I just measured the Valve clearance on my brothers 06 GS500F and all the Valves are extremely tight. My thinnest feeler gauge(0.004 - 0.006) could not slide between any of the valve shims and cams.
Both exhaust shims are 2.78mm and very tight. Should I get 2.75mm shims or 2.70mm shims?
2.70
WAIT a minute! Your feeler gauge: Is that inches or MM? If inches, you need a smaller one. Specs are .0012-.0031"
My gauges are in MM and inches!
0.004 - 0.006 Inches
0.102 - 0.152 mm
Sorry about that mistake. Damn, thats the smallest I have. Where can I get even smaller feeler gauges?
the interweb
I got mine off Amazon, it goes down to .02mm and all the way up by 1/100mm.
FYI...from the factory, some shims are in-between sizes. I had your issue too with 2.78 and them being tight. I had to go down 2 sizes, but YMMV.
Make sure you have the right feeler gauges, and that will tell you what size to get. Run exhaust with a little higher clearance (around .10) since exhaust tends to get tighter with age and use.
Any less than .03, and it's like tin foil. Got mine from e-bay. I think it came from Hong Kong or something like that. Did the job though.
got mine from auto zone and it goes down to .04.