How bad is setting valve clearance on a DOHC?

I just called the local Honda shop (Yamaha is out of town, plus I know these guys), and he said I'm looking at 2-3 hours labor if he did it. I have never done a bucket/shim setup. I actually prefer the look of the SOHC engine and valves on those are piece of cake, but this looks a bit more daunting. What ius the special tools I would need, and how expensive are they?

You need shims which come in large packs and cost a bit; perhaps $75 give or take. You can order them individually, but that would be a silly idea.

The other thing you need is a micrometer so that you can measure the shims very accurately. These will run around $20 for the cheapest possible one. Good ones are expensive.

You'll need a torque wrench for the valve cover.

Finally, you'll need some gasket sealant (for the valve cover) and engine assembly lube for the cam.

I've done another DOHC bike (a gsx-r 750) and the job involves removing the valve cover and checking the clearance on each valve. If any are out of spec you need to remove the respective cam and insert a new shim. Once it's back together you check it again. It's a lot more labor than the old style for sure! You also have to set and check the cam timing while you're doing it so the cam goes back on in the correct position.

If it's that bad, maybe it's worth paying Travis to do it. Still the experience would be good. Plus it would be good to have the shims if I have to do it on this or any other bike in the future.

Don't you need a special tool to compress the spring? He seemed to indicate to me it can be done without removing the cam with some special tool but I could have understood him wrong?

It's possible; it depends on the motor. My gsx-r required the cam to be removed. The valves had a cap that covered the top of each spring; there was no way to remove the cap with the cam on.

I'd check the DOHC manual for sure; it will give you a better idea of what you'll encounter.

There is a special tool that can be used to keep the bucket depressed allowing the shim to be exchanged. Rather than buy the tool, I just lifted the cams up by removing their caps. It wasn't a big deal and probably took less time than using the tool. But, I have worked on this type of cam and lifter setup before, and was very careful not to disturb the cam chain.

I've also read about using a cable binder instead, but I can't seem to find where I read that. I think there was a link to it on the forum here somewhere

Wait wait wait - don't pay someone 2-3 hours to do the work, unless you're really all elbows with your tools. That's insane.

It's really not that hard. You're looking at about 90 minutes the first time you do it, with no experience, feeling your way along. You will need feeler gauges. Like small ones.

Let me start at the beginning.

1. Look up the procedure in the shop manual available on this site. It's something like the very first thing in the maintenance section.

2. Put your bike on the centre stand, put a jack under your engine, remove your seat and tank, remove the upper mounts on both sides, use a big coin or giant screwdriver to remove the circular plate on the side of your engine (exposing a big bolt you can use to hand turn the engine) and remove your spark plugs. Now you're ready to go.

3. Turn the engine, and watch the cams move. When a cam is pointing away from the cylinder, use your feeler gauges to check the clearance. Compare the clearance with the chart in the shop manual. Write down the size shim you're going to need. Do this for all 4 before doing anything else. If your feeler gauges don't even fit underneath the cams no matter what you do, then you're going to have to look at the chart, and make some estimates. Don't worry... we'll get it perfect.

4. Get a big zip tie. Fold it in half. Turn the engine over, and watch as your cams push your valves down. When you have the valve you want to work on first all the way down, stick your zip tie into your spark plug hole, and rotate it in between the valve and the top of the engine head. It's harder to explain than to just do it - you know you have it right when you keep rotating the engine, and you can see the cam lift away from the plate. Now use a tiny metal shim or a screwdriver to flip the shim out. There will be a number on the bottom of it - that will correspond to the shop manual chart. Check the number, write it down, and then put it back. Really, put it back.

5. Repeat for all valves.

6. Now, some of your shims you'll be able to swap around, based on what your chart says. I was able to reuse one. You'll also be able to trade around shims with the cams that have no clearance at all, to see if you can get any clearance, and then compare to the chart.

7. Once you're done all this swapping around, you should now have between 2 and 4 shim sizes you need to find. You have a couple of options - you can order a set online, which can be pricey for a task you'll only do once a year. What I did was befriend my local bike shop owner, and just trade with him. He needs shims all the time, and we worked out a small charge to make up for the fact that eventually, he will need to buy new shims. $5 a shim, so $15 later I was fine. He even gave me the shims so I could go home, swap them out, measure again to make sure, and then return with the right sizes.

8. Put the bike back together, and then balance your carbs. They will likely need it.

Honestly, barring the time to befriend a motorcycle mechanic, it's about 90 minutes the first time I did it.

Already friends with the guy...

I just got mine done, had a hard time finding shims but Yamaha charged me 1.25 hrs, but I cleaned up the old gasket myself. 100$ per hour.

I got my shims from the local Kawasaki dealer for $2 each. They keep lots of old parts around and some K bikes used the exact same shims. The local Yamaha dealer doesn't stock any parts for older bikes.

I like BW's way of keeping the valves open to change the shim. Simple.

Guys,

I'm fully aware of how old this thread is but ... does anyone have a direct link through which I can order my shims?

Check xjbikes.com. It's a forum, like this one. The XJ use the same shims. One user, Chacal, sells new ones. Another, hogfiddles, runs a shim pool where you can exchange them.

So, I registered for XJBikes and am waiting, waiting, waiting ...

Still not approved as of yet.

Do you have an "in" there that might help so that I can order that noise?

Why don't you call the local Yamaha and Kawasaki dealers and ask if they have any shims in stock?

Yup! Doin' that now LOL.

Alright, so, remember ... I'm brand new to valves.

The conversation with the local dealer amounted to this:

I'm supposed to check the gap + see what size I have in there. Once I know this info, I can call them and they'll see if they have it in stock (or order it accordingly).

So, I'm guessing it's time to bite the bullet and tear into the #2 section in the manual?

(it guides me, right?)

You got it!

16VGTIDave said:

Why don't you call the local Yamaha and Kawasaki dealers and ask if they have any shims in stock?

Click to expand...

I can pretty much guarantee they will. Their prices are absolutely insane, though. I've been quoted $22 a shim.

So, I registered for XJBikes and am waiting, waiting, waiting ...

Still not approved as of yet.

Do you have an "in" there that might help so that I can order that noise?

Click to expand...

Is your username the same? I can post and ask them to check it.

I paid $2/shim at the local Kawasaki dealer.

Yeah, same username but no matter. I'll hunt around "the" Google for the part.