Little help: valve clearance check

[FlyingLow]

I'm just now attempting my first valve clearance check.

['05, 32K miles]

Anyway, I'm stuck at the thermostat housing/ water distribution pipes to the head part.

There is/was an excellent step-by-step, detailed article somewhere in here and I can't seem to find it. I want to say it was on FJRTech.com. It also covered the actual shim replacement part, translating the vague service manual descriptions and pointing out some unnecessary steps, IIRC.

Yes, I "did a search".

Anybody know what I'm talking about and can point me in the right direction?

Thanks.

 

[stryg8r]

You want FJR1300.INFO

https://fjr1300.info/howto/valveadj.html

 

[HIGHLANDER]

I'm just now attempting my first valve clearance check.['05, 32K miles]

Anyway, I'm stuck at the thermostat housing/ water distribution pipes to the head part.

There is/was an excellent step-by-step, detailed article somewhere in here and I can't seem to find it. I want to say it was on FJRTech.com. It also covered the actual shim replacement part, translating the vague service manual descriptions and pointing out some unnecessary steps, IIRC.

Yes, I "did a search".

Anybody know what I'm talking about and can point me in the right direction?

Thanks.

https://www.fjr1300.info/howto/valveadj.html

Probably this site ????

jeez, missed by 60 seconds !!

 

[FlyingLow]

You want FJR1300.INFO
https://fjr1300.info/howto/valveadj.html

Yep, that's the one. Thanks.

Praying, crossing fingers on both hands and knocking on wood that the clearances are all good.

Damn shim-under set-up. Shim-over, like the old FJ, is so much easier.

 

[Ramblin Man]

Well if you have to replace a shim, make sure you have a grease pencil or nail polish and some zip ties. Before you lossen the chain, after everything has been lined up, mark everything with the grease pen/nail polish and zip tie the sprockets to the chain. That way you can't jump a tooth.

 

[FlyingLow]

Well if you have to replace a shim, make sure you have a grease pencil or nail polish and some zip ties. Before you lossen the chain, after everything has been lined up, mark everything with the grease pen/nail polish and zip tie the sprockets to the chain. That way you can't jump a tooth.

Thanks. We shall see.

I spent this evening wrestling that cadmium colored water pipe unit out, hopefully not tweaking anything. Damn, those recessed water ports load up with crud!

Tomorrow after work I'll pull the valve cover.

 

[Zorlac]

Please post again on your experience, and I'll pray for your Zen.

 

[Geezer]

Regarding those two screws that attach the plumbing to the thermostat, one is easily accessible, but the other is under the thermostat and hard to see. They are torx head, not allen head. Slide a piece of cardboard or something under the thermostat to catch that bottom screw in case it drops when you get it out. Also, I used a dab of gasket goop on the end of the torx bit to hold the screw to the bit when installing it.

 

[FlyingLow]

Please post again on your experience, and I'll pray for your Zen.

Perhaps a little Zen was all it took, becoming one with the sickle or something, but anyway...

Success! :yahoo:

Very happy that all clearances were in spec. 2 were near the high. An exhaust took the .009 gage and one of the intakes took a tight .008 gage. [ max is .0087]

For anyone about to attempt this the article at the top of this thread is very helpful. The service manual is not. It basically says "remove stuff; check clearances".

One observation: don't remove the timing cover, remove the center cap and put a 17mm socket on that bolt to index the motor. Reason: the cover has a long dowel which goes through a hole in the lower chain guide and then pilots into the engine case. During the valve checking, this guide drops down and back under tension from the chain and has to be muscled and finessed back into place for the dowel pin to go through. Minor PIA, but you really only need to remove to cover if some valves are out of spec so you can line up the timing marks, and even that's debatable.

Good to go for the next 32k .

 

[Zorlac]

Great!

When I adjust the valve lash on my Concours, I put the bike into 6th gear, pull the clutch in, and then monetarily bump the starter to get a given cylinder near TDC (valve lobes pointing away from each other) then I bump the rear wheel by hand to fine tune the cams into position.

I don't remove any other covers to turn the the engine crank with a ratchet as the manual suggests.

I haven't seen this way mentioned here for the FJR, but I intend to try it when I check the lash someday.

 

[Fred W]

Well if you have to replace a shim, make sure you have a grease pencil or nail polish and some zip ties. Before you lossen the chain, after everything has been lined up, mark everything with the grease pen/nail polish and zip tie the sprockets to the chain. That way you can't jump a tooth.

While I have not yet had to do this on an FJR, I have on other bikes and several cars. Tie wrapping the timing chain to the cam sprocket will ensure that you don't lose timing there, but it doesn't prevent you from skipping the chain around on the crankshaft sprocket down below. That would result in a mis-timing that could be equally disastrous as having the cam sprocket off.

So, rather than trusting the tie-wraps, it is best to completely familiarize yourself with how things look when they are timed correctly. Make sure the crankshaft is located at the TDC timing mark (some engines have a locking pin there) and make extra alignment marks if needed and, yes, take some digital pictures.

 

[Geezer]

If you are checking the valves, but don't need to make any adjustments, then you can turn the engine by putting the bike on the center stand, put it into top gear, and turn the back wheel forward. No need to open the right side at all.

 

[Constant Mesh]

You may want to change the coolant when you're checking clearances. To gain easy access to the coolant expansion tank on the earlier models you need the right cowling off.

 

[Charlie Hoss]

You may want to change the coolant when you're checking clearances. To gain easy access to the coolant expansion tank on the earlier models you need the right cowling off.

When you remove the drain bolt , the coolant will shoot half way across the garage when you loosen the radiator cap and break the vacuum. I put a funnel in front of the drain hole to block the flow, attached it to a nearby bolt with the tab on the funnel. All this was after getting coolant all over the floor. :angry2: