Valve clearance adjustment pics curvy.

I took some pictures when doing the valve shims so for the sake of posterity here they are! Hopefully they'll help someone somewhere, sometime...

After 18729 miles one exhaust clearance was 0.17mm, two intakes were 0.14mm and 0.13mm and the rest were all at minimum.


1. Bike with the yellow bits, airbox, plugs, carbs, coolant (went everywhere!) and radiator removed. Removing the carbs was a bit fiddly, the screws holding the choke plungers were fubar (or should that be snafu? ) so I removed them with the choke cable / splitter arrangement still attached.


2. Cleaned up the valve covers with a rag and some WD40, plugged the holes with more rag. An old bedsheet really was my friend during all of this...


3. Front valve cover and guide taken off, showing the timing marks. I was a bit worried about this but for all it's failings Haynes was very clear (though I understand the earlier version of the manual is wrong in this respect?)


4. Front CCT mid-removal. Access is tricky but not difficult, it would have been much easier with some ball-end hex keys, which I don't have. I steadily did a few turns on one bolt then swapped to the other side and it came out a treat. The rear CCT is actually easier to remove - there's no frame in the way so a long 1/4" driver does the job a treat. Haynes calls for removal of the rear wheel and exhaust - Lies! Just remove the right-had rearset and job's a good'un.


5. With the CCT removed out came the cams, intake first, then exhaust. Aah I love shiny engine parts...


6. Removing the buckets & shims with a magnetic doodah. The shims invariably came out with the buckets.

At this point I rotated the engine 360degrees and started on the rear cylinder, same again only with better access!


7. Removing the camshaft holders; notice that the two inner bolts next to the chain guide in the photo are shiny metal, while the rest of the bolts are black anodised, what's going on here?! Same on the front cylinder.


8. I removed each bucket & shim one by one, cleaned them up and labeled the buckets A-H. I measured the shims and buckets too, in case I managed to somehow mix everything up. The bucket thicknesses were 2.475 - 2.505mm, so enough variation to make a difference.


9.Having measured everything up I worked out that I could reuse two of the eight shims, leaving six to order from wemoto. Packed up for the night and covered anything shiny in lots of rags.

There was a small amount of wear (more polishing really) to all the camshaft journals opposite the cam lobe - I suppose this is normal but I'm tempted to get myself a runout gauge and plastigauge and check it all out soon.


10. Mmm engine bits, organised by cylinder and wrapped up for the night in clean rags.


11. New shims arrived next day from wemoto. The numbers on the shims agreed with my micrometer readings so away we go...


12. Then I realised I didn't have a low range torque wrench so I bought this one from my local Lloyd's Motor Spares for £55. It's 'only' a Teng one but it's the most valuable single tool I own. Calibration certificate shows +-5% at 23C over the full range, good enough for me! Buying tools = Life Enrichment.

From here I didn't take many pictures, in the words of Haynes 'Installation is the reverse of removal', well mostly. As the rear cylinder was timed and ready to go I did the rear, then rotated and did the front. Doing the timing wasn't difficult, just checked, counted, double checked and checked again. I think the most important thing was hand-tensioning the chain whilst installing the intake cam, ensuring there wasn't any slack on that side. Following Haynes' advice I made up some 'moly oil' and sparingly lubed the buckets, shims and journals during reinstallation.

Reassembly order was as follows:
- In with the lubricated buckets & shims
- Hand tension intake side of chain
- Install and double check intake camshaft, lubing journals
- Count chain links, lube, install and check exhaust camshaft
- Seat camshaft holders & torque up cross-wise
- Replace chain guide
- Install CCTs
- Check clearances and reinstall valve covers


Suzuki tool? I think not! I used a strip of bean can approx. 8cm x 1.5cm which was then folded four times to make a stiff screwdriver, bent and tied to the CCT. More string was used to pull the apparatus off once screwed in. Worked a charm!

Finally once it was all in place I turned the engine by hand to check for interference, reinstalled all the bits, cranked the starter and Woohoo! All was well.

Fings wot i did wot I shouldn't have done but wot haven't caused any wrong'uns (yet):
- Didn't replace the CCT gaskets. 300 miles later no leaks, phew!
- Didn't clean up or use gasket sealant on the rubber seal on the valve cover, just treated them very gently. No leaks yet!
- Mixed up the CCTs, but they seem just as noisy as ever so apparently no harm done.

Other stuff I did at the same time:
- Measured cam chain stretch
- Inspected cam chain tensioner guide
- Coolant system flush & new coolant
- Lubed & adjusted all cables
- Loads of ACF-50, lubed all carb linkages
- Installed Chewy's bolt kit
- Tidied up some custom wiring
- Balanced carbs (thanks to Bib's extenders!)
- Silicone greased plug leads
- Had a look at the (spotless!) fuel strainer

All in all highly successful! Clearances were all at the upper end of the range and as expected, much was learned and, 300 miles later, no fatal engine problems.

