Valve Clearance Question

[Infidel]

Originally Posted by pacomutt

You have to wonder how many here have ever experienced having to adjust valves on an engine when it is hot and running, with a box wrench in one hand, a screwdriver in the other hand, and a feeler gage set in yet another hand, all while the tools are bouncing up and down at around 250 times per minute, and hot oil is spraying all over you! Maybe just you, me, and sfair.
Ah, for the good old days......

Damn, that doesn't even sound possible. haha

[pacomutt]

Originally Posted by Infidel

Damn, that doesn't even sound possible. haha

Used to be how it was done. You used to turn the idle down to as low as it would go, but even if the engine would stay running at 450 rpm, the valves would still be jumping at half that speed!

[Old Syko]

Yep, a hundred years ago or so I had an old rain coat and a welding hood with a clear lens that hung in the corner just for that. Pacomutt and I aren't makin this up either. At some point I discovered degree wheels and dial indicators and the world got much easier and cleaner. Good ole days? I guess that's debatable.

Infidel, I assume the gauges you're referring to that say they are dual reading mean simply that they are marked in both metric and sae dimensions and not actually ground to 2 different thicknesses as the ones Pacomutt and I are referring. Double ground and extra long are the way to go but if all you have are single ground in a set, at least disassemble the set and use only a single feeler at a time.

Phil, yes all the shims should be marked but it really doesn't matter since the markings may be obscured for one reason or another or just plain marked wrong. Shame we don't live in a perfect world ain't it?

[pacomutt]

And just to make it more fun, valve lash adjusters had slots that took a large plain screwdriver, not something that had a chance of staying in place like maybe a Phillips head! So now you have a plain, flat-blade screwdriver in a jumping valve adjuster, covered in an oil bath.
Another fun thing was when you'd pull a valve cover and the entire valve area would be a solid mass of clay-like sludge.

[Old Syko]

The lack of such silliness and the unbelievable performance for the day is what steered me to the S2, H1, and H2 Kawasaki's of the day. Yes, there was a part of all that that really was the good ole days. Guess what? No valves. I guess we gained a bit in some areas and lost in others.

[pacomutt]

Originally Posted by Old Syko

The lack of such silliness and the unbelievable performance for the day is what steered me to the S2, H1, and H2 Kawasaki's of the day. Yes, there was a part of all that that really was the good ole days. Guess what? No valves. I guess we gained a bit in some areas and lost in others.

I loved the H1. I bought my first one in '71. I owned three altogether.
I still have my Micro-time tool for setting the timing on those.

[Old Syko]

The S and H series bikes being 2strokers of course didn't have valves so to make them run you had to pull the jugs and raise the ports and cut the pistons by whatever means you chose, preferably with a mill but they were even done with a file. Feeler gauges and the like were too simple. The thing was, the 350 would easily smoke any 750 4stroke on the market and the H2 750 was properly called a rocket since keeping the front end down was impossible without trailing bars. Yes you were right. Those were the good ole days.

[pacomutt]

Originally Posted by Old Syko

The S and H series bikes being 2strokers of course didn't have valves so to make them run you had to pull the jugs and raise the ports and cut the pistons by whatever means you chose, preferably with a mill but they were even done with a file. Feeler gauges and the like were too simple. The thing was, the 350 would easily smoke any 750 4stroke on the market and the H2 750 was properly called a rocket since keeping the front end down was impossible without trailing bars. Yes you were right. Those were the good ole days.

I never modded my H1s. They had far more than enough power to kill you real quick in their stock form. I rode them fast on the streets, but only raced in the dirt. The fuel economy sucked, but at under 30 cents a gallon, who cared?

[Infidel]

So...that ticking was driving me crazy so I tore into the top end of the engine again to re-re-re-re-re-recheck the valve clearance. Apparently, the feeler gauges I bought were the problem. The .13mm leaf was thicker than the .15mm leaf, for whatever reason. At first, I thought two leaves were stuck together, but I guess the .13mm got mismarked.

Anyway, I disasembled the set like Old Syko suggested and just used the .18mm, 15mm, and 10mm to check the intakes. The exhaust shims were good, but I had to correct each one of the intakes.

What I did was basically make sure the 18mm wouldn't go through and the 15 would, since I couldn't use the 13mm. One or two wouldn't let the 15mm pass through, but the 10mm did on the intake, so I counted those as good.

After I finish unf*cking my mistake, I took the bike out and got it nice and hot, then let it idle. Sounds like you were right all along, Pacomutt...I couldn't hear the ticking that loud anymore. Now, it was a faint, soft tick that was barely audible of the sound of the engine at an idle. Sounds a lot closer to what I would have expected. Maybe people next to me will stop staring now. hahaha!

Anyways, thanks to both of you for the advice. I think I have it done right this time.

[pacomutt]

Glad you got it right finally! You had to have learned a lot by now about checking valve clearances.
BTW, Happy Veterans Day, and thanks for your service! Semper fi from an old VN vet!