Time for a Valve check/adjustment, any fellow Texans interested?

[LilBeaver]

Well that time is upon me. I have rolled over 52k and want to go ahead and get this beast of a maintenance item out of the way. Not to mention the valve cover gaskets are starting to look cracked and stuff (obviously, from the outside) whether that means anything or not, I don't know. I do know that I am starting to get some seepage out of the back right cover (into the spark plug hole) and mileage wise I am a tad overdue.

So I have some questions. First of all I am wondering if there is any interest in a valve adjustment day sometime in the next couple of weeks? I can host BUT I still need to order that fancy pants "J" tool and a shim kit. I am pretty sure I have the rest of the required tools (Torque wrenches, sockets, hex and torx socket attachments, etc). I also have a 2 car garage that should provide ample working space for a few bikes. That being said, I have no problem taking a little ride either if someone with more know-how and possibly the tools would be in a more convenient location (ie. NOT Lubbock) and willing to help out.

While I could pay the local dealer ~$400 to have it done, I am pretty sure that I (personally) won't be happy unless I SEE it myself. I know that there are some honest mechanics out there but... well... That is how I am.

 

So, anyone interested in a valve check get together?

Anyone have the tool & shim kit and willing to let me borrow/rent it?

Anyone have the know how and willing to sacrifice a day or two to help me out?

 

If I end up hosting, I can provide food, beverages (as expected, I am sure), ice cream and ????.

 

I have been over Goose's write up and while I am no master mechanic, I am quite confident that I should be able to git-r-done... provided I can procure the proper tools.

 

Thanks for your consideration. Happy riding!!

Edited June 16, 2011 by LilBeaver

[Ponch]

Rick,

If nothing else happens to accomodate you, I can loan you the tool and shim kit. Depending on when you plan it, I may be able to help. We're tied up for the next few weeks.

Ponch

[LilBeaver]

Rick,

 

If nothing else happens to accomodate you, I can loan you the tool and shim kit. Depending on when you plan it, I may be able to help. We're tied up for the next few weeks.

 

Ponch

 

Thanks a lot Dave! I'll keep this in mind.

 

[Jerry W]

Rick,

I don't have the specality tools etc. for the valve job, but I do have quite a bit of room for bikes. My location may not work since I am about 3 hours north of you, but would be willing to host after it cools off a little.

[LilBeaver]

Rick,

I don't have the specality tools etc. for the valve job, but I do have quite a bit of room for bikes. My location may not work since I am about 3 hours north of you, but would be willing to host after it cools off a little.

 

Jerry:

 

I'll definitely keep you in mind. You do have a nice set of garages...

We'll stay tuned for the next few days to gauge how much interest there is and where the most interest lies then go from there.

 

Thanks!!

[RandyR]

If you have several people that want to do theirs at the same time, I can make a 2nd kit available to you.

[LilBeaver]

If you have several people that want to do theirs at the same time, I can make a 2nd kit available to you.

 

We'll see what kind of turn-out we end up with and I'll be in touch.

 

Thanks a lot!!

[gunboat]

hi jerry

good to see you posting. if rick want's to host this at you place i'll come. but then i'll come anyway, would pefere it to be cooler myself

reguards

don c.

[V7Goose]

Shucks, I'm in Tatum NM tonight - not all that far away - If I'd only known to bring my shim kit and tools! It'd be better than sitting in this dumpy motel! Oh well...

 

You are always welcome to ride down to my place near Fort Worth, and we can take care of it. Or I'll be happy to send you the kit and tool; I can tell you ahead of time what sizes of shims are a bit light so you can order a few ahead of time. Only cost to you is shipping, and add the few new shims or whatever is left over to the kit when you are done. Let me know.

Goose

[LilBeaver]

Shucks, I'm in Tatum NM tonight - not all that far away - If I'd only known to bring my shim kit and tools! It'd be better than sitting in this dumpy motel! Oh well...

