1250 valve adjustment

There's finally an answer to the much asked question "Has anybody had to do a valve adjustment on a Bandit?"
The answer is now "Me, goddammit"
Why do I say goddammit?

The bike in question is a K7 SA with 101,000k. Clearances were in spec at 75000k.


Valve adjustment requires removal of the tank, fairings, cooling system, half of the wiring harness, PAIR system, throttle bodies, airbox, rocker cover camchain tensioner, affected camshafts, then you finally get to the buckets and shims.

I do it because I'm just not very smart.

For the more technically minded:
Clearances on No 1,3 and 4 inboard inlet valves were all between 0.20 and .25mm - spec is 0.10 to 0.20mm.
Smallest inlet cam lobe height was 1.390" - service limit is 1.377" (Sorry to switch to Queen Elizabeth units of measurement but my micrometer is almost as old as I am)
Smallest cam journal diameter was 0.9450" - service limit is 0'9433"
Camshaft runout was a number that I forgot to write down because I'm short term memory deficient and also because my dial guage is calibrated in turkeylegs/square acre and the conversion is problematic, but it was well within spec.
I didn't measure end float and journal oil clearance because I had a sudden onset of lazyarsedness. I decided I'd rather wait for the motor to go bang and then buy a new one
The exhaust cam wasn't measured because all exhaust valves were in spec - I left it in so the cam chain didn't fall down the Black Hole along with the cam chain guide. (When I was half an hour through finagling out the rocker cover, Jimcoleman came blitzing into my shed in a Redbull induced ADD episode. "Can't ya get it out?" he screamed "Gimme a go, I want to learn" he screamed. He then began kicking shit out of my rocker cover. After ten minutes he burned out. I then finished finagling the cover out. When I turned the cover over on the bench he started looking sheepish and asked in a small voice "where's that black rubber thing you told me about?" I answered "It probably fell down the Black Hole while you were kicking the shit out of it". He then felt really bad and drove down the street and bought me a half slab of Bulmers. I considered that to be a win/win.

For those who wonder what these bits are that people talk about endlessly, I took pichas. A thread is useless without pichas.

This is a Bandit:
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This is the inside of a Bandit:
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These are the bits that came out of the inside of the Bandit:
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The spring on the right is a valve spring  *see footnote.

*edited edit of the footnote:  in the original photo you could see a fork spring at the right edge of the photo. To be a smartarse I called it a valve spring and added a footnote declaring myself to be full of horseshit. After checking the submitted post the fork spring can't be seen and the whole thing has turned into an epic fail. And you just wasted another minute of your life reading my edited footnote edit. Sucks to be you. Does this forum have an unfriend button?



The shims are the small metal discs on or beside the valve buckets. They sit on top of the valve stem (you can see the exposed valve springs and stems in picha 2 where the buckets and shims have been lifted off), and the bucket sits on top of the shim. The shims come in varying thicknesses so you can swap them and adjust the valve clearance. Hence the design is called "shim under bucket" by engineers and "arrgghh fuck, not again" by anyone who does their own work.

Is it worth doing yourself? Read the above again and answer you own question. You have to be anal and have a lot of patience. Its not rocket science but its a laborious PITA.
In its defence valve inspection is built into major service cost but the labour charges for all the extra work if adjustment is required is not.

Your call.










*Footnote: Some parts of this post (or indeed all of it) may or may not be absolute horseshit.

And you said you threw that black thing away, after i bought you the Bulmers and WE wrestled that dastardly rocker cover off together

I made 100% sure I didn't do or say anything until you fetched Bulmers.

Well Tag, you've convinced me I'm going anywhere near those parts.  But I know a bloke (Terry, yeah, that's his name) that will be able to do mine in another 40,000kms!  

Dave, I feel dirty and abused from doing my own bits, I'm not going anywhere near your engine bits. And Coleman has already asked many times and was given the same answer despite the offerings of Bulmers. You come bearing Samuel Adams Boston Lager and Fine White Wine - what chance do you have?
(And before you get me to do your fork oil you may want to cast your eye over another post to go in Mechanical that I'm ever so slowly tiping out.
After reading it you may consider it wise to reconsider.

Thanks for the info looks like a pain in the butt to do ..............Is that top picture one of you warming your bike up before a ride ?    
 ( PS ..... I have a wide screen monitor , & the fork spring shows up on mine )

Mate I have a hint and a statement for you.
Hint: limit pics to 800px wide and we'll see what you want us to see. 
Statement: I'm selling my Bandit with somewhere between 40,000km and 100,000km just to avoid that nightmare.

Paul and Chris ,
Thanks for the tips, turns out the problem was that I run my screen at 125% zoom so that I can see the words and stuff. On returning to normal zoom said valve/fork spring reappeared. So my self calling an epic fail was a fail. And I think I'm capable of dismembering a motor  - sigh!

I recall somewhere in my dark past that before you do valve adjustments you should re-tension the head bolts (and probably the camshaft journals) before taking any measurements.

I cannot find any reference to this in the Suzuki manual.

Is it not important with this engine or does it only apply to push rod type engines?

Those days are gone Dave. The 1250's head and journals only require one torqueing.


I certainly came from those days though. I still have a points file in the tool cabinet.

!Tag wrote:


I certainly came from those days though. I still have a points file in the tool cabinet.

I actually helped someone fit a set of points a couple of months ago, they were under 35 and had NFI.

Hehe,
 
Truth be told though, I was glad to see the back of em when cdi's became common. They were a pain to keep adjusted.