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F@#!ing Valve Shims!

  • Thread starter Thread starter frijoles-and-beans
  • Start date Start date
F

frijoles-and-beans

Guest
It's the Fourth of July and my Local Suzuki shop is closed. I was really close to finishing the valve adjustment. I only have four more to go, so I get to the shop and it's frickin' closed! Estas putas valvulas me dan tanta lata, que cabronada esto!

I just ordered some shims on E-bay. The reason I did this is because yesterday the guy said that they probably don't have the sizes that I need available. I even checked the other shop here, and came up empty-handed there as well. This means that I have less riding time. I use my truck and my bike as a daily driver, so that really sucks. My truck does 16 mpg and my bike does about 50 mpg, so you can see my concern.

I'm just venting, but really I'd like to look into that valve-shim sharing system for next time. Where is that? Is that group still available here? I looked around, but I couldn't find it. I'm really bad at looking up searches here for some reason too. Everyone pretty much knows me here, so that wouldn't be a problem either.

Well, just tell me where to look, pat me on the shoulder and tell me it's all going to be ok soon. That's all I need Papi.
 
Beans and Beans...it's been too quiet from your end of late.

How are you making out with the weather when entire country to the east of you is in a tortuous heat wave?

The shim club is a good thing. I had a very quick turnaround time, and that was even dealing with a border.

Happy 4th!
 
Hey Big D, what's going on? Heat wave? Naw, that's just called July around here. We got up to 108F, I think it was last year. We roast out here in the desert every single summer.

Oh, and from the looks of it, you guys need me around here.;) I'm going to be calling some people out on their p's and q's, and probably get myself in some flame war or something; I don't know.

I started to take out the shims Saturday afternoon. I didn't get it finished so I had to wait for Tuesday to get the right shims. I tried to use what he had available, but 4 were still not to specs. Now I have to wait until my shims come in the mail. What a big deal this has become for such a routine maintenance exercise!

Hey Steve, I was able to remove the gasket all together with those half moons that I stuck together last adjustment period. I guess that it isn't a problem. I have been thinking about that since you told me what a mistake it was. I got away with it this time.
 
frijoles-and-beans said:
It's the Fourth of July and my Local Suzuki shop is closed. I was really close to finishing the valve adjustment. I only have four more to go, so I get to the shop and it's frickin' closed!
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Most dealerships around here are closed for the fourth. You might have called a day or so in advance to see if they were open or not. :rolleyes:
 
Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god! I think I screwed up. You guys can tell me just how much. I turned the dang engine without some of the shims, and now I have damaged them on the edges. Am I going to have to get new lifters? This is probably the stupidest thing I've done so far with this machine. I usually just lose bolts or something and I have to order them again, and again. hehe This time is different. Tell me that I haven't ruined the lifters, or just tell me how bad it is people.

Ricardo

PS I'm freaking out a little!
 
frijoles-and-beans said:
Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god! I think I screwed up. You guys can tell me just how much. I turned the dang engine without some of the shims, and now I have damaged them on the edges.
Click to expand...
What is them? The edges of the cams, or the buckets?

Post pictures of the damaged pieces in question.
 
By lifters I assume you mean the lobes on the cam? I would put your shims back in and rotate the engine to get some pics of the damage so some of our more seasoned engine gurus can have a look. If it is just a scratch in the lobe of the cam it probably isn't the end of the world.
 
Yeah, it's not good to rotate the engine while it's missing some shims.

Take some pics so we can see what's up. It probably (hopefully?) isn't a crisis. There are probably some people here who have the parts you need if you've damaged something enough to render it unusable.

Short of a destroyed crankshaft, there aren't too many things on these engines that aren't easy to replace.
 
Ricardo..your not the first and wont be the last to do it. If all you did was scrape the outer edges of the cam lobe then youve only knocked off some of the casting slag that wasnt polished. Some will adimantly disagree, but put the shims in and ride the damm thing. Youll be riding it for the next 20 years and the only one that will know is you. Take a pencil magnet and sweep the buckets to get the little chips out.
 
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PS...Little "knicks" on the buckets can be smoothed with a little jewelers file. No harm no foul really for you Ricardo. Ok now all you guys stop gasping at my comments and start piling on!! Im ready for it.
 
dr_fsg8

Yeah, those things; the lobes. Take a look at what kind of damage I'm talking here. I kind of like Chuck's suggestion not to worry about it. I mean, that's what I was first thinking, because the lobe surface goes up against the shims and it looks like it still has enough surface area to stand up to use. Tell me what you guys think of the damage.

IMG_1821.jpg
 
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Dress the edges with a fine honing stone and she'll be okay. Now, does a shim still fit inside the bucket?
 
rustybronco said:
Dress the edges with a fine honing stone and she'll be okay. Now, does a shim still fit inside the bucket?
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Does a shim still fit inside the bucket?! Now you've got new me thinking terrible things again. I'm going to go check it out.
 
That aint nuttin to be worried about Ricardo. Like I said on the buckets. Any little burrs..which i doubt youll feel many ( if any ) can be cleaned with a little jewelers file.
 
The only issue you might have is that the damage is past the case hardening depth of the cam which could theoretically cause scalloping under load because the internal surface stresses are uneven now. The best you can do at this point is to clean it up with a fine machinists stone and keep an eye on it to make sure the lobes don't crack. Try to round the edges-cracks typically propogate from a sharp corner.
 
Ok, thanks everyone, I am now completely ok. I guess that I still have the shims to wait for, but that's all now. I thought that I may have really messed some things up. The shims popped right into the buckets as they should have. Everything is just fine in my little world now. I will update this thread when I put the thing back together again.

Now, I thought I saw some people, again, disparaging the plight of the undocument immigrant. When will they learn?:rolleyes: I'm going to go sniff out some threads and throw a couple of pennies into the pot.


Thanks for the help everyone. I really appreciate it.
 
gearheadE30 said:
The only issue you might have is that the damage is past the case hardening depth of the cam which could theoretically cause scalloping under load because the internal surface stresses are uneven now. The best you can do at this point is to clean it up with a fine machinists stone and keep an eye on it to make sure the lobes don't crack. Try to round the edges-cracks typically propogate from a sharp corner.
Click to expand...

Ok, that appears to be a sound plan. Is it really that hard to replace the lobes? What's underneath that small box in between lobes? Is that where I should go to replace them? What's under there?
 
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