TOPIC:

Can Anyone in Maryland do a valve adjustment service?

It's not that hard. Take your time and have at it You need to measure them first though and the engine needs to be cold.

rdbhere2 wrote: Can Anyone in Maryland do a valve adjustment service?

Are you looking for a member's help with a valve adjustment or are you wondering if a dealership can do it?

Simple enough to do yourself. Measure the clearances with a set of feeler gauges ( cost less than $10.00) then pull out the shim and measure the thickness of that shim and calculate the required thickness for the shim needed. Make you self up a chart to record what came out and what is needed for each valve. Leave out the shims that have to be changed. Sometimes you can get lucky and a shim that was removed from one place will fit in another.
If you find you have tight valves, you need to remove that shim and replace with a smaller one then take your measurement and make you calculations.

A word of caution- ensure you put the used shims back in the way they came out and don't flip them over. Shims have been known to crack when installed one way then flipped over and run. If you need to put new shims in it's suggested that they be installed with the size printed on the shim to the bottom side. That way when you pull them out you can read the size and measure the shim for comparison to the original size.
Usually, the local dealerships have a shim exchange program and charge a couple of bucks per shim to exchange as apposed to purchasing at $15-20 a shim. It's a PITA having to stop in the middle of a job and go to the dealership so if you get a chance to pick up shims for a reasonable price, then you should and keep spares at home.

Hope this helps,
Kawboy

I spoke with two motorcycle mechanics who say they would never do a valve adjustment on a kz1300 again. That says a lot. I can do tune ups and basic mechanics. I dont want to get in over my head.

It's not "hard", just time consuming. I had a guy help me with mine, but mostly because he already had the shims and offered to do it for free. I had the head off mine, so he was able to do it by removing the camshafts, which made things REAL easy. You need a special tool to change them with the cams on. Level of difficulty is about the same either way, but if you take off camshafts you risk messing up the valve timing.

Grab a manual if you can. They have an excellent write-up on doing adjustments. The fact you have 12 to do is the biggest PITA.

Actually, scratch that- DEFINITELY go buy a manual. While complicated, these motors are actually pretty straightforward. I've got two torn apart and one nearly together, and I don't know that much either.

Most mechanics won't touch this bike with a 10 foot pole. Doing your own maintenence is almost a necessary evil.

Lucien-Harpress wrote: Most mechanics won't touch this bike with a 10 foot pole. Doing your own maintenence is almost a necessary evil.

Well, lets just say any "mechanic" who won't touch this with a ten foot pole shouldn't be allowed to work on tricycles for 3 year olds. This is NOT a complicated machine.

As far as adjusting valves, maybe you'd like to work on a CBX with 24 bucket shims instead. And from experience, they need adjustment every 5000 miles or else !!

Oh, and if you want a REAL challenge, try working on a Porsche 928. I have one of these (1985) and the "Shop Manual" is 8 - 3" binders that takes up 2 ft. of my library shelf. She's in the paint shop and will be out next week and yes, I'll post pics of the third love of my life. (You can guess which ones are the first two)