first valve shim job

looks like i gotta do some shiming..
#4 pop-ing through the carb and low comp on all. pulled the cover and checked the lash and all are almost tight with #4 having dead zero on a cold motor. #1-#3 all have a clearance of 0.01mm. on the intake cam. same for exhaust cam. took base measurements (with all being almost zero not much to have to remember) TDC'D the motor...took out one cam gear retaining bolt on each cam and wire tied the chain to the gear and removed the idler. (so i wouldnt have to count pins and keeps it simple) pulled the cams loose and gently moved them clear of the buckets and pulled all the shims. #1 -255,#2-265,#3-280 and #4-270 on the intakes. #1-270,#2-265,#3-265 and #4-275 an the exhausts. with all being so tight i figure a going down 5 on each shim. 255 to 250, 280 to 275,...so on. i thought i might just swap around the few i had that match what i need ..meaning i have a 265 and a 270. i need to go down 5 on the 270 so i could swap a 265 in its place but i noticed that there are some signs of wear on the shims..with a couple i would say are a lil excessive. with my automotive experience i understand cam break in and cam wear patterns so i think this is prob not a good idea. so i am trying to find where to get some shims. i dont have a mic big enough to check the cam lobes. and am wondering if i should replace the cams now as well. i suspect i could use a dial indicator to check the lobes. does anyone know the specs on the stock cams..or should maybe i just replace them now and not even bother with the math? i am glad to see the valves tight though and not a bigger compression issue. i swapped the shims around did a leak down on #4 and seems to hold fairly decent...comp went from 80 to 120 on that one but i didnt do the rest yet. so the rings seem to be ok..(good news for an old junkyard motor). i am up late and googleing for shim kits. ahhhh... the plot thickins everytime wanna ride
ya know anyone who sells shims cheap?

z1enterprises.com i think theyre 5$ each

I concur. Z1 is the place for your shim needs.

180 compression is new, and below 100 you should do a top end. Amazing how a valve adjustment makes so much difference on running.

yeah now i know this has been most of my engine problems. but its the 4th and raining and no-one is open and i got my bike tore down and just have to look at it sitting there. Bummer. tommorrow is bike nite and i wont be able to go.... sux

Eddy have you looked on ebay? tyoe in valve shims this guy has kits with therr of each in them and they are 65.00 plus shiping. sounds like a good deal to me.any good luck and it makes them run like new.

Eddie,

Sorry that you already went into your engine without having the needed parts on hand.

This kit might have had you back on the road already if you had purchased it in advance. You might consider buying it anyway if you plan on keeping the bike.

www.z1enterprises.com/detail.aspx?ID=256

I bought a kit and a new cam cover gasket for my 650, but I'm kinda waiting for riding season to be over before going into the engine and possibly screwing things up the first go-around with shimming.

Everyone assumes shims are going to fix all engine ailments. Unfortunately valve clearance, or lack of, will fix about 1% of these problems at best.

RonKZ650 wrote:

Everyone assumes shims are going to fix all engine ailments. Unfortunately valve clearance, or lack of, will fix about 1% of these problems at best.

Unless that is what the problem is then reshimming will fix 100% of your problem.

Post edited by: donthekawguy, at: 2006/07/04 23:55

well its one of those things that has to be done. its not even Thattt.. hard to do...just sorta procrastinate it as long as ya can...low funds is whats the bummer. if i just had $$$ then id get me one of them $2000 heads and a big bore and....so on. so instead i will like many many before me..procede to take a tired ole motor and adjust for the valve seat wear and will make the ole motor run better than it was before..not new but just better than before. i could sit and watch TV i guess...or do something more useful with my time. but,, i'd rather poop around with this ole motor tendin like it gonna have a turbo some day..swat-n skeeters with my lil 2 year ole boy handin me my wrenches learnin inportant stuff like "wench" & "Watchet" oh and "fawt". i'll ask around and watch ebay and fanagel up some shims for a price i can afford. work on one of the other 100 or so half finished projects i got laying around. maybe even do a couple a "honey-Do-s" to buy me some free time later when i do get some shims .
was a great 4TH....bbQ'n with the family. i will build a gret motorcycle tommorrow

I don't understand what you were doing by loosening or removing the cams if I read your write up correctly. You shims are OVER the top of your buckets. The cam caps shouldn't be loosened I think. If you have what appears to be wear on the shims, someone may have ground them and ruined them. Check with a digital caliper if any still have numbers on them to see if they match the number... in other words, if one is marked 250 and reads 240 with the caliper, someone has been shim grinding. This ruins the shim which can potentially crack and break. The shim should be tossed out. I also didn't really understand comments regarding TDC. Perhaps you should have a look at this link:
www.wgcarbs.com/269767.html

^^^

thanks for posting that WG..... it'll help me out significantly.

just easier to pull the cams loose to get to all the shims. maybe not text book but is way faster than the lil wedge and magnet stuff. i wanted to check the cam bearings as well. the motor had set for many years. the cam bearing surfaces are a good indicator of engine wear. the lite surface rust that forms on a engine that sits for years and years with out being turned over gets scraped off the cam lobes and into the oil. this motor had been stuck i freed it up slowly and after running changed the oil and filter many times to kinda clean out that debris. all the shims are marked with shim sizes on the bottom. i miced the shim ad they are the correct size. just a couple are dimpled in the middle from wear. they have not been ground on. the last titled owner was the memphis police. i would be very suprised if it has been opened up before....if it has been it would have been by a pro fleet mechanic im sure. im a professional engine installer by trade and i build northstars and chrysler 2.7's and so on. after you assemble a cadillac northstar the kz 1000 motor is a breeze. the only difference is the details. i mapped out all the gaps with a feeler gauge and recorded the thicknesses needed and loosened the cams but left the chain over the sprockets and just pulled all the shims at once. i just brought it to #1 TDC as a reference point for reinstalling the cams and resetting the cam timing. if it had been a bike that had been in service for a while and just needed a lash adjust i would have done it differently. so its not a tutorial just the way i opted to do it for this particular situation. i just wanted to shoot the breeze here as much as anything. im not a motorcycle mechanic by far but theory still applies. tahs why i like hangin out here...to get my "edumakashun"