where is the video on how to do this? I dont even know what tool I need to measure whatever the hell where ever the hell...
The tool is a feeler gauge, or a piece of shim stock Where you measure is between the round shim on top of each of the 4 valves and the underside of the lifter arm. 0.004-0.006" under the intake lifter 0.006-0.008" under the exhaust lifter
what's the spec range for valve clearance on the 630? I just checked mine. Exh: .007" (both) Int: R - .004" L- .005" Seems tight to me, which would explain the hard starting symptoms I've been having since getting the bike back from the dealer. I had to bring the bike back under warrantee because it just stopped making power all of a sudden on the highway. Turns out that there was an "errant" bolt in the bottom end that apparently was left there upon manufacture. The bolt got sucked up by the cam chain and ended up throwing the valve timing off. Ever since they re-assembled the motor with new cams, chain, sprockets, etc. the bike has been hard to start. Wondering if I should even ride the bike if the valve clearance is too tight? Additionally I'm sort of confused by this thread. I check the valves all the time on my Yamaha WR400 supermoto and I know that if the bike is hard to start that would mean tight clearances (valves not sealing properly) which would be due to valve stem lengthening & seat erosion. Same shim under bucket arrangement (sort of). It seems that the general attitude of this thread is that the SMS goes in the opposite direction as far as wear goes. The valve clearance gets loose on these motors due to wear?
Clearance is fine, look at my post above yours. And no, the clearance gets smaller just like almost every other bike, but not as quickly as some. Definitely check the cam timing, and you may have bent a valve if the timing was off far enough. Other possibility is that they left off the auto-decompression lobe on the exhaust cam.
Does it run good once it's warmed up? How hard is 'hard to start'? I have to pull the cold start lever and give it a quarter throttle or it just cranks and cranks. They are lean when cold.
RDTCU, they replaced the entire head assembly (cams, etc.) so no worries about a bent valve since it's all new. CJ it runs fine once it's warmed up, and yeah, that's about my starting procedure now, give it a bit of throttle and pull the enrichening lever and it fires right up. I was just concerned b/c when the bike was new, it just started, no enrichening lever/throttle just pull in the clutch and it would fire immediately. After the whole "errant bolt" episode it's been more difficult to start. on another note, I pulled the small oil drain plug and only about 1/4 cup of oil drained out, then pulled the paper filter, and then the screen on the shifter side and all the oil drained. Weird? I know about the magnetic plug, but I didn't take that out till last.....
Yeah, I pull both plugs, the filter and the left side screen each oil change. I milled down the end of my front axle driver from the Husky tool kit to the proper hex size to remove the large drain plug, so no large Allen needed in my kit.
OK so here's some pretty dumb questions but please bear with me. I started my first valve adjustment on my 2011 630, I had the first one done at the shop and it was within spec ( at 800 miles). When I pulled the cover off I was expecting to be able to slide the feller gauge all the way under at some point, but checking the intake side from .008 to .026 the gauge only went under less. at .015 only the rounded portion of the gauge goes under the rocker arm. I do see a little movement in the rocker arm at .015 but I can't slide the gauge all the way under. To be clear the gauge does not go all the way under the rocker arm at .008 and barely goes under it at all at .026 I was expecting, if it was out of spec that at some point before .015 the gauge would slide all the way under the rocker arm and stop somewhere after .015 for argument say .020 which would mean I would need a .005 shim, right? Or am I fine and my valves are still in spec. Here's what I'm thinking, Intake side if the gauge does not slide under after .015 you are in spec. if the gauge will slide under at .016 you are out of spec .001? Exhaust side if the gauge will not slide under between .015 and .020 you are in spec if the gauge slides all the way under at .021 you are out of spec .001? If this is the case then why the low end range? All help is much appreciated. I there's a video or something out there to explain it better please let me know. Again thanks for the help.
Are you mixing metric and English in that post? The gage "goes" when it slides completely between the lifter and the tip of the valve. If it doesn't go entirely under it, try something smaller until you find something that fits. The spec has a max and a min to ensure proper valve lift AND consistent valve clearance. If the clearance is too small (as some valve clearance shrinks over time as the valves and seats wear) you can begin to wear the lifters and cams by trying to hold the valves open. To be clear the specs are 0.004"-0.006" for the intake and 0.006"-0.008" for the exhaust.
^^ This. If too tight can get very hard to start as well. The 630 has to be one of the easiest shim-bucket heads to adjust. The rocker shaft keeper clip even has a lifting hole. I've gone completely metric for MC valve train - easier to keep track of the spec - .10-.15mm for intake and .15-.20 for exhaust. Make sure the motor is TDC by the mark on the camshaft gears. Use a go-no-go feeler method. If its out of speck tight or loose remove the shim and get the next size up or down - they come in .05mm increments. My indy will swap them for me. Standard shim, fits hondas and others. If a .10mm feeler won't fit under the rocker on a intake you need the next size shim.
Ok I found one problem my feeler gauge does not go small enough, the smallest is .008 in. or .203 mm. Please don't think me dense this is my first try at valve adjustments. Looks like I need a smaller gauge set. Then i'll re-check and see where I'm at. FWIW: I haven't had any real starting problems but I have noticed a slight loss in performance.
It pays to have the right tools (I've just got a few pieces of scrap shim stock from here at work...)
OK so got the right gauge and the results are. Intake side (side closest to rear tire) right: (if you were sitting on bike) Go- .004in .102mm No Go- .005 .127mm Left: Go- .006in .152mm No Go .007 1.78MM Exhaust Left: Go- .006in .152mm No Go- .007in .178mm Right: Go- .007in .178 mm No Go- .008mm .203mm So it looks like my left side intake is out of tolerance, I did not mic the shim but with the numbers can I assume I need a .05mm shim to put my left intake back in spec? or should I pull the shim and Mic it? Thanks for the help and info guys and yes this is very easy once you figure out what you're doing add the help from this site and it's a breeze.
You need to know what you've got before you get a new shim. You're not ADDING shim, you're REPLACING the shim with the next size. But if the 0.007" won't go, you should be OK with what you've got. The gap will only get smaller.
Ok I think I'm seeing it now. So what is actually happening is my right intake and left exhaust valves are actually closer to being out of spec then the other two? So how long do you think before I check them again? I'm actually at about 5K now (I say about because my spedo and odo is off with the aftermarket 17in tire/rims I had on it for the longest time.)
If it's reading 5k and you had SM wheels on for a while, you're well under 5k. I checked mine at 600 miles, ~1200 miles, ~5k miles and just checked them again at 10k miles. One exhaust valve was on just a touch high at 600, so I gave it til 1200 to see if It would wear in and the gap would shrink, but it didn't, so I went one step thicker on the shim to quieten it down a bit. Since then, nothing has changed more than 0.001" in the last ~9000 miles. Yours might be different, but if mine hasn't changed in 10k miles with the way I flog it, then you should be good for a good long while.
