Valve Clearance Check for Tigers and Shim Tool Directions

[Mustang]

I think he had a shim in it just forgot to roll the cam lobe back onto it before he started taking the tool leg off it ........... :oops:

[sloburban]

I think he had a shim in it just forgot to roll the cam lobe back onto it before he started taking the tool leg off it ........... :oops:

That's exactly what I did Mustang.  :lol:  

I wonder what would have happened if there wasn't a shim in the bucket.

[sloburban]

Well I replaced the three shims that were out of spec, replaced the spark plugs and only put the gas tank back on so I could go for a test ride.  
 I pushed her out of the garage and started her up...ran great!  Cool I'm finally going for a ride!  
 I ran inside put my boots, helmet and jacket on, explained to my step son how I was going to kick his ass on his cr450r in our next race,  came outside and she is running terrible.
It is now running worse than before.  When I turned the throttle everything seemed like it was a few seconds behind real time, if that makes sense?  I gave it gas nothing happened for a second or two, I let go of the gas and it still revved up for a second or two before idling again. Meanwhile running terrible off idle.

Next suggestion?  Carbs?
I already have these...Don't know how old they are.

[Mustang]

Has the bike been sitting all winter ?
Is this the first time you have had it running this spring .If you answered yes to the above questions , take it out for a ride and see if the cobwebs come out after about 10 -20 minutes
lots of times it will

if not you need to pull the carbs and clean the pilots (plugged pilot jets is what will make it run like shit of idle and will also cause the hanging idle cuz it's too LEAN )

and one other thing to consider .............were some of your intakes at zero clearance , if so you really should sync the carbs .......and did you disturb anything on the carbs when you did the valves .
ar eyou running the crappy ethanol blend gas ? if so and it is leftover from the fall you are probably going to be cleaning carbs this weekend .

Oh 1 other thing ..there is no freakin way you are going whoop a CRF450  Honda   :shock:  
While a tiger is fun to pretend it can go offroad , the HONDA really can  be a hooligan
here's my off road missle that can run the roads too !

[sloburban]

Thanks for the quick response Mustang!

No the bike didn't sit all winter, not ridden like summer... maybe sat for 3 to 4 weeks at the most. ( is that enough time to cause problems?) It's been gradually getting worse since the middle of winter.

When it started, maybe January, I could barely tell it was running weird, only a small dead spot between 6-7000 RPM's so I put some SEA FOAM in and ran through a full tank.  The more I ran it the worse it got.

I guess the carbs are coming off tomorrow.

And BTW I was racing my step son in a parking lot, straight line. We were pretty much neck and neck but no real room to open it up.

When we get into the tight stuff I can always run him off the trail into a ditch  

[sloburban]

BTW, no clearances were at zero. The smallest one was .05mm

Here's a couple pics I took. If these pics are clogging up the thread let me know and I'll delete them.



Cam compressing the valve :


Mustang's tool holding the shim bucket down.



A closer view:



Prying the shim out of the bucket:

[Sin_Tiger]

My local mech uses a magnet, surprisingly effective and there's less chance of dropping it.

[Mustang]

Dental Pic and a magnet  work oh so well together ..............

[tett]

Just checked mine for the first time and all the valves were right in spec.  The bike has 30,000 km on it (15,000 miles) and I don't believe they were ever checked before.  The previous owner did not think so but he did have it serviced by a Triumph dealers so who knows.

Is it possible to have a bike still in spec after 18,000 miles?

Sorry I have not been able to use your valve tool yet Mustang.   :icon_salut

tett

[Colonel Nikolai]

sloburban, the detail on these are awesome. Really inspiring. Thanks.

[Mustang]

Is it possible to have a bike still in spec after 18,000 miles?



tett

very possible.............. depends on how hard you flog the beast

some engines need shims some don't ever seem to need to be shimmed!

[haroldo_psf]

In the first pages of this thread, it mentions that you "run out of cylinder service life" when you reach a valve check which requires shims size 2.1 or under? What does that mean? that at one point (100K miles? 200K? how many) you will just have no more shims avaliable from anywhere and the bike will be useless (unless you want to burn your valves)?

(I'm a new Tiger owner, 2000 855i).

Thanks

[EvilBetty]

If you need to go below 2.1 for any valve, you've exceeded the serviceability of the head.  You would have to buy a replacement head.

[Rocinante]

In the first pages of this thread, it mentions that you "run out of cylinder service life" when you reach a valve check which requires shims size 2.1 or under? What does that mean? that at one point (100K miles? 200K? how many) you will just have no more shims avaliable from anywhere and the bike will be useless (unless you want to burn your valves)?

It means the valves are worn down and need to be replaced and the seats redone. This is a problem occurring in a series of 98 model Steamers, including mine. Not a big problems in other models as far as I know.

First time it happened on mine was at about 90-95 000km. The valves were replaced and the seat redone in a slightly flatter angle to increase the contact area with the valve. This lasted about 45 000km and I now have the next smallest shims on two valves. I found  a used cylinder head from a 95 with 12 fat shims on ebay which is going to replace the existing one. Saved me a lot of bucks this way compared to doing the valve replacement job again.

Dag

[Fe Man]

For all those that have got this far through the thread and have NOT bought the valve tool. You don't have to. You also don't have to remove the cams completely to get the shims out.
All you have to do is remove the cam bearing caps and lift/tilt the cams, from the #1 cylinder end, enough to access the shim you need. There's enough give in everything to do this and it doesn't disturb the cam chain and timing at all.
Sorted and free.

As I am broke, I am doing this myself, I like the idea of just removing the caps!

Can anyone share the re-installation order and re-torquing instructions on the caps?