Valve Adjustment to Come Soon!

[CZroe]

Originally Posted by gilmorec61

Sweet guys Planning on starting digging in to her either tonight or tomorrow for sure! Kind of excited actually!

Ive got a feeler guage, and calipers. Those are the only "special tools" i should need correct? Ive got a pretty good tool box with all the standard tools, plus a few here and there...

While im doing this, im going to change the oil, probably change the coolant, maybe the plugs(although i changed them +/- 2000 miles ago), and even though this is completly irrelevent, the brake pads. Is there anything else i should change, look at, mod, etc...while im in there? Just cuz shes already apart, you know?

Oh, and a few weeks ago someone posted a thread with a link to some super cheap brake pads for the newgen. They were around $5 a set. Anybody have that link?

Thanks!

D2moto.com but they went back up to $10.99. I have a set for one wheel and Volar is sending me another for free, so you're welcome to it. I paid $8.99. It's been a while since they had a $5/$6 sale. They aren't sintered but they should be OK for the rear and you can move the sintered OEM rear pads to the front.

[gilmorec61]

D2moto.com but they went back up to $10.99. I have a set for one wheel and Volar is sending me another for free, so you're welcome to it. I paid $8.99. It's been a while since they had a $5/$6 sale. They aren't sintered but they should be OK for the rear and you can move the sintered OEM rear pads to the front.

Alright man, your such a freakin awesome guy! (no homo)...


So guys, started on getting her ready for the job.

-Got her naked,
-Plugged up all the hoses going to the gas tank with a few bolts,
-Disconnected my battery,
-Blew compressed air to get all the crap off the head,
-Continued to spray it gently with water to get even more of the grime off of it,
-Blew compressed air and actually used a blower to "dry" the water off, get it out of holes,dips, etc
-Already organizing all parts, even though ive only gotten fairings and tank off
-Took tons of pictures of the area around where ill be working
-Extremely prepared for what is to come on the next few days.

Hopefully tomorrow ill be able to tear into her some more. Thanks in advance to @CZroe for helping me out by borrowing his stand and his expertise, i really apreciate it.

A couple questions i have are
1) What is the best sealent to seal the valve/head cover back on the bike?
2) Do i run normal antifreeze in it when i go to put it back in? Like stuff made for cars?

So guys, im pretty confident i can do this. Im trying to keep the whole thing under a $100 budget. Depending on where i can get shims if need be, im almost positive i can make that. Anyways, will keep you updated as i tear through it, and if i have any problems will let you all know.

Thanks!

[CZroe]

Originally Posted by gilmorec61

Hopefully tomorrow ill be able to tear into her some more. Thanks in advance to @CZroe for helping me out by borrowing his stand and his expertise, i really apreciate it.

A couple questions i have are
1) What is the best sealent to seal the valve/head cover back on the bike?
2) Do i run normal antifreeze in it when i go to put it back in? Like stuff made for cars?

So guys, im pretty confident i can do this. Im trying to keep the whole thing under a $100 budget. Depending on where i can get shims if need be, im almost positive i can make that. Anyways, will keep you updated as i tear through it, and if i have any problems will let you all know.

Thanks!

"Expertise?!" Not exactly how I'd put it! I mostly just slowed us down and second guessed everything you or I said while eating your pizza (thanks, BTW). :P

Anyway, I'm pretty sure the manual warns about mixing coolant types and making sure that it's labeled as "safe for aluminum engines" or something. My experience is that every typical coolant in the auto departments says safe for all engine types including alu and say that they are safe to mix with any of the standard coolant types.

I'll double-check tonight, but I'm pretty sure that it said to use an "RTV-type" liquid gasket, whatever that means. When I asked at the auto parts stores, that's what they sent me to.

I came home seriously impressed. There's no way I could have dreamed of doing this kind of thing when I was your age!

[jjb84]

very interesting and helpful. will def review this thread when im ready to do this.

[Ninja_Moose]

I'll probably be doing the valve adjustment/check in the next few weeks too. I am glad that Ninjette has a bunch of DIYs and videos of it.

[CZroe]

Originally Posted by Ninja_Moose

I'll probably be doing the valve adjustment/check in the next few weeks too. I am glad that Ninjette has a bunch of DIYs and videos of it.

Despite all of them, we still had questions every step of the way so we will add our voice to it all in hopes that we can answer a few of them for the next person tackling this. I've gotta annotate the appropriate pages of the service manual and decide how best to describe it. I will be careful and slow because the last thing we need is to raise more questions!

[gilmorec61]

Despite all of them, we still had questions every step of the way so we will add our voice to it all in hopes that we can answer a few of them for the next person tackling this. I've gotta annotate the appropriate pages of the service manual and decide how best to describe it. I will be careful and slow because the last thing we need is to raise more questions!

Yes we will!! Hopefully JET and I will be able to get together and make a really good DIY on how to do it. Just think of it this way, if a 16 year old can do it, anybody can

But seriously thanks to JET for helping me out every step of the way! He's awesome!

