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You're absolutely correct about the need for adjustment. In fact, you can usually tell it's time to make the adjustments when the top end chatter gets noisy at startup, then goes away as the engine gets hot. [if it doesn't go away even at full temp you're WAY past due for an adjustment] I'll actually be doing the job myself this weekend for the 4th time. That said, a few helpful tips - 1) Make sure the engine is COLD and has preferably sat over night before attempting these adjustments. 2) When you think you have the cylinder at TDC, to be certain, you should be able to grab pushrod with your fingers and easily turn it. If you can't turn it or it's really difficult, you're not at TDC and the adjustment will be incorrect. 3) If you go back and and check the clearance in the book [8:24] .04mm is the *top* end of the acceptable range. [i.e. Anymore than .04mm is too much play.] So by setting it at .04mm you're going to be out of range much sooner. Best to set it at .000 and be certain to measure BOTH the adjustable and NON-adjustble rocker arm with the feeler gauge. BOTH need to have the EXACT same clearance. Otherwise you'll have one valve opening sooner and the other not opening all he way. Bonus tip: Invest in a ratcheting Allen wrench; it makes life MUCH easier when getting at some of those hard to reach bolts. Great job and keep the videos coming!
Interesting. I was confinced by everyone that it was not adjustable. A lot of people are not happy with this video because they disagree with you. Problem is, there is clearly an adjuster. Now I have more research to do. Thank you very much for the video.
2003 roadstar 1600 with 110k miles. NEVER broke down. Never been in a shop and the only time the crankcase was split was a factory recall on the 3rd gear when the bike had 3k miles on it and never adjusted the valves. Lea e them alone and ride it. But I have to say....great vid👍
I strongly disagree my manual says every like 12k miles i need to check my clearence I'll follow what my manual says i ahould do, hobeztly why wait for a problem before maintaining and fixing when you can prevent so much damage by simply checking and adjusting
LoL, good video. You do realize that this is a TWO cylinder bike right? You referenced cylinder one two three and four! There are four valves per cylinder though. Good pictures, good instructions on the disassembly and I got a better idea of which set of feeler guages to bring home from the video. God bless you and keep you safe.
Joe Spivey still a 2cylinder with twin plugs. The firing order is 1and 2. Both plugs fire in the same cylinder at one time. Same as my sportster S and my twin plug shovel head drag bike.....still 2 cylinders
It is a hydraulic lifter and it does keep the valves at 0 clearance. The important thing is to have both valves on the same lifter at the same clearance. If one has less than the other then it will act like a too tight exhaust valve and stay partially open during the compression cycle costing you power and efficiency. Leave it long enough and the valve face will burn away because the heat will not be conducted through the seat into the head. Another point is that 405 degrees is not a turn and a half but 1 revolution and anther 45 degrees, 360 + 45 = 405.
I put my finger in the spark plug hole and crank over ,it will try to push your finger out ,that is compression stroke, that saves time and works on any motor
Clueless video about how the valve train works. The adjustment is syncing the two valves on the same rocker to zero clearance. The spec numbers are MAXIMUM allowable lash. The hydraulic lifters takes care of the actual valve clearances. The popping is more than likely the AIS is still installed adding air to the exhaust port to burn off unburned gasses. This was all a waste of time. I’m sure this bike suffers from tinkeritus.
I started to make the same observation basically there should really only be what is referred to as "oil clearance " between 0 and 1.5 thousandths Like cam or rod bearings .
Just curious if this solved your problem? My 04 Roadstar started backfiring on me this year. Ive been all through the carb, new plugs, new diaphram cover, and its still backfiring. Im wondering if the valves being out of adjustment could be the issue?
When I was in high school a dude had a Firebird that he just bought. His buddies asked him what type of engine it had and he opened the hood and counted four spark plugs and yelled out it's a 4 cylinder. Then I asked him if he was going to count the 4 on the opposite side.
Have you tried adjusting valves by jacking the motorcycle rear up and rotating the back wheel on the highest gear to move your pistons I've done it a. Few times on different motorcycles?
Consider this a scolding Thomas, you are giving incorrect information here, when ever you tune up any motorcycle , you must adjust the cam chain tension 1st, if it has a cam chain adjustment, also replace dirty air cleaners at this time. adjustments are with a cold engine, you are reading the valve specs incorrectly , the first number on the spec sheet is .04 - mm , that is the millimeter measurement, the numbers after are the thousandths measure ment, .0016 which is basically one and a half thousands intake and exhaust, I beleive you are trying to help here ! but you are not ! learn to read metric and American scales, anyone who took your advice should go back and reset their valves, because the valves are too loose and noisy! I have been a metric bike mechanic for 50 years, buy a OEM manual for the bike you have and read specs correctly.
the spec is between 0 and 0.04mm I always adjust mine at 0, I finger tight the adjuster until it makes contact and lock it there, removes a lot of the valve clatter these bikes are known for.
