Valve Adjustment question

Hey Guys

I have a 1981 KZ 750 4 cyl and trying to get running for the summer.

I am in the middle of doing a valve adj and I have a question. The manual says to find the TDC mark and at that time two of the valves can be measured (however they say that at TDC either valves 1 and 3 or 2 and 4 should be adjusted).

I always thought that if cyl one is at TDC then you are measuring the lash of valves on cyl 1 exhaust and intake. Then you find the next mark and hopefully cyl 2 is at TDC- and then you measure the intake and exhaust lash on cyl 2. Am I wrong on this or reading it incorrectly? On my BMW when one cyl is at TDC then you measure both the exhaust and intake then find the other TDC mark and then do cyl 2 intake and exhaust.

Thanks guys

Hi Terps,

Any chance your handle connects you to the Univ. of Maryland?

These fours give you two opportunities to adjust different cylinders.

Hey If I say this and Greg comes out of the woodwork, It's not my fault!

You either work on 1&4 or 2&3 at the same time.

KZCSI

Personally I don´t worry much about TDC, I do the measurements one valve at a time, seems faster to me. Just rotate the engine so that the lobe (high point) of the cam is pointing away from the valve in question and measure the lash between the base circle and bucket, write it down and move on to the next valve. Once you´ve taken all measurements it´s time to pull the cams and buckets, mic (or read) the shims you already have in there and calculate which shims you need to be within spec.

I wish I had UMD connects, KZCSI- if you would have caught me about 5 years ago I could have done something for you when I went to school there! National Champs in 2002 was nuts!

Anyways, I thought I was doing it right. As OnkleB said, I looked and made sure that the lobe was facing away from the valve- and I measured valve 1 intake and exhaust because both lobes were facing away. Then I found the next mark and adjust valve 2 intake and exhaust... etc etc

I was confused when the manual says to measure 1 and 3 at the same time... but if the lobe on valve 1 is facing away from the valve then the lobe on valve 3 is facing towards the vavle... so how can you measure both at the same time? Again I could be totally off here because I am still new to motorcycles.

Ditto what onkelB says. I take a note pad and draw 8 circles on it. When I measure the clearance, I write it in the corresponding circle. Then I measure the shim and write that in. I then write in the new shim and clearance. I then write the date on the sheet and put it in a notebook so you know what is in there the next time you check your valves....I usually do a compression check also and draw 4 circles on the page and write in the compression so I have a log of what is happening from check to check...chris3