A little help , Please

[GAXS1100SH]

Hello guys , I was going to adjust the valves on my 79 standard using my Clymer (Piece of Crap) Manual. In the Maintanence Section it gives what the range the valves should be. Thats fine , but then if you go into the Motor Section of the manual it gives conflicting numbers.
Does anyone have the correct numbers?

I thank you in advance,

Steve

[crazy steve]

Intake: .16 - .20 mm (.006 - .008")
Exhaust: .21 - .25 mm (.008 - .010")

This is out of the factory manual....

[GAXS1100SH]

Thanks , Steve

Thank you very much, now I can make it happen.

Now another question, I cannot sync the carbs properly because
I have little to now Vacum on #3, Any Ideas there?

Bike runs well, I benched synced them and it runs fine with great compression across the board 164 166 164 169, Not bad for a bike
with 81,000 miles.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Steve

[cywelchjr]

Check the valve timing as that can cause a problem with low vacuum. Also idle mixture can cause that as well. Also check for vacuum leaks in all locations, and I know that everyone says to use a flammable gas but it seems to me that if you have leaking butterfly seals that spritzing water on them might work better, it either would make the vacuum better by sealing them up for a short time, or make it stumble, that or squirt some oil on them but that might not be a good thing to do for the seals, but it would probably make them seal for a short time if they were leaking. The idea is to determine for sure that they are not (or are) leaking, by whatever means, as often low vacuum is either poor sync, a leak or cam timing.

[Rickrod3]

Check the valve timing as that can cause a problem with low vacuum. Also idle mixture can cause that as well. Also check for vacuum leaks in all locations, and I know that everyone says to use a flammable gas but it seems to me that if you have leaking butterfly seals that spritzing water on them might work better, it either would make the vacuum better by sealing them up for a short time, or make it stumble, that or squirt some oil on them but that might not be a good thing to do for the seals, but it would probably make them seal for a short time if they were leaking. The idea is to determine for sure that they are not (or are) leaking, by whatever means, as often low vacuum is either poor sync, a leak or cam timing.

Hey Cy:

I don't have too much experience working on engines.
I know Rasputin had a similar issue where is valve timing was off. My thought is if your valve timing is off how can your compression be good?
If you could shed some light I'd appreciate it.

Thanks
Rick

[cywelchjr]

Hey Cy:

I don't have too much experience working on engines.
I know Rasputin had a similar issue where is valve timing was off. My thought is if your valve timing is off how can your compression be good?
If you could shed some light I'd appreciate it.

Thanks
Rick

IIRC Rasputin's compression was good, but his vacuum was not. Since you need to check the valve clearance anyways, it's pretty easy to check the valve timing at the same time, if it's good, you didn't waste any time or really any effort. As I said, that is just one of several things that could be the issue, and it could be any of them. I would check them all just to be on the safe side.

[skids]

Now another question, I cannot sync the carbs properly because I have little to now Vacum on #3, Any Ideas there?

Bike runs well, I benched synced them and it runs fine with great compression across the board 164 166 164 169, Not bad for a bike
with 81,000 miles.

Bench synching does not take leaking into account. You can get air leaks through the manifold boots, and the butterfly shaft seals. The thing to remember also when synching vacuum is that the butterfly of No 3 is controlled with the throttle. All of the other butterflies are control with the linkage to the No. 3 carb. In other words, you may need to reduce vacuum of 1,2,and 4 while making throttle adjustments to keep the idle where it should be.

[GAXS1100SH]

Ok

So what is the procedure for checking the valve timing?

[DGXSER]

Pull the valve cover off, and remove the timing cover on the left side of the engine. Use a hex wrench to turn the crank until the T mark is line dup with the timing indicator. With this in line, Look at the cam shafts. Each cam shaft has a dot peened into it. That dot should line up with the tip of the arrow on the cam cap. Both intake and exhaust cams have dots and arrows and both should be lined up at the same time the T is lined up.

[Rickrod3]

You may have to turn the engine a second so that the dots will show up.
See some of the photos In Rasputin's thread.
http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31788

Rick

[DGXSER]

Rick has it correct, in that the crank turns twice for every one time the cams turn. So if you turn it to the T timing mark and do not even see the dots, turn the crank completely around and back to the T again.

And do recall that this engine turns clockwise looking in from the left hand side, backwards from most.

[cywelchjr]

Just turn it in the direction of the arrow on the timing plate and your will be good, it shows you the correct direction to turn it right on there. That's so even a monkey on a unicycle can figure out which way to turn the thing, or at least that's the theory.

[GAXS1100SH]

Thanks

You guys are great, I have the bike over at my other shop so I can't look at the valve timing right now.
But let's assume that it is off, how would you get it back in line?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Steve

[DGXSER]

Well, first off, be careful as you turn the crank over to line up the dots and such because if it is off by much you can easily bend valves.

Read the thread referenced above that Rasputin had started. Alot of great info and direction is in there. Otherwise, read the manual and follow it.