Eric Leduc - Hi, did you measure the Space before new adjusting? Was it clearly more Space than 0,04 mm? When i tried to Measure After 30.000 km i had zero 0mm Space, its hard to geht there to measure it - very small room for measuring.
@@Marabuntas01 I don't measure since the spec is 0 anyways. I just adjust them. I loosen the adjuster bolts and back off the adjuster, then I use a short 3/16 socket fits just right on the square drive of the adjuster screw. I screw it back in with my fingers until it just makes contact and I lock it there. Might be noisy in the beginning because the hydraulic lifters will be drained, just let the bike idle for a bit then go take a ride.
You will find the valves always tight because this engine has hydraulic lifters you do not need to adjust valves, if you do and you go to check them again you will find them tight as in the beginning.....plus this is a twin isn't 4 cylinders
Try using a thicker weight oil. Like Mobile, Amsoil ,Royal Purple 20w50 motorcycle oil . I bought my RS new in 07 at 1st oil change I went with Mobil 1 v-twin 20w50 I was Impressed how much quieter the engine was I have almost 50,000 miles on my bike and have never adjusted the valves .
Mr Brian, aloha bubba. Got a question if u don’t mind: I have an ‘08 Road Star, 1st year of the fuel injected models. Been a biker for over 20+yrs now & mechanically inclined for the most part. Bought my bike 4mo ago from original owner, mint condition. Now, he had done a few upgrades. 1)Cobra Speedster longshots, 2)direct replacement K&N filter, 3)Power Commander V. When I first got the bike, it backfired a lot on decel with flames outa exhaust, so done research & purchased a Baron’s AIS/air intake system delete plugs which fixed the backfireing. Now, lately I’ve been havin’ probs with higher rpm’s of bike sputtering/choking & have had to ‘blip’ the throttle to make it catch again. Gas mileage has been very poor. I expected to get maybe 120mi to a tank, but now only gettin’ roughly 60-80. Recently changed oil/filter, changed plugs NGK’s, noticed air filter was saturated with oil from original owner, so recleaned, dried, & lightly oiled. Cleaned butterfly valve & throttle body, & instead of taking time to make my own exhaust baffles, I went ahead & added some Big City Thunder monster baffles. Thought my problem may have been bad gas or running to high octane rating(93), so changed to 89-91. Still had the problems. So then ran a few tanks of SeaFoam & Marvel Mystery Oil, additives I’ved used for years with no problems, but still having the starving issue at highway rpm’s. Currently have bike in shop. They said my valves were dirty/carbed up, & wondered if possibly the overly saturated K&N air filter from original owner may have caused that. Just today the shop took bike for a spin without air filter. Said it ran like a champ, both with power commander plug in & unplugged. They said as soon as they reinstalled air filter, the starving issue came back at highway rpm’s, so they believe it’s an air intake symptom. Gonna ask them tomorrow if they even checked the valve clearances. Today they asked me to bring in my AIS that I took off & wanted to do a test with it reinstalled. What’s ur thoughts bubba? You think, maybe, I need an aftermarket air intake now since I deleted that AIS? Thank you n’ God Bless in advance
aloha Jason. i think the intake valve is to tight and the exhaust valve has loosened up a bit. adjust those valves for sure. its not getting enough air. has anyone messed with the adjustments on the carb ? may check those as well. but clearly not enough air. thanks for watching.
Hey bubba, thanks for the reply. Shop actually wasn’t able to duplicate the discrepancy anymore. I reckon since I’ve ran MMO in it a couple tanks, it must’ve cleared things up. Even took back off the AIS again. It’s an ‘08, so 1st year of the fuel injected Road Stars. Runs like a champ now. Thanks again n’ God Bless
My timing marks align different then which you stated for the second cylinder, they align like said in the service manual tho, maybe look into that and see if your correct? I was confused at first be each time I check it was where the manual showed the marks, just trying to clear the confusion for others
I have a 2000 Road Star and it has a hydraulic valve-lifting system which is suppose to the elevate the need to manually adjust the valves. Wonder why they got rid of it? That said, nice video on how to adjust valves.
i will need to search it, i do them all this way and sometimes when the book says 2-5 i just go to 3 etc. you get it. the faster it closes, the better as far as i am concerned. but let me look it up for you !
