Valve clearance checking questions.

Planning to check the valve clearances tomorrow but just wanted to check a couple of things before I start. (Am only planning to check them for now, not adjust)

• Do I need to take the tank off?
• What solvent should be used to clean old sealant off valve covers?
• Do I need sealant to put the valve cover back on? And if so, does it need to be the Suzuki one?
• Do I need two sets of feeler gauges?
• Is this safe for a relative novice to do?

[rictus01]

Originally Posted by Terah

Planning to check the valve clearances tomorrow but just wanted to check a couple of things before I start. (Am only planning to check them for now, not adjust)

• Do I need to take the tank off? up yes, off not unless you want to
• What solvent should be used to clean old sealant off valve covers? it's a rubber gasket, clean the cover before taking it off, bit of WD40 and a rag will do
• Do I need sealant to put the valve cover back on? And if so, does it need to be the Suzuki one?as long as you aren't a hamfisted ape, it should be fine to refit, if you do find it weeps a bit it'll be round the semicircular bits and a little gasket sealent/silicone will fix it, but not normally needed
• Do I need two sets of feeler gauges? only to check the first set against, so not really
• Is this safe for a relative novice to do? checking is very straight forwards, take your time and don't guess at anything.

.

P.M me your email address if you want the manual, shows you exactly what to do. I'm on the p.c till 23:15 today, but not tomorrow.

Thanks both! All quite a bit clearer now.

Have taken the the spark plugs out and the front one is caked in rusty crud around the nut. The hole it slots in to is likewise quite cruddy - is this normal and is there any safe way to clean it out?

[muzikill]

Post a pic and we can tell you . . Shine a torch down and have a look i usually get a vac cleaner in there to sook up any crud and flakes so they dont drop into the piston head . You could try a clean rag with a bit of petrol on it and wrap it round something to poke it down to run it round the dirty area

will try a rag...

Last questions (hopefully) on this:

• from the pic above, is that the correct position for checking? (timing line F showing, just confused about position of camshaft lobes)
• what happens if the above is wrong?

hard to see, but most likely correct. if it's wrong the lobes will be pushing down on the buckets and you
won't be able to squeeze a @%#$ #*&$ between them.

Brilliant. In that case job is done and all are well within the limits. Thanks!

[muzikill]

Did you use the official suzuki manual to do it? - the haynes manual is a killer trying to do this sort of stuff as you always end up flicking back and forward checking tolerances etc....

I found it relatively easy to do, i recently posted a thread with it partly described. I would also use it as a opportunity to do a bit of cleaning and greasing the parts that go on top of the engine eg. carbs/throttle bodies