Triumphrat

lovecuba

....is dead easy and as mentioned above, allows you to inspect the cam chain and tensioners. The tool is probably fine and if I had one I would use it to undertake one or two adjustments if thats all that were needed. My practice is to check all the clearances, if one or more exhaust clearances are out of spec (tight) then its out with the cams, with the inlets I am not so fussy. Up to now (24,000 miles) have not had to touch any with the exhausts all getting down to minimum and one inlet below minimum clearance. In another 8,000 miles will check all again and by that time I would assume the exhausts will be out of spec. Time to remove cams and set all clearances back to the maximum clearance limit.

mustang

if you want to support a thief.....................
just sayin ...............

The original is here http://www.knlcycle.com

andre12a

Hi
My suggestion is - If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
You might not have the same trouble I am having as my bike has done 50k miles, but to be honest i wouldn't be touching them so early. It can be a mongrel of a job. It took 50k for mine to need attention. As someone said to me a while ago, unless you ride really hard you shouldn't need to touch them often. At 50k I only had to replace four shims. To do so I broke two hardened torx wrenches and put a twist in one impact wrench torx socket. I didn't use said tool to compress the valve springs, nor did i remove the camshafts. I just loosened the caps screws right out and lifted the cam shaft up high enough to get the shims out with a long magnet. I had to reset the chain timing marks afterwards.
Getting the cam cover back on without losing the gasket is another joy. There are plenty of other things I would be doing to the bike before taking on what will probably turn out to be an unnecessary inspection. Check out the threads on rejetting carbs, drilling exhaust and air box, fitting K and N air filter.
Or just ride it and have fun.

all the best

Peter

PaulBx

Ah, that sounds like a good way to do it! I may give that a try. Was it the cap screws that broke your torx wrenches? I thought they were allens? I wonder why these would be tough to remove? There shouldn't be much corrosion going on in there.

andre12a

"Was it the cap screws that broke your torx wrenches? I thought they were allens? I wonder why these would be tough to remove? There shouldn't be much corrosion going on in there. "

Yeah Paul it was the cap screws and I cant understand why they were so tight either. There wasn't any corrosion on the thread. All I can put it down to is the combination of heating and cooling and the vibrations. But that's just a stab in the dark. Mine were definitely torx heads.

COLBOB

My 2000 Legend just hit 53K and when I took it in for a valve check the Triumph Guru said they were set to specs. I have had this bike since new and never adjusted the valves or really anything else. It has really been a great bike. Now I have a new Tiger so I don't ride the Legend much but I can't bring myself to sell it!!!

gabow1815

Hi Zissou, I usually check valves at about 15/20 thousand miles, also slack valves arnt as dammageing as tight valves. Also tight valves make more noize. As long as there is a slight gap between the shim and cam the valve will close onto its seat...G.

NEALR

My Legend I've done the same as every other bike I've owned after doing experiments with easy to set screw and locknuts. Widest clearance within tolerance is usually a bit noisier, but gives stronger bottom end and narrows or eliminates flat spots. Tighter is supposed to give more top end but I can't say I really noticed the difference. As a result I always set clearances as wide as possible, even if they are technically in range. Especially as my Legend is running 19/40 sprockets instead of the 17/43 standard. Much relaxed cruising but it does blunt the pickup a little.

Popping the cams out isn't a chore - only done it once but I don't recall having any problem getting my wrench onto the cap bolts. Did the same trick as I learned on old Zeds - use a cable tie to lock the camchain to the sprocket and only take out one cam at a time. Just keep the bottom end on that sprocket, but easy to wedge in place with an end-on camchain.
Actually getting the seat and tank off and on is more bother than the shims. Putting the valve cover back can be a PITA especially with separate o-rings for the plug passages.

Valve shims - worth checking with your local autostore http://www.enginepartsuk.net/valvetrain.pdf is a chart I used to cross reference and I have 4 car shims in my motor. After 3 weeks waiting for my dealer to get the ones I needed in (and still waiting) I managed to get this gem. Instead of £2.50 each exchange at the bike shop, I got 4 shims, outright for under £8 (plus a blast out on the spare bike, 55 mile round trip to collect them. But that was the same afternoon. May cross reference for Jap / Italian bike shims too if you know the sizes you need.

Happy spannering.

lovecuba

When settings have closed up I do not swap/buy shims. Because I have an automotive machinest handy I just take the shims to Him, He uses the flat surface grinder to grind the various shims to the necessary thickness to give the required gap.

Mandres

That's a great idea, almost painfully obvious too.

On my Suzukis with shim-over-bucket valves it was always easier to remove the cam then mess with these tools. Personally, working around compressed springs makes me very nervous. If that tool slips then the bucket can bite you badly. Popping out the cams is trivial, and as long as you're careful when resetting the timing it's a piece of cake.

I haven't torn into the Legend yet, but I imagine I'll do the same with her.