What if I never do the valve adjustment?

Read a few say they checked them and everything was fine...kept riding. What if I don't check, just keep riding. I'm at 51,000 on my 2005. She zips and sings as always. Never did the valve check as per my older wiser bike mechanics' suggestions.

Any great stories out there about just keep riding? Horror stories? If the valves need adjustment and I just keep riding, what happens?

If you never check them, you'll never know, and you'll always have that nagging feeling as you ride and wonder if today is the day that something bad happens.

Doing nothing is not recommended, and please don't try to sell your bike here to some unsuspecting member if you get the inkling something is not right.

Still, it's quite possible that your bike is perfectly fine. Most of the horror stories here involve the malfunctioning of older design cam chain tensioners .

fjrsochs said:

Read a few say they checked them and everything was fine...kept riding. What if I don't check, just keep riding. I'm at 51,000 on my 2005. She zips and sings as always. Never did the valve check as per my older wiser bike mechanics' suggestions.
Any great stories out there about just keep riding? Horror stories? If the valves need adjustment and I just keep riding, what happens?

Click to expand...

...ever check your headlights?

fjrsochs said:

Read a few say they checked them and everything was fine...kept riding. What if I don't check, just keep riding. I'm at 51,000 on my 2005. She zips and sings as always. Never did the valve check as per my older wiser bike mechanics' suggestions.
Any great stories out there about just keep riding? Horror stories? If the valves need adjustment and I just keep riding, what happens?

Click to expand...

If you are unlucky and the gaps close up then you reach a state where the valve(s) will not fully seat leading to a loss of compression and lack of power.

It probably won't be catastrophic but it will be expensive to repair.

Doing the valve check is a bit like insurance - you pay now or you pay later.................

The exhaust valves will tend to tighten up over time. If that happens and they do not close all the way to dissipate the heat, then one can burn a valve resulting in loss of compression.

Both the exhaust valves and the intake valves must open and close the proper amount and time to assure proper compression for proper operation of the motor. As the cylinder head valve seats wear, the proper valve stem gap will change resulting in the valve not opening or closing for the correct duration resulting in lose of power, burn valves etc. Very expensive to repair, Pay me a little now or pay me a lot more later. Your call.

I do a circle check on my bike 99% of the time headlights, turn signals brake lights and even the horn sometimes. I have had about 5 valve checks done on my bike. Had to change a couple of shims once in all those checks. Looking back could I have gotten away from not doing them. MAYBE But then I had to have a couple changed. I kind of thing it is like not changing the oil in anything.... can you getaway with it?....sure for a while.

Ask SacMike what happens. You could end up with a burnt valve and have to replace the top end. If I were you, I'd fire my mechanic and look for someone that knows what he's talking about.

Doing nothing is Not a good idea. I did my first one at 26K on the dot. Did the second one at 91K and it needed shims. If the bike is disposable to you, no problem. This bike can easily go 200K problem free if you do the preventative stuff. It's up to you.

El Toro Joe said:

fjrsochs said:

Read a few say they checked them and everything was fine...kept riding. What if I don't check, just keep riding. I'm at 51,000 on my 2005. She zips and sings as always. Never did the valve check as per my older wiser bike mechanics' suggestions.
Any great stories out there about just keep riding? Horror stories? If the valves need adjustment and I just keep riding, what happens?

Click to expand...

...ever check your headlights?

Click to expand...

Yuup! At a stoplight, looking at the guys bumper ahead of me. Mainly b/c of my other "exposure" lighting (mine's on the left).

I needed to change 5 shims on my '03 at 27,000 miles. At 51,000 miles, many would recommend doing a valve check and replacing the cam chain and cam chain tensioner.

My headlights only work on full beam. Just moved to a new town and have been waiting a week for my Yamaha dealer to get my replacement bulbs in. Could've just Amazoned them.

Would never sell anyone anything without full disclosure. I hate that crap. It always comes back if you do that kind of thing anyway.

