Valve Adjustment Video

[JZ67]

Going to give a valve adjustment a go on my bike.  This video makes the job seem well easy enough to tackle on my own.  Any bits in this that would be missing or unadvisable? 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxssvKsoTWQ&t=600s

[Ponch]

The only difference for me is that I use 2 feeler gauges for each pair and have them in at the same time, making sure the clearance is right for either being adjusted when the other is adjusted.  Depending on the mileage, the rocker shaft end play may have to be adjusted. It's something to check. 

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

On 2/29/2024 at 11:38 PM, Ponch said:

The only difference for me is that I use 2 feeler gauges for each pair and have them in at the same time, making sure the clearance is right for either being adjusted when the other is adjusted.  

 

I always managed to do it with a single feeler gauge spanning both valve stems (intake or exhaust).  Either way, yes, you need to have feeler gauge(s) on both valve stems at the same time, or the clearance between the rocker arm and its spindle will have you chasing your tail. 

 

The other caveat is to always use a torque wrench, for the locknuts on the rockers and also for the bolts on the valve cover.  Those only go to 8 N*m, which really ain't much, and it's easy to go overboard if you're trying to go by feel.  The valve adjusters are steel, so there's less risk there, but the valve cover bolts screw into the aluminum heads - and there are a lot of folks who have thread inserts installed because they didn't use a torque wrench!

[duckhawk64]

Just ordered my digital .9-30 nm digital torque wrench for said job, per Boxflyer's suggestion. 

[MachineJoe]

I have the same digital torque wrench. It's a great little tool !!

[Boxflyer]

The important take-away here is that for a TARGET torque value of 8Nm, you would want that to be above the "bottom 20% of the RANGE of the torque wrench.

Most manufacturers of torque wrenches clearly state that the usable working range with reliable results should be above the "lower 20%" of the RANGE of the torque wrench.

 

SO...the torque wrench I recommend has a MAX RANGE VALUE of 30Nm...thus, not relying on the "bottom 20%", the lowest torque reading that would be deemed accurate would be 6Nm with this torque wrench.

This is the tool I use for all the LOW range fasteners on the bikes when the target torque is about 24Nm or lower...down to the 6Nm of the Timing Reluctor pinch bolt on the R1200/R1250.

(Not sponsored)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09F652KV9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

 

Brad

 

 

[JZ67]

Thanks for taking the time to watch the video and offer input!

[duckhawk64]

On 3/13/2024 at 8:34 AM, Boxflyer said:

The important take-away here is that for a TARGET torque value of 8Nm, you would want that to be above the "bottom 20% of the RANGE of the torque wrench.

Most manufacturers of torque wrenches clearly state that the usable working range with reliable results should be above the "lower 20%" of the RANGE of the torque wrench.

 

SO...the torque wrench I recommend has a MAX RANGE VALUE of 30Nm...thus, not relying on the "bottom 20%", the lowest torque reading that would be deemed accurate would be 6Nm with this torque wrench.

This is the tool I use for all the LOW range fasteners on the bikes when the target torque is about 24Nm or lower...down to the 6Nm of the Timing Reluctor pinch bolt on the R1200/R1250.

(Not sponsored)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09F652KV9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

 

Brad

 

 

Nice explanation.  Gearing up to do my valve and cam work in the next month.   

     Lots going on. Picking up 2 dirtbikes in Windsor Ontario on Easter. Also attempting to fly a Cessna 182 to a private grass landing strip for the eclipse, 08APR. Weather dependent, but one of 2 pilots is IFR. I'm a passenger. 

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

On 3/13/2024 at 9:34 AM, Boxflyer said:

The important take-away here is that for a TARGET torque value of 8Nm, you would want that to be above the "bottom 20% of the RANGE of the torque wrench.

Most manufacturers of torque wrenches clearly state that the usable working range with reliable results should be above the "lower 20%" of the RANGE of the torque wrench.

 

Good advice for old-school mechanical-clicker type torque wrenches, but I would expect electronic strain-gauge-based torque wrenches to have good accuracy down to a small fraction of their full-scale rating.  We use strain-gauge load cells for measuring dynamometer torque, and they're accurate to within 2% when they're measuring way down at 5% of their rated full scale.  A fair bit of that 2% inaccuracy is probably due to friction within the rest of the dyno mechanism (dyno trunnion/shaft bearings, shaft seals, ball joints, etc.), but an electronic torque wrench doesn't really have much mechanism inside; you can see the strain gauge right on the side of the tube at 2:50 in this torque wrench tear-down video, and that tube is the only thing carrying torque between the square drive and the handle.  That means 100% of the torque being applied to the square drive is being felt by the strain gauge, so as long as that's healthy, you should get pretty accurate readings.

 

Anyone looking to check the accuracy of their torque wrench, whether electronic or manual, can try following the steps in this video, which look pretty simple:

 

 

He even shows how to adjust a mechanical torque wrench to make it read more accurately if your check finds that it's inaccurate.

 

If you've got an electronic kitchen scale, or even a handheld electronic luggage scale, you can use those to check the weights you're using to check your torque wrench.  There's of course no guarantee that your scales are accurate in the first place (unless they come with NIST-traceable cal certificates), but if the label on your weight agrees pretty well with the reading your scale, then you're probably in good shape and can go ahead and use that weight to check your torque wrench.  I recently used a handheld luggage scale to check some old 10-lb and 25-lb plates, and found that my scale agreed with the weight labels to within a tenth of a pound.