valve clearences

Right, thought I'd post here as I know the Ape does a fair bit with a spanner (ooh er!) but anyone else fel free to chip in (useful or otherwise) comments.

Got the rocker cover off the ZZR last night to do the valve clearences. My question is, should I judge the clearence when I actually pull the feeler gauge out of the gap, OR how freely it slides once in place? ALL the valves seem too tight when I pull out the gauge, but they slide quite nicely back and fourth once in place. I am just wondering whether because the gauge has to go in at an angle, it is making it feel too tight. The standard procedure with valve clearences is to judge the force needed to pull each thickness of gauge out, but in this case it seems to be giving false reading (or i need to re-shim every valve ).

Your thouight please ladies and gents

Hey Phil, I asked my mate who is wise in the ways of the force; below is his reply:

Dan,

You need to make sure that each cam load is in the correct position before you use a feeler gauge. Normally you fit the feeler gauge between the cam and bucket when you can see the cam bottom (wide end) aligned over the shim bucket, you should see clearance. In your case you will need a feeler gauge that has a bend in it so that you can fit it in, you use gauges until you find one that just grips between the cam and shim bucket. This will be the clearance that you have, If you find the gap outside of tolerance you will have to get new shims, to find out which ones you need you have to record the clearance that you have, add the error +or - to the shim size remove the shim and measure it with a micrometer as the information printed on it may have worn off and the shim may no longer be the same size as it once was. This will give you the shim size that you need.

Do the measurements on all, you may find that of the shims that need changing some of them can be used for other valves so you won't need to buy so many.

THE BIKE MUST NOT HAVE BEEN RUN FOR OVER 24 HOURS BEFORE THIS WORK IS DONE, if the engine has it may still be too warm and the measurements will be incorrect.

If you find that you have clearances that are way over size, remove cam shaft and inspect it and the buckets for wear, replace as required.

regards Paul.

Paul also said that the tight valve clearances are quite common in Kawasaki engines. The valve seats wear and the valve get pulled up close to the head which loses the clearance. Hope this helped.

Cheers Dan (and Paul). cams etc were all in the correct place. I THINK from what your mate says that i just need to find a gauge that fits snuggly. I do have the angled gauges so thats OK. Will have another bash this weekend. I don't really want to have to strip the shims but if any are really off then I guess I might as well do it whilst the bike is in bits.

As an aside - Always make sure your feeler gauges don't have loose bits that can fall of into the head and then cause much swearing and cut fingers to get out - I discoverd this last night!

blib

Originally Posted by Warthog

blib

eh. Ah, I see, so I forgot to turn the blib valve! No wonder something didn't seem right!

Glad I could help

Well, unfortunatly I was right first time. They all need doing. ar*e!

Originally Posted by philbut

Well, unfortunatly I was right first time. They all need doing. ar*e!

Blimey. What's the age and mileage? If the valve seats are that worn it'll be buggered soon.

24k and a 1994. I should say that they are only out by about 0.03mm lol so not really massive amount of ware. i just want to get them in the middle of their tollerance range.

Originally Posted by philbut

24k and a 1994. I should say that they are only out by about 0.03mm lol so not really massive amount of ware. i just want to get them in the middle of their tollerance range.

If they are all in within tolerance, why change them That's doing a job for no reason as far as I can see.