Valve Clearance Problem

[ElJokerr]

Hi, first time posting here. I own a 2006 Ninja 250, has about 21,000 miles on it, maintained very well with oil and filter changes at every interval recommended. I'm having problems starting it, especially when it's cold, it turns over, but it just won't get running. If the air temperature is warm, as it is around noon, it will struggle a bit but eventually start up. I pulled off the cylinder head cover to check the valve clearances, and the intake valves on cylinder 1 is way too tight, not even a .076mm feeler gauge will fit between the cam lobe and rocker arm, and the specs for inlet are 0.08mm-0.13mm. I turned the valve adjusting screw loose and turned it out to open up the clearance, but the clearance did not adjust at all, it's as if something is stuck. Our mechanic neighbor mentioned that it might be a bent rocker arm, or bent rod, but it's only a guess. I don't want to have to take apart the whole thing to replace everything and still have the same problem. I plan to fix this myself as I took it to the shop in December for the same thing, they did fix it, but the problem came back again and I'm not looking forward to wasting another $300. Any ideas on what might be the source of the problem? Any suggestions helps. Thanks.

[FvnnyL3tt3r1ng]

can you post a pic?

[n4mwd]

Are you sure you have your crank exactly on the TDC mark for the cylinder you are working on? And not TDC + 1 rev? Lobes should be TDC and should look something like this "\ /".

The rocker arms don't really bend - they break. A bent rod would have no effect on valve timing.

[ElJokerr]

I just barely got a call from the shop that I took it to, apparently there's no more adjustment available because the valves were wearing out and needs replacement. Basically what happened was that the valves were worn and went deeper into the seat, which tightened up the valve clearance between the cam lobe and rocker arm, thus disallowing space for adjustment. I'm having the shop do the valve job and it should be ready in about 12 days from now, more or less.

[n4mwd]

Something isn't right here. First off, it should not have any serious problems at only 21K miles. You said you did all its maintenance. Did that include the scheduled valve adjustments every 6K miles?

[ElJokerr]

Actually I didn't do the valve adjustment as required -_- lesson learned

[cuong-nutz]

Originally Posted by ElJokerr

Actually I didn't do the valve adjustment as required -_- lesson learned

indeed. There's more to maintenance than changing oil.

[n4mwd]

If your heads really are damaged, then you would be better off buying a new head set from ebay. A valve job alone would cost several hundred dollars. But again, I still say something isn't right with a failure at only 21K miles. Lack of maintenance would end up with the valves being held slightly open before they wore out the seats - resulting in a hard or no start condition.

Did you at least remove the rocker arm in question to see if there was anything strange about it?

[lgk]

Yea it definitely doesn't sound right.

You should have lots of adjustment left...

[FvnnyL3tt3r1ng]

I have to 2nd (and 3rd) that it seems strange you need a valve job at this point.... If you post pics it would help a lot.