Here are a few other valve clearance threads that helped me...
http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.php?t=132069
http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.php?t=158904
http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.php?t=190430

Crikey, this wasn't supposed to be an essay, oops! Oh well. Thanks to the org, once again!

[Sid Squid]

Nice write up, well done. It's not a difficult job once you've got your head round it, is it?

Re shiny/dull bolts: The bolts on the chain guide are simple steel bolts as they only hold the guide in place, the bolts on the camshaft caps are are subject to cyclic stress* as the cam turns and is loaded by the valve springs, the material used is one that will not stretch under such loads. You will have noticed that the torque setting for them is not high considering the load they carry, this is because they don't have any 'give' in them, all the stretch in their fitted load is given by the threads in the aluminium of the cylinder heads.

*The cams turn at half engine speed, so when you're spanking it out of a corner with gusto - say 6000rpm - they are being loaded and unloaded 50 times a second.

Thanks Sid! It was a surprisingly simple job, involved but not difficult. I had the Suzuki manual on hand too but Haynes did me proud - though I do wish they'd print the torque settings in the text as well as at the front of each chapter. Hey ho...

Re. the bolts I had wondered about the loads they carry and was very surprised at the low torque setting - but it all makes perfect sense. Amazing really the different materials that are put to use in these situations. I recall working on a friend's MZ that bolts / journals / everything was hugely oversized due to the poor quality steel that the east Germans had to work with at the time. God bless modern metallurgy eh!

[squirrel_hunter]

Originally Posted by 85jas

Buying tools = Life Enrichment.

This is true.

Good write up.

[andrewsmith]

Good write up!
Didn't you ask the question on the torque wrenches the other week?

[Sid Squid]

Originally Posted by 85jas

I recall working on a friend's MZ that bolts / journals / everything was hugely oversized due to the poor quality steel that the east Germans had to work with at the time. God bless modern metallurgy eh!

East German stuff was made with pretty good materials and engineering processes, the designs are what got left behind as the years went by. The opposite is true of Japanese stuff, the materials used are engineered down to a finely tuned cost, the strength is in the designs, it's a basic engineering principle; if you need special materials, your design has weaknesses.
If you ever take an old Brit bike apart and refit, say, the cylinder head, you'll notice as you snug the studs down there comes a point at which it feels tight, contrast this with reassembling a Japanese motor, the materials are comparatively soft, there's no 'tight' point, the studs just squish the material more and more, hence the use of a torque wrench in such circumstances. This is the real wonder of modern machines for me, they're made of carp and still make 150bhp.

[muzikill]

Its write ups like this that takes away the pain of ANOTHER tank range thread going on atm. You should be proud of yourself youve saved yourself a 300 quid bill. I suppose the pointy version of this isnt much different.

Originally Posted by andrewsmith

Good write up!
Didn't you ask the question on the torque wrenches the other week?

Think that was carpet monster - I read it with some interest though. Makes me worry about the 26-210Nm uncalibrated draper one I have here, replacement is in order methinks. Leading me to...

Originally Posted by squirrel_hunter

This is true.

...this! Yes Of course the border between enrichment and dangerous addiction is purely in the eye of the beholder (or wielder, for that matter).

Originally Posted by muzikill

Its write ups like this that takes away the pain of ANOTHER tank range thread going on atm. You should be proud of yourself youve saved yourself a 300 quid bill. I suppose the pointy version of this isnt much different.

Many thanks! Though I did have to invest in tools, the key word here is invest - and learning new things is essentially priceless.

Originally Posted by Sid Squid

East German stuff was made with pretty good materials and engineering processes, the designs are what got left behind as the years went by. The opposite is true of Japanese stuff, the materials used are engineered down to a finely tuned cost, the strength is in the designs, it's a basic engineering principle; if you need special materials, your design has weaknesses.
If you ever take an old Brit bike apart and refit, say, the cylinder head, you'll notice as you snug the studs down there comes a point at which it feels tight, contrast this with reassembling a Japanese motor, the materials are comparatively soft, there's no 'tight' point, the studs just squish the material more and more, hence the use of a torque wrench in such circumstances. This is the real wonder of modern machines for me, they're made of carp and still make 150bhp.

Fascinating stuff - I was under the impression that at the time of Ernst Degner (and for a good while after) MZ didn't have much more than mild steel and case hardening to work with. The (far newer!) aforementioned MZ is in bits at the moment, but some 20 years after it was made all still works as it should (minus the sliding dogs in the 'box!). It's good having friends with broken bikes If/when I have the opportunity to twist a spanner on an old BSA I'll have you in mind Sid