Rocker Arms/valve adjustment - Revealing my frustration, ignorance and revelations & trusting you will not judge

[John Chevalaz]

 Mac,I have a micrometer and will do what u say so i can stop flipping out abt what is a real measurement or what is me thinking too much.Recently we bought a Kawisaki Mule 700 cc that needed a valve measurement at 100 hrs.Easy to get at the valves but again i returned to "am i doing it right"I thought i did with the go . no go gauges.But still festered over if it was correct.Oh and i wipe all oil so as to get a good feel.Bottom line is a friend said they were a o k.But I'll do the micrometer.FYI I have a nice one from sears that was cheap.Also have the one from Todd Byrum that was won at a Tent Float.Although plastic and hard on the eyes, its somwhat reliable.
over and out
John C KB2LOZ

    On Thursday, July 22, 2021, 4:32:24 PM EDT, Mac Kirkpatrick <drbeemer73 at gmail.com> wrote:  
 
 Hi Susan, congratulations on all you have learned and your success. A suggestion:To find out how a feeler gauge should “feel”when it is pulled thru, take a micrometer and set it for, say 10 thousandths. Then take the same size feeler gauge and pull it by the micrometer. That is how it should feel when setting valves. BTW any size will work. 
And I can’t trim this thread, sorry. 
Mac Kirkpatrick 
On Thu, Jul 22, 2021 at 11:51 John Chevalaz via PAAirheads <paairheads at casano.com> wrote:

 congratulation, you are now "one with the valves".and in 2 hours.you can never be to ocd / hypervigilant / whatever in working on your bike.the next time will be that much easier and or when u attend another airhead event you can discuss what u learned.
hve fun and ride safe
john in the valley

    On Thursday, July 22, 2021, 11:58:57 AM EDT, susan.quitzau at gmail.com <susan.quitzau at gmail.com> wrote:  
 
 
Disclaimer: The following may make you laugh or shake your head or simply fill up your time…

  

Thanks to all your help, I have “done it”;  adjusted valve clearances on my 1984 R65LS.

  

Most of my confusion resolved while hands-on actually following and applying the guiding instruction but I will note that the greatest issue I had/have is lack of confidence; not lack of ability.  Plus, I am neurotic!

  

Aiming to be a perfectionists (What the hell? I thought I gave that up a long time ago!), I strive for “exact” measurements, instruction following, etc.  Clearly, sometimes the obvious is not so when hypervigilant.

  

Well, in addition to my lack of experience and lack comfort from repetition, is my discovery of conflicting information that bumps my confusion and second guessing to the next level of anxiety.

For instance:

  
   
   - Attempting to Identify the compression (closed) stroke/cylinder while watching and waiting for valves to open and close on either cylinder while “bumping/turning” rear wheel and peering into small diameter hole looking for OT mark was a challenge for me and gave me the initial angst.

            What I found as my most helpful (ah ha!) in all that I read and subsequently experienced was simply that when OT was viewed through the window, the head with rotatable push rods is the on the compression stroke! Easy peasy as long as the push rods are not bent or otherwise resistant.

  

            Also, after adjusting the left cylinder valve clearances, I simply used the tire stem as my guide to rotating the rear wheel 360 deg and in quick order, found OT and confirmed the right cylinder was in compression stroke by the ease of which I could turn the push rods.

  
   
   - Feeler Gauges with Go-No-Go are cool.  However when one has not used feelers with a range of measurement (not just singular metric and inch measurement stamps) and nothing tells you that the initial insertion is the first number in the range and the step up in size is the end range; what should be obvious and logical isn’t always to the conscientious mind. (that clearly over thinks things! Guilty!)

  
   
   - Add further confusion to this already confused girl New-to-valve adjusting person – trying to make sense of advice to set intake clearance to .10 and exhaust clearance to .20 or in the same instruction, written otherwise as .006” intake and .010” exhaust or even “intake 6mm” and “exhaust 8mm”.  Oh boy.

  

And Then more uncertainty abounds by checking the R65LS manual which says after first 600 miles the valve clearances are:  “Inlet: 0.05 mm (0.002 in) Outlet 0.20 mm (0.008 in). 

Info on measurements are close but varied enough that when you don’t know how much the small differences matter, it dwindles confidence and or delays completion. (add the mystique of German perfection and runs like a Swiss clock vs it’s all an illusion … sorry, don’t mind me…that’s subject for another discussion J )

  

And so, I made my best first attempt at adjusting my airhead valves whereas the best part isn’t just that I have the satisfaction of having done it, but that I have a better understanding of how & why to do it and am not so reluctant in re-doing or re-checking next time.

  

For those who might be wondering – No, I did not loosen and retorque the rocker shaft end play nuts.  I’m leaving them well enough alone. The nuts are tight with no excessive or up & down movement in the rockers.

 

  

  

  

  

  

  
  
-- 


Mac KirkpatrickGlenmoore, PA
"After all, what is adventure, but inconvenience, properly regarded?"
C. Donahue
  
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