Do I need really to check my valves?

[rger8]

I have a 2006 GS 500F I bought with 800 miles on it. It now has 1100 miles on it and it never has had the valves checked. It sounds great, starts and runs perfect and I don't here an weird tapping noises etc... coming from the engine. I really don't feel like tearing into it at this point but I am wondering if I'm asking for trouble. I talked to the local dealer/Mechanic about it and he said he rarely sees them fall out of spec and that as long as it starts well and seems to run fine I don't really need to worry about it. Oil changes etc.. have been done.

Can I get some thoughts on this?

Thanks!

[romulux]

Mine required shim changes when I bought it used last October.  I don't think they had ever been changed.  They had definitely tightened up by 10,000 miles.

Checking valve clearances is too easy to not do it.  I just did mine tonight because I wasn't confident that I had the correct clearances when I changed the shims in November.

The very worst part of clearance checking is getting the tank and valve covers out of the way.  I work very slowly and patiently and it takes me about an hour or an hour and a half to do.

I really enjoy working on motorcycles, though.  I guess if you don't like that aspect of bike ownership, skipping it would be easier...

I consider myself very novice when it comes to wrenching, so take my opinion with a grain of salt: you're probably fine for a while, but you should definitely check them within a few thousand miles.  It's really easy to do; no harder than an oil filter change in my opinion.  They will tighten, if anything, and in my case the bike was difficult to get started and warmed up.  It would stall when I pulled in the clutch.

[the mole]

I would definately do them by 2000 miles. You don't know how well they were set at the factory, and anyway most things wear in in the first 1000-2000 miles and that is when they're likely to need adjustment. If they don't, at least you can stop worrying about it. Checking is a bit of a PITA, just getting the valve cover out of that mess of cables (and back in again, when your sealant is trying to set and sticks to everything!), but I found if I disconnected the choke cable it was a bit easier.
Good luck.

[black and silver twin]

I bought my 07 with 1700 miles last summer and the valves had never been checked. I checked them for the firs time last month at 8000 miles and there still barely in spec ( 0.04ish). so I would say to check them soon just to be sure, then only check them every 8000-10000 miles after that.

[rger8]

Thanks everyone, I know I should probably check them soon so maybe around 1500 miles I'll go for it. Everyone has been really helpful on this forum. It is a great resource!!

[galahs]

I have not needed to change my 2005 GS's shims, and I've done nearly 40,000 km's

I don't know if this makes a difference but I rarely have the engine in the high rev range.

[ineedanap]

It's not nearly as hard and scary as it sounds, especially with the Kerry video to follow along with.  It would be really hard to screw it up.  If you can adjust your chain, you should have no problem with the valves. 

[tt_four]

If you follow along with Kerry's video, just ignore what he says about the cam lobes facing away from the shims. You want to check them based on the position of the marks on the end of the camshaft. That's more in depth than this post needs to go though.

My bike has 14k miles, and I don't think they've ever been adjusted. All 4 are tight and need replaced, but the bike still runs fine. I think it's more an issue of the longevity of your engine, not so much having it run perfectly now. The only reason I didn't replace mine when I checked them earlier this winter is because there are no dealerships that are easy to get to in the middle of winter for me, and I didn't want to order them online because they're all tight enough that I couldn't even get my tightest gauge under there to see what the spacing was, so I didn't know what size to order, and if I get some from a dealership there's at least a chance of me taking a couple back a day or two later and trading them in for another size. They're not expensive indivdually, but if you keep buying set after set of shims it'll definitely add up, so double check your measurements.

While we're on topic, if my .04 gauge doesn't slide under there, but there's still enough play for the buckets to rotate smoothly, how much thinner of a shim do you guys think I should pick up??

[romulux]

While we're on topic, if my .04 gauge doesn't slide under there, but there's still enough play for the buckets to rotate smoothly, how much thinner of a shim do you guys think I should pick up??

Even if they've tightened down to .00 clearance, you should be able to use the next smallest shim.  From the factory, several of mine were 2.72.  The next size available would be a 2.70, but if you're too tight, you should be able to go to 2.65 and be just on the loose side of in spec.  That's assuming you're between .00 and .04 clearance and the valves haven't seated further than that (can they?).

