Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech I Have now removed Cams and measured Shims..

I have to say, things went smoothly for the most part. All my parts came out and have been aligned on a tray on top of a extended manilla folder..so all sorts of notes and diagrams could be incorporated to make since and oranize all the parts. Questions are as follows: To buy Shims, they come in a standardized sizing. What exactly is that? And how do I round off my shims in order to purchase the right replacement Shims..?.I Do believe I can use 1 shim in another valve.bucket..but it looks like I'll be needing 7 shims as far as I can tell. Also, I put threaded screws thru the cam and tensioner cam, which kept it from coming apart all toghether..but apparently the hole is smaller on the thin cam tensioner part than the whole in the Thicker cam. So the cam slipped the difference of the diameters in the two wholes...basically tilted to the side of tension a Half tooth...obviously I guess I should have maybe put a washer and nut on them with some gentle pressure..or enough to have kept the thinner cam sprocket from slipping. What to do now? It looks like there are a couple of holes in the cam that could be used to get some kind of spanner tool in those holes and leverage the gear the Hald a tooth back to matching the fat gear..and then tighen a washer and nut onto the exsiting screw thru the pin hole..so it wouldnt slip back..Ideas??
Anyway's The Shims I need are as follows: Intake, right to left: 2.705,2.735,2.715,&2.725. Exhaust: rt to Lft:2.785,2.875,2.785,& 2.765. Well, got source these shims..waiting on the valve cover from the powder coater, and lastly need vc gasket and whashers for vc screws, and oil filler oring and shims and I think I'll be ready to re-assemble at that point..after figuring out the tensioner cam slippage situation..Help..Mr. Wizard...But hey...when their done..it will be Wicked Pissa!!!

There is a spanner with 2 pins to tension that gear, if it didn't move too far you might be ok anyway.

Is that Spanner a Triumph Specialty tool?

yes

I retensioned the anti-backlash gear with a strap wrench the first time I adjusted my valves, then I bought the factory tool just because. Now that I'm careful when I remove the cams, I don't even need the darn thing.

I bought the wrench and pins before the first time I did it but have never needed the wrench.

I wouldn't have lost the backlash spring set, but the pin I used squirted out, once I found a proper fitting pin, no longer an issue.

How exactly did you do this, as i need to do this to my Cams and BL gears??? Thanks.

I remember I needed three hands, the third to insert the pin. I just held the cam in one and and used the strap wrench to rewind the BL gear into alignment, while my friend stabbed in the retaining pin. Pretty easy with a helper. You really don't need the factory tool unless you are breaking down the cam for a regrind and polish. Then they come into their own.

I found trying to repin the tensioner sprocket with a strap wrench and a crescent wrench on the cam shaft...pretty much impossible..after an hour of fumbling with it...I thought their's got to be a better way...then..dawn on marble head...I realized..hey..its only a half tooth off..maybe I can just pop it back into the main gear..and like majic don't you know..thats just what I did..and I have no worries with that now!!! And a new question..how uniform in size do you think your replacement shims should be?...mine do vary up to .06mm intake shims &.15mm exhaust shims so they are very close..i think??..cool..getting there..learning alot..and confident it's the better road to travel..than bank rolling the dealerships..Peace!

I had to determine what shims to source out, and also I was able to re-use two exsisting shims...My rational for the new shim sizes goes like this: exhaust gaps were measured at from right to left: .31mm,.31mm,.23mm,.23mm. Now there corresponding exsisting shims measured right to left: 2.86mm,2.84mm,2.83mm, 2.81mm And so after plugging the numbers into the Dinqualator the corresponding corrected shims exhaust shims should be right to left: 2.895mm,2.875mm,2.785mm,2.765mm And now the drum roll please..the final exhaust shims are from right to left: 2.90mm &2.90mm(chosen to round up in size , as a larger shimm is reqd here) 2.75mm, and re-used shim 2.76..a perfect shim match!(chosen to round down in size, as smaller shims were reqd. here). Also, all calculations based on achieving a mid-point gap on spec. I hope your digesting all this..because here come the Intake valve results!!

Measured intake valve gaps from right to left: .13mm,.15mm,.20mm,.19mm
Now the corresponding exsisting shims from right to left: 2.75mm,2.76mm,2.69mm,2.71mm.
After running the Data thru the Dinqualator the recommended intake valve shim thicnesses were from right to left:
2.705mm,2.735mm,2.715mm,2.725mm
And the winning intake shim thicknesses are as follows from of coarse right to left:
re-used shim@ 2.69mm,2.75mm,2.75mm,2.75mm
Yee Haw!!! Any pointer's on these numbers//COMMENTS? OBSERVATIONS? WORDS OF WISDOM? Alright then.KEWL!.