a daft question regarding to valve clearances

[yantheman]

Hi all,

My 620 is running rough when idling while the engine is hot, it is time to do the valve clearances I guess...

How do I identify the inlet and exhuaust valve? Where can I buy the shims? (I can't afford to buy the whole sets - so will only buy what I need this time)

Rosso Corse? or MotoRapido?

[Davy]

I'm in a few other bike forums and one of them has a shim swop service which is brillant.. can this done with the dukes or are the a few different dimentions to the shims for different models??

[Pedro]

Hi all,

My 620 is running rough when idling while the engine is hot, it is time to do the valve clearances I guess...

How do I identify the inlet and exhuaust valve? Where can I buy the shims? (I can't afford to buy the whole sets - so will only buy what I need this time)

Rosso Corse? or MotoRapido?

Exhaust valve is the same side of the head as the exhaust pipe...

A small suggestion, unless you know what you're doing shimming Duke heads can be a bit of a pain so unless you're sure you can do it, let a shop do it. The consequences of getting it wrong can be a little expensive. The advantage of letting someone like Rosso Corse do it is they have full shim kits to chose the best fit from.

[yantheman]

Exhaust valve is the same side of the head as the exhaust pipe...

Thanks Pedro.. of course... its pretty obvious to me now after you mentioned it (cannot be the other side :D or where would the exhaust gas go?) :fou:

A small suggestion, unless you know what you're doing shimming Duke heads can be a bit of a pain so unless you're sure you can do it, let a shop do it. The consequences of getting it wrong can be a little expensive. The advantage of letting someone like Rosso Corse do it is they have full shim kits to chose the best fit from.

I am quite handy with the spanner... will look into it, first checking the clearances, if it is more complicated that I can handle, would let the pros to do it... I can't see it being that hard... put the feeler into the gap... ;)

[pegboy]

the procedure is not that difficult the most difficult part is measuring the right clearence with the feeler blades, then write them down immediately, once the shims are out you will need a micrometer to measure the thickness of the shim and either subtract or add that to the thicknes of the replacement shimto obtain the correct new clearance.

Also when you remove the exhust you will need to hold the vavle up otherwise it will fall down and that could be serious.

Give me a call if you want and i will talk you through it.

[yantheman]

Thanks Paolo.... where did you get the shims when you did yours?

[slob]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIj3nSJGPZw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WQY1MRlmH4

[yantheman]

Thanks Rob, I have seen them and memorised them :D

[pegboy]

I didn't need any, mine were all within their respective tolerances

[dunlop0_1]

You should also buy new "c" rings as they often break and/or get damaged. If so you can have trouble pulling the closer shims off as the groove the rings sits in will have develoved a lip from being bashed by the out of spec shim.

It could be your TPS that wants checking if the bike is running rough?

[jerry]

and change fuel filter, they get clogged and cause lean running.....cheap too;

[Chris & Nean]

JHP at Coventry sold me 2 shims and they cost 14 quid, the cover gaskets came to 8 quid.

I measured and measured the clearances until I was quit confident that I had got it pretty accurate, I took the measurements and the old shims to JHP and the spares counter guy got out his ‘Ducati Measuring Instrument’ and sorted me a couple of replacement shims. Luckily these shims proved to be slightly oversized needing sanding down a bit, I used 250 wet n dry carborundum paper, I started out with about 5 circular motions with the shim under my index finger on the wet n dry, and then fitted the shim and measured the clearances (too tight), next time I gave the shim a good 10 whirls around, still to tight but I got an idea from this measurement how quickly the shims grind down against the carberundum, a couple more grinds of 10 swirls each time and I got a perfect measurement . Because I also replaced the retainer rings I had the opportunity to set the clearances a little tightly, this must be good because those wire half rings distort (as others said) and will open up the gap slightly.

[yantheman]

Thanks for the info, will give them a call. :)

JHP at Coventry sold me 2 shims and they cost 14 quid, the cover gaskets came to 8 quid.

I measured and measured the clearances until I was quit confident that I had got it pretty accurate, I took the measurements and the old shims to JHP and the spares counter guy got out his ‘Ducati Measuring Instrument’ and sorted me a couple of replacement shims. Luckily these shims proved to be slightly oversized needing sanding down a bit, I used 250 wet n dry carborundum paper, I started out with about 5 circular motions with the shim under my index finger on the wet n dry, and then fitted the shim and measured the clearances (too tight), next time I gave the shim a good 10 whirls around, still to tight but I got an idea from this measurement how quickly the shims grind down against the carberundum, a couple more grinds of 10 swirls each time and I got a perfect measurement . Because I also replaced the retainer rings I had the opportunity to set the clearances a little tightly, this must be good because those wire half rings distort (as others said) and will open up the gap slightly.