Was able to do the valve adjustment, and it runs significantly better now! Will post more updates later!

[CZroe]

OK, I'd have to salvage a lot of other people's pictures to make a DIY as I interpret it, but that would take a long time so I figured I'd go ahead and see if I can explain what we got hung up on in case it helps someone else:

First of all, the manual tells you to set it to 2T but fails to tell you to start with the 2nd cylinder. In fact, it never tells you to advance to 1T when it's time to check the first cyl either! In his guide, Vex also acted like all measurements were made at 2T, which made no sense to us if each cyl needs to be at TDC when measuring. We followed Casey's video (@ninja250r) and looked through the spark plug holes while setting 1T or 2T to ensure TDC and would go around an extra time if the lobes on that cyl weren't pointing away from each other.

Vex's guide says "for absolute accuracy" to check each one with the lobes pointing straight up but, IIRC, we tried and they would measure a bit looser there than they would on either side of the lobe (did I remember that right, Chris?). Because the manual very clearly showed none of the lobes in that position, we took our measurements with it facing out a bit.

The thing is, it was impossible to get them in the exact position the manual showed at 2T no matter how many times you cranked it around. On the next page they mention doing #1 piston at the end of the compression stroke before mentioning doing the same to #2 at the end of its compression stroke, which is odd because they set us up for doing #2 first when they told us to go to 2T. The diagram does make sense if you start with 1T.

Vex's guide said to take the seals from the spark plug holes off the valve cover and place them on top of the engine head where they fit really well, but the picture seemed to show the exact opposite and I only realized that he was suggesting exactly what we were doing after going back and looking again just now. They fit in place on the with the valves, but "setting" them on the "holes in the head" made it sound like he wanted them on the valve cover, which is part of what one may call "the head" and, yes, they could only be "set" there because they don't fit. It's the kind of confusion one could only find by seeing real-world reaction to your writing.

[quanttrom]

so I am just kinda curious.

If you are looking at the engine from the left side (furthest away from the timing chain) which way did you rotate your engine in order to get to the 2T and 1T marks?

Clockwise or counter-clockwise ?

[gilmorec61]

so I am just kinda curious.

If you are looking at the engine from the left side (furthest away from the timing chain) which way did you rotate your engine in order to get to the 2T and 1T marks?

Clockwise or counter-clockwise ?

We rotated it clockwise as the manual states. I know a few people do it counter-clockwise, but i dont know if theres a reason or not.

[Sigma.40]

Ok, I've got 3000 miles before I have to do this but I was wondering something. I have very little mechanical skills BUT my best friend is a licensed master mechanic (automotive) that has no knowledge of motorcycles. Is there some kind of "motorcycle specific" knowledge that he would need? Or should we be alright with an auto mechanic, the DiYs and the service manual?

[gilmorec61]

Ok, I've got 3000 miles before I have to do this but I was wondering something. I have very little mechanical skills BUT my best friend is a licensed master mechanic (automotive) that has no knowledge of motorcycles. Is there some kind of "motorcycle specific" knowledge that he would need? Or should we be alright with an auto mechanic, the DiYs and the service manual?

Hey buddy, ill put it this way, ive never done anything near what i did with my bike. Yeah ive taken apart little mower engines and what not, but if you have a mechanic, once you and him read those DIY's and videos, you WILL be able to do it. Dont doubt yourself, just make sure to read up on everything before you tackle it, and make sure you are prepared. You can do it man!

[sky20nyc]

My bike has 9.5K miles on it and I decided to get my valves checked. (I live in an apartment complex on a river front, no maintenance allowed).

So I went to the local shop requested to have the values checked.

"You don't need them checked yet"

I thought I was being an irresponsible rider, taking long weekend rides with values that could be too tight, only to be told that I was being premature in requesting this sevice.

I said that since the maintenance manual suggests checks every 7.5K miles, for peace of mind, I'd like to be sure the valves are still in spec.

His response: Sure we can just listen to you bike and determine if the values need adjustment. .

So tell me, can a mechanic hear when a bike's need an adjustment. IF so, can they hear it before the valves are so tight that bad things start to happen.

[gilmorec61]

Originally Posted by sky20nyc

My bike has 9.5K miles on it and I decided to get my valves checked. (I live in an apartment complex on a river front, no maintenance allowed).

So I went to the local shop requested to have the values checked.

"You don't need them checked yet"

I thought I was being an irresponsible rider, taking long weekend rides with values that could be too tight, only to be told that I was being premature in requesting this sevice.

I said that since the maintenance manual suggests checks every 7.5K miles, for peace of mind, I'd like to be sure the valves are still in spec.

His response: Sure we can just listen to you bike and determine if the values need adjustment. .

So tell me, can a mechanic hear when a bike's need an adjustment. IF so, can they hear it before the valves are so tight that bad things start to happen.

Time to go to a different local shop, and a different mechanic my friend.

[sky20nyc]

Originally Posted by gilmorec61

Time to go to a different local shop, and a different mechanic my friend.

I feared that this would be the response. Sadly, this shop is the most highly rated shop in my area...