Wilsons Sandbox

At 7:54 PM +0000 8/2/05, Tom Zangla wrote:

>Now if you know what shims you need do you just run down to your >local dealer and buy these shims?

Most dealers don't stock shims for sale and they rape you for them anyway. However, some dealers will swap them for yours straight up or for a buck or two service fee. BMW K bikes and many Yamahas supposedly use the same shims, so you don't have to limit yourself to a Kawa dealer.

>Also when you pull the valve cover you can reuse the gasket if your >careful but would it be better to have one on standby just incase?

The valve cover gasket is made of sturdy rubber and can last the life of the bike.

>Someday I may get enought courage to attempt this.

That's like saying you need courage to change your oil. Almost all maintenance aspects of the simple KLR thumper are a piece of cake. Don't sweat it.

>The main problem >is I use my bike to get to work so down time is a pain since I have >to find a ride or walk to work.

The valve check should take you 45 minutes. Add 15 minutes per cam if you need to swap a shim, depending on how much you fart around and how much beer you consume. If you're worried about down time, get a second KLR! Mark

--- In DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com, "Tom Zangla" wrote:

> When I ordered my lowering links I also picked up a DVD that shows > how to take everything off to get to the valve cover, taking the > valve cover off and checking the valves etc. > > Looks like stuffing lint free rags down in around your work area is > the most critical thing. Once you find out if any of your valves > need adjustment then you have to figure out what shims and how many > you need to take care of the problem. > > Now if you know what shims you need do you just run down to your > local dealer and buy these shims? I see the make a kit but I have > not checked out the cost yet. > > Also when you pull the valve cover you can reuse the gasket if your > careful but would it be better to have one on standby just incase? > > Someday I may get enought courage to attempt this. The main problem > is I use my bike to get to work so down time is a pain since I have > to find a ride or walk to work. >

Fred sells a shim kit for about $60. Having one kit in the neighborhood is ordinarily enough, (if your dealer is not up to par). However, it so happens that the next shims I'm going to need are at the low end of the scale, and are not in my buddy's shim kit. This is where it is handy to know some anal-retentive BMW riders, because the K-bikes also use 29mm shims, and the BMW shim kit is even more comprehensive than Fred's. Lord knows what it must cost.

It is really pretty simple with no surprises. The biggest problem is getting the valve cover out from under the frame. Unbolting the radiator supports without detaching the hoses helps. Be very carefull when working around the cam chain. The hole that goes into is called the abys and seem to be a magnet for small bit. Stuff some rags in there to save yourself some grief. If you end up taking off the cams to replace shims map the size and location of all shims so that you can have spares on had should you need to replace them later. Going one smaller shim size increases valve clearance by .002". Mike Peplinski wrote: I've decided to further bond with my KLR and check the valve adjustment. I looked in the friendly Clymers and have to say, this looks like quite a job! Is it really as bad as it looks? Archive Quicksearch at: http://www.angelfire.com/ut/moab/klr650_data_search.html List sponsored by Dual Sport News at: www.dualsportnews.com List FAQ courtesy of Chris Krok at: www.bigcee.com/klr650faq.html Yahoo! Groups Links __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Mike, I'm new to the KLR thing this year but I now have a 05 for my wife and a 06 for me. I did the 05 about a month ago and it took about 2 hours. I bought the whole shim set from that nice guy Fred @ Arrowhead Motor Sports because I wanted to put my bike back together then and be able to ride. It was fairly painless. I did download and print the valve adjustment sheets and use the clymers manual as guidelines. Getting the valve cover out & in, as others have stated, is the biggest piece of magic. Follow the directions and you can't go wrong. I'll be doing the 06 in the next couple of weeks. I don't have a 1/4" torque wrench so I had to make do with a 3/8" torque and universals. Give yourself room to move around the bike and don't rush yourself. It's very cool to get finished and know the work was done right. Write down you valve clearances before you start and after your done. Write down the shim sizes before you change them and after you change them. keep this info for future valve checks. In my case, I had to change all four shims. --- In DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com, "Mike Peplinski" wrote:

> I've decided to further bond with my KLR and check the valve

adjustment. I

> looked in the friendly Clymers and have to say, this looks like

quite a job!

> Is it really as bad as it looks?

