(Stripping the Engine...) VVC Valve Clearance Adjustment

[Chris H]

Your ok running at the tighter end as you can assume its never been done before so its lasted this long and may have come out the factory at the smaller end. i remember the first time  i did mine and they were similar. I'd at least change the low side shims to say .15mm as ther only £4 each and then its easy to set the sub rocker play as its just a case of adjusting the pins. The sub rocker play is taken in the same place as the high measurement but with the cam in the low position.
Remember when you do the EX you turn everything the other way. You get use to the actual position (how it sits slightly forward or slightly backwards) of the follower rather than the cam setting. Sounds like your getting ther and like i said you will find any other valves a simple job after these designed by a sadist VVC ones.

[Wudy]

Ok, so I finally got some time to measure my exhaust valve clearances.

"The sub rocker play is taken in the same place as the high measurement but with the cam in the low position"

So just to clarify:

Measurement	Cam Pos.	Measure
Low Side	Low	Between Valve and Lower Rocker Arm
Sub Rocker Arm Play	Low	Between Upper and Lower Rocker Arms
Hi Side	High	Between Upper and Lower Rocker Arms

Correct?

And these are my findings for the exhaust...

Lo-Side

Cylinder No.	Valve	Clearance
#1	Left	0.20
#1	Right	0.20
#2	Left	0.20
#2	Right	0.20
#3	Left	0.20
#3	Right	0.20
#4	Left	0.20
#4	Right	0.20

Hi-Side

Cylinder No.	Valve	Clearance
#1	Left	0.20
#1	Right	0.20
#2	Left	0.20
#2	Right	0.20
#3	Left	0.20
#3	Right	0.20
#4	Left	0.20
#4	Right	0.20

Sub-Rocker Arm Play

Cylinder No.	Valve	Clearance
#1	Left	0.15
#1	Right	0.20
#2	Left	0.20
#2	Right	0.20
#3	Left	0.20
#3	Right	0.20
#4	Left	0.20
#4	Right	0.20

So I think the only ones that need attention are the following:

Exhaust:
Sub-Rocker play, cyl. #1, left valve (0.15)

Intake:
Sub-Rocker play, cyl. #3, left and right (both 0.00)

I might as well do the low-side intake shims as well like you say Chris yea? Just get them all at 0.15? Which would be:
Cyl #1 (left + right), cyl #2 (right), cyl #3 (right).

Question:
When adjusting the Sub-Rocker play, for example, on the intake (where I currently have 0.00 clearance), which way do I turn the adjustment screw to increase the clearance? Clockwise or anti?
That's if I can even get in there to adjust it lol.

Cheers  

[Chris H]

Ayup mate- arnt some people luck sods!! lol.
They are very close 
Mine were all over the place altho none were zero.
Ye- i used a 'T' bar and ground the end diameter down till it fitted in, you turn them anti clockwise to give a bigger clearence and so when you tighten its possible to close the gap up.

Chris.

[Wudy]

Haha not bad is it 

I was tempted to just leave it so I can just get it running again but there are a couple of measurements I can't ignore there (i.e zero clearance lol). Also need to get a bolt out that sheared off when I took the exhaust off (when I was planning on taking the engine out). That's rather annoying because it's the one bit I didn't need to take off, and it's caused me the most grief lol.

Any chance you could get a pic of your modified T-bar? I can't picture how you'd use it.

I'll have a couple more hours tomorrow so I'll try and adjust the Sub-Rocker play and I'm going to buy some vernier calipers to measure my current shims and see what I need. Will try and get those for next week when I should have another free day or two.

God I need more spare time with this bike!

[Wudy]

Ok, so I remeasured all the low-side clearances with the more accurate feeler gauge, and these are the results. Turns out some were a little way off! Going to get these all right then move onto the other measurements after.

Inlet, Lo-Side

Cylinder No.	Valve	Clearance	Shim Size
#1	Left	0.15
#1	Right	0.13
#2	Left	0.15
#2	Right	0.10	2.28mm (Use a 220 or 225 shim?)
#3	Left	0.15
#3	Right	0.15
#4	Left	0.15
#4	Right	0.20	2.12mm  (Use a 215 or 220 shim?)

Exhaust, Lo-Side

Cylinder No.	Valve	Clearance	Shim Size
#1	Left	0.25	2.05mm
#1	Right	0.20
#2	Left	0.28	2.05mm
#2	Right	0.18	2.12mm
#3	Left	0.23
#3	Right	0.23
#4	Left	0.25
#4	Right	0.20

And any info on how to find out what shim sizes I need for the VC exhaust?

Cheers  

P.S. Chris, do you have a spare connector (both male and female) for the cam position (well, technically rocker shaft) sensors? I want to try something but don't want to cut into the wires, so I want to plug it in-line with the current wires in between the current connectors. Ta.

[Chris H]

Hi Wudy,
What dya mean about the shim sizes? you just add or subtract the difference, so if you got a 225 shim and a .15mm gap and you need a .20mm gap you get a 220 shim etc. Write down all the shim sizes and you can usually move them about and then only need a couple.
Regards the 8mm tool to adjust the rocker clearence i use one of these thats been ground down at the end to fit into the tiny space.-
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/FRANKLIN-8mm-HEX-BALL-END-BIT-SOCKET-100mm-LONG-3-8_W0QQitemZ250595573261QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Hand_Tools_Equipment?hash=item3a58a8fe0d
Ive got some spare sensors that have had the ends cut off if they are are of use you can borrow them. All they do is open or close a relay as part of the engine managment system. I pluged a gsxr400 sp 12pin cdi into my bike and it just runs with the cams in the high positsion.
Chris.

[Wudy]

Ohh right, cool. I was just using the chart in the manual, I did think there'd be a way of working it out but couldn't thnk how lol. Cheers though!

Cool, I'll see what I've got in the garage to use for the tool. Hopefully there'll be something similar that can be made to fit!

Will get the shims I need tomorrow (hopefully) and see if I can grab a couple of hours to carry on with it on Friday.

I'm starting want to hurry up with it a bit more now because the suns coming out lol. But my brother did let me have a ride on his '05 636 ZX-6R which was fun! But not as comfy as the Bandit lol.
That GSX-R400 CDI sounds good, would be cool to have it switchable though, between hi cam, lo cam or just 'auto'. Guess that could be done though by just giving the solenoid power? Not something I'm going to mess with anyway!

[Wudy]

Chris, I need shim sizes 210, 215, 218, 222.

I went to my parts dept and they can only get them in .05 increments (so ordered the 210, 215). But the shim size selection table shows the other ones being available (218, 222). Can you confirm if you've been able to get them in sizes other than 0.05 increments?

Going to try some places next week or on Sat if I have time.

[Chris H]

Hi Wudy,
I got mine from the Triumph dealer as they are a common size- think they were about £4 each.

[Wudy]

Oh ok. So you can definitely get them. Will ask around next week on my days off, got a friend of mine checking where he works too (Kwak dealer). Cheers

[Wudy]

Woooo! All fixed and running now!
Just flew through it's MOT today too, with the only advisory being the rear tread getting close to the limit (which i figured anyway).

Still need to take her for a PROPER ride, but so far all seems good! Clutch is sticking a bit sometimes when slowing down, and there seems to be no power what so ever when first pulling off then the revs pick up really quickly around 3-4-5k rpm, makes turning out of sharp junctions a bit tricky. Might just be because I've got too used to my brothers ZX6-R that I've been riding, very smooth. But otherwise all good, so glad to have her running again!