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Valve lobe stuck in shim bucket

  • Thread starter Thread starter d_sal
  • Start date Start date
D

d_sal

Guest
Hi Folks,

I'm in the middle of changing out the shims on my 82 gs650g. I decided to avoid buying the special tool and opted instead for the zip tie method. Well, it definitely works in getting the shim out. After pulling the shim out I pulled the zip tie out and went to rotate the engine so I could insert the zip tie in a new location and pull another shim. As I rotated, I felt it get stuck. Well, it turns out that the lobe (highest part) ended up going into the shim bucket as I rotated, but is getting stuck on the edge as it tries to rotate out. Any ideas on how to work around this? Am I doing things in the wrong order?

My plans were to pull all the shims, make a note of what was in there, then go to the dealer to swap them out for the appropriate ones.

As usual, thanks for your help.

-Daniel
 
Whoa!!! One shim at a time....

Go to basscliff's site and read the instructions. You may have damaged the cam and or bucket. Check them carefully and go from there.
 
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You can't rotate the the cams without shims of some sort in the buckets. You can damage the bucket or the cams, as you are discovering. Read the procedure for this job over again, save yourself some grief.
 
Live and learn. Luckily I did not torque it too much before I realized what was going on. I figured I'd pull them all, plug values into spreadsheet, go to the shop (on bicycle since motorcycle is not operable) and pick up new shims, and get them all done at once. Hopefully I have not caused damage, wont know until I manage to get that thing out of there.

Learn from my mistakes, fellow newbs.
 
I'd rotate it back the way it came from, pluck the shim out and continue. Measure the clearance, pull the shim out to measure it's thickness, put it back in and go on to the next one. Figure out with can be swapped and what you need to buy, then go to the shop to get the parts.

Hopefully you didn't hurt anything, check for bits of steel scraped off somewhere, or a bent bucket that can't rotate freely anymore.
Slow down when reading the directions, there are warnings all over the place about turning the crank while any shims are out...
Unless you are getting your instructions from Clymer's?
 
You'll have to pull the cam off to get it out of that bucket
 
I managed to use a heavy duty zip tie to hold the bucket down as I rotated the lobe out, then I put shim back in. I can't begin to say how P-O'ed I am at myself right now.

Here is a picture of the sustained damage:
6994554434_2b8886f47c.jpg


So, how bad does it look?
 
To add insult to injury, I went to my local suzuki dealer to pick up some shims, and they wanted about $13 a piece. As it turns out, I could not fit the .03mm between any of the lobes and shims, so I need 8 of them. Last I check, 8x$13 is not cheap! I guess I'll have to order them online and put the tools away for a while.
 
Talk to Ray, he runs the shim club on this site.

He grinds them down himself.

Look for ghostGS1 or something like that.

$13 is highway robbery.
 
Before you go ordering any shims from anybody, do your inventory, one at a time. You may find that you can move some of your shims around and only have to order a couple of them.

The shim club is a good place to trade shims, but if you want to slowly build up your own supply, Z1 has sthe best prices around at less than $6 each.

.
 
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Usually just a bit of the very edges get a little scuffed from the rim of the bucket. Doesnt pose any problems. Now if theres some scars on the actual contact surface of the lobe, then thats another animal entirely.
 
This.

Figure out what you have first. Buy or borrow some digital calipers; invariably a few of the markings are going to be worn off. The conventional wisdom says if you can't get the .03mm feeler in there, but the bucket will turn with relative ease, then there's some gap in there - it's just less than 0.03mm! So going down one size on the shim (or one and a half if you're replacing an x size) will land you from 0.05-0.09, which is just fine (a little loose is OK, tight is bad - I've heard tales told of running them to 0.11mm with no ill effects). If you have say a 2.65x and replace with a 2.60 you could be 0.02mm start gap + 0.07mm drop = 0.09mm.

If the bucket won't turn, you might have to drop 2 sizes.

Steve said:
Before you go ordering any shims from anybody, do your inventory, one at a time. You may find that you can move some of your shims around and only have to order a couple of them.

The shim club is a good place to trade shims, but if you want to slowly build up your own supply, Z1 has sthe best prices around at less than $6 each.

.
Click to expand...
 
mike_of_bbg said:
This.
The conventional wisdom says if you can't get the .03mm feeler in there, but the bucket will turn with relative ease, then there's some gap in there - it's just less than 0.03mm! So going down one size on the shim (or one and a half if you're replacing an x size) will land you from 0.05-0.09, which is just fine (a little loose is OK, tight is bad
Click to expand...


This is good to know, thanks. I'll be taking an inventory of what shims are currently in there later today, and will also make a note of whether or not the bucket turns freely.
 
You can do the shim shuffle without having a spare shim. I don't know what size your coins are but find one that fits in the bucket reasonably well and use that to replace the removed shim while you move things around.
 
Are you using zip-ties between the bucket and cam? That's not the zip-tie method I know.
 
No, the ziptie between the bucket and the cam was what I used to depress the bucket as I freed the lobe so I could get the shim back in there. I've since checked all clearances and existing shims, one at a time of course.
 
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