feeling the feeler guage.

[chipripper]

Hello everyone. I am approaching 6K on my '08 stock s2r1k and am starting to do my first valve check/adjust. I have read just about all of the tutorials, and watched the videos, and i feel confident in the process measurements etc. My question is about the feeling of the feeler gauge. I have the vert. cylinder open and at tdc. Middle pulley timing mark at 3 0clock top pulley timing mark at 7 ish. valves closed. belts are on.

Without touching anything i can't get even the smallest feeler in the opener. if i barely give the opener a lift with my fingers i can fit in a .004" and have it slide around nice and smooth and a .005" kind of tight

If i put medium pressure on the closing arm with a wood chopstick i can slide a .005" nice and smooth and a .006" kind of tight.

The measurements seem to be inline with what they should be but, in the beginning of the video it says the opening rocker should be a little loose. mine is pretty tight. is this from the belts being on? Should i have to manipulate the opening arm to slide feelers?

Thank you all in advance for any help...

[Mr Earl]

Try pulling the clip that shoves the rocker arm over.  That may free up the rocker a bit and enable more accurate measurements.

I'd encourage you to remove the belts for the measurements.  I was a hold-out until recently, but it's just so much easier and more accurate.  You just need to keep track of where you are.  I painted vertical-TDC/compression witness marks on my crank and cam pulleys.

BTW, are you positive the cylinder's at TDC-compression?  And what's your thinnest feeler gauge?  The standard sets start at .004" which is really to thick for this work.  CA-cycleworks has a good set.

[chipripper]

Thanks for the reply Mr. Earl. My thinnest feeler is .0015" and it just barley slips under the intake opener and wont slip under the exhaust opener without giving the arm a light lift.

To establish tdc i am lining up all of the timing marks for horizontal tdc then rolling wheel forward till both vert valves close and air blows out of spark plug hole. a chopstick down the spark plug hole to indicate when the piston reaches the top. this leaves the drive pulley at 3 oclock and vert cam pulley at 7 oclock as other posts have suggested.

I will make a vert tdc mark as you have suggested and remove the belts.

any other suggestions most welcomed.

[Mr Earl]

It may be worthwhile to perfectly set TDC-compression by first, doing as you've already done, then looking in the window on the left-side case to align the timing marks there.  Sometimes it seems as though the piston is at TDC by the stick-something-in-the-plug-hole technique, but usually true TDC is further along in the cycle.  BTW, I only use the horizontal cylinder crank & cam witness marks for belt changes, preferring to use the air-blow/stick method followed by the flywheel witness mark alignment.  It's foolproof, and that's a good thing for me.

It's entirely possible that the openers have zero clearance and the closers have opened up, after __________ miles?  But always good to double triple quadruple-check the measurements before buying or sanding shims.

[chipripper]

Thanks for the help. I didn't realize there was a second timing mark on the left side for vert TDC. I am feeling good about my numbers now and am going to get to sanding after i measure a couple more times.

"air-blow/stick method"  I nominate this the official name of the method...