calling all floridians

[timebombprod]

anyone in florida available to help me do my valve adjusment? not really mechanically inclined and would rather be safe then sorry ive never done this procedure before. willing to be given a quote and then hopefully i watch and learn the process of doing it. id feel dumb if i spent all this money on the bike and i mess up the valve adjustment myself.

i cant buy beer (20) but if u want the beer money too i got you.

i dont have a 19mm for the sparks or the caliper to measure the shims and clearance, id say just bring your own tools for the job.

i live on the west coast of florida in a place called spring hill if u dont know where that is i am 15 minutes away from weeki watchi.

its a 1982 gs650gl 8 valves theres enough room to work on it forsure u just gotta sit on the floor lol, i have jackstands and stuff but not an actual motorcycle stand.

edit: if you have the shim valves already thatd be great if i could buy however much i need off of whoever possibly helps. also need an ignition case gasket but ill probably just order it myself.

edit 2: if you have a good way to get stripped screws out my intake boots are stuck in place i been hitting it with pb blaster the past few days letting them soak but i dont have a way to get them out they are stuck stuck.

basically if anyone helps the valve adjustment is the only job i need done but i might ask for pointers on other small things, but the valve adjustment is the only job that needs to be done.

 

[salty_monk]

Use an impact driver on the screws & replace with allen head

 

[Guest]

I'm in Lake Mary, but that's about 2 hours away, but it would be cheaper to run to Harbor Freight and by a digital vernier caliper and tackle it yourself.. A micrometer is better, with a caliper will work. It's not that hard a job and there are plenty of tutorials on bikecliffs website. here is the link to the 8 valve adjustment tutorial. http://gsarchive.bwringer.com/bikecliff/images/gs850valve_adjust.pdf

 

[LAB3]

The valve shims have their sizes etched into them. The first time I did it without a caliper and had someone verify them with a caliper, there was not enough wear on them to significantly change their value. Since then I've swapped them out just by looking at the shim and your feeler gauge then doing the math.

If you know how to read a vernier (that'll show your age!) Harbor Freight has a caliper for $2-3 dollars which should be good enough for just about anything you need short of engine or transmission work.

 

[Brendan W]

The valve shims have their sizes etched into them. The first time I did it without a caliper and had someone verify them with a caliper, there was not enough wear on them to significantly change their value. Since then I've swapped them out just by looking at the shim and your feeler gauge then doing the math.

If you know how to read a vernier (that'll show your age!) Harbor Freight has a caliper for $2-3 dollars which should be good enough for just about anything you need short of engine or transmission work.

Yep. Always double check with a caliper especially if they have funny looking scratch marks on the other side.

 

[timebombprod]

guys i know its considered an easier job and im sure i could do it i just want reassurance that it was done right by getting it done by somebody who already knows how to, and has done it before. its really just for the first time im sure if i was able to watch and see it done id have a better understanding.

i might end up trying if this much people are telling me i could do it but if i run into a problem or arent sure about something id post on here. ill be doing other smaller jobs first though

 

[timebombprod]

what oil do i use to coat the shim

 

[cowboyup3371]

You don't coat it with anything. It will do that on its own when you start up the engine and oil starts flowing around everything.

Have you downloaded and read through the procedure on Basscliff's site yet? The procedure is the same for every bike.

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/bikecliff/images/gs850valve_adjust.pdf

If you want to see how to use the zip tie method, watch this video that Steve and I put together a year or two ago

Also be sure you have the spreadsheet from him

 

[Burque73]

Personally I think its a bad idea to install dry shims. I always stick my finger in one of the pools of oil next to the bucket and wipe a bit on both sides of the shim. Making sure to rotate the crank at least a full revolution before taking the new measurements to squeeze out excess oil.

 

[Burque73]

This is interesting, I looked in the Suzuki shop manual for my bike and it makes no mention of applying oil to the shim prior to installing it.

Here's what the Haynes says.

"Before installing the new pad (shim), lubricate both sides thoroughly with engine oil. Always fit the pad with identification numbers downwards, so that it does not become obliterated by the action of the cam. After fitting the new adjuster pads, rotate the engine forwards a number of times and then recheck the clearance to verify that no errors have occurred. Before refitting the cam cover, together with a new gasket, lubricate the camshafts with copious quantities of clean engine oil."

There was a recent thread asking which manual is better to follow. I really liked bwringer's comment here.

https://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?257495-What-s-your-go-to-service-manual

"All you can lay hands on" is the usual answer.

Clymer, Haynes, and Suzuki Factory Service Manual (FSM) are the usual suspects, and they're all absolutely awful.

They all suck in different ways, they're all shot through with egregious errors, and they're all jam-packed with nonsensical instructions, bad translations, evil incorrect specs, muddy photos, and baffling illustrations.

But quite often you can glean useful scraps of information from comparing them; where one fails to depict the dingbat end of the frammis, another might have a slightly less blurry diagram of the wubble that proves helpful, and combined with the badly translated frammis nurbling instructions from another, you might just maybe be able to figure out what to do.

So gather all the sources of information you can, then season heavily with the experience of this here forum and fine-tune with a very skeptical eye. For example, not one of the manuals has the Real Poop on how to rebuild carburetors or properly diagnose and repair your bike's electrical system, but that information is here on this forum.

One good source:
https://www.repairmanual.com/?s=gs1100g

In general, I believe if the part is going to be lubricated while it's running, it should be installed with lube on it.

 

[Guest]

If you live in the south, sweat usually does the job good enough until it's running.