valve shims

[SFSPECBIKER79]

i am gonna adjust valves on my xs 1100 80 G . was wanting to know what diameter the shims are, i think they are 29mm. the bike shop i am going to get them from needs to know. if anyone knows what i need to set the valves clearence at for exhaust and intake. i would appreciate that. thanks

[XSokieSPECIAL]

Yup, they are 29s. I bought a whole set of 20 online for $100 and only used 2. Oh well.

Be sure and check the torque on those cam bearing caps, mine were loose and causing the whole valve noise problem.

Torque spec is 7.5 ft. lbs. or 10 nm.

[Silent]

There's a thread around here about valve shim swaps. Mail them yours and they mail you the ones you need. You'll have to search around a bit to find it tho.

[TopCatGr58]

Yeah, Silent,

A lot of searching, like looking at the first sticky thread in this forum!!

Depending on the technique you will use will determine what if any special tools you'll need. IF you want to leave the cams in place, then you'll need a special tool to hold down the bucket once you rotate the cam lobe back up out of the way to remove the shim. That special tool can be a PITA to work with, many here have claimed that it wouldn't work for them. I was able to borrow one from the Valve Shim Libarian, and it worked fine on an XJ I was checking....I've got to send it back to them soon .

But if you don't have that tool, don't want to get it, and don't want to wait for it, then your other option is to remove the cam, or at least release the tension of the bearing caps enough to lift them up out of the way to get to all of the shims. This will allow you to inspect all of them at the same time, and along with your clearance measurements that you should have taken beforehand, you can then calculate what size shims you need in each location....IF they need to be changed. You can also mix and match from the ones you have, and possibly end up with less ones to actually have to buy/swap...if ie. one valve is tight, another is loose, and the shim size you calculate is from one of the out of spec valves!

And remember to rotate the engine to the "T" mark so that the dots are straight up on the cams so that you can put them back in and get them properly aligned. With the cam chain tensioner adjusted and locked, you won't have much slack to lift the cams up, so you can UNLOCK the tensioner, don't take it off, just unlock the bolt, that will give you some slack to lift up the cams a little to get the shims out. Otherwise you would possibly need to remove the cam sprockets from the cams and this is a bit more of a pain, having to rotate the engine to get to the other cam sprocket bolt on the other side of the cam...away from the alignment dot side!

And as mentioned a low range ft lb or inch pound torque wrench. The cam sprocket bolts are ~10 ft/lbs IIRC.

Have fun! T.C.

[SFSPECBIKER79]

i had fun!!! YAMAHA 80 STANDARD 1100 G

ok, i just checked all clearances and this is what i got.

On clylinder 1 the clearance is
; intake 0.16mm the shim i have installed is 2.56mm the setting i'm shooting for is 0.17mm. i think i need a 255mm to get 17mm for this one. please double check me i only want to do this one time...

# 1 exhaust clearance is: 0.20mm the shim installed is 2.88mm.
desired exhaust setting is 0.23mm ineed a 285mm shim right.

clylinder# 2
intake setting is:0.20mm shim installed is: 2.50mm need 253mm to get 17mm.
exhaust setting is 0.25mm. shim installed is 2.80 need 282mm

clylinder#3
intake setting is: 0.23mm shim installed 2.75mm need 281mm bear with me.
exhaust setting is 0.28mm shim installed is 2.75mm. need a 280mm

clylinder#4
intake setting is 0.18mm shim installed is 2.70mm, need 271mm =17mm right.
exhaust setting is: 0.20mm, shim installed is 2.86 need a 283mm shim to get 23mm

could some one with expereince check this for me. and tell me if i'm right. these valve adjusting is a PITA. BE SURE TO CORRECT ME IF YOU SEE ANY MISSED CACULATIONS. AND ALWAYS THANKS FOR YOU TIME AND HELP. ROWDYBOY

[XSokieSPECIAL]

Hey TC,
Loosening the cams up seems like an awful lot of trouble for a fairly simple job. I have the tool and it seems quite easy to use.

First and foremost, make sure you rotate the lifter( with the cam lobe completely up) so that the notch in the lifter is where you can get to it. Then all you need to do is snug down the hold down bolt just until it will still rotate, hold it snugly against the lifter and rotate the cam lobe down VERY slowly until you feel it slip over the top of the lifter, stop and then tighten the hold down bolt. Rotate the lobe back all the way up (away from the lifter) and then the shims are easy to pop out.

The tool is only about 10 bucks from JC Whitney.

[XSokieSPECIAL]

Oh yea, the torque on the caps is 7.5 ft lbs OR 10 nm. Not 10 ft lbs. Don't want anyone pulling the threads out of that aluminum head.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Rowdy,

I editted your post to make it easier to read, and corrected the values somewhat so that you can better understand what sizes you're looking at!! The clearances are in 0.## of mm's, not full mm's. The shims are 2.## mm's thick...and only come in 0.05mm increments thicker/thinner.

