Hi,

first, excuse my bad english, its not my native language, its late and Im tired.

I descided to check valve clearences -have had the bike for some time now.

So I opened up valve cover and by the clymer manual I measured clearence.
Exhaust is fine by the book, intake is not. using a 0.05 gauge it slided well with some resistance to exhaust valves but not to intake.

Didnt have any thinner feeler gauge but it seems that clearence is less than 0.03 on intake. (seemes like theres NO clearence at all in that position)  at least when the marks on the camshaft rods are facing towards each other. when one is facing up and aother down (180 degrees clockwise) there is normal valve clearence.

So Im a bit puzzled. the manual says to measure valve clearnences when camshaft lobes point away from tappet. figure illustrates that either up or to outside from engine. when engine is turned 180 degrees and they point as illustrated valve clearence is ok, but the notches on the intake and exhaust camshafts are not pointing as illustrated.

So, should I worry about burning intake valves and adjust it or leave it to there and not waorry about it?

(hope that it all made any sence - hard enoug to explain it in my native language...)

I'm not entirely sure what you mean when you're referring to the cam lobes.   They should be facing 180 degrees away from the position of the shim.

If they are like this when you are measuring, then you can't really gauge if they're in spec from a .05 feeler gauge, as a .05 won't clear at all, but a .03 might.

Someone else may be able to comment further on this.

The factory service manual has you measuring the clearances for both riight valves and the intake left valve at the same crank/lobe position, and a different position for the left exhaust.  Does Clymer do the same?  Haynes I think was lifted right out of the factory manual.

I remember I had to read and re-read the factory service manual several times before I felt I was doing it right.  Eventually it became obvious :lol:

If you can get feelers for the whole range that is best.  Any valve you think is "tight" you should check to see if the valve shim can be rotated inside the bucket at the proper cam lobe positions.  If so, you have some clearance (>0) and you can feel OK about riding it I think.  It's hard to find a .03 feeler.  Do a search in the archives for .03 and .001 (inches).  Someone gave me a link a while back for where you can order those feelers.

--Mike D.

Thanks for the replys.

Now some more information is available, got me a set of feelers that contains 0.03mm feeler.

And valve clearence in the position measured as described in the book on both intake valves is less than 0.03mm

good news is that when I try to rotate shims, they rotate quite freely -- so there must me some clearnce, just not 0.03

And to clarify previous post I took pictures.

For an instance when notch @ green mark is facing down and on red mark facing up theres valve clearence over 0.05mm


And marks on signal generator are rotated 180 degrees:


Now, as I dont have the correct tool to remove shims I cannot really say how thick shims there are.
And swapping them out is bit hard because of that too.

And I am wandering that maybe its OK, but I quess that its safer to correct the valve clearence as soon as possible.

Some take off the cams to get to the shims.  I'd think that more work and risk than you want, and you'd have to put them back and measure again to be sure anyhow.  I may buy myself one of these:

http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/ItemBrowse/c-10101/s-10201/p-100000146232/mediaCode-ZX/appId-100000146232/Pr-p_CATENTRY_ID:100000146232

I'm assuming that will work.  Maybe buying from Suzuki directly would be better?  To be sure?  Maybe someone has another suggestion.

Let us know how your fortunes come out.

--Mike D.

couple things.

1) just because you can rotate the bucket does NOT mean you are above 0mm thickness.  I had an exhaust valve that was too tight for my .03 feeler...  I could rotate the bucket though...  it had a 270 shim..  I put in a 260 and had .07mm clearance...  which means it was like -.03 or something.. yet I could still turn the bucket.

2) I have a motion pro tool.  It works okay, but the edges get rounded a little and I have to file it back to a sharp corner so it doesn't slip off the bucket.  I'm not doing 10 valve adjustments a day so I don't really care.  I'd just get whatever is available.

Thanks cheesy for the info.

Quote from: cheesycouple things.

1) just because you can rotate the bucket does NOT mean you are above 0mm thickness.  I had an exhaust valve that was too tight for my .03 feeler...  I could rotate the bucket though...  it had a 270 shim..  I put in a 260 and had .07mm clearance...  which means it was like -.03 or something.. yet I could still turn the bucket.

Interesting.  Only thing I'd say contrary to that is they do counsel you to check the thickness with a micrometer.  Maybe your original had been worn down, or whatever.  It may have really been a 267 shim?  But still interesting.  OK you've convinced this GS'er to check one particular exhaust valve a bit more closely.

--Mike D.

hey you know what whould be really neat, if Srinath or someone made valve tools and sold them for like 5 bucks a piece. he could even sell them for 6 and give a dollar for each one to the board........

Or that .07 measured after is low ... may have been .09 or 1.0+ ... due to oil getting into the bucket after pulling the old shim and making the new shim float ...    ... I never measure after a swap ...
Cool.
Srinath.

Here's another source for the Motion Pro tool ($4 more than from geekonabike's JC Whitney link above, but just in case they're out of stock...)

Valve Shim Tool for Suzuki GS500/GS550/750/850

Dennis Kirk Part Number: 28270
Manufacturer Part Number: 080017  
Price: $33.99[/list:u]

Quote from: davipuhey you know what whould be really neat, if Srinath or someone made valve tools and sold them for like 5 bucks a piece. he could even sell them for 6 and give a dollar for each one to the board........

Davipu - very funny ... this is his subtle way of plugging his invention ... the Davipu Valve tool ... available for $6 I gather from fine bike websites like Gstwin ... OK that prolly is the only one ...
Cool.
Srinath.
:lol:  :lol:  :lol:

nope, i am done.  I have a couple in my tool box and the rest went in the scrap bin.