Can you check valves with valve cover on???

[newbie]

Can you check the valves with the valve cover on???.........shop is telling me you can??? WTF??? Can you??

[5thAve]

Not unless you have X-ray vision.

[The Buddha]

The shop can - cos they will actually be doing all the work on your credit card.
Cool.
Buddha.

[newbie]

So thats a no??.........you have to take the valve cover off??

[5thAve]

Seat off. Tank off. Valve cover off. Signal rotor cover off (to expose the end of the crankshaft, so you can turn it over to the right position).

  >> this much should have taken a shop than four minutes.

Check valves

Do shim swap if needed.

Put covers, tank, seat back on

Done.

[dgyver]

The cover has to be removed. You have to be able to measure the distance between the cams and valve bucket. Same thing goes to adjust them.

They do not sound like a shop I would want to go to if they are telling you that.

[The Buddha]

Actually my record for that total start to finish is ~22 mins. Anyway newbie - they cannot check it without pulling the valve cover.
If someone was well trained in a GS aka - no one at that shop I'll bet -
You can hear it just up from idle and hear the valve. If the valve isn;t making a noise its too tight, if it makes a racket, its loose. Most other mild noise = good.
OK so what are the symptoms you got.
Cool.
Buddha.

[GeeP]

That's a new one! 

No, you cannot check the valves with the valve cover on.  Anybody who says they can won't be inspecting and/or adjusting the valves, just taking your money.

[The Buddha]

On some bikes of old - like a XS650 yamaha, the virago series, the savage 650 and other similar bikes the thing has a little inspection hatch. You open em and check and adjust. Of course I would still make the argument that it is a valve cover per say. So 4 little covers or 2 in case of savage, or 1 big one. Your call.
Oh, BTW the kz kawi's and the CB honda's had round fork cap types on em.
Cool.
Buddha.

[newbie]

Well, i didnt think you could, but im been having problems with my bike and finally the dealer that i took the bike to in the first place agreed to take a look at what they messed up in the first place. They claim they checked the valves but didnt take the valve cover off.........i thoughjt this sounded fishy but my cb i can take the caps of so i thought maybe............buhdda had replied to my other post about the bike having a loss of power about 70 miles after the dealer went thru my carbs and the bike dieing on the highway......im at like WOT at 75 and seem to have less power after 6K rpm..which seems backwards to me??? So i thought maybe the valave would be off........they seems to be kinda loud also..........but they agreed to take a look at my bike again after i said i was considering buying a new bike also...hehehehe......so im going into the dealer later and am going to stand next to the bike while they check everything.....buhdda did recomend checking the line to make sure they are right also which im going do!

[tt_four]

The first time I ever had problems with my triumph, I took it back to the scumbags at the BMW dealership, somewhere around Tuesday. They told me I could pick it up on Friday. I thought I'd give them extra time and came back on Saturday. They rolled the bike out, I looked at it, and they hadn't even touched it. From that point on, any work that needed one was scheduled, and I sat in their showroom until they were done. Leaving the bike and assuming they'd deal with it wasn't an option considering it was my form of transportation.  

I made up for my wasted time by annoying them best I could by sitting on every bike, and touching every single button I could find, and believe me, BMW motorcycles are 50% metal, rubber and plastic, and 50% useless buttons. Some mechanics just need supervised.

[birdman561]

Hate to be a hater, but I had too many bad experiences with MC mechanics early on
to ever take a bike to them, again. Fast forward to 2002 when I crashed my HD Softtail and
the insurance/lien holder sed the dealer HAD to fix it. ....... Sure enuff, I was reminded again
why I never go to dealers 
I know there are good ones out there somewhere, but its always cheaper and usually less time consuming
to fix it yourself 

[sledge]

Say "ok you can do the job but I wanna watch you and see how its done" 

[The Buddha]

The only mechanic worth trusting is one that lets you help him as he works on your stuff.
My car mechanic, my welder, my machinist, my - any one ... if my life or any one in my family's life could depend on it, I will be there watching them fix it.

Anyway - newbie - your symptoms do not point to valves. Valves if they are loose make a racket. Loud clacking. Click and clack the tappet brothers - on steroids. More like tick and tock the Shim brothers.
If valves are tight, they give you the most trouble @ start up and low speed. Get some rpm on and it may get OK.

Your problems are screaming hose routing or other carb/fuel flow issues. Oh, how is the air filter - though it also tends to crap out ~3500 rpm.
Cool.
Buddha.

[ohgood]

The first time I ever had problems with my triumph, I took it back to the scumbags at the BMW dealership, somewhere around Tuesday. They told me I could pick it up on Friday. I thought I'd give them extra time and came back on Saturday. They rolled the bike out, I looked at it, and they hadn't even touched it. From that point on, any work that needed one was scheduled, and I sat in their showroom until they were done. Leaving the bike and assuming they'd deal with it wasn't an option considering it was my form of transportation.  

I made up for my wasted time by annoying them best I could by sitting on every bike, and touching every single button I could find, and believe me, BMW motorcycles are 50% metal, rubber and plastic, and 50% useless buttons. Some mechanics just need supervised.

hope you don't mind my quothing you in my sig....

[tt_four]

A lot of mechanics will tell you that you're not allowed back there while they're working for insurance reasons. While I can see an insurance company saying that, it's real messed up to let a mechanic hide your bike while he works on it.

[
hope you don't mind my quothing you in my sig....

Haha, I feel like I fit in!