Checked the valve clearance on my K100LT today found that all exhaust valves were 0.25 so they do not require adjustment.
Now the Inlet valve clearance is another matter, all measured at 0.10 that is outside the required 0.15 - 0.20 for inlet valves. As I am not confident enough to attempt replacing the shim's, and on a tight budget. what kind if damage is likely, if I leave things the way the are.

Your advice please

Regards

Pat

Pat, from what I saw of shim changing, if you have enough mechanical knowledge to measure the gap you have enough to replace the shims.

Shim tool compresses the spring, old shim falls out, new shim drops in, remove tool, ride bike.

Didn't answer your question, but someone else will chime in soon enough.

Hi rossko, 

Thanks for the response, I will get the tools and see how it goes from there 

Pat

Pat

If all measure 0.10 you will need thinner shims. But to do that you need to know the thickness of the shims you already have in the bike. You can only find that by taking them out and looking at the thickness stamped on all of them.

Happy to talk on that but have never done a K. You need a tool to get the shims out but its a case of just being methodical. I am curious though that they all measure the same 0.10 while the exhausts were all in spec. Before you go further double check the feeler gauge.

If you know Jim Ellis. He may have one.

I would agree that with them all being the same, that it is more likely that they were set up like that rather than the gaps having closed up due to wear on valve seat / valve head surfaces.

My understanding is that the tappet clearances are there to ensure that the combined thicknesses of the oil films that form between lubricated surfaces when running, do not prevent the valves from closing fully. Hence if you are using a modern multigrade oil that is never going to be as viscous as the oil for which the bike was designed (when running at the colder end of the range), I would guess your current clearances may be fine. Still, I would bow to people with more practical experience than this "new comer"

Interesting point - many people will say that the tappet clearances are to ensure that valves still close with the differential expansion which takes place across the operating temperature range. All the literature I have ever seen that quotes different clearance settings for hot and cold, has had the figures for "hot" larger than the figures for 'cold'. This would imply that the need for a clearance setting has nothing to do with differential expansion.

To be continued I hope - just got a call to head out to the coal seam gas field for some well head inspections.

Running them one size to tight wont do much even in the long term but if you do that as I do then you need to keep a good eye on them and in most cases it is best from an ease of maintenance point to keep them at the specified clearance

Pat O'D wrote:Hi rossko, 

Thanks for the response, I will get the tools and see how it goes from there 

Pat

Pat,

I have the BMW tools here doing nothing but looking pretty in a drawer. You are welcome to borrow them if you wish. Send me a PM with your details and I'll post them over, you can post them back once you're done with them.

There you go Pat.
Looks like you just organised a VALVE PARTY at your place.