wow, were my shims Eff-ed up

[calispec]

ok, so i just got measurements on all my shim sizes needed and according to my calculations only one of my valves had actually been closing all the way 

that's right three of my valves had negative clearance. The weird thing is that on one of the shims that had negative clearance the bucket could still be turned by finger pretty easy. So don't just go with that as a measure it could still be pretty tight even if you can turn it. That particular valve had a .31 gap with a 2.3 shim in it and the shim i took out was a 2.65. It was being held open by .04. So besure you measure them and don't just use the finger rule.

With three valves with .04, .07 and .06 negative clearance I think i found out why the bike was running like crap, eh?

[The Buddha]

Never heard of oil float .31 with a test shim ... and a good bit of oil under it ... If it spins by finger ... its positive ... you can run it a few mins then open and re measure ... you'll know ... Been there, done that ... heck I ahve run it till it got hot, then opened it while still burning hot to see if clearances go up or down ... and they go up.
Cool.
Srinath.

[calispec]

Never heard of oil float .31 with a test shim ... and a good bit of oil under it ... If it spins by finger ... its positive ... you can run it a few mins then open and re measure ... you'll know ... Been there, done that ... heck I ahve run it till it got hot, then opened it while still burning hot to see if clearances go up or down ... and they go up.
Cool.
Srinath.

I don't follow what you are saying. Are you saying that my test shim was floating on oil?? Isn't rotating the engine several times before checking the clearance suppose to fix that? Also if for my measurements to be wrong and that valve not to have been negative there would have to be at least .04 of "oil float" if this is the case how are you ever suppsoe to know if your clearance is right if your .03-.08 clearance can have at least .04 error due to "oil float" ?