Valve Clearances tightening

[bflint]

If they are going to charge you full price for the clearance inspection/adjustment job, they should set all valves back to the center of the spec range. If a cam or both have to come out, may as well get things exactly right. I always set my valves to the center of the range so if they drift one way or the other a bit, they'll still be fine.

Hypothetically, if a customer agreed ahead of time with the shop that if any valves were right at the edge of a spec limit (and the rest were within spec) they could be left alone in exchange for a lower cost, that would seem to be okay.

Pulling the cams adds a lot of work to the overall job. Especially since the cam chain isn't long enough to allow the intake cam to come out with its sprocket still installed.

I had one exhaust valve out of spec (loose and ticking) at the first check and none out of spec since then with 30,000mi on the clock now. However, I've swapped at least a dozen shims over the next two checks to bring borderline valves back to the middle of their spec range.

I emailed my original post to the motorcycle shop (El Cajon MotoWorld) and asked for their head mechanics feedback.