KZ900 valve shims Machining

The clearance between the cam and the valves of my KZ900 are below spec on 2 valves at .0015'' / .038 mm. (Min. required .002'' / .05 mm)
I removed one of the two shims and discovered that it had been ground to 1.64 mm.
The mechanic who rebuilt it told me that he had done that on several bike without problems and that I could reduce it further to have the required clearance.
(which I doubt!!)

I would like to have your opinion on this way of doing things (not recommended by Kawa)   I think I have no choice but to do valve stem grinding.
Not sure if I will take the head assembly to a machine shop or just the valves. The mechanic told me that evrey thing on that head is new.

Sorry for the typo in the title ! 

Never grind shims and never let that "mechanic" near your bike again.

YUP

I purchaced this bike like this couple month ago and only ride it ounce before witer here.

The engine was totaly overall 2 years ago and the saler provided an invoice of 10K for parts and labour. When I did a road test it was running fine with no suspect noice except, like mentionned in previous post...little Pop at start up then it was ok after the warm up.

Just found an other issue ! Intake vave # 2 has .008'' gap. I tried to put a bigger shim but wont fit. RRrrrrr ! Look like installed shim (1.7 mm machined !) was also beveled. The OD is the same.

If a dog would have done this, I'le put is nose in it ...LOL

Over on The GS Resources, there was a guy that ran a free shim exchange program.  He started this in part, because he had access to an industrial lapping machine.  He would take fat shims and put them on a diet, making them usable again.  To my knowledge, nobody had problems with any of the shims he lapped.  I'm not advocating this practice, just sharing.  Since shims are all of $7/each, I'd just rather get new.  That said, K&L did spew out a goodly many bad shims into the marketplace.  Something about them shattering.  When looking through my bag for a certain size shim, I look for a used OEM shim, and only use K&L if the size isn't available otherwise.

Thanks for the info ! How lean can they be ?  It seem ok as long they are not below 2.0 mm (by spec.)
The new shims I have are KY-29T. 2.3 to 3.1 mm.

Kaw-boy 900 wrote:

The engine was totaly overall 2 years ago and the saler provided an invoice of 10K for parts and labour.
 

Was it 10K for the total rebuild on the bike (engine/paint/frame/wheels etc) or just the engine?

I am just finishing up a Z1 1200cc high performance street engine build and it was about $4K Canadian dollars (liners/bore job/welded crank/big valve head/flowed porting/oil cooler/cams/VM33 carbs/gaskets etc.)

There is 3 other pages of engine parts...piston rings, rollers, gaskets added.
This bike was also totaly restoted  like a show room bike ! and now...Pristine

Looks like another example of a big bill not being a guarantee of quality work - I feel your pain:(

You bet ! Give me a hug please Wookie, my girl friend wont and said that I have to rebuilt the whole engine ... LOL

At the end of the day, it's not the destination that count more than the travel 

Pretty standard fare, new OEM Kawasaki parts can add-up. A couple discrepancies of scribble, valve guide seals and tank coating seem unusually High. If i'm connecting writ to amount correctly? I seem to of found all the fellas in my neighborhood that own the Honda CBX1000's. Had a Friend that just purchased another one to add to his collection, has 3 now. Anyway he wanted me to check lash on all those 24 valves. Note bike came with a sheet of previous work performed by an Authorized Honda Dealership. Went to pulling a couple shims..found someone at that dealership cut-out slugs of soda cans to stuff under the existing OEM shims to clearance!! Looked like Pepsi but couldn't verify, probably PBR, ha.   

You are right, some amounts charged are very exaggerated. It does not bother me, it was the previous owner who paid for it.

If only the work had been done well! It is very frustrating.