Hi please forgive my questions, but Is it necessary to purchase a entire shim kit to do the valve clearance job, I see some kits are going for around 70 dollars is that about right?
I see this bike needs 7.48 od shims, but was wondering if I could just purchase certain sizes,
Thanks.

Pinging choneofakind.

Not my area of expertise, but I think I can still be of some help.

If you know exactly what thickness you need, you should be able to go to a dealership with a part number and order them. You may or may not have to wait for them because they may or may not be in stock. Kinda like buying jets individually.

However, I think I remember rojoracing53 talking with another member a while back about buying a shim kit for dirt bikes instead of one specific to the ninja 250. It ended up being cheaper and worked just fine because those are a common size shim.

Sorry I'm not much help, I own a pregen. My knowledge of the newgen is limited to reading and the work I've done on my buddy's '11 model. Thankfully no valve jobs on that one yet.




I think Alex is just getting old and senile and is confusing me with someone else :)

Don't worry, he's already old and senile. :) I know there is someone on this site who is all for people buying individual shims rather than a shim kit; thought it may have been you. :idunno:

If you want to finish in one day (and don't want to pay $7-$9 each at the dealer) then get the kit. If you can deal with not riding for a few days, measure everything and order individual shims.

There are several places online. I have ordered from Jake Wilson (http://www.jakewilson.com/p/53/90/388/1280/-/26634/Pro-X-Valve-Shim?term=shims) several times. They do not list the 250 but an '02 ZX6R uses the same size.

Yeah I'm using the old 7.48 hot cams shim kit I bought 8 years ago for my YZ250f dirt bike. All 7.48 kits are the same. Sure its going to cost you an extra $40-50 for the whole kit but it's totally worth it to get the job done in one day. There's a lot of **** to take apart so I'd rather not have to try and remember how to put it all back together 4 days later.

Its a 2-3hr job if you know what your doing but it took CycleCam303 like 17hrs over two days to get his done with me supervising him for his first time.

Looks like a lot work I guess the first thing is to be able to get everything to a point where I can measure the valve clearance first,

My first inspection I had to adjust every valve, my second and third inspection I didn't have to adjust any.

Having the clearance with in spec, no further questions :)

My first inspection I had to adjust every valve, my second and third inspection I didn't have to adjust any.

How many miles were on the bike when you adjusted/checked the valves?

I picked this bike up with 14,000 miles. I am going to assume from the condition of the bike it was never done. Although the bike runs perfect.

1st was 12K
2nd was 20K
3rd was 30K
next will be 40K

I picked this bike up with 14,000 miles. I am going to assume from the condition of the bike it was never done. Although the bike runs perfect.

CycleCam303 his bike was running good aside from initial start ups during cold morning but after doing his valves for the first time at 15K he said it was so much better. I think totally stock bike suffer more in the cold and the valves being out of spec really exaggerate it.

it is very encouraging to see how many other people have higher mileage as well,

1st was 12K
2nd was 20K
3rd was 30K
next will be 40K

I checked mine at 12k as well. All four exhaust valves were out and two of the intake valves were getting close so I adjusted them as well. Hopefully I don't have to adjust mine again. Did the clearances stay exactly the same for yours after the first adjustment?

I checked mine at 12k as well. All four exhaust valves were out and two of the intake valves were getting close so I adjusted them as well. Hopefully I don't have to adjust mine again. Did the clearances stay exactly the same for yours after the first adjustment?

I don't recall exactly but I think I adjusted to the open end of the range the first time and they moved to the middle for the second. The third they were practly the exact same as the second inspection.