How-to : Valve Adjustment

[5th_bike]

Did it all work out?

It's a little late but here is a thread with a picture of a valve adjustment tool:
http://www.gz250bike.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=45

PS also found a set here:
http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com...-Wrenches.aspx

[MasterBruce]

Pair of wire strippers worked well. Valve adjusted as desired. Thanks for solving this brain teasing issue.

[Maggie]

Have just taken a motorcycle tune-up class from one of the local community colleges and decided to attempt the valve clearance adjustment. Thanks for the sticky post, Jonathan! Woohoo!

Had a lot of frustration because I was using flat feeler gauges and just so much difficulty getting the right angle and feeling the "drag". However, finally got the job done and am definitely hearing more valve noise (there was NO gap at all at the intake valves when I checked).

I have ordered the Motion Pro angled feeler gauges for the next go around. I was actually surprised to read in the manual that the clearances should be checked every 3,000 miles. My teacher said, in general, for this type of valve system (post and locknut, as opposed to shims), it should be done every 5,000 miles. I hadn't had any kind of valve check by a shop for much longer and I am feeling grateful I haven't seemed to destroy anything!

[jonathan180iq]

Considering how many failures have been occurring here on the forum that are valve related, I'm going to start just suggesting the factory recommendation. I've never been around a vehicle that actually needed that much check up on something like valves. But it's certainly easier than having to replace the head.

I had mine for roughly 8,000 miles and I only did the post break-in inspection. There are guys who have been riding their GZs for years and only ever done the initial check. But I guess somewhere along the way the law of percentages was bound to catch up with us.

Check your valve clearances every 3,000-5,000 miles.

[mainlinecoffee]

Is it a gz thing for the valves to be way too tight? When I got my valves checked at 6 or 7k they had no slack.

[raul10141964]

I work on chines scooters an 90% of the times wen they don't start ore run like crap the valves are to tight

[Water Warrior 2]

Originally Posted by mainlinecoffee

Is it a gz thing for the valves to be way too tight? When I got my valves checked at 6 or 7k they had no slack.

Just the nature of the design. It is an easy adjustment overall compared to the shin and bucket design of some other engines. My Vstrom had the shim and bucket design. No adjustment needed after 25,000 miles but would need the cams removed if the shims were in need of replacing. One fellow Vstrom rider had over 100,000 miles with no adjustments needed.

As a side note. There are some cars on the market with shim and bucket designs now. That should be a real shock to the folks who bought an economy car only to be hit by a very expensive maintenance now and again.

[blaine]

Originally Posted by mainlinecoffee

Is it a gz thing for the valves to be way too tight? When I got my valves checked at 6 or 7k they had no slack.

Yes On motorcycles the valves get tighter as the valve sinks into the head.That is why if you don't hear a little valve noise it's time for a adjustment. (unless it's a Honda with hydraulic lifters)

[TrevorG]

So with all the action in this thread recently I decided to check and adjust my valves. Now im 99% sure I've gotten everything adjusted within specs, but when I just took it for a test ride it bogged down and died as if it was running out of gas. Could start it again with the petcock on prime but if i turned it back to the normal on position sure enough it died again a few minutes later. Also when I brought it back into the garage it smells like it's running too lean, a burnt kind of smell.

Any ideas on what I could have screwed up while doing a fairly straightforward maintenance?

EDIT: Just a tip to all the geniuses like me out there, REMEMBER TO RECONNECT THE VACUUM LINE TO THE FUEL PETCOCK. Problem solved

After adjustment, the bike runs much better. I'm getting a lot more range in the gears. It's pouring rain right now so I only went around the block a few times, but I easily got up to 30kmh in first gear whereas before I was lucky to get to 20 before the engine wanted to explode. Second gear took me to 55 rather than 40 like before the adjustment. Very glad I decided to do it today as I had just been procrastinating on it the past few weeks.

[5th_bike]

Great job, well done!