 

You are always welcome to ride down to my place near Fort Worth, and we can take care of it. Or I'll be happy to send you the kit and tool; I can tell you ahead of time what sizes of shims are a bit light so you can order a few ahead of time. Only cost to you is shipping, and add the few new shims or whatever is left over to the kit when you are done. Let me know.

Goose

 

Darn, I guess I should have posted this a few weeks ago when I had made my decision to not pay a dealer... Oh well.

Thanks for the offer and you'd better watch out as I might take you up on it! I'll give this a few more days (I need to wait for my gaskets to show up anyway) and see if there is any additional interest. Depending on how it goes, I may end up taking you up on your offer and take a ride down to you.

 

Thanks. I hope all is going well with what you had to deal with out in Az.

[LilBeaver]

Update:

 

Looks like I have a few sources for the tools (Thanks guys!!!), one willing to make a long trip up and another potential working venue if more folks are interested.

 

So I'll call this a bump and if there is no additional interest in the next couple of days, I'll go ahead and assume there is insufficient interest for this to be a multiple bike effort and make further arrangements to git-r-done.

 

That being said, I do know that there are not very many members in this area, but figured I'd give it a shot anyways.

 

Thanks to all of you who have responded.

[flb_78]

Of course you wait until I move away...

[LilBeaver]

Of course you wait until I move away...

 

Thoughtful, eh?

[flb_78]

Thoughtful, eh?

 

Quite!

[rock hound]

I would be interested ! Iam at about 25k on mine and would be glad to help and learn somethings.

[Jerry W]

Depending on the date, I would also like to attend.

[LilBeaver]

Rick,

 

If nothing else happens to accomodate you, I can loan you the tool and shim kit. Depending on when you plan it, I may be able to help. We're tied up for the next few weeks.

 

Ponch

 

hi jerry

good to see you posting. if rick want's to host this at you place i'll come. but then i'll come anyway, would pefere it to be cooler myself

reguards

don c.

 

 

 

I would be interested ! Iam at about 25k on mine and would be glad to help and learn somethings.

 

Depending on the date, I would also like to attend.

 

Sounds good.

RockHound, were you up for checking yours at the same time or were you more interested in seeing how mine goes first?

 

At any rate, I say we start discussing what date(s) work and then firm up a time to git-r-done.

 

My preference is to get this done within the next couple of weeks. I would like to make it happen before 11/July. I realize that is pretty soon and with the July 4th shenanigans stuck in the middle there, but my schedule is pretty flexible at this point (for once).

 

How about you two - anything that definitely works or does not work?

 

I will not be available from 12-25/July as I will be out of town. I was hoping to try to get this done before 11/July as to be able to try to catch the tail end of the International shindig up in Cody which will then be followed by a very scenic route home.

 

By the way Forrest, nothing says you can't still come. Nevermind that whole being a few states away thing...

[Guest tx2sturgis]

I'm with flb....except you waited till I paid to have mine done!

 

If you arrange something in the borger/amarillo zone, we could make that trip to the biker havens I have mentioned and do that the same weekend as the valvejob.

 

Mine is now click-free....but I could still learn a thing or two watching it get done and maybe holding a beer....

 

 

I've volunteered to work the big Triathlon this weekend at Buffalo Springs Lake....( http://www.buffalospringslaketriathlon.com/home.php )

 

..but a friend of mine was in a motorcycle wreck and I may want to visit her instead....things are iffy at this point.

 

 

 

[LilBeaver]

I'm with flb....except you waited till I paid to have mine done!

 

If you arrange something in the borger/amarillo zone, we could make that trip to the biker havens I have mentioned and do that the same weekend as the valvejob.

 

Mine is now click-free....but I could still learn a thing or two watching it get done and maybe holding a beer....

 

 

 

Yeah, I should have mentioned something a long time ago (sorry about that); although I don't know for sure when I knew you were going to pay to get yours done... Not to mention, I didn't know (until last week) when I would [actually] have some time around home long enough to plan it out and actually git-r-done.

Actually having an extra set of hands available to pseudo-photo-document the process (provided you can take pictures and hold your beer at the same time - which *ahem* I have reason to believe that you can) may be helpful as well. At least I think I would like some pictures for my own 'records' regarding the process as it goes.

