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Valve clearance feeler gauge

  • Thread starter Thread starter ATNasty
  • Start date Start date
A

ATNasty

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Im about to check my valve clearances on my 78 gs750e but I don't have a feeler gauge.. I looked online and googled it and they discontinued the suzuki part.. does anyone know where I could get on that give the same options as the suzuki part?
 
You can get a set of feeler gauges as close as your nearest auto parts store.
icon_shrug.gif


You may have to settle for an INCH set, not metric, but they will still work.

There are some purists here that INSIST that metric feelers are the only way to do the job, but I politely disagree. I have never used metric feelers on my bikes, yet they all seem to be in-spec. :D

Just be careful when you start reporting your findings because the metric specs are 0.03-0.08mm, the inch specs are 0.0012 to 0.0038". Yep, there is a "3" in both sets of numbers, but one is the MAX, the other is the MIN. Many metric feelers only go down to 0.04mm, so you can't measure the 0.03. If you use inch feelers, the smallest is usually 0.0015, so again, you can't measure the minimum. The good part of that is that by the time you get that small a clearance, you should be changing a shim, anyway. It's OK to go a little bit over the maximum clearance, but not OK to go under the minimum.

By the way, your new spreadsheet will work with either set of measurement. :-\\\

.
 
Steve said:
You can get a set of feeler gauges as close as your nearest auto parts store.
icon_shrug.gif


You may have to settle for an INCH set, not metric, but they will still work.

There are some purists here that INSIST that metric feelers are the only way to do the job, but I politely disagree. I have never used metric feelers on my bikes, yet they all seem to be in-spec. :D

Just be careful when you start reporting your findings because the metric specs are 0.03-0.08mm, the inch specs are 0.0012 to 0.0038". Yep, there is a "3" in both sets of numbers, but one is the MAX, the other is the MIN. Many metric feelers only go down to 0.04mm, so you can't measure the 0.03. If you use inch feelers, the smallest is usually 0.0015, so again, you can't measure the minimum. The good part of that is that by the time you get that small a clearance, you should be changing a shim, anyway. It's OK to go a little bit over the maximum clearance, but not OK to go under the minimum.

By the way, your new spreadsheet will work with either set of measurement. :-\\\

.
Click to expand...

Word! Thank you.. Im a little confused but i will figure it out. I picked one up from harbor freight today it has metric and standard. Gonna wait for my gasket to come in and hit it up!!
 
Steve said:
You can get a set of feeler gauges as close as your nearest auto parts store.
icon_shrug.gif


You may have to settle for an INCH set, not metric, but they will still work.

There are some purists here that INSIST that metric feelers are the only way to do the job, but I politely disagree. I have never used metric feelers on my bikes, yet they all seem to be in-spec. :D

Just be careful when you start reporting your findings because the metric specs are 0.03-0.08mm, the inch specs are 0.0012 to 0.0038". Yep, there is a "3" in both sets of numbers, but one is the MAX, the other is the MIN. Many metric feelers only go down to 0.04mm, so you can't measure the 0.03. If you use inch feelers, the smallest is usually 0.0015, so again, you can't measure the minimum. The good part of that is that by the time you get that small a clearance, you should be changing a shim, anyway. It's OK to go a little bit over the maximum clearance, but not OK to go under the minimum.

By the way, your new spreadsheet will work with either set of measurement. :-\\\

.
Click to expand...
Question: should i get a shim kit? Or should i wait till i know if and what size i need? Also is there a good websit to get them from?
 
Wait until you know what you have and what you'll need. Then come to this website, choose the GS Services section, and get them from the shim club.
 
ATNasty said:
Question: should i get a shim kit? Or should i wait till i know if and what size i need? Also is there a good websit to get them from?
Click to expand...

I would suggest waiting to order shims until you take your measurements.

I recently did my check and I only needed one additional shim.
 
Thats why I ordered the one from ebay, I had two feeler gauges but they only went down to 0.05, and the next size up was 0.10. I felt that wasn't too accurate.

Also when checking you might see that you can get away with swapping one shim with another. For example if one valve is too loose and the other is too tight :)
 
ATNasty said:
Word! Thank you.. Im a little confused but i will figure it out. I picked one up from harbor freight today it has metric and standard.
Click to expand...
I'll bet you just about anything that it is an INCH set that has metric approximations printed on it, as well.

Look at the measurements. If it has inch measurements of 0.0015, 0.002, 0.0025, 0.003, 0.004, etc, and has metric "measurements" of 0.038, 0.051, etc., it is an INCH set. However, if the metric numbers show 0.03, 0.04, 0.05, 0.06, etc., it is a metric set. Whichever set of numbers goes up with 'round' numbers is the standard to which that feeler gauge is made. Please use THAT set of numbers when using your gauges.



ATNasty said:
Question: should i get a shim kit? Or should i wait till i know if and what size i need? Also is there a good websit to get them from?
Click to expand...
You haven't been reading your Mega-Welcome, have you?

Get a shim kit ONLY if you have a LOT of money to waste. A shim kit will include a few (maybe just a couple) shims of just about every size made. You will never need shims thicker than what you have now, so you might as well just throw about half of the shims in that kit away. Next, you might need four or five of a particular size, but will only have a couple, so you will need to get more shims, anyway. See what you have, order what you need. Where to get them? There is a virtually free service offered by a GSR member that is listed in the GS Services section. If you want to buy them, I think the cheapest source is Z1 Enterprises. This is all covered in your Mega-Welcome and the tutorials on BassCliff's site (which was also mentioned in your Mega-Welcome.

If you did not receive a Mega-Welcome, let us know, we all have it bookmarked. You should too. :p

.
 
Or you could joing the Shim Club.. they helped me out immensely when I was doing my valve check and supplying shims.
 
Steve said:
Get a shim kit ONLY if you have a LOT of money to waste. A shim kit will include a few (maybe just a couple) shims of just about every size made.
.
Click to expand...

OEM Shim Kits come up on ebay from time to time. I got 2 OEM Suzuki kits and a bunch of extra shims for very little money. In fact I sold one of the kits to a GSR member, donated about 50 shims to the Shim Club, and have a 100% complete kit basically for free. Now what I have spent on everything else would buy a decent car.......

BTW the OEM kit has 6 shims each of 20 different sizes
 
Last edited:
I got a combo set of feeler gauges from Oriellys...like 8 bucks.

Measure all the clearances and write them all down.DO NOT spin the cams without a shim in the buckets!!

Once youve done all 8, see what each shims size is.use a caliper because the number printed on it may not reflect its actual thickness due to wear.

Now you know what size shim is in each valves bucket, what that valves clearance is..so now see what shims you can move where to get as many valves right as you can. You may only really need two or three shims at the end of the shell game.

Next, PM Ray and let him know what you need and he will send them to you. Switch them out with whatever your final spreed sheet says and send the old ones back to him

my simplified easy to use spreed sheet I made up for myself. easy to track and follow the steps. See my thread here...

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=204012&highlight=chucks+simplified
 
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