Triumphrat

mike_ · 11-27-2004

Has anyone ever used fine emery cloth and sanded the
spring side of valve shim to gain the required clearance
when adjusting valves? I checked mine today and I'm going
to order (4) to change out but was wondering if I could just
touch up 1 or 2 that are right on the borderline.
Thanks
Mike

cafetbird · 11-27-2004

Mike:

The shims are like 2-3 bucks at your local bike shop - this would be more effort than it would be worth. I doubt you would have any success with the sanding them anyway - they are so hard that you would need to use a grinder... and good luck keeping them flat!!

They are the same as any 25mm shims used in Hondas and Yammers - so just go get the right ones. Many shops will simply trade you your old shims for new ones outright.

mike_ · 11-27-2004

Thanks.

tridentt150v · 11-28-2004

I'm like 200km from the nearest Triumph agent, and I've sanded mine down [using a micrometer to check].
It takes a clean sheet of emery, a bit of plate glass, WD40, and a bit of time, but it can be done. I did one by 025 and it took about 1/2 an hour. Heaps quicker than waiting for the the item in the post.

mike_ · 11-28-2004

Thanks, I want to go from 2.65 to 2.61. I'm using a mic and will get a piece of glass. I don't mind waiting for the mail now
that the snow as fallen. It's just that if I go to a 2.60 it would
be out of spec. I want to give it more clearance because I
don't want to check until this time next year (15-20K from now).
Thanks for your input.
Mike

Slinky · 11-28-2004

At least one of my shims was sized and marked to 3 decimal places, 2.675 or some such. Which makes me think that one of the other manufacturers offers a greater range of sizes.

I would agree that grinding them down is more trouble than it's worth. It would be better to keep the old ones as spares.

tridentt150v · 11-28-2004

Your Triumph agent can supply intermediate [25/75] sizes. Probably not really required, except by the pedantic perfectionist [me being one of them.......lol].

zimtok · 11-29-2004

Quote:

On 2004-11-28 16:02, tridentt150v wrote:
Your Triumph agent can supply intermediate [25/75] sizes. Probably not really required, except by the pedantic perfectionist [me being one of them.......lol].

I just bought some shims that were (as they described them) 1/2 sizes from Great Bay. They did not have them in stock but were able to get them within a few days.