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Valve Check!


JimMoore

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Hi Guys,

 

I just finished checking the valves on my 98 with 35,000 miles. I'm happy to report they were all in spec, even after 20K miles of hard riding. Lots of high rpm. Lots of excursions to the red line at full throttle. 

 

In any event, here are my tips and lessons learned. I took the tank all the way off. I guess you don't need to, but it was a lot easier with it completely out of the way. I also removed the rear coils. I planned to remove the airbox, but it was such a PITA that I ended up simply loosening everything as best I could and pushing it forward out of the way. There was plenty of room to work on the rear.

 

For the front I started by detaching both radiators from their mounts, but that didn't give me enough room to pull the valve cover. I ended up pulling the snorkel (PAIR valve?) off the top of the valve cover AND detaching the left side radiator from the upper hose. That gave me plenty of room to remove the cover and to reach in to check the valves.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • Member Contributer

I've got an 00 with about 18,000 miles. I keep thinking I should check the valves but from everything I've read it seems the valves rarely go out of adjustment. I think I'll wait until 50K. Lol

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You "J" guys need to add a pic so we can tell you apart. lol Currently, it looks like one guy having a conversation with himself. 🙂

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Well, based on all comments  and inputs, my 4th Gen seems to be in perfect condition (only 33k miles on the clock). Cold starts within a  second at any temperature. No strange noises (only the addictive gear whine!)

I guess next valve check will be in 10 years or so.

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It's your bike, you do with it/to it as you choose.

 

TBH, the valve check is not that difficult on the 5th Gen (I've no idea about earlier gens, but they can't be that different) so you don't have to adjust them, just check them to give you peace of mind.

 

But as I said, your bike, your choice, but please don't assume that because you've "heard" that they don't need checking really, some do. My 98 needed at least 3 exhaust shims changing every 16k service.

 

YMMV. :beer:

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AT 51,000 miles, I did the first valve check of my 5th gens life.  All exhaust valves were out of spec on the tight side.  A lot easier to adjust than to replace burnt valves.

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8 hours ago, airwalk said:

Any ideas on how much clearance remained? Most of the spec or hardly any...

Oddly I didn't write down the clearance specs and archive.  Usually I do.  All I remember is that most of the exhaust under spec clearances were a bit concerning.  They had to be on the edge of failure.  Glad I got to them when I did.

 

Not a big deal to do if you have the basic skills and the time.  Procedure is pretty well documented in the shop manual and here in the forum.  I was hesitant to do the check but the local Hillsboro Motosport honda shop won't work on anything over 10 years old, so ended up doing it myself.   Glad I did, another maintenance mystery unshrouded.

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