But I have no space... Same old story. [URL]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/300457856633[/URL]
That is really nice, but I think it's too much money. I suppose the dealer selling it has to factor in a decent profit margin. You can get a very nice Supa 5 for £300 or less - I know, because I bought one for £275, ran it. sold it to Wolf for £275, and then bought it back off him for £275, played with it again and then sold it for about £300. In similar vein, I have just bought this: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/250685118353 I'm not sure why. I slapped in a bid at the last minute, just out of curiosity, and won it. The Krauser kit is worth £150 on its own. The seller bought it a few weeks ago for £700, so that's a result for her, but I still think £800 is a pretty good price. Question now is where to put it. I spent a couple of hours yesterday clearing out the garage: I took six plastic crates full of old crap down to the dump this morning. So there *might* be room.....
I was hovering over bidding on an immaculate original 18,000-mile YZF750R. Starting money £1000. This one http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/110573881972 But I couldn't be arsed to trog to Penzance and also (crucially) 18k miles is the major service time for one of these, with a valve shim needed. But it's always the same thing in August: nobody really buys bikes because they're away on holiday. Parts, on the other hand.... my latest series of 400 Four bits has been going great guns.
It's a helluva lot of bike for a grand. I've shimmed one of them, though (well, it was an FZ750: same engine, really). Twenty valves. Shims cost something like £4 each and it needed something like 12-14 changing. Some I was able to swap round, but I think I still had to buy 10 or so. And the shims are under the buckets....
(The Older Gentleman) banged this out Well, it's academic - I really don't have the space. I liked the idea of the old Supa-5 style with a modern engine with no points to bugger about with. Now I've discovered that pointless electronic ignitions are available for Bantams, I'm considering one... But I'm also considering a Jawa350 - an older one with the chrome panels on the tank. I think I've lost the plot... That's rather nice. If a chap was looking for a shaftie tourer, that would make a good one. <Awaits the tale of the self-destructing garage>
The black one came home with a nice new MOT yesterday, it was a nice surprise to find that the new rim & spokes from DS are stainless. The wheel man made a good job and I also gave it a chain and sprockets which were marginal and new front pads while it was apart. Nice bimble this morning, the Motad makes a lovely noise. It now stops much better having boiled the disk in caustic soda to get the grease out and given it new pads. Gave it some beans on the Mendip Highway, did I mention the noise, it just wants to rev its little guts out. Not really much quicker than the GS500 but it just feels and sounds lovely. I am beginning to understand why these things are addictive. Did I mention the noise ....
I have a tin of assorted brass shimming (another heirloom) so I would be tempted to cut out appropriate shapes to fit between the shims and the buckets.
Don't be a tit. These shims are shaped like tiny buckets themselves. They're designed to be a tightish push fit on the end of the valve stem.
Ahhhh... Different to the shim&bucket varieties I have seen before then. Never mind - just some random musings.
Shims on top of buckets tend to be much bigger, yes, and coin-spared. Shims that go under buckets vary. Actually, I could be wrong about the Yamaha ones, but I think they're shaped the way I described. Anyway, I really wouldn't use home-made shims.
Nor would I, and I'm a bodger. All the shims I've ever seen have been solid flat discs made out of precision ground hardened steel. The ones on top have to act as bearing surfaces for the cams as well.
You are missing my point. The solid flat disk fits into a bucket. Adding a little thickness between the disk and bucket means that there is no bearing, just a bit of packing. Think Mk2 Jags, this is exactly how you adjust them. Measure all of the gaps with feelers and record. Out with the cams, separate the disk and bucket, take out the existing shims and measure with a micrometer. Add or reshuffle the shims to add the required thickness to each one then reassemble. Every clearance should now be correct, if not you get to do it all again and learn how to use precision feelers and a micrometer properly.
No, it really, really doesn't. Not under-bucket ones, anyway. Top-of-bucket, yes, but even then if you think adding shims to a system that was only designed to take one per valve is a good idea, you're living in a dream world. I've seen a Z900 that spat out a shim. Not a pretty sight. And if you have two or even three piled atop each other.... Just don't do it. It may work on a Mark Two Jag that turns at half the speed of a bike engine, but don't even think of trying it on a motorcycle.
I stil wouldn't. First, your shim would need to be really flat to stop it springing slightly and lifting the original shim; second, you're also raising the shim and slightly reducing the amount of recess it fits into. Third, IME, shim & bucket adjustment tends to close up, not open up like OHV clearances, so unless you've got a set of much thinner shims you can use or swap around then it's a non-starter anyway. Given that shim & bucket - especially shim under bucket - adjustment is only done very infrequently and in either case is a total pain in the arse (with the slight exception of 8v K100s) then it's worth doing it right.
Having just done this to an XK engine (my S type) the process you describe is basically correct. However, adding bits of brass to shims is not. The shims must be replaced with the correct size +/-. There is *always* a slight amount of movement of the shims in the buckets (the buckets rotate as well as shim side to side movement). Unhardened, brass shims simply wouldn't last.
I wouldn't do it on a Jag either. The cams have to come out to check the shims - which is bit of a fag - and shims cost buttons (even OE Jag - still available) so it's not worth it in time alone.
Yebbut, getting down to actual cases, it worked just fine in Rhodesia during the sanctions era and I still have this tin of assorted shimming looking for a purpose..... It will come in handy even if I never use it.
