XJ900 Diversion Valve Adjustment Question

I'm doing a major service on my Divvie (in prep for long Spanish holiday) and have found all valves need adjusting (shims). I normally do all work myself but having checked the price of shims (£6.50 ish pattern £11 genuine) thats a lot of £'s and I'm wondering whether the normal custom and practice [1] when dealers do it is to not charge for shims if they take the old 'uns back. I dont mind DIYing it but it may actually be cheaper to have a dealer do it if on an exchange shim basis.

[1] Once I know custom and practice I'll know if they are BS ing me.

Its also dawning on me (after 37 years slow learning) how eye-wateringly expensive bikes are per mile compared to cars. Also why is it that car callipers which spend their life caked in road salt and crap, get no maintenance, bar new pads, and yet rarely/never seize whereas Yam callipers practically have a manufacturers guarantee to seize even when stored in the dry.

M

 

Oi! No need for this crap.

You're worring about £4.50 difference, times a maximum eight, and you
won't need eight shims. Buy OE. It's safer.

All eight valves may need adjusting, but you're sure to find that
several shims can be swapped around so I doubt you'll have to buy more
than four or five. No, dealers don't do exchanges. Keep the shims -
you'll need them for next time.

I don't know either, but you have woken up to a fundamental truth.

<snip more html crap>

 

You're worring about £4.50 difference, times a maximum eight, and you

What a total PITB that was but all 8 shims are now out. Yamaha wanted
£33+VAT for a removal tool but managed to fashion a bodge from an old C
spanner suitably butchered by angle grinder.

F knows how much this would've cost in a main dealer for labour alone;
screen, inds & fairing off, oil cooler off, carbs off, balance pipes off, do
shims, refit all, balance carbs

Noted your advice not to use pattern, what was the reason, are they not
hardened as good as OE stuff?

My next decision is whether to buy genuine Yam shims or to 'trim' the
original shims with my angle grinder....

M

 

I'd have no problem using pattern shims and have done a few times. In
the past I've exchanged shims at a friendly dealership for a nominal
charge, they let me mix and match from their box of shims for a buck
for each shim I exchanged. I'm quite sure not all the shims in that
box were OEM, they were whatever had come out of customer's machines
possibly mixed with a few new shims.

The last time I did a valve check I bought a complete workshop set
of spare non-OEM shims and from what I can tell they are every bit
as good as Mr. Yamaha's offerings. Thankfully I didn't need to swap
any as I think pulling the cams on the FJR (and getting the timing
right when putting them back in) is a bit of a bastard.

 

Shims - I just don't see that the price difference justifies buying
pattern, and I'll tend to opt for OE parts where I can, but Olson
reports good things, and his judgement is always good.

Now - on reassembly, there's a really *really* important thing to beware
of (yes, I remember doing a valve job on my 900 Diversion). That's
refitting the oil cooler. You'll note there is a spanner flat (big
diameter) on each side, under the main moutning bolts.

You put an open-end spanner on each one as you torque down the mounting
bolts. They're there because if you don't, you can twist the casting as
the mounting bolt(s) tighten(s) down, and it cracks. New oil cooler
time.

I saw them before I started the job. and asked my local dealer what they
were for, and he told me. So I'm telling you

 

You put an open-end spanner on each one as you torque down the mounting

Noted, trashing the oil cooler would definatlety ruin my day

M