Valve Adjustment

Steve, I'll look into some more thorough syncing. They haven't necessarily been properly synced, outside of feel/ear. I'll have a bit more time to run through the bike tomorrow.

I usually reference a Clymer manual, and it had a note saying early 1980 KZ550s had a weak cross wedge spring, in the chain tensioner. Mines a 80' 550A, so I'm taking that into consideration, too.

I dread having to pull the carbs/top end off, as I've been pressed for time in my schedule...

The smaller fours make ungodly noises as they stumble at idle. I have a knock on my Z1 when it's out of sync. It goes away when I dial the carbs in.
Steve

Steve,
You may be right, I checked idle screws for each carb, and they were strangely off since I last put things back together.

Some adjustments today really alleviated the sound, so I'll keep checking minor changes until I rip the thing apart!

Ok I just found some time in between my Honda build to check the valve clearances on the 550. They are basically all off. The intake shims are way tighter than they should be. I was able to find the shim size chart for the intake side, but the I cant find a chart for the exhaust side. I'm seeing that all of my go to 550 pdf manuals have disappeared for some reason. Does anyone have copies of these charts or a working link to a 550 manual?

Intake and exhaust are the same. Use the same chart.

This is the chart i printed from my pdf factory manual when i had it. It is missing the exhaust shim section for the correct exhaust clearances

It doesn't matter. Take off the cam chain adjuster before you put on the valve cover.
Steve

Exhaust Chart..........