What did you do to your Yamaha today?

Put the valve cover on and tightened up the valve cover and everything for the carb to torque specs. Then, built the PVC carb rack so I can wet set my floats tomorrow. Next up, rear brake shoes, rebuild MC and both front calipers and then reassemble with SS brake lines.

 

Hell yeah

Gotta love it. Best damn feeling in the world, how even at constant throttle as you climb to 6, 7k rpms she just pulls ever harder and harder. At 7k, it's just glorious

Bad for me, as my daily commute is 50km of prairie highways. Lots of visibility, wide roads... And as I do rotating shift work, it's never in heavy traffic. Fuel economy is laughable, but it's a blast and worth every dollar

[Hr]

Today: cut my rear fender back to the end of the seat, painted it black as well, and got some red LED strips to build my own tail light once the paint dries.

 

Glad you mentioned that. My commute is always light traffic also, once outside the Merrill city limits 2-3 vehicles tops. . . . We recently moved here in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. Two lane county roads running through the forest.

Note to self:
More wildlife than vehicles, stay alert!

 

Today a family day and love the suny day with beer in hand. Haha

 

I see that everybody is getting some riding time in or very close to it .
Got a text form a fellow worker at 0800 asking if I want to go for a ride before work HELL yeah! So off we went taking the scenic route very beautiful ride 32 miles.
My friend rides KLR 650 I don't judge as long as it has two wheels and goes along I ok with that.
To each is his own.

 

Cleaned the forks and fork bodies trying to get all the old oil and or grime off them. Weather here in Wisconsin still not so nice, 20 degrees under the normal 70 so might just as well keep wrenching.

 

Just started working on my 550, wanted to check the valve clearance. My exhaust are .004-.008 intake are .003-.002 and my number 4 cyl is so tight I cant get a feeler guage in it. And that number 4 exhaust pipe is kinda blue so it must have been running lean. Any suggestions. I just ordered the motion pro hold down for pulling the shims. any thoughts on the adjustments I have would be appreciated. I just got this xj550 a few weeks ago and tho I am ok with working on motors Ive never had one that had the shims and this is all new to me.
that

 

Everything you need is here: http://xjbikes.com/forums/threads/airhead-valve-adjustment-with-pics.14827/

 

I read all that post. Thats why I ordered the tool. This site is a great site. I also have a xs 650 and frequent the xs forum and there are a great bunch of riders there also.

 

For the tight valve, you'll need to get a small enough shim under there to be able to measure clearance and determine which you actually need.

More info, and a solid place to get known-accurate shims: http://www.xjbikes.com/forums/threads/xj-parts-catalog-section-e-engine.44640/

It's a long post, search on the page for "VALVE ADJUSTING SHIMS AND PADS:" for the section.

After there, you can get individual shims for $8.95 under "AFTERMARKET VALVE SHIMS:" - just buy a 2.00mm shim (the smallest) and you'll be able to measure the tight valve.

(there's OEM shims too, but they're several times more expensive because reasons).

 

Hi thanks for the reply, I used the coated wire to pull the shim and found it to be a y285 shim. My thinnest feeler gauge is.0015 th. .04mm. and it would not go between them. Any suggestions on what I should get for this valve? thanks again.

 

Today:

Got stuff reassembled and the LED strips on for the tail/brake light till I can get my nicer unit in. Brings the back profile of the bike up a lot, not having the fender curving down and the big old crusty tail light there. Really happy with it.

Painted up my new found engine crash guards too, used caliper paint as it's pretty much indestructible once baked on.

 

You'll need a shim that'll give you space to measure - hence my recommendation above to just grab a 200 (2.00mm) shim. $8.95 from Chacal (link above) and it'll definitely get you to a measurable point.

 

I converted all the measurements I wrote down to MM and it looks like all my clearances are to tight. This may cost more than I paid for the bike. What does one do when something like this happens?

 

Was windy and not real warm . Cut yard and weed eated ... after finshing that looked at bike so started polishing on the covers and cleaning . Would have liked to ride but feel good that I did get something done.

 

Why would it cost more than you paid for your bike? Shims at $9 each, you may be able to reuse them(write what shims you have in each spot down, then write down what you need in each spot - then you've got a list of what you have, what you need.

16 valves total, 16 shims, brand new from Chacal would be $143.20 as a worst case scenario. It's extremely unlikely you'd have none usable, though.

Also, Hogfiddles I believe runs a shim pool(but I have no idea how that works), so you may want to contact him.

 

Finished rebuilding my forks. Need to get dust seals, then I can reinstall forks, wheel, and reinstall rebuilt calipers / brakes. Getting close to being on the road! This was my last major step before getting her rolling.

 

I searched the post for the method to buy one of these 2.00 shims but I did not see how to buy one. I will try looking in the for sale items, thanks.
I went ahead and pulled all my shims and recorded what I have now. I can move one shim to fix one valves clearance but all the rest need different shims.
Mine is only a 8 valve motor.

 

Start a conversation with Chacal. He'll be able to get you hooked up. You can do this from your username in the top right corner of the page, then going to Conversations > Start New Conversation. He's awesome, very helpful, and knows exactly what you need when doing this.

 

Upper right corner for Chacal just click on it.
Only 8 valves geez I recently did my valves and I have 20 and 19 needed to be replaced. Sometime you just got to pay.
http://www.maxim-x.com/notes.html
here is another site that has a shim conversion table where you just plug in your numbers and it tells you what you need.
There is also a lot of good information to be had.