Hi all,
     I will have a mechanic come over which is highly recommended at BARF  to work on my valve clerance adjustment and wondering what size of shims I need so that I can find out if my local suzuki dealership have them in stock.  Should i have him do a carb sync also after he adjusted the valve?  should I change my plugs too?  I just change the oil/air filter last month and since I will have a mechanic around im wondering what else I need to have check on my bike maybe compression check? any thing I have to be aware of when he's doing the valve adjustment ?

thanks,
Derick

Shim's are the same diameter but different thicknesses... You cant buy some random ones... also 4 shims only... dont leave much room for swapping... However find what shims you have, and get ~10 in that range... and you should be OK... and buy suzuki shims only, yamaha and kawi shims are smaller in dia nd will fit in a pinch... but they are more likely to fly off... But the mechanic should have some in his cache.
Cool.
Srinath.

Unfortunately, the only way to know what shim sizes you need is to perform a valve clearance check.  For each valve you need to know 1) the current amount of clearance, and 2) the thickness of the current shim.  You select a new shim thickness that will give you the desired clearance of .03 mm to .08 mm.

You measure the amount of clearance using a set of blade-style feeler gauges.  If you're lucky you can find a set with the thinnest blade close to .03 mm in thickness.  (In my set, the thinnest blade is around .04 mm thick ... so until I sand the other end of it down I have to guess.)

You measure the thickness of the surrent shim with a micrometer or a set of dial calipers.  Then you do the math or use the chart below to figure out the thickness you need for the replacement shim.

See these images that I scanned from my Haynes manual:

Measuring Shim Thickness
Shim Selection Chart

EDIT: Changed links from sisna.com to bbburma.net