Valve Clearences

[R1stu]

How would you know that the valves need adjusting?

The R1 is comming upto 23k and after seeing the price of getting them done I want to make sure they need doing!

For that and the CCT Im not going to see much change from £900
____________________
Carbon closet tart! https://www.bikepics.com/members/r6stuk/02r6/
Stolen bike. 2000 R1: https://www.bikepics.com/members/r6stuk/00r1/
Current bike 1991 Honda ST1100 Pan European, 1986 Honda cb350sg (Finished)

[G]

If it's just the tensioner, that should be easy to do yourself.

For the rest, maybe find someone who'll do it 'on the side', for reasonable money or who knows about such things but isn't it a mechanic.

[R1stu]

WEll was asking CraigT19 about it and apparntly you need some special yam tool to do it, so He wouldnt beable to do it!

AS for the CCT the haynes manual makes it look easy! Dont even need to take the head off, just tank and airbox/carbs.

But I am always weary of engine work myself. Anything else fine! I have stripped R6s and rebuilt them enough but never felt confident enough to do stuff to the engine!
____________________
Carbon closet tart! https://www.bikepics.com/members/r6stuk/02r6/
Stolen bike. 2000 R1: https://www.bikepics.com/members/r6stuk/00r1/
Current bike 1991 Honda ST1100 Pan European, 1986 Honda cb350sg (Finished)

[tony532]

i'm wondering this as well.

i have been told the bike will be hard to start.


just wondered what noises the engine will be making
____________________
bikes owned :-

aprilia rs125 - suzuki gsxr400rrsp 1990 - yamaha yzf600r thundercat - honda hornet 6

[TOM M]

I had the cct, cam chain and the valve clearences done on me old zxr400 and it only cost me around £300
____________________
Now owner of a 1200 Bandit

[R1stu]

[R1stu]

This is what the haynes says!
____________________
Carbon closet tart! https://www.bikepics.com/members/r6stuk/02r6/
Stolen bike. 2000 R1: https://www.bikepics.com/members/r6stuk/00r1/
Current bike 1991 Honda ST1100 Pan European, 1986 Honda cb350sg (Finished)

[Kickstart]

Hi

Tensioner should be easy enough. Valve clearances likely need the cams to come out to be adjusted, but you should be able to check the with the cams in place.

Fairly certain that the R1 uses shimmed valves. As such they probably close up with miles and the bike will get quieter.

All the best

Keith
____________________
Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[DynaMight]

I was told that if a bikes harder to start when it's warm it's a sign that the bike needs the valves adjusting
____________________
My bikes are at https://www.bikepics.com/members/dynamight/

[Kickstart]

[R1stu]

Prob need doing soon then, as need choke most days to start her! even when not cold cold.
____________________
Carbon closet tart! https://www.bikepics.com/members/r6stuk/02r6/
Stolen bike. 2000 R1: https://www.bikepics.com/members/r6stuk/00r1/
Current bike 1991 Honda ST1100 Pan European, 1986 Honda cb350sg (Finished)

[nrml76]

If the engine runs rough after it is warmed up compared to when it was cold, the clearance is probably very tight. Most places I asked quoted me about 100 quid plus the cost of the shims. £900 seems excessive to me, even for two bikes. It is about a 2 hour job per bike, after removing the fairings, tank, airbox etc.
____________________
Everyone who lives dies, yet not everyone who dies has lived. We take these risks not to escape life, but to prevent life from escaping us.

[Nath]

I thought the valve clearances were an engine out job on the R1?
____________________
Hard livin', hard luck.

[Big Pete]

Expect about 4-6 hours labour to do valve clearance and cam chain adjustment, a good chunk of which is stripping enoough of the bike to get at the head. Sometimes you can negotiate with the mechanic to cut the cost if you take the bike in with most of the fairing etc already removed.

If the valve clearances are closing its a pain, if they open things get progressively noiser and you lose some power. If they close eventually the valves don't seat properly (altho the engine will still start and run, and will run better at high engine speeds)and you start burning the valve seats. At this point it becomes a race between the engine becoming a real pain to start and the hot gas jet burning through the stem of an exhaust valve and destroying the head/barrels and piston. If the general experience is that the valve clearances close up on your engine then get them checked or do it yourself.