Awesome help IF this applies to a 2002 roadstar I have quite a bit of chatter nothing when cold but when it gets to temp their Is a constant tick and gets louder as the engine speeds up
yep, the valves have got a little loose, its normal. adjust them and not only will the chatter stop. ( rocker arm to cam lobe tap ) but you will increase your horse power a little. because your valve will stay open just a little longer,,, thanks for watching.
darn him, good luck when you reach him, let us know how it worked out for you it will help others here too. thanks man now page him 911 and tell him you wanna ride !!! ha. thanks again
I Just did my 1600 with 18K miles on it and found when I adjusted the clearance on the adjustable valve (all 4 were too tight) the non adjustable valves were still too tight (couldn't get the .04mm feeler gauge to pass through) so the adjustable valve was .04mm and the non adjustable valve was 0, is this normal and acceptable or a problem? thanks
I am in the process of doing my valves now. However the smallest feeler gauge I have is .002". I know the spec is 0 - 0.0016". Could I achieve zero lash by running the adjustment down with my fingers until it makes contact with the valve, tighten the nut and call it good?? Thanks in advance.
The trouble with that is when you tighten the nut you may also tighten the adjuster as well . After you tighten it you should try and rock it . It should just barely move up and down if it doesn't it may be too tight and not allow the valve to close when the engine is hot .
Thx, but I'm confused. At video mark 1.12, we saw the manual and you commented that would would probably average the clearances out to 15mm intake & 30mm exhaust. Then later on at the video 10.22 mark, you said Intake 4 thousandth, Exhaust 4 thousandths. Please clarify if you see this. My buddys bike will be here in 2 days for a carb clean & tune. THANK YOU! -
if you're going 360 degrees, it is not different. If 180 degrees, it is different because the cam turns twice the resolution as the crank. thanks for watching!
Is there a difference between your 01 roadstar and an 04 1700? Mine pops once on throttle release, have vance and hines 2 to 1 open (baffle removed) exhaust and seemed to be and smell rich. I've been slowly leaning the mixture out at the enrichment screw and not been able to remove the pop or backfire. have any advice?
The AIS system located front lower routes unburnt fuel back to the jugs. At least in my '12 the decel popping is always there, it just gets much louder without those 20 lb mufflers choking things. There is a kit, basically blocking plates to plug the jug holes for the gas return and a plug for the vacuum. Alternately, but leaving all the unnecessary plumbing there is a video describing how to bypass it, eliminating the pop, no parts needed, just moving hoses and existing clamps. Don't chase a system adjusting when yours is likely due to emission plumbing
@@SirLoinofBeef235 don't chop the throttle so abruptly after a hard pull, popping on decel is almost always a lean condition opening the pms screw will help but go to far and mpg will suffer
Hey Thomas your videos are very helpful. Thanks. I have an 01 Roadstar and the number 3 and 4 pistons are not firing. Any ideas on what I need to check for.
I tried this. Still misfires. Well I wasn’t sure how to do the front. Mainly because my gears in the decompression area. The dots were not on opposite ends after rotating 1.5 counter clockwise. I saw the single line. 1dot was opposite. Other was off to the side. But any way. The rear cyl is misfiring in hot idle and low gears. I just rebuilt the engine. 2000 1600. Only thing I didn’t touch was the camshaft area. But did remove the big gear (the cam timing gear) in decompression area. I had both dots aligned at tdc as in yr vid. Ran great before until oil pump gear broke. But again fixed and rebuilt. New plugs with .031 to .035 gaps on all four. Wiring cleaned. Coil wires tested. They all spark.carb rebuilt and cleaned
adjusting the valves by a few 1000s is not going to change the timing to where you break a oil pump. did your valves even need adjusted? were they loose, or to tight. it sounds like you may have not had the timing correct when removing the gear. or replacing the gear. let me know where i can help. thanks for watching.
Almost everything in this video is nonsense. Good enough to see the basic procedure and specs but everything he’s saying about valves, clearances and how they work is wrong.
The service manual says yes, but the gaskets are metal. First time I adjusted my valves, I just reassembled everything no problem. This time around I'm getting a very slight oil leak. Suggestion was to put a tiny bit of aviation gasket sealer on the gaskets before reassembly. A complete new set of gaskets (2 for each cylinder) will set you back over 200AUD... making this a pretty expensive service "by the book"!
