Again, good write up!
DIY: Doing the valve adjustment - PART 2
6. Have to pull the whole PAIR solenoid and its hoses out of the way to get room to work on the valves. Ignoring the manual, I left the electrical connector connected to the PAIR solenoid (I could see it would be a real pain to try and reconnect it later), I pulled the assembly back by the tubes connecting to the front cylinder and then tied them off on the frame to hold it there.
7. Mechanics heaven: access to the rear intake valves. Both valves checked out at just slightly over 0.006 inches so I leave them alone. The tank only really has to be out of the way for this set of valves, so to avoid a heartbreaking mishap (if I manage to knock the tank off the step ladder, it would be very sad), I put the PAIR valves and hoses back and rebolt the gas tank into place.
8. Get to the rear exhaust valve. That valve cover is the exact same valve cover that they used on my first bike: a 1973 Honda CB350G ! The exhaust valve is slightly tight so I adjust it to be just a bit on the loose side of 0.012 inches. Happily, the adjusting screw doesn't want to move much (if at all) when loosening or tightening the locking nut. Also, the threads seem to be pretty fine, so a surgical touch is not required to get the setting right (unlike my old CB350G in which setting the valves could involve many adjustments and readjustments as the mechanism was finicky. Eventually you got a feel for how much EXTRA to make the valve loose to compensate for it tightening up AS you're cinching down the lock nut, arghh !! ).
9. Access to the front valves is a piece of cake, there's nothing in the way (in fact, the manual shows how you can do a complete top end rebuild of the front cylinder without removing the engine from the frame. The front intake valves were fine, and the exhaust valve was slightly tight, so I adjust it so that it is slightly loose.
10. All done. A look at the exposed plumbing around the cylinder heads when the covers are off. The Honda engineers and designers sure did some work to hide it all and get us such a clean looking engine.
Now I can just cruise on the valves 'till 8000 miles comes a callin'.
7. Mechanics heaven: access to the rear intake valves. Both valves checked out at just slightly over 0.006 inches so I leave them alone. The tank only really has to be out of the way for this set of valves, so to avoid a heartbreaking mishap (if I manage to knock the tank off the step ladder, it would be very sad), I put the PAIR valves and hoses back and rebolt the gas tank into place.
8. Get to the rear exhaust valve. That valve cover is the exact same valve cover that they used on my first bike: a 1973 Honda CB350G ! The exhaust valve is slightly tight so I adjust it to be just a bit on the loose side of 0.012 inches. Happily, the adjusting screw doesn't want to move much (if at all) when loosening or tightening the locking nut. Also, the threads seem to be pretty fine, so a surgical touch is not required to get the setting right (unlike my old CB350G in which setting the valves could involve many adjustments and readjustments as the mechanism was finicky. Eventually you got a feel for how much EXTRA to make the valve loose to compensate for it tightening up AS you're cinching down the lock nut, arghh !! ).
9. Access to the front valves is a piece of cake, there's nothing in the way (in fact, the manual shows how you can do a complete top end rebuild of the front cylinder without removing the engine from the frame. The front intake valves were fine, and the exhaust valve was slightly tight, so I adjust it so that it is slightly loose.
10. All done. A look at the exposed plumbing around the cylinder heads when the covers are off. The Honda engineers and designers sure did some work to hide it all and get us such a clean looking engine.
Now I can just cruise on the valves 'till 8000 miles comes a callin'.
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