The range of clearances for your 1980 machine are:
Intake: 0.11 - 0.15 mm
Exhaust: 0.21- 0.25 mm.

The value you were looking at for the intake of 0.16 - 0.20 were for the 78-79 year models, they are a little tighter for the 80-81 series!

Since the clearances tend to shrink/reduce with engine wear, IMHO it's better to err on the wider/larger clearance range...yes a little noisier perhaps, but you won't have to do the adjustment anywhere as soon as if you tried to set it to the smallest clearances, and less chance of burning valves!

Now let's look at your measurements. I put smilies after some of your shim thickness values, because they were not rounded to the nearest 0.05 value....ie. a 2.88 shim doesn't exist....either 2.85 or 2.90 so you'll need to look at them a bit closer to read them properly!

So...now take a look at the bold comments below in your quoted text!

ok, i just checked all clearances and this is what i got.

On clylinder 1 the clearance is
; intake 0.16mm ...This is just 0.01mm wider than recommended range, and will probably get smaller with a little more wear, you could put in the next size thicker shim to take it down to 0.11, but then it's at the smallest of the range, and could get smaller with engine wear!

# 1 exhaust clearance is: 0.20mm Just a 0.01mm smaller than desired, so you would want the next narrower/smaller sized shim than what you have to take it up to 0.25mm!

clylinder# 2
intake setting is:0.20mm shim installed is: 2.50mm You need a 2.55 shim to reduce clearance to 0.15mm

exhaust setting is 0.25mm. Again, right at max clearance range, I would leave it!

clylinder#3
intake setting is: 0.23mm shim installed 2.75mm You need a 2.85mm shim to reduce the clearance to 0.13mm

exhaust setting is 0.28mm shim installed is 2.75mm. You need a 2.80 shim to reduce clearance to 0.23mm.

clylinder#4
intake setting is 0.18mm shim installed is 2.70mm, You need a 2.75mm shim to reduce clearance to 0.13mm

exhaust setting is: 0.20mm, shim installed is 2.86 You need a 2.80mm shim to enlarge clearance to 0.25mm

could some one with expereince check this for me. and tell me if i'm right. these valve adjusting is a PITA. BE SURE TO CORRECT ME IF YOU SEE ANY MISSED CACULATIONS. AND ALWAYS THANKS FOR YOU TIME AND HELP. ROWDYBOY

Hope this helps clear up what you were measuring and what your calculations needed to be!
T.C.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Greg,

I was talking about the Cam Sprocket bolts that hold the sprockets to the camshafts, not the cam bearing cap nuts! You're right about the 7.5 ft/lbs for those!
T.C.

[SFSPECBIKER79]

Oh yea, the torque on the caps is 7.5 ft lbs OR 10 nm. Not 10 ft lbs. Don't want anyone pulling the threads out of that aluminum head.

i bought my tool on ebay i probally paid to much for it but it works great, just a lot of trouble . i just need someone to confirm that i need the shims i stated, in my earlier post thanks for your help and every one that has helped so far since i joined, this is a great site with alot of good members and im just proud to be in it myself.

[Silent]

I pulled the cams when I did mine. I figgured it would be a lot easier to do that than to mess around with a special tool. I had to swap 3 intake and 3 exh. Thankfully, with this board I was able to find someone willing to do a local shim swap

[XSokieSPECIAL]

Rowdy,
I don' know where your getting your specs from, but according to Clymers they are:

intake ( 1978-1979 ) 0.006-0.008 in or 0.16-0.20 mm

intake ( since 1980 ) 0.004-0.006 in or 0.11-0.15 mm

exhaust ( all ) 0.008-0.010 in or 0.21-0.25 mm

[SFSPECBIKER79]

Rowdy,
I don' know where your getting your specs from, but according to Clymers they are:

intake ( 1978-1979 ) 0.006-0.008 in or 0.16-0.20 mm

intake ( since 1980 ) 0.004-0.006 in or 0.11-0.15 mm

exhaust ( all ) 0.008-0.010 in or 0.21-0.25 mm

thank, i was lookin at the online manual for 78-80 xs 1100 on the bugs site, but i was weirey of it because it did'nt state the exact bike those were for. anyway, my bike is the 1980 standard 1100 g . but the engine could have been changed, i guess i need to check the i,d num. on the block to be sure to get the correct specs. i'll go look now. and come back with those numbers.

[SFSPECBIKER79]

thank, i was lookin at the online manual for 78-80 xs 1100 on the bugs site, but i was weirey of it because it did'nt state the exact bike those were for. anyway, my bike is the 1980 standard 1100 g . but the engine could have been changed, i guess i need to check the i,d num. on the block to be sure to get the correct specs. i'll go look now. and come back with those numbers.

the engine num. is 3h3-013526 and the first 3 match a 79 special i got. does that mean its a 79 special engine?

[bikerphil]

3H3 engine prefix is indeed a 79 Special (older style head).