Valves needed for 79F

[clcorbin]

Ladies/Gents,

Does anyone have an intake and exhaust valve that are in good shape and you are willing to part with? I've only been having minimal luck tracking them down locally here in Albuquerque. One shop supposedly has them, but they still haven't called me back saying they have them pulled and verified (I already have two bent valves, I need STRAIGHT valves!).

[DGXSER]

You may have already done this since you have had the bike a long time, but be sure which head/engine you have. Recently worked on an XS11 that was thought ot be a 79 engine and turned out to be an 80. Intake valves are different between them.

[clcorbin]

Yeah. It is a 79F per the data stamp on the block. Plus, the valve sizes I have measured match what a 79 should have.

At this point, I wished it WAS an 80. At least then, I could get some NOS valves fairly cheap. But 79 valves seem to be much harder (and more expensive) to find.

Supposedly, one of the motorcycle salvage places here has the valves, but they are still in the heads and they are taking there own sweet time getting them pulled.

On the bright side, I did find a very nice aluminum fork brace and picked it up for $34.

Of course, it won't do us any good unless I get those silly valves!

[freak_leg]

i have a head that is complete with all the valves. however the reason it is an extra head is because ALL yes ALL the intake valves are toast! Search for my other posts and you'll find the picks. I'd be willing to part with them. Possibly work out a parts trade? My bike is missing parts... Go figure

Tony

[Geezer]

This place has new ones for less than half of what bike bandit wants for them.
http://www.crc2onlinecatalog.com/Index_Main_Frame.htm

Geezer

[clcorbin]

freak,

I just bought a complete head from a 79 off eBay. They guy parting out the bike says the valves are all in good shape, not bent and not recessed. We shall see. I should have it some time next week and be able to see for myself.

Geezer,

Yeah, someone else posted that link in my original thread. Unfortunately, they are out of stock on 79 XS1100 valves, intake and exhaust. I sent them an email last week asking when they would get them in and I still haven't received a reply, so I'm going to have to pass on them for now.

Hopefully, that head I bought will have some good valves that I can use. Otherwise, money down the drain!

[clcorbin]

Well, here it is two weeks since I broke the bike and it is FINALLY starting to go back together.

After a run around with the local bike breakers, I finally gave up and found a decent 79F head on eBay. It had 8 good valves and the head itself looked to be in good shape. Eventually, the head arrived and was actually packed fairly well. Yes, I was a bit surprised...

After pulling the head apart, I chucked up each valve in the drill press and hit them with a wire brush in the die grinder. The exhaust valves where a MUCH bigger pain to clean than my valves. From the hard deposits on there, I am fairly sure this bike had a lot of leaded gas run through it. Of course, that is just a guess.

After the valves where cleaned up, inspection showed they where indeed in good shape. Not bent, the valve seating face was in great shape and the all the dimensions appeared to be in spec per the manual. What a relief!

So, on Thursday, I picked one intake and one exhaust valve and lapped them into their new homes. They where then installed with the original hardware from that hole (springs, retainers, locks, lifter bucket) and then tested for leakage via solvent on the back of the valve. I'm happy to say that all eight valves are nice and tight now.

The next step was to measure each of the new valves for lash and get new shims to bring it into spec. I decided to do this on the bench as it is a pain with the head in the frame.

At this point, I screwed up. I decided to go ahead and bolt BOTH cams in place while I had the wrench out so I would be going back and forth with the tools. I can see man of you "old timers" shaking your head. While things went perfectly well with the exhaust valve measurements, I heard a nice little "tick" when I rotated the intake cam around.

Yup, I pushed an intake valve into one of the exhaust valves (E3_ that was left open after checking the lash on one of the other exhaust valves! And yes, I bent the damn thing!

Thankfully, I had three good spares at this point, so it wasn't that hard to brake things apart and stuff a good valve in there properly.

Today, I lashed the head (one cam at a time, thank you VERY much!) and took the three shims down and swapped them for the correct ones at one of the local bike shops.

I was a bit nervous when I bolted things back together. I made SURE the engine was at top dead center and verified that the timing mark was on the money (it was). Getting that chain around the crank and back up was easier than I thought it would be as I used a piece of solid wire with a hook bent on the end to reach in there and grab the end of the chain and then pull it back up the front.

