Valve Shim Swap

[Southhill101]

I am going to check all my valve clearances because I don't know the history of this engine, and this is one of the few things I haven't checked so far. Everything works fine, I just don't want to end up burning valves because they are to tight. I have never seen or heard of this method of shim swapping before and I wondered if anyone had tried this, or a variation of this method? Seems to me that with all the posts I've read on here about bent valve stems, this might not be a real good idea. Any thoughts?

http://www.imrisk.com/yamaha/xjwiretie.htm

[John]

I can see where that would work. I may just give it a try the next time a shim swap is done here at my house.

[Dragon Tamer]

It is ever so much easier to just loosen the cam bearing covers slightly and lift the cam a little bit and remove the shim. I have done this several hundred times with no problem and see no reason to have a tool or use other methods. It works every time. This was first shown to me by a Yamaha mechanic at a shop twenty years ago, even they would not use that worthless tool!

[Southhill101]

It is ever so much easier to just loosen the cam bearing covers slightly and lift the cam a little bit and remove the shim. I have done this several hundred times with no problem and see no reason to have a tool or use other methods. It works every time. This was first shown to me by a Yamaha mechanic at a shop twenty years ago, even they would not use that worthless tool!

Makes perfect sense to me. You're already in there anyways and you can do them all at once if I'm reading this correctly?

Thanks,

[Dragon Tamer]

I usually do one cam at a time, maybe you could do all at once but I tend to err on the side of caution. Also, I do one side of one cam at one time. You have to loosen all of the bearing covers but loosen them less on the side you are not working on is how I do it. You could probably take them all clear off and not worry as the chain is holding the cam down but like I said, I tend to err on the side of caution. This method has worked for me for years, I see no reason to change.

[Southhill101]

Perfect, always learn something new on this site. I'd better be drawing up a shim chart before I do anything. Sometimes I have the attention span of a gnat.