Valve shims question

I was checking the valve clearance, (1000 B3) they were all almost the same 265 - 275 all had the same wear about .04mm so I need to get a bunch of 260's and 265's.

My question is one of the shims had "270A" on it I have never seen any with letters. any ideas what it means?

Thanks

Dman

dman3998 wrote:

I was checking the valve clearance, (1000 B3) they were all almost the same 265 - 275 all had the same wear about .04mm so I need to get a bunch of 260's and 265's.

Are you saying the shims showed .04 mm wear as to thickness compared to the marked thickness? That would be very unusual. Did you measure it with a calibrated set of calipers?

dman3998 wrote:

My question is one of the shims had "270A" on it I have never seen any with letters. any ideas what it means?

I have seen it and I just ignored it. I don't know what it means either. I just measure the thickness and mark them myself since some of mine have the factory marks rubbed off.

this should explain......keith

www.redlinecycle.com/Valve%20Shims.html

thats pretty cool info i've never seen those id markings described or explained before see i knew if i came on here i would learn something new today.

timebomb33 wrote:

thats pretty cool info i've never seen those id markings described or explained before see i knew if i came on here i would learn something new today.

c'mon man...you have probably forgotten more than most know!!!!!!:laugh:

yah probably but it's nice to get a refresher course once in a while.

that is good info. thanks

Redlinecycle is wrong regarding the explanation for the "A" on a shim.
It is not, as they said, to denote a slightly thicker shim installed at the factory but rather is is to identify shims that had a stricter QC standards.
Back in June 21 1973, Kawasaki issued a Service Bulletin (73 Z-13) titled "Z1 tapped replacement" to addres the issue of shims faillure due to a combination of shim and tappet design..
The tappet had an oil hole/navel in the center and the shims were flexing on top of it and fracturing.
To solve the problem tappets were replaced with tappets without oil hole/navel and new shims were put in production with a much stricter QC and all bikes in service were supposed to have both tappets and shims replaced regardless of their warranty status.
Kawasaki called that a "factory directed modification" and allowed 1.5 hour for the job
Those shims were identified with the letter "A" but did not have a new or differernt part #.
After a few years,assuming that all the earlier, non "A" shims woud have been removed from service and inventory, Kawasaki dropped the "A".

I wonder if we could figure out a way to trade shims?

After re-shimming my motor I have a bunch of extra 270 and 260 shims that I probably will never use. and I still need a 275.

There are enough guys in every country that we would never have to actually buy a new shim. and for less than a buck you could post a couple of shims anywhere in the country.

I'm not sure how it would work but its a concept anyway.


dman

dman3998 wrote:

I wonder if we could figure out a way to trade shims?

After re-shimming my motor I have a bunch of extra 270 and 260 shims that I probably will never use. and I still need a 275.

There are enough guys in every country that we would never have to actually buy a new shim. and for less than a buck you could post a couple of shims anywhere in the country.

I'm not sure how it would work but its a concept anyway.


dman

thats a good idea...kind of like a shim exchange program....maybe site owner would be willing to set something up....might not be on the top ten list with vendors, but i think the membership might like it.....

Problem is, sending a small package these days is like $8 which is about what a couple of shims cost.

bountyhunter wrote:

Problem is, sending a small package these days is like $8 which is about what a couple of shims cost.

true