savedrider wrote:
Make sure you are doing the compression check with the engine fully warmed up too.
That part was covered to the best of my abilities. It was a long weekend... mostly my fault for being stupid. I rode 30 miles in the rain in 40 degree weather with steel-toed boots, a nice riding jacket, and my full face helmet. Gloves, socks, and pants got soaked soon after leaving the house, so it was a miserable ride.
Since this is pretty much an unknown bike to me (I hadn't so much as pulled the valve cover until Saturday), I figured I'd take some advice I'd seen somewhere on this forum and check the valve clearances. I wanted to get it done quickly in case any local shops carried shims, so that I could figure out what I needed and make it to the shop before Saturday closing.
I couldn't resist trying the compression tester, since the bike was still warm and I don't have a compression tester myself, but I didn't want to waste time messing around with compression readings when I was fighting time if I was going to be able to get my hands on some shims. I figured I'd worry about compression after the trip to the bike shop.
As it turns out I needn't have worried about time, since I couldn't find shims locally anyways. Still quite wet and cold, at that point I was in no mood to mess with things I couldn't change, so I forgot about trying oil in the cylinders.
Since I've got to order the things I'm going to wait until the weather gets truly nasty. Then I'll probably pull the carbs, remove the cams and check the shim sizes, and order a carb rebuilt set, shims, and some new airbox boots all from Z1. Proper valve clearance can't be a bad thing, nor can new carb internals. And my airbox boots are cracked... I don't think they'll much survive another carb removal!