I was in the same situation as you where I couldn't fit my smallest gauge in.  I have a dealer nearby, so they actually let me borrow 4 very small shims which I swapped in, measured the now large gap, and calculated the size I needed.  This worked out well.  I took all 8 shims back to the dealer and they gave me 4 sizes I needed in trade.  Very cool that they did it for free.

Mine are now .07mm, .1mm, .09mm, and .1mm in clearance (clockwise from left exhaust).

Also, I bought a nice German-made feeler gauge set that goes down to .03mm for like $10.  It's a lot thinner and way easier to work with than my larger set.

[galahs]

I go along with the basic theory, if you can turn the bucket then you're ok.

As the bike heats up, the clearance increases.

[tt_four]

Yeah, the fact that the buckets still spin ok lets me not worry about it too much. I intend to change them eventually, but I'd rather get it on the road first. There's only one motorcycle shop in the city and they're just a custom/cruiser/harley shop, so I don't go there with too many of my questions. It's only about 6 blocks away, so I'm really hoping that I can get my bike inspected there when spring comes at least. Other than that someday I may just go down 1 or 2 sizes on all the shims and see how they do. The smallest gauge I have is .038, and I think all my shims were around 260-265. I did at least try to put one of the 260 shims in one of the spots where a 265 used to be, and still couldn't get the gauge under, which makes me wonder if there isn't actually any gap at all, but the cam isn't putting enough pressure on the shim to keep the bucket from spinning, so I'll probably drop all of them from 260-265 to 250-255. At least that way if it says there's too much of a gap I'll know.

Now on the other hand, if any one on this forum has extra shims laying around in the 245-255 range that they'd trust me enough to borrow for a week, that'd be awesome, but I seem to remember problems with a missing shim kit right around the time I started coming back to this forum, so I don't expect many people to be too trusting with shims floating around.

[BaltimoreGS]

Now on the other hand, if any one on this forum has extra shims laying around in the 245-255 range that they'd trust me enough to borrow for a week, that'd be awesome, but I seem to remember problems with a missing shim kit right around the time I started coming back to this forum, so I don't expect many people to be too trusting with shims floating around.

I have a stash of shims but can't remember what the sizes are.  I won't have access to my toolbox until Piglet gets back from riding in Costa Rica next week.

-Jessie

[tt_four]

Oh geez, I should've known you'd be the one to pop up offering to help me, haha. As I've said before you're the nicest guy I've never met. If you have any in that size range let me know. I still need to order some new fuel line and get my tires changed before I'm ready for spring, so waiting a couple weeks definitely isn't a problem.

[gsJack]

I changed the first shim on my 97 GS which I bought new at about 40k miles after checking at 600 miles and then about every 8k miles after that.  My thinking was about the same as galahs back then:

I go along with the basic theory, if you can turn the bucket then you're ok.

As the bike heats up, the clearance increases.

The exhaust valve I let go with just enough clearance to spin the bucket with my finger tip began receeding into the head and was down to a minimum 215 shim by 80k miles.

I bought my 02 GS with 4k miles on it and didn't check valves until 10k miles and changed first shim at 31k miles.  One exhaust valve was starting to receed into the head as on the 97 GS so I began setting exhaust valves a bit wider than spec and now at over 77k miles I've not changed anymore shims for almost 40k miles and expect to go 100k miles on this engine without getting anywhere near a minimum shim thickness.

If you want to get long life from your GS engine set your exhaust valves on the wide side of specs so they get more cooling seat time and stop burning up.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v443/jcp8832/valveclearances.jpg

[dohabee]

I did mine for the first time a few months ago using the west coast kit.

It really was easy after watching kerry's video.

Definitely get a tiny screw driver and a magnet tool to get the shims out.

Also Watch out when you put the valve cover back on, it is easy to try to put it on backwards and it can only go 1 way.

I ran a bead of black rtv around the gasket and tried putting the cover on backwards, It made a big mess and was a pain.