After securing the chain, it was fairly easy to get the head seated and the cams reinstalled. It is actually a lot easier to to time the cams with the chain still broken. I was able to get each cam close to the dots and the chain master link installed and pinned. When it was all said and done, the intake was very slightly advanced (1/16" CW of the timing mark) and the exhaust slightly retarded (1/16" CCW of it's timing mark).

At this point, I installed a "new" Ventura automatic timing chain adjuster with the adjuster retracted all the way. When I put the spring in and screwed it down, I head it ratchet forward two clicks. I then rotated the engine two complete revolutions and again head the adjuster ratchet forward two more clicks. That should give me a LOT of future adjustment.

After verifying that I was getting proper oil to the top of the engine by spinning it with the starter (no plugs or coils at this point...) until I had oil coming out of the bearing caps and dripping down onto the lash adjusters (and yes, I HAD pre oiled everything when I assembled it, so I didn't spin it dry!), I buttoned up the top of the engine with new rubber seals and reused my old valve cover gasket. Hopefully, it will seal up as I don't have a new replacement at this time...

At this point, I was getting tired, so I decided to reattached the header and called it a night.

Tomorrow, I will reinstall the coils and wires, bolt in the carbs (always fun... NOT!) and drop the oil pan to see if I can find the old master link (it was NOT attached to the old chain when it came out). Once it is running, I need to sync the carbs and then I SHOULD be back on the road. I guess this does give me the "oppurtunity" to fill it with some 10W40 oil instead of the 15W50 that is currently in there. I'm hoping that will help the starter clutch grab a bit better.

Hopefully, between increasing the power to the coils by removing the ballast resistor (I have 3 ohm Accel coils installed that do not need the ballast resistor) and cleaning up all the carbon on the intake and exhaust valves, I will have a bit better power on top and maybe even better fuel economy. I would LOVE to get this thing over 35 mpg somehow...

[clcorbin]

Quick question: What in the WORLD are those little rubber plugs on the right side of the head all about??? I can't see where you would remove them for anything. It's almost like the designed something to go in there and then changed there mind but not their casting.

Anyone know why those things are there?

[yamtom]

rubber plugs

Hi,

I think that I read that those plugs are the holes thru which the cam bearing journals are line bored during the factory head initial machining. That sure looks like what they would be .
Having worked in machining half a lifetime, you kind of start to recognize stuff like that.

[bikerphil]

Yeah, put new RTV around those plugs so they won't leak. That's a very vulnerable spot.

[DGXSER]

Only cause you did not say it....

You did recheck the timing after the aduster moved those two clicks each time ..Right?? Hate for you to crank it over to find you need more of your spare stock.

[TopCatGr58]

Learning lessons the hard way!

Hey CL,

At least you found out about your bent valves with the dual cams inserted the FIRST TIME! I, too, did that, not realizing that there wasn't enough room for both valves to stick out of the head at the same time. I had the head with the valves down on a work bench when I was rotating my cams for the lash adjustment, found after 1 rotation a 1/4" of clearance on a valve...OOPS!

Didn't see that a second cylinder's valve had gotten slightly tweeked, because it's clearance was within spec, buttoned it all up, tried to start and NO GO! Checked the compression, and found ZERO on the 2nd cylinder!! Had to tear the head back down/off, and found the other slightly bent valve!

Got it back together eventually, and has been running for 10 years now, so sounds look you're on your way!!!
T.C.

[freak_leg]

Just a note for getting the cam dots aligned... I know I'm a day late and a dollar short. But I recently got finnished doing what your doing. (stupid timing chain tensioner) Set the cams on with the dots pointing up and just put the center cap on and tighten it down just enought to hold the cam in place. then start your cap tightening. from the center out naturally This saved me quite a bit of time putting mine back together.

[clcorbin]

You did recheck the timing after the aduster moved those two clicks each time ..Right?? Hate for you to crank it over to find you need more of your spare stock.

Yeah. I double checked it after spinning it around about four revolutions by hand. Everything ended up right where it was when I started, so nothing slipped!

It was also VERY nice to spin the engine over and hear all the right sounds coming out of the engine! They sound VERY strange when they are turning over but not pumping any air due to a broken timing chain.