If you decide to have a go youself there area range of little gadgets that (usually) bolt onto the cam cover holes and compress thevalve springs, this gives you enough room to change the shims with out having to remove the cams, which can cause other problems.
____________________
Trust me, I`m an engineer
GarageOfPower.co.uk

[R1stu]

~Its a set price of £425 to do the valves on the R1 and about £350 for the CCT.

Ill prop do that myself with the aid of Craig!
____________________
Carbon closet tart! https://www.bikepics.com/members/r6stuk/02r6/
Stolen bike. 2000 R1: https://www.bikepics.com/members/r6stuk/00r1/
Current bike 1991 Honda ST1100 Pan European, 1986 Honda cb350sg (Finished)

[TOM M]

[Grubby]

There's 2 ways of doing this job, one's to take the cams out, the other is to use the tool that Yamaha sell. Me I use the special tool. If it was my R1 with that sort of mileage I'd be checking the clearances personally speaking.
____________________
I am me & you are he & we are all together. See how they run like pigs from a gun!

[APNess]

Anyone got the part number of the tool Yamaha techs use? Have a Thunderace on 23k miles needs valves checking, and would like to do it myself. As far as I can tell, it's fairings off, radiator dropped forward/or taken off, and probably downpipes/exhaust off if I want more room to get in to check them.

If they needed doing I was contemplating dropping the engine. No prior experience on Bikes, just Haynes manual and remember having to check the cam followers (hydraulic ones) on my 20v Audi, so (sort of) similar.

Local place (leeds) charges £166 to check the clearances - that's another option, but with xmas coming up, that's cash that might be better saved for other things.

[tatters]

Thunderace does,nt need checking till 28,000 miles, then the only speical tool you need is a feel gauge to check the clearances between the shim and the cam.
____________________
Past:NRG50,AF1125(x2),NSR125RR,ZZR250,CX500,VFR400,KR1S,ZZR600(x2),CB400N,YZF1000(x2),KH125,Z200,FX400R,CBR954RR(x2)GPZ500S,GT550,VFR750F(x2),RD350N,XR650R,CBR600F,CB250,KDX250,YZF750R,CRM250,400EXC,KLR650,TTR600RE,DR350S,R100GSPD,RGV250,VMAX1200,DL650,KZ750 Present:G650XC,C12,CRF450X,1190ADV

[Pete.]

[bish777]

If the R1 is anything like the FZR1000, its a complicated, difficult, time consuming and fiddly job.

20 valves, shims under the buckets and 3 piece head. Tiny little shims too.
____________________
GSXR1100J

[APNess]

28,000? Weird. That's 24k, 25k 26k and 28k I've seen now either in lilterature or on the internet. Confused :S

I dug the handbook out again, says 42000km which works out to be 26097.

Oh well at 23k might as well do them anyway - I plan to do other bits whilst the bike is in errrr bits.

[tatters]

I did have up till when l sold my thunderace a genuwine copy of the yamaha workshop manual not crapy hayes which stated 28k, most likey they won,t need agjusting so you can forget about it till 56k fingers crossed



to have the clearances checked by a garage should be no more than £100 ish.
____________________
Past:NRG50,AF1125(x2),NSR125RR,ZZR250,CX500,VFR400,KR1S,ZZR600(x2),CB400N,YZF1000(x2),KH125,Z200,FX400R,CBR954RR(x2)GPZ500S,GT550,VFR750F(x2),RD350N,XR650R,CBR600F,CB250,KDX250,YZF750R,CRM250,400EXC,KLR650,TTR600RE,DR350S,R100GSPD,RGV250,VMAX1200,DL650,KZ750 Present:G650XC,C12,CRF450X,1190ADV

[irving]

>>

[Pete.]

I made a shim calculator program last year with a bit of excel help from the other guys at 200mph. No-one has ever used it far as I know but if you find working out the shim sizes confusing then it will take all the guesswork out of it and it makes a handy table for recording your measurements if nothing else - it's very easy for a rookie to get confused doing the shims and if you lose track you have to re-fit the cams with the shims all fitted rtandomly and start over again.

All you have to do is input the correct valve clearances as found in your manual then print out the worksheet. Measure up your gaps and write them in the boxes, then measure the shims you have and write them in their boxes too, then go back to the PC and put all the stuff you've written down into the excel sheet. It will then tell you what shims you need to buy. Click the screenshot below to download - requires excel

https://peterrimmer.myby.co.uk/images/shimcalc.gif
____________________
a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good