Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech could be a easier way to adjust valves?

Sweatmachine over at the RAT forum said his mechanic told him theres an easier way to adjust w/o having to remove the cams.

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he was able to do the valve adjustment without removing the cams. He said the trick was to loosen the cam chain tensioner and the bracket thingies that hold the cams in, you could lift the cams up a bit since the cam chain will be loose and adjust the valves that way.

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Anyone have any thoughts on this? I know some will say just remove them it's no big deal. But that aside, does anyone know or think this is possible?

Daz- I posted over there that the cam chain doesn't go around cams on our bikes. It turns a gear that turns gears on cams. He must have been thinking of another bike.

Well then what about just loosening the cams? Sorry if thats a dumb question, but i'm unfamiliar with the arrangment and haven't adjusted a bike's valves since the 70's when they had simple tappet arrangments.

I've only removed my cams twice so I can't remember how long the bolts are but that would definitely affect how far you could raise the cams.

If they are long enough, I don't think it would be good to slide the cams up and down the loosened bolts as the cams have to mesh with the gears as they seat so there is a bit of lateral motion.

Best thing is to go ahead and take them out if your shims are out of spec.

So if the camchain only drives a gear that in turn drives the camshafts, does that mean you don't have to remove the camchain to adjust the valves? (I've not actually looked into it before.)

You MUST remove the cams to remove the shims. The cams are seperate from the chain. . You line up the cams/chain according to the little marks, insert the backlash retainers, then remove the 6 cam caps which allow for cam removal. You don't have to remove both cams if you don't need to swap shims on both of them.
I just did my valve shims the other day after 24k miles and since I had also replaced the cams with the Megacycle cams. The intake were all at .279mm gap (should be ~.175mm) and the exhaust were all at .351mm (should be ~.275mm). I had to replace all 8 of the shims and now have a rather large supply if they are needed. Let me know if you guys need a certain size and i can get them to ya if your local dealer doesn't have them.
There was also some talk about using the Thunderbird valve shim tool (similar to the older hondas if you ever did them) but it does not work! The honda style used the flat sides of the shim buckets as a pry point, our buckets have beveled edges and you cannot grab them.
Again, you MUST pull the cam to remove the shims. It is also easier to just remove the entire bucket as the shims actually snap into the buckets pretty stiffly and you don't want to be prying and have the shim pop out and drop into the motor either. get it on a bench and insert a small flathead into the little hole and they pop out, but with quite a bit of force needed

I bought a special tool to hold buckets down and remove shims without removing cams. I don't recommend it. Mine was made by K&L Cycle. It is possible to use it and remove some, not all of the shims. The tool bolts to cam cover bolt holes and has retaining pins that hold buckets down. The angle of the tool is about 25 or 30 degrees off from line of lifter travel, so the tool holds them down by just barely catching edge of bucket on an angle. Buckets can snap back into position as you're turning engine over, scratching the side. If I only had to change 1 or 2 that it would work on, I'd be tempted to use it (very carefully).

That might work, but since the difference is only a few turns of the bolts, it would be just as easy to lift the cam completely out of the way.