Well opened mine up and could not adjust the valves. The reason why is I couldn't get the filler gauge under the adjustable side or the slip side if I adjusted the adjustable side to get the feeler gauge to slide under it snuggly then the slip side would be even tighter. So I'm at a loss both sides seem too tight 0.04mm feeler gauge would not fit under either the adjustable or slip side. if out of adjustment I would think one side would be loose one side would be tight. I need more info I guess.
if you can not get them under ( too tight when valves are floating ) then they are out of adjustment. like a guitar, you can go past the point of being tight and make them rel loose and tighten back up to specs, just be sure when you do that the valves are floating. thanks for watching.
Here's the thing when you loosen the one that has the lock nut the one that slips Titans so if they're both tight if I loosen the one with the lock nut on it it's going to tighten the other one that's already tight is this not correct?
@@thomasbriansavingmoney the marks on the cam and the crank gear are slightly out of alignment when at top dead center at opposite ends of the gears if you check the manual you'll see what I'm talking about they're not straight inline like they are when they're just eighth of an inch from each other. There are two valves on each side of one cylinder. If you adjust the valve that has the Locking nut and adjusting screw to the specifications that will tighten the other valve that does not have a locking nut and adjusting screw. In your video I did not see you check the slip valve to see if it was in Spec with the adjusting valve. can you clarify I'm at a loss to understand what's going on here I should be over to adjust mine also. Okay, my thinking on this may be wrong. I plan on opening up the valve covers again I'm going to adjust the valves to .04 mm. I will just ignore the valve that is the slip one on the same rocker arm. I think that is what I should have done in the first place. I think those two valves move in sync with each other. Then I will adjust the valve on the other side of the same piston. Then move to the front cylinder and do the same.
@@thomasbriansavingmoney thanks I finally got my head wrapped around on exactly what was going on with adjusting the valves. Tore down again today the adjusting went real well got it all back together no more backfiring when I rev it up and it comes back down off of the rev up. So thanks a lot for your time. Your video was great and it seems to be the only one out there, so once again thank you much my friend. now to adjust the carburetor because I put stock pipes back on my bike. 👍👍
Is a hydraulic lifter bike. The only reason there's a valve adjustment is to equalize the two valves cuz it's four valve bike. Two intake. Two exhaust.
What is the first sign of needing an adjustment? I have an 04 road star Silverado. Had it for a year. Runs fine, but still want to know what to look out for
Just read the manual, it gives you the milage interval. As time passes, valves "set" and the interval increases. Big Japanese bikes with over 50k miles pretty much don't need adjustments anymore.
The valve train is noisy on these bikes and always will be. 20w-50 mobile 1 Vtwin oil helps a little.. Just do your oil and filters every 5k miles and ride the damn thing like you stole it.
Set valve lash to zero! Hydraulic lifters takes care of the rest. If engine is out of balance(hence the horrible vibration that will ensue), your using the wrong oil.
Hey bud I'm real busy but mine is chattering too at warm temp. Took it to shop and they said they adjusted timing... but chatter still there, and now I have to take it back in to adjust values.My question is, can u adjust timing and not valve's. I just wanna know if there getting over on me cause bolts on bothering sides look untouched. I would appreciate a quick response cause scheduled to take it back this afternoon.
Why make it that complicated? Turn the motor until you see the intake valve open and close and then get to TDC with screwdriver. I just use that adjuster thing to make sure things are even between intake and exhaust ( just turn it down until it contacts). Most of the time I don't even bother with the timing marks. The preload on the lifters will take care of the rest.
Addendum: On the ones with performance cams and collapsible pushrod tubes and adjustable pushrods I bottom out the lifters and back off about half a turn which provides maximum preload. Nigel tells me the engine will grow up to 3/8 inch when really hot. Has worked fabulous for many thousands of miles.
I thought it was great. Instead of a bunch of hem hawing around wasting my time. One thing to point out. Proper way to say the measurement is 4 hundredth of a mm or 40 thousands of a MM. Or in SAE or imperial measurement. it showed .0016". Which not sure if they make a feeler gauge in SAE at .0016" so it would probably be a .0015 feeler. Many refer to it as 1 and a 1/2 thousands of an inch.
You're right , I'm a machinist and I'm thinking wait 4 thousandths that's like a mile ! That may be correct valve clearance for a 1975 cb500 but not for modern big V-twin Yamaha !
@@thomasbriansavingmoney ok I'll subscribe and be waiting on it. I understood everything you said but if you do a full guide for the adjustments I would appreciate it.
