Hey all. Just got done changing the valve stem seals on my GS650e. The engine would smoke at startup and burn a bit of oil from everyday riding.
Compression numbers were good and consistent, no increase with oil poured in. The symptoms led me to believe it was the valve stem seals.
I didn't want to disturb more than I had to so I just partially followed some information online about valvetrain servicing with the engine in the car or cylinder head on the block. The most difficult part about this job was getting the valve keepers out and back in. I bought a lisle 36050 tool to remove/install the valve keepers but it was too big to fit on cylinders 2 and 3 while on the frame. It worked great on cylinders 1 and 4. Had to make a tool for the inner cylinders. Attached is a picture of the tool.
Picture is a bit dark but use your imagination here.
On the left side of the pic, you'll see I welded some short pieces of tubing to the top of 6mm bolts. These go into the valve cover mounting holes on both ends of the cylinder head.
I used a 5/16 sst bar I had laying around to be the hinge. The bar has a 3/8" nut welded to it, about 1/3 the length of rod -- this makes it so you can screw in the mounting bolts individually then slip in the bar.
For the piece that pushes down on the valve retainer, I used a scrap piece of 1" square tubing with a window cut out.
A 3/8"x4" bolt is screwed into the nut on the 5/16" bar. In order to push the square tubing whilst being able to keep the tubing from spinning, I sandwiched a washer between two nuts.
Once you have all the parts in place, you simply tighten the 3/8"x4" bolt and it'll push the valve springs down enough to get at the keepers.
You'll have to experiment with mounting bolt depths to get the right angle.
IMG_20150730_221852700.jpg
Hope this sparks ideas on doing this job without removing the cylinder head.
Compression numbers were good and consistent, no increase with oil poured in. The symptoms led me to believe it was the valve stem seals.
I didn't want to disturb more than I had to so I just partially followed some information online about valvetrain servicing with the engine in the car or cylinder head on the block. The most difficult part about this job was getting the valve keepers out and back in. I bought a lisle 36050 tool to remove/install the valve keepers but it was too big to fit on cylinders 2 and 3 while on the frame. It worked great on cylinders 1 and 4. Had to make a tool for the inner cylinders. Attached is a picture of the tool.
Picture is a bit dark but use your imagination here.
On the left side of the pic, you'll see I welded some short pieces of tubing to the top of 6mm bolts. These go into the valve cover mounting holes on both ends of the cylinder head.
I used a 5/16 sst bar I had laying around to be the hinge. The bar has a 3/8" nut welded to it, about 1/3 the length of rod -- this makes it so you can screw in the mounting bolts individually then slip in the bar.
For the piece that pushes down on the valve retainer, I used a scrap piece of 1" square tubing with a window cut out.
A 3/8"x4" bolt is screwed into the nut on the 5/16" bar. In order to push the square tubing whilst being able to keep the tubing from spinning, I sandwiched a washer between two nuts.
Once you have all the parts in place, you simply tighten the 3/8"x4" bolt and it'll push the valve springs down enough to get at the keepers.
You'll have to experiment with mounting bolt depths to get the right angle.
IMG_20150730_221852700.jpg
Hope this sparks ideas on doing this job without removing the cylinder head.
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