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Thank you Doc, I'll take your suggestion and stick to my standard (inch size) feeler gauges with .001" increment blades.
On the topic of valve adjustment (for those of you who do your own): There's a small, metallic plate with two nuts attached to it that the nuts push into holes in a plastic cover on the heat shield, located beneath the gas tank. This plate is out of sight, and impossible to touch, and nearly impossible to even see without a flash light. This plate (on my bike) does not fit securely into the holes in the plastic, and it will fall out when you remove the two screws that secure an electronic component (forgot what it is now) to the heat shield. The Honda FSM warns that this plate can fall out, and suggests using tape to hold it in place so you don't lose it. I used a dab of epoxy to bond the plate to the plastic heat shield so it won't fall out when I reinstall the heat shield. I can take a picture and post it if anybody is interested.
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Help! How did you guys remove the valve cover from the engine, and out of the frame? Did you remove the small dowel pins from the bottom of the cover to gain clearance? I was never good at Chinese jigsaw puzzles, and this has me stumped. Thanks.
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The valve cover IS a tight fit. But all I needed to do was take the gasket out of the cover. That gave me just enough room.
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(05-11-2018, 11:26 AM)DAC_imp Wrote: The valve cover IS a tight fit. But all I needed to do was take the gasket out of the cover. That gave me just enough room.
Thanks DAC. I got a friend to help and with a second pair of hands and we got it out. I think that forcing the wire harness out of the way gained some additional clearance that did the trick. Did you have to force your wire harness out of the way also?
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I feel like I'm in the waiting room and a surgery is being performed. Steady hands, doc!
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First valve inspection. Mileage: 17,210 miles.
The first value is the LH side, all values are in inches.
Cylinder #1
EX: .012 .012
IN: .006 .006
Cylinder #2
EX: .012 .011
IN: .006 .006
Cylinder #3
EX: .011 .012
IN: .006 .006
Cylinder #4
EX: .012 .011
IN: .006 .006
The cylinder head cover slid right in. The epoxy I used to bond the metallic clip to the bottom side of the heat shield worked great, but I heard a popping sound when I tightened the bolts so I assume that the epoxy broke loose from the plastic (even though I roughened the surface with sand paper first).
I replaced the spark plugs, even though the old ones looked as good as new. The bike is nearly back together; all that’s left to do now is install the gas tank, side covers, and seat.
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(05-12-2018, 11:57 PM)Dave_imp Wrote: First valve inspection. Mileage: 17,210 miles.
The first value is the LH side, all values are in inches.
Cylinder #1
EX: .012 .012
IN: .006 .006
Cylinder #2
EX: .012 .011
IN: .006 .006
Cylinder #3
EX: .011 .012
IN: .006 .006
Cylinder #4
EX: .012 .011
IN: .006 .006
The cylinder head cover slid right in. The epoxy I used to bond the metallic clip to the bottom side of the heat shield worked great, but I heard a popping sound when I tightened the bolts so I assume that the epoxy broke loose from the plastic (even though I roughened the surface with sand paper first).
I replaced the spark plugs, even though the old ones looked as good as new. The bike is nearly back together; all that’s left to do now is install the gas tank, side covers, and seat.
Yes, same as i found; putting it together goes a lot easier, how did you go with the heatshield?
If you have a spare fuel connector it may be an idea to play around with it by connecting it to the tank several times to get the feel for it because the allowed space is not very much with the tank on the bike, also have a look and see if your tank has any light rust developing underneath that needs a little clearcoat.
Sounds like you got the sealant done right and the seal is well made and meant to last, i found the tension the cover puts on the seal is minimal, hence the sealant is required to ensure the oil stays inside.
Good news, max
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Thanks Max and Doc. I have a question for you, and everybody else on this forum of course. When inspecting the valve clearances, the FSM has you align specific marks on the crankshaft so that the camshafts are in the proper location for specific valves. I have noticed that the proper cam location does not necessarily mean that the large part of the cam lobe is pointing directly up, or 180 degrees from the valve. If I ignored the marks on the crankshaft, and inspected each valve clearance with the cam lobe pointed exactly 180 degrees from the valve, would this make any difference? The reason I ask is because the last time I adjusted the valves on my VFR800 I ignored the position of the crankshaft and measured the clearance for each valve when its respective cam lobe was 180 degrees from the valve, and I believe the valves all got loud (too large of a clearance) after I did this. I followed the FSM to the letter for the CB1100 adjustment.
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Dave you come up with some good questions, since i was unaware of any such procedure i "winged it" and must have had unwavering trust in the concentricity ( is that a word? ) of the machine that produced two of the finest camshafts in history.
So i cannot even remember how i went about measuring the gap but i vaguely recall using the small sections of the lobes so the cams must have pointed away from the buckets.
We now need someone else to shed light on the right way to check the valve clearances and i am happy to take notes and put them in the recipe book for next time.
Don't know mate, what was confusing at the time is the markings on the sprockets for in and exhaust valves appeared initially out of alignment, but after thinking about it it made sense and of course all was well, i just expected two straight lines that were parallel and lined up with the top of the heads, they were not straight but the markings lined up fine.
It may be that there is a procedure that still works even when the shaft is a bit worn in the bearing area's and the valve springs have an effect on the pressure on the shaft, i take it that you measured every single valve in the vfr after the adjustments were made, verified they were correct and noted the results down for the future?
Going well Dave!
