'10 TE250 valve adjustment woo's

So tonight I checked my valves on the new 250. The intakes were .003 and .004 and the exhausts were both at .005. So I decided to take the plunge and re-shim them my self.

I started by aligning the indent marks on the cam shafts with each other and with the piston at TDC. Then I stuff some shop rags around the cams so if I dropped anything it wouldn't fall into the lower end. I went to remove the bolts that hold the cam holder covers on and they were extremely tight. So tight on the exhaust side I had to use a breaker bar on the Allen wrench to get them loose.

After that all was good. The shims are pretty easy to get to and remove. On top of that they were the same size as the shims I had purchased for my Honda 250x. So I put in a size smaller shims and put the cover on the intake side and of course as I'm snugging them up I feel the threads let loose on one of the bolts.

I was so pissed, I hadn't even put a lot of torque on the bolts yet so I could recheck the valve gaps. While they were now good, the damage had been done. These crappy little bolts have such fine threads on them I have no idea how they would last and how the factory had them so tight. You could tell they hadn't put any thread lock on them or any other stuff on the threads.

So in the end, keep in mind that these are fine threaded bolts. My X has huge deep threads on the bolts that holds the cam and can really get a good bite.

Also, keep in mind that the bolts are of different lengths so don't mix them up. And no, I didn't use a short bolt in one of the longer bolt holes.

So, now the bikes in the shop and we'll see how much this costs me to fix. In my mind this is a POS design and this should never of happened. I can't believe they used such fine threaded small bolts and how they had them so tight. As you can read I'm not very happy at the moment, but in the end I'm not seeing the quality I thought I would.

Doug

Looks like a real design fault Doug. I hope the fix isn't too big a hit on your wallet.

Well, I truly hope there's some "good will" on Huskies part. Wow. That's a hard one to overcome, I mean really, what would a guy do different to have prevented this looking back now???

They overtightened the cam caps at the factory.

They do crap like that all the time..maybe they do not have torque wrenches in Italy?

They should fix it for you.
Maybe a good machinst can get a helicoil in there.

I'm kind of hoping they can change them all to standard threaded bolt sizes that have more "meat" on them. I can hear it on Tuesday though when they look at it. I'm sure it will be "my fault" and I'll have to pay. It was a good thing the wife was helping out and she saw it all and knows what really happen<G>. She makes a good helper when I'm doing this kind of work. I could hear the disbelieve in the mechanics voice when I dropped it off though.

We'll see what they say. I'm almost cooled off from this. I was just about to post the bike for sale last night.

DW

My valves were a bit tight....one exhaust was .005 so I orderd some shims.

I used a beam type torque wrench and noted the little screws (5mm)came loose @ 7nm and the larger screws (6mm)in front came out @ 10 nm. I did notice one of the small screws came out @ 9nm.

When I tighten them back up I'll use 5nm and 9nm.

If you used a breaker bar they were too tight from the factory!

The exhaust cam journals looked untouched....the intake cam journals had a little wear....no binding but there was a little aluminum slurry on the oil.

I noted there are no roller bearings on the cams. The cam is located in place by a tab that spins in an a slot in the head. I hope this design will not result in a wear issue.....the price of a light motor I guess.

So I called the dealer on Friday and they they told me they were waiting for a "service bulletin" from husky. I couldn't get more info out of them at the time though. So I'm not sure exactly what husky means as a "service bulletin" but it kind of sounded to me that they might know there is an issue with my situation and might have a fix. My fingers are crossed that they might take care of the problem (cost) as well.

Doug

Any update? Fixed? How?

The torque settings for the M5 bolts should be 6 Nm- 0.6 Kgm- 4.43 ft/lb.

The valve cover bolts should be. 8 Nm- 0.8 Kgm- 5.9 ft/lb

The dealer actually called today after weeks without the bike. They now have to take pictures of the head / bolts and such and send it off to husky. I'm getting pretty PO about the wait as well as why this happened in the first place. I know I'm going to end up having to buy a new head, I can just see it coming. The part that pisses me off is I know it was a manufacturing issue. There is no way the bolts should have been that tight to begin with as well as them using these super fine threaded bolts.

The service guy was saying that there isn't even enough material around the bolts to put in any inserts or such. My thought was just retap the holes with standard threads and replace the bolts with ones with "meat" on them for threads.

I'm pretty much ready to sell the POS bike and buy a new Jap bike again. The quality of labor really leaves a lot to be desired. loose engine bolts, loose this and that, over-tight tight bolts.

Doug

DougW I understand your frustration. I can only imagine the inside of the new x-lite motors is pretty thin in material, but I would investigate the helicoil option on my own, if Husky doesnt fix you up.

If you bought the TE for the plate, you know there isn't any Jap bikes available of the same caliber.