"thinking" of doing valve adjustments myself:

I've done valve adjusts on my other bikes, this, however the whole bucket thing...has me in angst. Half sizes..whole sizes..I much prefer screwing with valve trains old school style- sound.

I'd hate to tear the bike down to take measurements, find I need x bucket and have to wait 10 days tracking that particular size down. Or am I reading too much into the complexity here?

I have a ticking in the front left, I suspect its in the cylinder that runs 20-30 degrees hotter than the others.
Sometimes its there when the bike is cold, sometimes it has to warm up, sometimes is loud enough to make me nervous, sometimes its not.
It almost seems to change with the brand of gas I use (not really, but I tend to obsess about noises on my bike)
Valves were done at a dealer by the PO, about 4000 miles ago. It could be exhaust tick too...maddening. I pulled that header off, "looked fine" not sure how to isolate exhaust tick IF thats the case
thanks

To see if it is the exhaust making the noise, take a piece of fuel line or other hose. Hold one end to your ear, not in your ear, and put the other end around each exhaust port. It will amplify any sound, so if the exhaust checks out, then listen to the valve train around the valve cover.
If you pull your valve cover and measure the clearances, you can then change the shim that sits between the camshaft and the bucket. No need to remove the cams on your 1100. z1enterprises will sell the shims, the tool, and the valve cover gasket. But you do need to find out what you need for shim sizes first. Or you could go to a local shop who very well may have shims for you. You can make a gasket from a roll of material even if you wish. It may be possible to move a couple of shims around and do the adjustment without needing new sizes, but probably you need at least 1 or 2.
Have a look at your service manual, it will show you how, and there will be a shim selection chart.

Medina wrote: I've done valve adjusts on my other bikes, this, however the whole bucket thing...has me in angst. Half sizes..whole sizes..I much prefer screwing with valve trains old school style- sound.

I'd hate to tear the bike down to take measurements, find I need x bucket and have to wait 10 days tracking that particular size down. Or am I reading too much into the complexity here?

I have a ticking in the front left, I suspect its in the cylinder that runs 20-30 degrees hotter than the others.
Sometimes its there when the bike is cold, sometimes it has to warm up, sometimes is loud enough to make me nervous, sometimes its not.
It almost seems to change with the brand of gas I use (not really, but I tend to obsess about noises on my bike)
Valves were done at a dealer by the PO, about 4000 miles ago. It could be exhaust tick too...maddening. I pulled that header off, "looked fine" not sure how to isolate exhaust tick IF thats the case
thanks

It's really not as bad as you make it sound. You can button it back up (you're only tearing into the valve cover) after finding the shim sizes you need while waiting for them to arrive.

Its not a hard task to swap the shims. I'd suggest trying to find the factory tool for depressing the buckets as the motion pro tool is a pita..at least it was for me.

Medina wrote: ...not sure how to isolate exhaust tick....

An exhaust leak usually won't tick/spit from a non-combusting cylinder.

So detach the #1 spark plug cap to see whether the tick continues.
Which prevents combustion in #1 and #4 cylinders.
So if the tick stops, it's likely from #1 or #4.

May do the same test by detaching the #2 spark plug which prevents combustion in #2 and #3 cylinders.

Can remove the spark plug from one non-combusting cylinder and hold its base against the engine head so it will spark while its companion cylinder is combusting.

The idea is to locate which, if any, non-combusting cylinder eliminates the exhaust tick.

Good Fortune!

I'll try that Patton

I did do a compression test, and #2 was 110, the others all 120-within half a needle....so, guessing intake or exhaust on 2 is not closing, or maybe clump of carbon crap preventing seating.
ok, diving in. think I'll locate that tool to compressing buckets

thanks

Could that intermitant tick be a slightly warped valve stem which gets noisy when it rotates in certain positions?

If not already done, would check tightness of nuts on the exhaust header clamps.
Sometimes they work loose. Snug is sufficient.

Good Fortune!

Well it would seem this is just the thread I was looking for; I've had an intermittent tick for, let's say, maybe 2,000 miles (shhhhhh I'm on the road,k?).

It seems to be coming from the #4 cylinder. Which also managed to somehow lose an entire bolt/nut, but that was before the tick started...

Anyways, I figured the '83 KZ1100A3 was overdue for a valve clearance check, as I've put...ehh, 8,000 miles on since October '11 (I like to ride, and it's my daily driver so ).

None of the valve clearances exceeds the recommended specs - but that #4 exhaust valve is reading .12 while the rest are around .08.

So I'm basically going wtf? because I was sure it was the valve clearance, the tick really seems to pick up when accelerating (so just about all the time...ahem). And now ya'll got me facepalming because it could have been that stupid exhaust bolt/nut that went missing a few thousand miles ago (Again, I'm on the road, and unemployed. Had to get someplace with tools and a garage...).

Well I guess I answered my own question but I'm going to list my clearances here anyways to see if I should even bother ordering shims given that everything seems to be within spec:

Intake 1-4:
.06
.05
.11
.05

exhaust 1-4:
.08
.09
.08
.12

And yes, I already got the exhaust bolts/nuts and valve cover gasket from z1, and some other goodies (I mean, who really needs a working speedometer?). Now, of course, I need to order new plug wires as one disintegrated in my hands...and some of the wiring beneath the shifter cover were corroded and also fell apart as I was tracking down an oil leak (hoping it was actually just the old valve cover gasket). *sigh

Seriously, the reason I put off doing this work is because I was afraid of getting sucked down the rabbit hole of diminishing returns, you know, where every time you start to poke around you find more OH CRAP NOW THAT'S BROKEN AND HOLY SH*T THAT SHOULDN'T LOOK LIKE THAT...(little voice in back of head saying 'you should have bought another Mazda beater, you put on 300,000 on that thing and it was still running when you sold you it you dunce').

So anyways, .12 on the exhaust is within spec, right? Right. says so in the manual...crap I need to go get some beer. Feel free to laugh at me, just throw in some advice too. :silly:

gravit8 wrote: ...need to order new plug wires as one disintegrated in my hands....

High intensity voltage leaking through an old hard cracked spark plug wire (i.e., shorting to the engine head) may produce a "ticking" sound as the spark jumps to the head or metal chassis component.

Good Fortune!