Valve Adjustment

[mshowe]

I have a 83 with 12,600 miles and have never adjusted the valves.

First, I assume I should get it done.  Second, should I trust a shop to do it?  Any estimates on price?  Or should I take a crack at shimming it - which is not my preference. 

I am relatively handy, but have never shimmed valves.

Thoughts/ advice?

[The Prophet of Doom]

It's not really hard, you don't need a lot of gear and doing it yourself saves you a lot of money.  It was the massive estimate that made me do mine for the first time.    I'd allow a full day as a newb - read up on it in Haynes and see if you up for it.

[fret not]

I think the key to doing a good job of adjusting the valves is to take accurate readings of the clearances that exist and write them down on a paper for future reference.  That is eight valves to measure. Then remove and read or measure the shims to see what sizes they are.  The shims have chemically etched numbers on one side showing their original thickness.  The numbers are usually put facing away from the cam, so the cam doesn't wear off the numbers.

[injuhneer]

I agree. Go for it!

It only seems difficult. One item worth having is a proper tool to depress the follower and make shim access easy.

Over on one of the XJ groups we had a couple of guys that managed a shim pool. Folks could order used shims for little more than postage then return their surplus shims to the pool.

Does the ROV or one of its members have such a thing?

[Walt_M.]

It seems a few of us have the tool but it is NLA. I think someone in the past attempted to send some shims and the tool to somebody else and it was lost in the mail.

[fret not]

Our illustrious Pinholenz has made some replacement shim tools if I remember correctly.

[The Prophet of Doom]

If you don't have a shim tool, you can still do the job, you just loosen the tensioner, unbolt and remove the cams.  When reassembling, you just have to be sure the cam marks line up - check out this most excellent post from Fuzzlewump

I prefer the cam removal method if there's more than one or two to do.  The shim tool is a bit fussy

[injuhneer]

If you don't have a shim tool, you can still do the job, you just loosen the tensioner, unbolt and remove the cams.  When reassembling, you just have to be sure the cam marks line up - check out this most excellent post from Fuzzlewump

I prefer the cam removal method if there's more than one or two to do.  The shim tool is a bit fussy

I haven't used the shim tool for the XZ. It looks simple. What sort of problems does the tool present?

[The Prophet of Doom]

I haven't used the shim tool for the XZ. It looks simple. What sort of problems does the tool present?

It's not a great fit, so it can ride up on one side and fails to depress the other.  There's also a whole back and forwards rotation thing to do.  Shim removal is easier with a squirt of compressed air.
Not to mention that I don't like rotating the cams on the buckets, so to take out three and take them down to the dealer for a (free) shim swap is not possible without removing the cams.

[injuhneer]

I see. Well most of the time the procedures in Yamaha's service manuals do slant toward shops with tools and parts on hand.

Keeping the bearing caps sorted and in order would be important when removing the cams.