Sanding valve shims?

KZ750H3.

I know that the book says not to try grinding valve shims, as they may crack, etc. However, I wonder if you could safely use some fine grit paper with oil and a prefectly flat surface to take maybe .05mm off? Anyone ever try this?

These shims are Nitited if you remove anything you will remove the hardened surface and they will cup and destroy your cam.

If you can Nitride them once you're done then fill your boots.

It is even worse with the 13mm under bucket shims because they are sitting on a 6mm stem instead being fully supported and will have a tendency to shatter.

Is nitride an expensive process? I can't afford a new selection just to get two or three shims, and I can't find the right size used ones.

When i get my rifle barrels done it costs me about $60 a unit. It is the process not the price of the liquid Nitrogen

i m not trying to be a tool, but you cant do a rebuild looking to cut corners on every aspect....you can maybe cut a corner here or there, but the bottom line is that no matter what CC you ride, you are going to have to drop some cash.....everyone has financial constraints and they vary from member to member....trying to take the cheap route on every aspect is a recipe for disaster....the economy sucks right now and jobs are scarce....maybe putting some stuff off for a while might be wise choice.....no malice or ill will intended, just looking at this from a different angle.....

New shims are only $5 each.

Oh KZ God why...

I mean truly, shims are only $6 each... I'm with Keith and others on this one, no way would I go this route no matter what you do to them to harden them up... Just not worth losing an engine over...

Same time, your bike, do what you wish...

To be exact, they are $4.62 each at Z1E.

Sanding won't work I used a belt sander and nada. I wore half a grinding wheel off and nada. Did I buy a new one? HECK no. After 2 hours i got almost a tho off! And it looked like crap! Course i used it, you kidding me? Course it worked! But this is mee and i dont even dot my eyes anymore! It's more in the way people look at you, i mean u don't have to tell them why theres a hole in your head. OH yeah, burned my fingers too! A whole lotta fun! FACT of life: Service dept. employees get REAL crabby when u ask for a thin shim. So bring two to smooth things over. Bring em the lucky one! :laugh:

FSM should instruct about "tipping" the valve stem, which adds clearance by "shortening" length of the valve stem.

This would be most useful in cases where the thinnest shim isn't thin enough to provide the needed clearance.

Good Fortune!