checking exhaust valve clearence..1980 kz1000

once i was using the marks on the cam sprockets and not the lines on the hard plastic pieces attatched to the sprocket i was ok for checking the intake side. just like wg's write up said 1&3 and 2&4 together. on the exhaust side it seems like 1&2 and 3&4 are paired up. please enlighten my pea brain.

You don't need to rely on any marks. There are different ways to do it, but I still think my method is the easiest and best. It takes 5 minutes or less to check all 8 clearances once you have the valve cover off. Use feelers in the same increments as valve shims so .05mm, .10mm, .15mm, .20mm are basically the sizes you need at the most. For the most part .10-.15mm clearance is what most shoot for, so the way I've done it is pick a valve to check, turn the engine over slowly with your 17mm ratchet while constantly trying to insert a .10mm feeler. If .10 goes in, repeat with a .15mm, if .10 does not go in, repeat with .05mm. Find the largest feeler in these increments that will fit and call that the clearance for that valve and move on to the next and do the same thing. So if .10 goes in but .15 does not you know you're right where you want to be. If .05 goes in, but .10 does not, you're one shim size too large and need to swap. If even .05 does not go in you call the clearance at zero and try to spin the bucket. If it's loose swap down 2 shim sizes, if not 3 sizes. This may or may not make sense, but basically since the shim sizes only come in .05mm sizes it does no good to measure clearances any more presisely than .05mm. So I go through all my valves and if a .10 fits but a .15 does not, I call all clearances correct at .10. I really don't care if one is actually .10, one .12, one .13 ect, because there's no way to swap shims to adjust any closer to where you want to be.

thanks ron, i'll give it a go.

just look at your timing marks on the advancer and rotate it around until you get to the t mark [top dead center] on 1-4 and look at which valves are on the base circle of the cam measure rotate around until; you get to t mark 2-3 measure,repeat until you have measured all the shims

How do you go about changing these shims? Is there a way without a special tool? I know the valves on my KZ900 are supposed to be within 0.002-0.004" and what I have is all between 0.0015-0.0025" Would it still be alright for another season, If I am planning a complete engine overhaul next winter, Although I think I would like to change them now.

sean5775 wrote:

How do you go about changing these shims? Is there a way without a special tool? I know the valves on my KZ900 are supposed to be within 0.002-0.004" and what I have is all between 0.0015-0.0025" Would it still be alright for another season, If I am planning a complete engine overhaul next winter, Although I think I would like to change them now.

Your life will be considerably easier if you have the special tool www.z1enterprises.com/detail.aspx?ID=1557 ...Motion Pro makes a replacement tool also but I have not had good luck with it.

I only know where I can get the motion pro tool and everyone says that is junk, can't find the other one. So any way to do it with no special tool?

sean5775 wrote:

I only know where I can get the motion pro tool and everyone says that is junk, can't find the other one. So any way to do it with no special tool?

Check the previous post as I added a link.

Ok thanks, I did look on Z1 but only found the motion pro tool. I have already ordered it, thanks again. Too bad I have to get the tool to remove the shims than order those later.