Valve adjustment ?

OK, I guess I need a refresher course here.

When turning the cam shaft and lining up the marks with the top surface to take readings, finding the two lobes that are not making contact on the intake side is baffling me.

At one point 1 is lobe up and 3 is lobe forward-2 is lobe back and 4 is lobe down (in contact with the shim). I would think that, at that point, 1&3 would be the ones I read but 3, being forward, is still in contact with the high edge of the shim which is slanted toward the rear.

Have I got two extremely tight valves or is this not the right way?

I seem to remember only taking intake readings when the lobes were pointing away from the slant of the shims (to the rear).

It's a bitch getting old!

Sonny

when you are turning the engine over look for the lobes that are pointing away from the inside of the head(away from the spark plugs)intakes are pointing towards the carbs and the exhaust lobes will be pointing towards the headlight

Whichever gap you want to measure, just turn the crank until the lobe is pointing directly away from the shim. Then slide your guage undereath. if you cant get a guage in there, then try to spin the shim with your finger. If you can spin it, then there is some gap, just not to spec.

GL.

timebomb33 wrote:

when you are turning the engine over look for the lobes that are pointing away from the inside of the head(away from the spark plugs)intakes are pointing towards the carbs and the exhaust lobes will be pointing towards the headlight

That's exactly what I thought I'd done in the past but, for some reason, the instructions I was reading said to "line up the marks on the cam sprocket with the top of the head" and when it's in that position, only one lobe is pointing to the rear.

Thanks.

Sonny

sbulla wrote:

timebomb33 wrote:

when you are turning the engine over look for the lobes that are pointing away from the inside of the head(away from the spark plugs)intakes are pointing towards the carbs and the exhaust lobes will be pointing towards the headlight

That's exactly what I thought I'd done in the past but, for some reason, the instructions I was reading said to "line up the marks on the cam sprocket with the top of the head" and when it's in that position, only one lobe is pointing to the rear.

Thanks.

Sonny

Lining up cam sprocket marks has to do with cam timing, not "valve adjustment."

See TeK9iNe's post for valve adjustment.

Good Fortune!

Patton wrote:Lining up cam sprocket marks has to do with cam timing, not "valve adjustment."[/quote]

That makes sense but, that quote I referred to was directly from a Kawasaki service manual in the "Valve Adjustment" chapter and repeated in WG's tech section on the same subject.

It did a good job of confusing this old brain!

Sonny

Lining up cam sprocket marks has to do with cam timing, not "valve adjustment," at least for '73Z1 through '76 KZ900, per FSM. Which is consistent with TeK9iNe's post about for valve adjustment, and measures clearances between cam base circle and shim.

Then along comes the FSM for '77~'79 KZ1000 referencing alignment of cam sprocket marks incident to measuring clearances, which also measures clearances between cam base circle and shim.

Imo the basic idea is to measure the clearance between shim and base circle without being affected by the lobe portion of the cam. Lobe pointing directly away from shim positions center of base circle directly over the shim, regardless of the precise alignment of marks as instructed in the FSM.

Beats me why any particular spot on the base circle would be so critical as to require measuring at such specific spot, not to mention being a pita.

Good Fortune!

Patton wrote:

Lining up cam sprocket marks has to do with cam timing, not "valve adjustment," at least for '73Z1 through '76 KZ900, per FSM. Which is consistent with TeK9iNe's post about for valve adjustment, and measures clearances between cam base circle and shim.

Then along comes the FSM for '77~'79 KZ1000 referencing alignment of cam sprocket marks incident to measuring clearances, which also measures clearances between cam base circle and shim.

Imo the basic idea is to measure the clearance between shim and base circle without being affected by the lobe portion of the cam. Lobe pointing directly away from shim positions center of base circle directly over the shim, regardless of the precise alignment of marks as instructed in the FSM.

Beats me why any particular spot on the base circle would be so critical as to require measuring at such specific spot, not to mention being a pita.

Good Fortune!

Believe it or not, I've seen cams [aftermarket] that would read as much as .003" difference between checking them with "lobe away" vs using the lines on the sprockets per FSM procedure.

IMO, the best way is the lobe away method.

If you run into a situation where no matter what, you can't get rid of a ticking noise, chances are you have a situation like the example above.

As to if the cam was ground poorly or just getting worn, it's a toss up. What can happen is the tiny portion of the ramp, just after the base circle, known as the silencing ramp, becomes non existant.

It can happen but it's not very common. Last set I ran into that with were some old Andrews 2x and they had many, many, many abusive miles on them...

larrycavan wrote:

[
Believe it or not, I've seen cams [aftermarket] that would read as much as .003" difference between checking them with "lobe away" vs using the lines on the sprockets per FSM procedure.

I saw a .002" variance on a couple of mine if I "reverse direction" turning the crankshaft which allows the cam chain to release tension on the leading cam being pulled down. The camshaft actually has a fair amount of allowable play in the cam caps. Mine all checked out within spec with plastigauge, but I can still see some variance depending on whether the cam chain is pulling the camshaft down tight or not.