Adjusting valve procedure
 

When adjusting the valves on the Hawk I understand you open the inspection hole a turn the engine by hand until you see the mark, Does it matter if it is on the compression stroke?

Definitely, with the spark plug out, put your finger over the hole and you should feel the pressure against your finger on the right stroke. Alternatively, you can feel the rocker arms to see if they are loose. Problem is, they could be misadjusted so far that they are tight even on the compression stroke (like mine).

Many have said to use the kickstarter to turn it over, but I found it MUCH easier to turn the engine over accurately with a ratchet. Just remove the side cover and use the appropriate socket(cant remember what size it was now...) Side note, be sure to turn the engine over in the right direction!

Good luck! :tup:

I found a ratchet to be a frustration. Once the engine gets to TDC, the tendency is for it to roll over, and the ratchet will allow that. Since you shouldn't turn the engine backwards, you then have to turn it 720 degrees to get where you should be.


I use a breaker bar and a firm grip. Much easier.

I did some corrective annotations on the original video I made. Even the clearances. I used the Honda CG125 manual. the Chinese manual says .002-.003"

Great thanks guys. I got my Mikuni I'm going to drop a 110 and set the doohiky thing to the 2nd slot. MotoCheez seems to have good luck with that. I will then tinker once a get a baseline.

X2! By far the best tool for this!

CSC says 0.07 mm (snug 0.003, sloppy 0.002 inches)

They make more work of the task than necessary, no need to remove the tank.

http://californiascooterco.com/blog/?p=19832


I think when mine arrives, I'll do a sloppy 0.003 inches, maybe even more on the exhaust. I suspect it won't be sloppy for long.

How much clearance do you think I can go with before performance suffers? MotoCheez, you originally did 0.005" exhaust and 0.004" intake, did you notice any difference? I would guess not, just a little more noisy (ticking).

I do .05MM on the intake and .08MM on the exhaust on all my Hondoids. No problems.

I just did my valve adjustment. I couldn't find any point where I had slack on either rocker arm. I think I did it right, where before it didn't idle good at all it now does. I do hear a what I would call a slappy sound though is that normal? before I adjusted that I only seemed to hear that at high RPM.

As they say ....a slappy valve is a happy valve.

ok good :) I was a bit concerned for a second that I did it wrong.

Dumb question, but which direction is the right direction?

The same direction that the starter turns it.

Turn the crankshaft so it rotates forward, the same as both wheels. ;)