I completed the 600 mile service last evening...did the oil change and major check-over the night before, did the valves last night. In case anyone is worried about getting in over their head, the check itself was very simple to do and is laid out very well in the factory manual - which by the way is money well spent and costs less than 1 hour shop labor. There is also a page on the vtx1300 forum site. Getting to the rear top inspection cover (intake) was a PIA. I abandoned the manual's instructions to remove the rear coil and instead manipulated the PAIR valve and a bit of plumbing for access. All said, 5 of the 6 valves were just a little loose on spec. but tight at .001 over, and 1 (the front exhaust) was "dead nuts on". Since the old saw "a noisy valve is a happy valve" is applicable and valves only wear tighter I made no adjustments. Valves good to go 'til 8K now. And the way Jen's been riding her new chopper that day'll be here before I know it!
Valve Adjustment/Check
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I'll be getting to my 600 mi valve adjustment in a week or two. Looking at the manual, it looks like I should be able to do this without removing or even unbolting the tank. I was guessing that removing the air cleaner and disconnecting the hoses from the PAIR solenoid would be necessary to get enough room to access the valves in the rear.. Is this similar to what you did ? (I'll probably post up a set of photos of doing a valve adjustment when I do mine).
I have a "drive on" work stand in my shop. I rolled a parts table over to the bike and raised it level with the bottom of the tank right next to the bike and lifted the tank, unplugged the wires and turned it 90 degrees and set it on the parts table, left the hoses connected. Ditto on the AC and PAIR stuff. You might get to everything with the tank on but it was just too easy for me to move it to not to.
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That sounds like a nice setup to have !
I'll see if I can do it with the tank left bolted on. If not I'll try unbolting it and setting it aside somewhere, somehow with the fuel lines left connected.. I better be sure to ride till the reserve light comes on, then a little more, before leaving it to cool for the check
Small offset will be best, the smaller in overal dimension the better. As far as using "standard sized" straight ones, yeah you could use them...it all depends on how bad of a "temper" you have though. Even after removing all of the tupperware, the valves aren't that easy to access (especially the intake side rear cylinder) and even tho' they're not living creatures they still have great potential to piss you off! heheheh My offsets are nice but rather large and for the rear check I found myself digging through my tools saying "Where the hell is that little stupid set of feeler guages that I have but never used? Ahhh, here they are!" Then I finished my task - with those little "stupid" feeler guages.
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