On Sat, 6 Aug 2005, Mike Peplinski wrote:

> I've decided to further bond with my KLR and check the valve adjustment. I > looked in the friendly Clymers and have to say, this looks like quite a job! > Is it really as bad as it looks?

Yes and no. The Clymer book recommends removing the camshafts, which is a bit of a pain. However, I have been assured that it is possible to get the shims out with a pair of tweezers just by popping the cam caps off, without removing the camshaft guard and the camshafts. In a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is an oil change and 10 is an engine overhaul, I'd put the Clymer procedure at about a 2.5 and the revised procedure at about a 2. As long as you follow the directions, step by step (with the possible modification above), it isn't really brain surgery at all. We are, after all, talking about the world's simplest motorcycle here (well, almost). There just isn't much "there" there. Oh, even if you do just remove the cam caps rather than remove the camshafts altogether, I suggest popping off the cam chain tensioner as documented in the Clymer manual just to give you a bit more slack to play with plus to insure that it is doing its job correctly (have heard stories about how sometimes it gets stuck, you can verify its operation quite easily). Ingenius little widget. I wonder why Kawasaki didn't invent something similarly ingenius for tensioning the balancer chain, rather than that deranged "doohickey" they instead settled on? In any event, this isn't as difficult as it looks. Just follow the procedure and you'll be fine, no super mecho skills needed, just an appropriate set of torque wrenches. -E

On Aug 6, 2005, at 6:15 AM, Mike Peplinski wrote:

> I've decided to further bond with my KLR and check the valve > adjustment. I > looked in the friendly Clymers and have to say, this looks like > quite a job! > Is it really as bad as it looks?

I guess it depends on how much mechanical experience you have. To me it's quite a job, but I really enjoyed doing it and feel quite proud of myself after the fact. To others, who have been wrenching on bikes for far longer, it's probably dirt simple. The key, for me anyway, was to read the descriptions from Mark's site, Elden's site, and the Clymer manual. I didn't have anyone experienced to watch over my shoulder, so reading three different descriptions of how to do the job was quite helpful. I tried Mark's suggestion of not removing the camshafts when changing shims, and it worked just fine for me (despite the criticism of the technique from Elden). To make it go as smoothly as possible, make sure you have a shim pack from Fred and a 1/4" torque wrench with a long extension bar so that you can get your wrench on the head bolts. Oh, and you might as well replace the spark plug while you're in there. Good luck and have fun! -- Blake Sobiloff San Jose, CA (USA)

> To make it go as smoothly as possible, make sure you have a shim pack > from Fred and a 1/4" torque wrench with a long extension bar so that > you can get your wrench on the head bolts. Oh, and you might as well > replace the spark plug while you're in there. >

Doesn't using an extension on a torque wrench change the leverage and affect the value you are torquing to? I really don't know, so I better ask before I do my first valve adjustment. ed A17

--- In DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com, "Ed Chait" wrote:

> > > To make it go as smoothly as possible, make sure you have a shim pack > > from Fred and a 1/4" torque wrench with a long extension bar so that > > you can get your wrench on the head bolts. Oh, and you might as well > > replace the spark plug while you're in there. > > > > > Doesn't using an extension on a torque wrench change the leverage

and affect

> the value you are torquing to? > > I really don't know, so I better ask before I do my first valve

adjustment.

> > ed > A17

You can get a decent 1/4" torque wrench from the friends at Harbor Freight. The quality of those is a long way better than it was years ago. Somewhere on one of the VStrom forums a guy did a test of a bunch of torque wrenches. The H/F were average to better than average as afar as accuracy. More than adequate for stuff on the KLR. A wrench this size is very important for the cam caps, and the cam cover bolts. Using this wrench and appropriate sockets, I don't need an extension for the cam caps, or cover bolts. I do not torque the cam cover bolts to full value, as it's easy to strip the hole in the head, especially the right rear. I use no sealant, just clean and re-use the gasket, and stop 5 to 10 inch lb or so short of recommended torque for the cover bolts. If it weeps a little, just give it a few more INCH lbs. A torque wrench is more accurate than even an experienced mechanic, over the range of torque values used in the KLR, IMHO. Remember - INCH LBS! All the best, Mike Eagle Mfg & Eng since 1990 San Diego, CA