Finally got my bike working again...

[ASUDave]

I was having major issues where the bike would die everytime I stopped quickly. Figured I had a tight valve. Turns out, I had 2. Both exhaust valves were extremely tight. The right side was so tight, I had to loosen the cam just get some clearance.  When I finally got to it, the right valve bucket was stuck. Couldn't turn it to save my life.

Of course, that was the day before I was sick in bed for almost a week while my baby sat covered up all naked with her insides open.

When I got back to it, i stopped at my local shop to see if they had any ideas for loosening a stuck bucket. No clues. But told me to bring it by if I couldn't get it to go and they would look at it for me.  Did everything I could think of, so I packed her into the back of the truck and drove her down there.

They are super busy and ended up keeping her in the shop for over a week before they could look at her. The technician loosened the bucket in 15 minutes. Took a little oil out of the bucket area (technical term, I assume  ), found the groove on the bucket, and took a screwdriver and mallet to it. Duh! Well, I could have done that!

They called me to tell me it was done and asked if I wanted them to finish switching the shim and put her back together. Of course, they wanted to charge me $160 to do it!! Not when I can do it myself. So, this morning, I finished the job, changed the oil, and put her back together.

In moving her back and forth, I seem to have lost a fairing bolt and the little steel wool looking pad inside the breather (another technical term). I know the fairing bolt is no big deal. But I'm wondering about the pad thingy. Will it be really bad without it?

[Kijona]

I think I can answer the question about the pad.

I believe the purpose of that pad is to deter oil from spraying into the breather tube and into the airbox. In other words, the only thing that will happen is you'll get a little more oil in the airbox. You decide whether it's a big deal or not.