Home made tappet tool

[JYD]

10mm wrench and a #8 deck screw. If ya want a handle, screw the deck screw into a length of wood dowel. The head of the screw fits perfect.

Dude I did most of the adjustment with my little home made tool today ( # 10 screw and piece of dowel).

My little ghetto tool (as my daughters friend called it) worked well. I had some difficulty getting at the adjustments in the corner on the # 4 cylinder , so I'll have to come up with something else to finish the adjustment, but I'm proud of my little ghetto tool.

[The CyberPoet]

Just make sure after you are done adjusting all the valve tappets, you rotate the engine 360 degrees and remeasure the clearances again

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

__________________________________________________ ________
CyberPoet's Katana Maintence and Upgrade Parts Offerings
The Best Metal Steel Aluminum Motorcycle Tire Valves in the World, plus lots of motorcycle & Katana (GSX600F / GSX750F) specific help files.

[JYD]

Home made Valve Adjustment tool

Just make sure after you are done adjusting all the valve tappets, you rotate the engine 360 degrees and remeasure the clearances again

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

__________________________________________________ ________
CyberPoet's Katana Maintence and Upgrade Parts Offerings
The Best Metal Steel Aluminum Motorcycle Tire Valves in the World, plus lots of motorcycle & Katana (GSX600F / GSX750F) specific help files.

CP

I'll recheck everything before I start putting he bike back together.
Thanks for the advice.
Is it odd to find that one side of the adjument is right on the spec while the the other side is out of spec.?

[The CyberPoet]

Is it odd to find that one side of the adjument is right on the spec while the the other side is out of spec.?

Not at all. Valves change sizes for all sorts of reasons, including carbon & sulfated ash build-up, valve-seat wear, valve-stem wear, etc. These may not always be the same for both sides of the same cylinder, especially if a previous adjustment didn't have them particularly close to start with.

Tips & Tricks:
While all your valves need to be in-range, the closer the same pair of valves are for a single cylinder, the smoother the power will be from the engine. In other words, if cylinder 1's intake valves are .0044 and .0045, while cylinder 2's intake valves are .0054 and .0058, that's perfectly fine and the engine will be smooth as silk (the big difference between cylinder 1 & 2 will be sorted by the carb sync procedure afterwards). BUT if cylinder 1's intakes are .0044 and .0059 (both in-range, but not very close to each other), that cylinder will breath 'funny' and the engine will never be as smooth as it could be until the adjustment is redone.
When doing valves where a single cam lobe activates a single tappet for both valves of the cylinder, place the smallest sized feeler in the one you aren't adjusting, to keep the tappet from see-sawing. In other words, if your intakes should be .004 to .006, and you are adjusting the left intake valve for cylinder #1, shove a spare .004 under the right-hand intake valve for cylinder #1. This will keep your readings from being off due to any sea-saw effect of the tappet...
Tighter clearances produce more power at the price of more wear, while looser clearances sacrifice a bit of power in the name of engine longevity. In other words, if your intake range is .004 - .006", adjusting to .004 real tightly will give you a bit more power, but moving to the other end of the range (.006) will tend to make your engine last longer (because the risk of damages while overheated are minimized). As a result, I tend to shoot for dead-center values (.005" literally).
If you live in a very hot climate (think Florida, Arizona, etc.), go towards the larger end for the exhaust valves, as they will tend to run hotter than they would in most places.

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

__________________________________________________ ________
CyberPoet's Katana Maintence and Upgrade Parts Offerings
The Best Metal Steel Aluminum Motorcycle Tire Valves in the World, plus lots of motorcycle & Katana (GSX600F / GSX750F) specific help files.