The bike is not disposable. Recently purchased a SuperTenere planning to retire the FJR if me and SuperT got on well. We did! But because of the move I needed to sell one. The '12 SuperT provides more return value so I had to let her go. Dang! Now I have to ride it out on one of the best bikes ever created. Hope I see 150,000. I will have the valves checked. But again, mechanics near me didn't wanna do it, had never done one. Local Yamaha dealer is trying to sell me a bike by saying,"We have a ten year cutoff because your bike repairs may not be worth the value of the bike." So me and FJ R having a go of it. Thanks all.

So, here in New Orleans...anyone recommend a trust worthy shop? Love to sit and watch how it gets done.

New Orleans, Indiana?

*edit*

I see there's an Orleans.

I bet someone will volunteer to help you do it yourself.

You wont get 150,000 without checking the valves. (Well you might, but it probably wont run well.)

fjrsochs said:

My headlights only work on full beam. Just moved to a new town and have been waiting a week for my Yamaha dealer to get my replacement bulbs in. Could've just Amazoned them.
Would never sell anyone anything without full disclosure. I hate that crap. It always comes back if you do that kind of thing anyway.

The bike is not disposable. Recently purchased a SuperTenere planning to retire the FJR if me and SuperT got on well. We did! But because of the move I needed to sell one. The '12 SuperT provides more return value so I had to let her go. Dang! Now I have to ride it out on one of the best bikes ever created. Hope I see 150,000. I will have the valves checked. But again, mechanics near me didn't wanna do it, had never done one. Local Yamaha dealer is trying to sell me a bike by saying,"We have a ten year cutoff because your bike repairs may not be worth the value of the bike." So me and FJ R having a go of it. Thanks all.

So, here in New Orleans...anyone recommend a trust worthy shop? Love to sit and watch how it gets done.

Click to expand...

Find a tech day to attend, and have someone teach you how to do it.

Ask for a tech session nearby. The fellow FJR buds who HAVE done this exercise will prove very valuable (bring beer).

I did the deed (once) w/ help from many friends. No issues but I didn't trust myself to do it alone.

Buds are better than ANY shop (I've read horror stories) but buds go slow, safe and thorough. Just buy the parts, and get help from your friends (soon).

Valve clearances do not (normally) change quickly. I would make sure that the first one is done more-or-less on time and use that as your baseline. It may not have been perfect from the factory! Having said that, my first valve check wasn't done until about 50,000 miles. Everything in spec. Same with the next check but I had some intake valves getting close to the minimum. On the third check (a bit over 110,000 miles), I had to adjust a number of the intake valves - exhaust were still all OK.

Change the cam chain tensioner while you are at it. Lots of "how-to" postings on the forum. Not a big deal to do but plan on a few hours. More if you find shims out of spec.

Regarding the cam chain - some say to change it and others say no. Mine is original at 140,000 miles.

fjrsochs said:

Local Yamaha dealer is trying to sell me a bike by saying,"We have a ten year cutoff because your bike repairs may not be worth the value of the bike." So me and FJ R having a go of it.

Click to expand...

You need to find a different dealer. ~$300 should cover the check to see if any are out of spec. Another $100-200 would be reasonable for shim adjustment. It's hard to say how much they might want for a cam chain replacement.

This should be nowhere near the price of the bike itself.

Valve CHECKS are easy. One person, one afternoon.

Valve ADJUSTMENTS on the other hand are best done

with two people.

One good with math and a clear head to figure out the

shim changes and the other with a good skill set to do

the work.

Working together it can still be done painlessly but you

need to allow time to obtain shims if needed.

If the person doing the math is REALLY sharp some of

the necessary shims can be swapped around reducing

the need for new ones to a few.

I wouldn't sweat the math too much. I went "by the charts" and ended up on the loose side but still in spec on some valves I adjusted, but found them pretty noisy. I went back in and just went to the next smallest shim from what I started with in the 0.025mm increment and ended up in spec and very quiet.

Wait. These things have valves?