Depressing Valve lifter tool.

[sapienwaste]

Dear Bike,

Ever since your starter blew a smoking hole and I had to push start you down an onramp, you've been getting distant... That day I got you home to my garage, and I've been massaging you up pretty good! New steering head bearing, Oil/Fllter, HID headlight, and more! But then I got your valve covers off and OH MY, why would you do me like this! I was ASTONISHED to find you need to shims! How long were you going to go without telling me!!!! I don't even have the thingamagig that I need to push your lifters down... Maybe some of my friends on ROV has one close, or could tell me where I might obtain one (and shims)

Yours Truly,

George



PS. (clearances are as follows)

Front Cylinder
---------------------
Exhaust - Left .178 mm Right .203 mm
Intake - Left .203  mm Right .152 mm

Read Cylinder
--------------------
Intake - Left .152 mm Right .152 mm
Exhaust - Left .178 mm Right .254 mm  <--wow!

PSS. Enough exclamations for you guys?

[h2olawyer]

The valve tool is a pretty rare piece.  Kinda depressing, huh?

I'm working on getting a few machined soon.  Will keep you informed.   ;D

Don't have the valve clearance chart at hand, so I don't know how far off yours are.  I'll be doing mine (on both bikes) soon and if yours is rideable in another 2 weeks, we can do all of them at once.

H₂O

[Rick G]

There is a really neat article on eBay about adjusting shims . It i can find it Ill try to forward it to the forum , but don't hold your breath on my skills in doing that.  Some Suzuki's use the same shims and as well as Toyota cars and triumph motorcycles . I have a few shims and the local Kawazuki
stealer has an assortment.
You are going to need the book, with its chart to figure out if you even need to adjust, and it you do , what shims to use.
Its also on lucky's CD  and you could print it out.
There are instruction on lucky's web side on building a tool , from a wrench . Very clever!
I , and some others find it easier to drop the engine part way down to gain access to the rear head .

[Lucky]

you could allways take your measurements & pull the cam instead...

[Walt_M.]

Pulling the cams, 'how to make a pain in the *ss job an even bigger pain in the *ss'. I have the valve shim tool and I hate doing the valves. But, as Rick said, dropping the engine makes it easier.

[sapienwaste]

Hey guys,

I have the chart (at home anyway), and while the only one that is substantially out of spec is the .25 mm one, from memory the intake should be .11  -  .16 mm and the exhaust should be .16 - .20 mm.

I'll have to check that when I get home. Oh, and H2o, keep me updated!

I might try the wrench thing if I get bored too, I REALLY don't want to pull the cams =(

[Brian Moffet]

I pretty much ripped everything off my bike before I did my valves...

Brian

[sapienwaste]

Anyone got the link to the wrench -> valve depressor tool hack handy?

Also, If I wanted to BUY one of these things, could I just strut into a yamaha dealer without getting laughed out?

[h2olawyer]

I tried ordering a tool through Yamaha last year.  They're no longer available - even from the aftermarket  supplier (K&L).  Then someone posted they had one earlier this summer.  I made an offer & got a nasty response about 'lowballing' him.  (All I expected was a counter-offer.)  With that episode still fresh on the forum, Night Vision graciously offered to send me his valve tool for my use.  I told him I would see about either making some or finding someone to machine a few for us.

Since dad's health began to slide faster just after I received the tool and now that I'm dealing with all the paperwork / details of his passing, I haven't had a chance to find out about having a few machined.  I also need to order some drive belts for my mini-machine shop to see if I can make them myself.  I'll be ordering the belts in the next few days.

H₂O

[82dasvision]

h2o,
  I'm also in Fort Collins.  If you get me the tool, I'll talk to my buddies at the local machine shop and see if I can get some made.

[h2olawyer]

Cool - another NoCo Visionary!

Since the tool does not belong to me and they're very rare, I'll need to get permission for it to leave my possession.  It is small & I AIN'T gonna lose it!

We need to get together for some comparisons / rides!

H₂O

[Rick G]

As for me , no way I'm pulling the cams to adjust the valves!

[sapienwaste]

I'm thinking of sewing her back up and riding another 4000 miles or so, and just kind of hoping h20 saves me then. None of the valves are terrible, but man its all I'll be able to think about.

PS. Stupid starter rebuild kit is NEVER going to show up and all the warm days are slipping away....

[VisionMeister]

I've pulled the cams for every valve adjustment I have done (twice on one bike, once on the other). It's pretty easy if you have an air wrench. The hard part is getting the cam covers off with the engine in the frame; very little clearance.
Somehow dropping the engine doesn't sound any easier.

