Valve Adjustment Tutorial

[Lifanrider]

many people on this forum subscribe to the notion that valve ticking on these particular engines is acceptable. mine ticked. was adjusted. 500 kilometers later its ticking again. searching may lead to a straight answer concerning the valve question. maybe they just need frequent maintenance?

got myself a feeler guage. going to try my hand at valve adjustment tomorrow.

[bisaho15]

what will happen if the valves are ticking?

[Q]

Nothing.

If the valves got very loose I suppose the pushrods could pop out of place and the engine would stop.

Q

Originally Posted by bisaho15

what will happen if the valves are ticking?

[bisaho15]

so it will just tick? big deal tick away i payed 400 bucks and i hope to get through the summer around town on this thing

[alonzo]

Getting ready to do this maintaince, couldn't find exactly .05 and .08 feeler gauges. the closest I could come was .051 and .076.

Will these feeler gauge sizes work? or did I waste 5.00 bucks?

[DesertDog]

yep a waste
dont adj. them to .051 or .056, the lifters probly wont even touch the valves, that if it is a OHC engine type, or even open them up enough

you need .05 to .08

got mine at checkers, you might try wally-world

and i also picked up and extra gage at the local yamaha dealer here in town

DD

[alonzo]

Originally Posted by DesertDog

yep a waste
dont adj. them to .051 or .056, the lifters probly wont even touch the valves, that if it is a OHC engine type, or even open them up enough

you need .05 to .08

got mine at checkers, you might try wally-world

and i also picked up and extra gage at the local yamaha dealer here in town

DD

Sigh* Thanks for the info, even if it is bad news. Oh well gives me a reason to go get some fuel line and try to get a cheap pod filter from the Honda dealer.

[DesertDog]

hey alonzo
if nothing else it does'nt hurt to get to know the parts department guys at the honda dealer, in the long run they might save you time and $$$


that feeler gage will be prebent to perfection , mine was $3.50 or so at the local yamaha dealer here in elko, they know me now , and yes they can smell my chinese .
no they are'nt impressed with the make

good luck
DD

ps: play dumb when your in there they might give you 10% off for simpathy

[red2003]

Originally Posted by DesertDog

yep a waste
dont adj. them to .051 or .056, the lifters probly wont even touch the valves, that if it is a OHC engine type, or even open them up enough

you need .05 to .08

Huh? .051 and .076 are fine to use. A few thousandths of a mm are well within human error anyway. Those are fine to use, in fact that is EXACTLY what I use. The difference between .05 and .051 is less then the film of oil that will gather on the valve tip once the engine is fired. BTW, these engines (both the pushrod, and OHC) don't have lifters.

[08obpwrx]

^ .051 and .076 is what I used, I too was thinking.... 1/1000 of a mm is not even close to a big deal

[alonzo]

I used the .051, .056. that was the sunday after I posted. it is getting to be time to do it again. 150 km to go until I am pulling off the valve cover. and checking the lash

[hotform]

I don't know who figured out that you need to use the kick starter to turn the engine over to get to the timing mark, but they are incorrect.
If you look at the picture of the side cover in photo number 3 with the access hole on top, you will also see a cover with 4 bolts down on the side with the bike name on it.
Put an oil catch on the floor as you will loose a little and take this 4 bolt cover off. Inside you will find a bolt that you can put a socket on to turn the engine over. Remember to be in neutral. Turn it counterclockwise until the mark at T lines up at the access hole. It is easier to turn if you take the spark plug out first.
At this point you must make sure that there is some play or wiggle in the rocker arms. It won't be much, but you have to be able to wiggle them up and down slightly. If not you are at the incorrect spot and need to go around to T again. You should then have your wiggle and be able to set your valves.
The reason is that you need to be at top dead center on the compression stroke of your 4 stroke engine which is when the valves are not loaded for intake and exhaust as they are on the other stroke.
Learned all this the hard way on my other bike.
Also for turning the square adjuster at the top, try taking a number 2 square drive screw and cut it down and screw it into a yellow wire nut. It works perfect for holding and moving the adjuster while you tighten down the nut. Learned this the hard way also while using needle nose pliers.

[red2003]

Originally Posted by hotform

I don't know who figured out that you need to use the kick starter to turn the engine over to get to the timing mark, but they are incorrect.
If you look at the picture of the side cover in photo number 3 with the access hole on top, you will also see a cover with 4 bolts down on the side with the bike name on it.
Put an oil catch on the floor as you will loose a little and take this 4 bolt cover off. Inside you will find a bolt that you can put a socket on to turn the engine over. Remember to be in neutral. Turn it counterclockwise until the mark at T lines up at the access hole. It is easier to turn if you take the spark plug out first.
At this point you must make sure that there is some play or wiggle in the rocker arms. It won't be much, but you have to be able to wiggle them up and down slightly. If not you are at the incorrect spot and need to go around to T again. You should then have your wiggle and be able to set your valves.
The reason is that you need to be at top dead center on the compression stroke of your 4 stroke engine which is when the valves are not loaded for intake and exhaust as they are on the other stroke.
Learned all this the hard way on my other bike.
Also for turning the square adjuster at the top, try taking a number 2 square drive screw and cut it down and screw it into a yellow wire nut. It works perfect for holding and moving the adjuster while you tighten down the nut. Learned this the hard way also while using needle nose pliers.

I suggested you use the kickstarter in my original post. You CAN use the bolt on the end of the flywheel like you suggest, but using the kickstarter ensures you don't turn the engine backwards, AND more importantly you don't loosen the flywheel bolt as you are turning it in the left direction to bring the mark to the T. To each their own.

[yurkia]

kickstarter was only option for me. I don't have access to such a bolt. 8)