Hi . .

I did my valve adjustment today, feeling that the valves were a bit too noisy ..
My Foreman is a 1998 ES 450 . .
I buyed it used, about 2 months now, so I don't know what the guy did for maintenance on the machine .

I did the adjustment, but I'm not sure of the compression stroke .. I thought at first that I had to align the T mark in the hole ..
So I aligned it to the T mark, checked if the piston was UP, than I tried to put the feeler gauge between valve and rockarm, but it would not pass thru it .. So I thought something was wrong, I cranked a bit, went to the T mark, chec kthe piston was up, retry, and still I couldn't pass the feeler thru the gap .. Then I saw two marks, and in the manual I saw the picture of the hole, and no T in the hole.. Hmm So I adjusted the valves based on the middle of the two marks . .. Then I could adjust it, the clearance was not so out of adjustment, but I tighten it anyways, the feeler gauge had a bit of drag so I figured it was ok, tighten the lock nuts, than road test! . .

The Quad was a good Bit more performant!! .. Accelerations are incredible and so much Torque!! .. It seems to work better than before, but then, I saw an answer on this forum about the Compression Stroke Hole .. . The guy said to align with the T so maybe I am in the wrong stroke !? . ..

By the way, the valves make a bit less noise, but still noticeable, so I don't think they are too tight . .

Oh, and I don't find the Torque listing for the Valve cover bolts .. Can someone help me with that!? ..


THanks !!!

 

Oh, something else, when I saw my piston, it was wet and had some build up on it ... Is that normal !?!? ..
And, I think I'm a bit rich, 'cause the spark plug is dark . .
Is it the Mixture that makes this buildup !? .

Is there a solvant or a special cleaner that can be had up to the gas to clean that ?!? ..

Oh, and something else, I have some backfires sometimes when I decelerate slowly from 3/4 to 1/2 . ..
What adjustment is not ok in the carb !? ..

Thankyou !!