Shattered shim/cam follower

I just picked up a 1981 kz1000 ltd. I heard it run on choke before buying it and noticed a noise in the top end. I was hoping it was just misfiring noise, but not. After cleaning the carbs and flushing the tank, I got it running pretty good, but still had the noise. I started it up cold today and started feeling the header pipes and found #3 cyl noticeably cooler than the others. Checked it for spark and started it with the plug out and it ran the same. So I decided to pull the valve cover and take a peek inside that's when I found the problem.
Now the question is what caused this? The shattered shim, is this what adjusts valve clearance?
Anybody have any used pieces laying around?

Those are a dime a dozen,but...any other damage?
Where's the shim?

What does the cam lobe look like? Is it stock cams? Check the oil pan for the shim.
Has the head been welded on?

Dime a dozen as in failing or price and availability?
I think I got all the pieces of the shim, the were laying rite there.
The cam looks fine, the hole were the follower rides is a little rough around the edges but I'll get it cleaned up.

I'm just wondering if the valve hit the piston and that's what shattered the shim??? I should have done a compression test before I loosened up the timing chain. Now I need to realign the timing marks. I need to get a service manual.

kzz1p wrote:

What does the cam lobe look like? Is it stock cams? Look in the pan for the shim.
Has the head been welded on?

The cam looks fine, must have caught it early enough.
Not sure what you mean by welded on?? I dont see any repairs on it if that's what your talking about. I have most of the shim, if theres more I'm sure I find it when I drop the oil.

Someone has had the valvecover off sometime in it's life, as the bolts were mixmatched.
I'll have to check the cams to see if the are O.E. or not.

KAWAMIKIE wrote:

Dime a dozen as in failing .
I'm just wondering if the valve hit the piston and that's what shattered the shim???

It is very rare for a shim to fracture. Could be caused by over revving causing piston to valve contact but it was more common on the early 900's as the shims were slightly dished and kawasaki soon changed the design because of this problem. It is most likely that someone has used an early type shim when doing the clearances . While the top is off i'd inspect the rest just in case there are any more lurking in there. You should get away with just fitting another bucket and shim if this is the case.

zed1015 wrote:

KAWAMIKIE wrote:

Dime a dozen as in failing .
I'm just wondering if the valve hit the piston and that's what shattered the shim???

It is very rare for a shim to fracture. Could be caused by over revving causing piston to valve contact but it was more common on the early 900's as the shims were slightly dished and kawasaki soon changed the design because of this problem. It is most likely that someone has used an early type shim when doing the clearances . While the top is off i'd inspect the rest just in case there are any more lurking in there. You should get away with just fitting another bucket and shim if this is the case.

That's what I'm hoping to do. I just want to get it running good and ride it a bit to see how the trans is working before I tear it all apart and rebuild it.

....................and I've been bitching at Kawasaki for having made the 750/650 shims under bucket.

The shim-buckets are a dime a dozen,Mike,as in P + A.

There should be a member close to you,that has spares to...spare...

I would be looking real hard at the cam, from the looks of the parts it has run that way for a bit, and the cam lobe may be damaged, put a mic on the lobe to make sure its the same size as the others,
also you may want to pull the pan and get all the parts out of it

I'll measure the lobe, thanks for the tip.