[Blake]

I literally just made the tool.  took all of 10 minutes to make.  only used a bench grinder and a dremel.




Sorry for the bad picture.  I'll go take better ones later if wanted.


But what is it?  Its that 22mm "wrench" that's included in your oem parts kit!  All i did was cut off the side, and ground down the top part of it so it would slide all the way onto the cam when the lifters were up.  Works like a charm.  only other thing i did was take a file and grind down the ridges the bench grinder left, so as not to scrape the lifter.


The only difference is that this tool is about 5mm thick. and to do both lifters at the same time it needs to be 6.5mm.  So you can only do one lifter at a time.  I just put it next to the shim on one bucket, and crank the engine over.  lifter goes down.  It's still easier than taking the cams off.  free too!

If anyone wants i can go outside and take a few more pictures of it.  Just thought I'd share  ;D  I'll inevitably end up modifying it more.  might weld on a couple washers to make it the full thickness :)

[82dasvision]

h2o,
  Yeah, we should get together!  Unfortunately, the bikes down for now... >:( >:( >:( >:(!!

  PS - let me know how I can help with the tool

[Night Vision]

I literally just made the tool.  took all of 10 minutes to make.  only used a bench grinder and a dremel.




Sorry for the bad picture.  I'll go take better ones later if wanted.


But what is it?  Its that 22mm "wrench" that's included in your oem parts kit!  All i did was cut off the side, and ground down the top part of it so it would slide all the way onto the cam when the lifters were up.  Works like a charm.  only other thing i did was take a file and grind down the ridges the bench grinder left, so as not to scrape the lifter.


The only difference is that this tool is about 5mm thick. and to do both lifters at the same time it needs to be 6.5mm.  So you can only do one lifter at a time.  I just put it next to the shim on one bucket, and crank the engine over.  lifter goes down.  It's still easier than taking the cams off.  free too!

If anyone wants i can go outside and take a few more pictures of it.  Just thought I'd share  ;D  I'll inevitably end up modifying it more.  might weld on a couple washers to make it the full thickness :)

clever! have you used it while the engine was still mounted in the frame? or while you had it on a bench...
I guess you could cut it down to size if it's too big..

doing one side at a time isn't a deal breaker... for me, the hardest part of doing the shims is "timing" the rotation of the bucket so the slot where you pop the shim out is accessible... takes a few tries because when the tool is placed on the cam and rotated, it tends to spin the bucket when contact is made to depress the bucket down...

or it might just be me doing things "my way"

[Blake]

clever! have you used it while the engine was still mounted in the frame? or while you had it on a bench...
I guess you could cut it down to size if it's too big..

doing one side at a time isn't a deal breaker... for me, the hardest part of doing the shims is "timing" the rotation of the bucket so the slot where you pop the shim out is accessible... takes a few tries because when the tool is placed on the cam and rotated, it tends to spin the bucket when contact is made to depress the bucket down...

or it might just be me doing things "my way"

I have my engine on the workbench right now.  That was one thing i was thinking of doing- cutting off most of the handle to make it work while the engine is in the frame.   Honestly i didnt have a problem with the bucket moving.  At least i dont remember it moving much.  Pretty much lined it facing the center of the engine, or slightly outward, and it rotated at most 2x its width.  couldnt have been that much.  I'll check again tomorrow.   figured I should check my clearances before i put the engine back in.

Oh.  BTW, what sort of feeler gauges do you guys use?  the smallest size set i have goes from .076mm to .102mm to .116, to .123mm.   so i cant really get an exact measurement of the clearances, and kind of have to wing it if i do it that way.  any place sells them more accurately than that?

[h2olawyer]

Cool tool, Blake.  Too bad I have no desire to butcher my complete OEM kit - even though the tools are mostly crap.  I am sure I'll be able to copy the tool I have - either myself or with a machinist's help.

82dasvision - what's wrong with your V?  I have a whole ton of stuff if you're in need of parts.  I recently dismantled an 82 and had a lot of parts even before that.

I've put 16K on mine and never checked the valves.   ::)  Now that I have the tool, I'll probably be doing it in the next few days.  I'm sure there are a few at or past spec.

H₂O

[Rick G]

VM, its partly because its against my religion to pull the cams, to adjust the valves.  seriously I prefer to disrupt the engine as little as possible .  I checked mine when I had the engine on the bench last time and they hadn't moved at all, since I put it together in spring '05.