Just Adjusted My Valves!! (Whoo-Hoo First Timer!!!!!)

[Sandman9270]

I know a lot of you expert wrenches out there are probably saying "SO what?", but I gotta crow to SOMEBODY!  (My wife also says "so what").

Coupla pointers:

1) Definitely get a manual (Clymer/Haynes/Service)

2) You do NOT necessarily have to take the cover off but....

3) If you don't take the cover off, put a piece of electrical tape around BOTH dowels to secure them AND....

4) Peek under the cover to figure out the whereabout of the "4 gaskets of the apocolypse" that seem to give everyone so much grief.  When you have identified them, secure them with tape or maybe a touch of gasket sealant or SOMETHING. Oddly, numbers 1 and four of mine were stuck to the top of the cover and it LOOKED like 2 and 3 had some sort of sealant already put on it?  Maybe my valves HAD been adjusted before.

5) I actually don't know if I would necessarily have ordered the "special tool" for turning the screws.  You can just do it with a pair of hemostats or maybe some tweezers.  Once you loosen the locknuts they are VERY easy to turn.

6) While you don't have to remove the cover I DID remove the "oil breather tower" (is this what it is?) that is bolted to the valve cover.  I ALSO LOOSENED the throttle cables enough to get some heighth when raising the cover.  I also found it necessary to remove the x-shaped fairing brackets.

7) I also ghot a little paranoig about the gaskets so I wedged some cardboard UNDER the cover as I lifted it up so nothing would fall down into the engine.

8) THIS DEFINITELY SHOULD BE DONE!!  All of my intakes were tight (although the smallest gap wrench I had was .125) so maybe they were just on the tight side.  Oddly, I think only ONE exhaust valve was tight, two were within spec and the rest were loose.

9)  While I don't recommend it, I DID hand tighten the valve cover bolts.  I just did it with a regular ol Allen wrench and DID NOT use a ratchet-type wrench.  Basically I tightened them like I tighten my oil filter.  Hand tighten WITHOUT the wrench, then just pushed with TWO FINGERS until I got a LOT of resistance the stopped.  I didn't Crack anything and there so far are no leaks!

Anyway hope this helps anyone who is thinking about doing the deed!

[Red01]

You did good!  

[Bezzer]

Nice one, good feeling when you can do it yourself, save money and know it's done right

[Sandman9270]

....PS....finger tight is NOT tight enough....I ended up sucking it up and just tightening them down FAIRLY (whatever THAT means)  tight....

I had a bit (to put it mildly) of an oil leak.  I also just found an In/lbs 3/8 torque wrench....might be money well spent for next time!

[mademiriam]

yep a torque wrench is a beautiful thing...probably worth the money in the long haul. I 'got away' with out one for quite awhile until I finally got sick of worrying about stripping bolts or having leaks. Great post though, I'll be referring to it in a month or so...

[H2RICK]

Thanks for all the tips, Sandman. My factory big bux service manual is on the way from Suzuki Canada to my dealer so that's looked after.
The actual valve adjustment isn't any different than my old '82 GS750 with the 16 valve engine and the locknut/screw adjuster setup. Even the valve cover looks similar except for the cooling oil supply hoses on the carb side of the cover.
Well, it'll be interesting to see how the clearances have stayed (or not) for the first 6K kilometres.
Yikes....I just realized I actually have slightly over 6K on the clock and that they need to be checked ASAP !!! I'd forgotten that the clearances need looking at every 6K kilometres until this thread caused me to look in my owner's manual service interval chart !!!
Note to self: Check valve clearances every 6K kilometres or annually, whichever comes first.