1981/82 KZ440 Valve adjusting caps

Hey all, been a while since I’ve been on here and hoping it’s still the wealth of information it used to be. Short story is I recently got a 1981 kz440 A and an 82 kz440 D nad am diggin into them. The 81 has sat for 10 years and is a long term project. The 82 is a bike I’m tuning up for my friends first set of wheels! It runs drives but needs some TLC, one thing being valve clearance checks.

Anyone know what size those hex caps are so I don’t have to buy a whole socket set?
Anyone have a torque spec for them? Neither are listed in the service manual I found.
Cheers!

Mine (‘77 1000ltd) are 10mm hex heads. Same for the cam cover as the cam caps.

Can’t recall exact torque for them off the top of my head but there is a bit of information about the torque values in my 77 LTD Build page

Hey thanks for the reply but to clarify I’m not talking about the valve cover bolts, I’m talking about the 4 large valve adjustment access caps ... figuring they must be 30mm or larger? Any idea ?

This may get you closer

No that’s still not what I’m talking about. The 440 has 4 big plugs with large hex heads that allow you to access and adjust the valves without removing the entire cover.

Sorry, I don't have a measurement for that.

Measure across the flats and buy that size wrench or socket.

Yep that’d be them just wondered if someone had the size offhand since these bikes are not stored where I live and not plainly accessible

hardrockminer wrote: Measure across the flats and buy that size wrench or socket.

Jeez I’d never have thought of that - bikes aren’t stored where I live and wondered if anyone had the size offhand so I can order the correct socket instead of guessing

I understand the desire for a correct size socket or wrench, but IMO this is what adjustable wrenches are made for.

gd4now wrote: I understand the desire for a correct size socket or wrench, but IMO this is what adjustable wrenches are made for.

So I threw a crescent wrench on her and she didn’t want to budge even with healthy dosing of penetrating oil. Really don’t want to round these off, and in my experience impact is the best option at this point with PB Blaster

There is usually an oring in there so using heat is probably out of the question. I would probably try tapping on it using a piece of wood to prevent marring. I would tap in a circular pattern around the outer surface of the plug... clockwise and counter clockwise. The idea is to shock the corrosion into releasing.