Valve Adjustment - First Time

[Billmc]

Today on the coast, we're looking at mid-90's with a heat index of 110.

The humidity will be over 90% with a 100% chance a mosquitoes the size of bats! 

People in other parts of the country (world) just don't understand.....

[BPT]

That's about what we're going to hit. Not unheard of but just a big change since it was so cool this week. Cooler than normal.  We've got 2 days of it then down to high 80"s, supposedly.
Mosquitoes never took a break, we hardly had a winter this year.
Not long ago a woman told me "Oh my god, I never knew cockroaches could FLY until I moved to Texas. And they're HUUUGE!!"
Haha

[Billmc]

"Oh my god, I never knew cockroaches could FLY until I moved to Texas. And they're HUUUGE!!"

Ha! Yah, everybody is brave until the cockroaches FLY!!!

[peteremc]

Found an unanswered question in this thread:

"One of the things I do when doing valve clearances is slacken the head nuts by a quarter turn then retorque them. Does anyone think this is necesarry? The Clymer manual suggests this for a tune up."

I'd be interested in opinions on this, because guess what I'm doing today?

Thanks

[Bob_Roller]

I used to do this, but I stopped 20 years ago .

If I have the heads off and new head gaskets installed, I will check the torque before doing a valve clearance check, but not back off any nuts .

After the gaskets have ' set ', I have never found the nuts under torqued in the 36 years of ownership of my '81 R65 .

I'll do a torque check and valve clearance check 500 miles, 800 km after having the heads off .

[peteremc]

Thanks Bob. I think I'll just check for any under-torque without backing them off and otherwise leave them undisturbed and get on with the valves.

Thanks

[wilcom]

"One of the things I do when doing valve clearances is slacken the head nuts by a quarter turn then retorque them. Does anyone think this is necesarry?

What Bob said......

I've read too many  stories about head studs pulled out of the aluminum block. I minimize my tinkering with those 4 bolts.

[Barry]

The only time I re-torque head bolts is when doing the rocker arm end play adjustment and that is very rare maybe once every 5 or 10 years.

[BPT]

I might be trying to get to my valve adjustment next week, time and weather permitting.
I am going to take the recommendations given here of keeping it just a simple valve adjustment this time around.
Is there anything else I should do along with this, while I'm getting my hands dirty?
My main reason for doing this is to make sure the valves are good so that I can get my carbs adjusted correctly (meaning I'm not doing the valves because of mileage or excessive noise).

    Thanks again for your time and tips.

[Barry]

If it's preparation for tuning the carbs then if you haven't done it recently you could check the ignition timing. 

[BPT]

I was wondering about that, Barry.  To be honest. I've done very little as far as routine maintenance. I bought it from a shop and all of that was supposed to have been done.  I haven’t put many miles on since I struggled with charging issues from the beginning.
That has been taken care of, it seems.  About 6 months or so ago, I replaced the rotor, diode board, brushes, voltage regulator and battery.
So it's not that I've done nothing at all. I'm just now getting to the point where I need to do some of the basic/routine things either because of need (idle/carbs not quite right) or time (low mileage but it's been about 1 1/2 years now).
The owner of the shop where I bought it was going to school me on all of these as they came about but he died a couple of months ago so now I'm on my own.  Except for this board, Clymer's, and the internet, of course.........

[tunnelrider]

Hi BPT, although it may feel you are on your own, there is a wealth of knowledge that some good people on this asylum are happy to share and the Clymer is pretty good for explaining the tune up in simple terms. 
I think for your first tune up you should only look at the timing if you're noticing a stumbling, not quite firing right feeling while riding normally.  At lower revs (up to 3500rpm) the firing is more retarded than above 3500rpm.  Therefore, when cruising at lower city speeds, in fourth say, if the bike feels like it is not quite running right then it would be a good idea to check and adjust the timing.  Likewise if it feels like that at higher revs, check the timing as the timing should be advanced by the ignition trigger unit ('bean can').
If you're not noticing a stumbling, not quite firing right feeling with normal stop/start riding I would carry on with your tune up and assume the timing is correct. You can always revisit it later, once you've got more of a handle on the tune up and balancing the carbs.

[BPT]

Thanks Tunnelrider. This came about a couple of months ago and has to do with my idle. Running seems ok.

My idle would occasionally jump around. By that I mean it would seem a little off and a simple adjustment would put it right. It'd be OK for a few rides, then would need adjusted again. Never anything major. But one day I went for a ride and everything was great until I got off the highway. Hit the first stoplight and it was idling really high and wouldn't go down. I just so happened to be going to my local shop and mentioned when I pulled in. The guy there tweaked them again and, again, they were ok. But when I told him about having to do it often lately, that's when he told me I needed to adjust the valves.

I hadn't ridden in a while but cranked it up last week. It doesn't sound smooth (hard to explain but you know it when you hear it), but not sure if that's just from sitting.

So, to summarize, this all came about because of it not idling too well and fluctuating.  In one of the previous threads I mentioned it seems like someone had almost the exact same symptoms. I'll have to go back and look, I'm thinking his might have been timing or ignition though.

[Barry]

I hadn't ridden in a while but cranked it up last week. It doesn't sound smooth (hard to explain but you know it when you hear it), but not sure if that's just from sitting.

 
l wonder if these minor maladies are due to infrequent use.  Mine starts instantly on the button very time.... except for the very rare occasions when it doesn't      And they are always when it hasn't  been used for few weeks like recently when I was away on holiday. One thing I know for sure because I've checked, is that the fuel level in the carbs drops significantly through evaporation loss and I think sometimes it doesn't refill properly when the tap is turned on. The most volatile fractions have been lost anyway which is not conducive to easy starting or cold running.

On the ignition timing if you think it's OK then by all means leave well alone. The main thing is not to adjust the timing after tuning the carbs because it can change idle speed.

[BPT]

I've wondered that myself but there have been many periods of infrequent use and the idle thing never did what it's doing lately.  My problem previously was the charging thing, I never knew when it was going to die on me. So that was the main reason I wasn't riding too much. Now that I (fingers crossed!) have that problem taken care of, I was hoping to ride more regularly. The last couple of months have just been interrupted by non-motorcycle related things.

As far as I know, the timing is ok. By that I mean it seemed to be all this time. The only noticeable strangeness now is the fluctuating idle. I'll plan to just do a basic valve adjustment and get the carbs right for now.

Any easy to notice symptoms that the timing could be off?