Valve adjustment negligence

  • Thread starter Deleted member 1344
  • Start date
D

Deleted member 1344

Guest
I am not yet ready for the 6,000 service/valve adjustment but am wondering what damage is done if I waited until say... 10,000 miles?
My guess is the clearance would increase rather than decrease. I once heard that a slappy valve is a happy valve.
 
Valves usually get tighter (less clearance) with more wear (the valve seat wears allowing the valve to sink lower into the valve seat decreasing the clearance). It can result in burnt valves, hard starting, etc. A tight intake valve can cause backfiring into the intake. Hypothetically the piston could possibly hit the valve. Usually, a bike will get hard to start if it has a tight valve, but I obviously wouldn't want to wait that long.

Have you ever heard a kid bump starting his old four stroke motocross bike because it won't start....?
 
I may have it backwards on the valve wear. Hopefully the nearest dealer will do the maintenance even though I bought it in Chicago. At the local HD dealer they always ask me if I "bought it here" whenever I approach the service desk.
 
Interesting thought LCRC18B, but I tend to lean more towards R12C-R18TC's assessment. one would hope that the valve seats are so nicely ground in that there should be negligible wear @ 6000 miles, I would think that here would be more material compression happening in the rocker arms and pushrods and thus increasing the valve lash ... and yes I also think that a bit a noisier valve is a lot less harmful than a valve that is more on the tight side ... as LCRC18B pointed out a burned valve seat is a real bitch !
... just my 2¢ 😁
 
Ulrich said:
Interesting thought LCRC18B, but I tend to lean more towards R12C-R18TC's assessment. one would hope that the valve seats are so nicely ground in that there should be negligible wear @ 6000 miles, I would think that here would be more material compression happening in the rocker arms and pushrods and thus increasing the valve lash ... and yes I also think that a bit a noisier valve is a lot less harmful than a valve that is more on the tight side ... as LCRC18B pointed out a burned valve seat is a real bitch !
... just my 2¢ 😁
Click to expand...
And this is why, when I started the valve adjustment thread, I asked if I is possible for valves clearance to get looser (more gap) then a new motor. When I did my 6k clearance, several were at the max, and 2 were @ 0.33-0.35. I suspect that at the 12k, they will all show, less clearance, then what I set them, @ 6k.
 
pbosik said:
And this is why, when I started the valve adjustment thread, I asked if I is possible for valves clearance to get looser (more gap) then a new motor. When I did my 6k clearance, several were at the max, and 2 were @ 0.33-0.35. I suspect that at the 12k, they will all show, less clearance, then what I set them, @ 6k.
Click to expand...
That will be very interesting to see, in your case we will have a real benchmark there .. you kept great records ... that will be a great baseline for future reference ! ... and thanks!!
 
Ulrich said:
That will be very interesting to see, in your case we will have a real benchmark there .. you kept great records ... that will be a great baseline for future reference ! ... and thanks!!
Click to expand...
I am interested in your findings, when you check your clearance.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top