valves and shims

hi folks

sv650s 1999 17000 ish miles

just going to give it a full service , can manage the easier stuff filters brakes etc etc , but un sure how hard a job this is ?

anyone done this and if so any help would be greatlly appreciated

cheers
gaz-sv650s

ok heres my experience.....

Couple of months ago I was like yourself and only did the 'routine' stuff such as oils, filters etc. Had my SK3 since new and it was just approaching the 15k big service.
I already had a haynes manual and after reading the relevant part several times I thought i would just 'check the clearances' and if they needed doing take them to a dealer to get re-shimmed.

Anyway i was in no rush and over the course of several evening proceeded to take the bike to bits. Although it may not strictly be neccessary I did get very good access after doing this. So i removed the radiator completely (due a fluid change anyway so no big deal), the fuel tank came off, and also the top fairing. bearing in mind I am no expert all this went reasonably smoothly.

Now the access was easy i removed each valve cover and checked the clearances (with them in the correct position as per manual). Just my luck I discover that only ONE of them needs changing.

So at this point my original plan was to put it all back together and take it to the dealers to get it changed. However my dad said that I had done probably 80% of the work already and after looking at the manual said that it didn't appear to complex a task. So now I was in 2 minds what to do...

I do like learning more about the engine and decided to give it a go. Its actually relatively straight forward but if you get it wrong it could be the end of your engine....
Now don't let that put you off though, take your time and double check everything TWICE when you put it back together and you will be fine. (Don't blame me though if it all goes wrong)

So in summary i would say that if you have got plenty of time and can afford for your bike to be 'out of action' for a while then go for it. I say this as firstly the more you rush it the more likely to make a mistake (at least thats my experience) and also you may need to order more shims which could take a few days.
If on the other hand you use your bike every day as your only means of transport you may want to consider getting it done by a dealer.

hope this helps.

[yorkie_chris]

Right the drawback for this is that you need to take everything off to get to the shim to check what size it is to find out what replacement you need...

If you value your sanity, make a locking tool for the camchain tensioner, it's straightforward then.

Make sure you do the checks on a cold engine. It's far easier to take the radiator off entirely than sneak up behind it..

[northwind]

You might find you can push the radiator down and out of the way, avoids teh need to drain the coolant... I did this when I changed the cams, just took the fan off the back. I think I took out one engine mount as well to give hte hoses clearance. Nice and easy.

The job itself isn't exactly hard, but if you mess up, you can do a lot of damage- and that can include dropping a bolt or, more likely, a shim down the camchain tunnel! Or bending all your valves. So... Well, be careful. I had no idea what I was doing when I did it the first time, and it went fine.