 

As for boogieing on out afterwords, that sounds good too. Let's stay tuned and see if anyone else is interested then we can firm up the location as well.

 

[LilBeaver]

...

 

I've volunteered to work the big Triathlon this weekend at Buffalo Springs Lake....( http://www.buffalospringslaketriathlon.com/home.php )

 

..but a friend of mine was in a motorcycle wreck and I may want to visit her instead....things are iffy at this point.

 

 

 

 

Sorry to hear about your friend. I hope that all is okay.

 

If you do end up down here in Lubbock and want to meet up, you've got my number.

[Ponch]

Keep us posted on a date. We're on the road to and from Cody for the International Rally July 23-30.

[texasrices]

Hi Ya'll

 

I REEEAAALLY need to have a valve adjustment done on my 1998 Tour Classic since it has an embarrassing number of miles on the odometer and I know it has never been done!

 

I have two questions...

1. Is there any difference between the Venture motor versus my Royal Star that I should be aware of?? (Will Goose's write up work for me?)

 

and

2. Is there anyone in the Houston area looking to have this done? I would really like to watch/help before I take the big move of breaking into my motor.

 

I WILL NOT take to my local stealer.

 

Thanks

[Ponch]

We can do your valve adjustment. We have maintenance days every other month or so in the houston area. Just watch for the next one or set one up yourself. We'll come to you.

[texasrices]

That sounds great. I will be watching.

[LilBeaver]

Alright panhandle-ites, since there did not seem to be an overwhelming desire to select a date or whatever (and my time window for getting this done was pretty slim) I went ahead and took Goose up on his offer. Drove to Ft Worth Tuesday night, started around 630am Wednesday morning and was on the road by 6 or 630pm (home by 1230 or so). It was definitely a full day of work. However, we spent (I use the term 'we' very lightly as Goose did most of the work) 'adjusting' my left front crash bar so that the newly repaired cowling would fit properly, and it looks darn good if I do say so myself (I will add pictures later). Had it not been for the lower cowling all would have been back together by 3 or 4. We did the following:

- Cleaned the air boxes, air plenums (sp?), re-routed a few hoses

- Cleaned carbs (including my plugged pilot jets and main jets - one was almost completely plugged)

- Checked TPS sensor

- Set floats (mine apparently had been previously adjusted but weren't too terribly far off)

- Adjusted steering head bearing (with the 'whack it with a hammer method')

- Drained some coolant

- Checked valve clearances (10 or 11 of the 16 were out of spec, many were very close to the tolerance limits but still slightly out of spec and a few were way out of spec; It had appeared that the clearances were checked before - at least the valve covers had been off and reinstalled)

- Cleaned up some more around the engine

- Reassembled

- Carb sync (which turned out to be right on - not bad for the last sync being ~ 10k or 15k miles ago)

- Set mixture

- Bent the crap out of my left crash bar (this alone probably took 1.5 to 2 hours - but it looks darn good now )

- Fixed lower left cowling

...

I think this was all.

Oh, and the only spare parts left over were ones that we had intended to leave left off

 

Considering how much we actually did, how much we talked while we were working, how much explaining/instructing Goose was doing (not to mention my many annoying questions) I think we managed decent time start to finish. If we were to do this again, I am quite certain that the time to complete would be much MUCH less, since there would be much less 'instruction/learning' going on.

 

With all of that said, for those of you in the Panhandle that are interested in doing this, I now have some experience and would certainly be willing to help out where I can if and when ya'll are ready to do yours.

 

Anyways, Goose - I cannot thank you enough and I certainly learned A LOT. While I am confident that I would have been able to complete this task on my own, it sure was nice to have someone with considerable experience there to instruct, oversee and help out as much as you had done as we went along. I also know that there are quite a few of those things that I probably may have ended up overlooking. I certainly would not have set the mixture and I probably would have botched the float adjustment. I really wish timing worked out a little differently so we had some more time there at the end...

Edited July 7, 2011 by LilBeaver
Left a few bits out...