the summer, but until then, is it ok to ride?
What would cause the intake to tighten up like that, and not allow any further adjustment?
Thanks for the help!!!
J.

 

well I know someone is gonna correct me on this if I am wrong so here goes, my intake valves were tuliped meaning the outside edges start to curl toward your piston from getting hammered against the valve seats, mine did that and i had to have new intake valves put in the intake valves are $32.47 a peice and the stem seals $5.47 each, I had the local shop do a complete valve job with thwo new intake valves 4 new stem seals and lap all 4 valves for a total of $212.76 with tax, I had my head of and pured some gas into the ports and seen it leaking through but if I had my head on i would have done a leak down test and listened to where i could hear air bleeding, they make valve shims down to 2.0 mm and I was worried about not being able to shim them so the shop guy told me if i couldn't shim it they could take it to a valve grinding machine and grind the top of the stem just a hair but thanks god I didn't have to do that, right now i have 2.30 mm's in next time i need valves or if I cant adjust them anymore I am just gonna have bigger valves put in to the stock specs, hope this helps, someone please correct me if I am wrong, let us know what happens

 

oh yeah what year is your bike? what size shims you have in there now? the shims are only like 4 dollars

 

It's a 2000...as far as what shims are in it now, I don't know. The mechanic I had do it said that they don't make the size shim I need to get in the correct specs. He said that there is something going on, but he won't know what it is unless I take the head off. I just don't have the cash to do that right now. The bike runs fine, I just don't want to damage anything.
J.

 

well if you can get .003 then what I would try is I have heard of guys taking out the shims and having them ground down like .003 to get your clearance to .006 I personally have never tried this but several guys on here have done it, I guess they took them to a valve grinding machine at a machine shop and had it done, if you do that make sure you put the ground side down and the smooth side up to make contact with your cam, was it a bombardier mechanic that checked your valve clearance? first thing I would do is call and ask the mechanic what size shims you have in now and go from there, i personally think if you have .003 clearance there is nothing really wrong you just need to set your valves hope this helps

 

How often should u adjust/check your valves? I think the last time mine were checked were like 6 months after i bought 'er and the dealership serviced it for free, course that was like 3 years ago lol

 

in the maintenance manual it says after the initial 10 hours then every 100 hours or once a year

 

One of my exhaust is what ever it came with the other was a 2.40mm and went to a 2.30mm i couln't get a measurement on the intake so i went from a 2.35mm to a 2.30mm and a 2.40mm to a 2.35mm. Stll couldn't get my .002 guage in there. So I went to a 2.15mm and a 2.20mm on the intakes and there within specks. I believe thanks to eaglecolectors website. Hang on need another Budweiser....But yess find out what size shims u have. I got mine from a BMW shop. Told him it was for a 99 F650!!!!!!!![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] Oh my bike still didn't start without starting fluid so when i got back from the planetsand drgs in lousyanna I put new plugs it( which weren't but a 3 or 4 rides old) and oh yea baby my bike finally starts right up[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif[/img] I'm now a happy camper[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

Like Dave has said you should find out from your guy what size shims you have in there now. If he can't tell you that then take it some place else.

You need to be between .004 and .006 and if your at .003 your getting close to the danger zone of hard starts, loos of power. And if they get to the point where they tighten up to the pont where they don't close all they way you could burn a valve. Your not to that pont yet but not to far down the road you will be.

Doing the valve adjustment is very easy and if you are are even a little mechanicaly enclined you too can and should learn how to do it yourself. Read this and see if you think it's something you could do.
http://www.ljsoftware.com/DS/Valves.htm

 

Thanks eaglecollector! I finnaly got mine done. If your not an idiot ( and im close to it ) trust me if you have the tools you can do it. IT is that easy[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif[/img]