Hi Everyone,

I have added a valve shim calculator (Excel spreadsheet) to the Wiki:
http://cgi.stanford.edu/~sanjayd/gs500/Maintenance/CheckValves

I know it's easy enough to look this up on a table (e.g. Kerry's site), but hopefully this will help people not familiar with the procedure (or error-prone veterans ).

The user inputs the current shim size and measured valve clearance for each valve. The spreadsheet complains about any valves out of spec, and evaluates what the replacement shim size should be (and provides the relevant Suzuki part number).

I hope it is useful

Please let me know if you find any errors, or if you have any suggestions for improvement.

Thanks. Nice interface.

I just used it to clarify the following example from Kerry's very helpful valve adjustment video (btw, thanks for the great video, Kerry).

This example happens 1 hour into the video.  Beginners (like me) take note, when Kerry states that a 2.54mm shim would "be perfect", this should be interpreted as "would be too tight, because would leave zero clearance".

Shim: 2.15mm (i.e., a test shim)
Clearance: .39 (i.e., .30 mm +  .09 mm feeler gauges)

Result:

Needs a 2.50 mm shim, which will result in .04 mm clearance. 

Quote from: bluespy on May 28, 2008, 02:07:59 PM
Thanks. Nice interface.

Thanks for the feedback! I am glad you found the shim calculator useful.

QuoteI just used it to clarify the following example from Kerry's very helpful valve adjustment video (btw, thanks for the great video, Kerry).

This example happens 1 hour into the video.  Beginners (like me) take note, when Kerry states that a 2.54mm shim would "be perfect", this should be interpreted as "would be too tight, because would leave zero clearance".

Shim: 2.15mm (i.e., a test shim)
Clearance: .39 (i.e., .30 mm +  .09 mm feeler gauges)

Result:

Needs a 2.50 mm shim, which will result in .04 mm clearance. 

I haven't watched Kerry's video in awhile, but based on your description the analysis presented seems correct.

For reference, here is a related thread that explains why valve clearance is important and how shims work to adjust valve clearance:
http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=38827.msg436160#msg436160

berto,

sorry for the thread necro but I was trying to download your shim calculator and was getting a server error saying that it wasn't there anymore. figured i'd let you know!

-Ice