How to tell when you need valves adjusted?

[roadkill]

Are there any signs that the bike will give when its time for valve adjustment? Does it lose power? What happens when you go past the valve adjustment service interval?

[PaloAlto]

Roadkill,

By the time there's evidence that the valves need adjusting, your valves, seats, or other components may have already suffered.

If the valves are too tight, you risk burning your valves. The only evidence is likely to be losing compression in a cylinder because of the burnt valves/poor seating.

If too loose, the cam lobes are hammering the caps/shims - not as bad but still, not good. You may be able to "hear" loose valves but the 2000 is a bit noisy anyway.

You probably know Triumph recommends checking the valves at the initial 600 mile maintenance and then every 12,000.

I'd be curious to hear from riders who know of bikes that have actually had these problems.

[beers2u]

I didn't have the valves checked on my '00 Sprint RS until 19K (long story) and they were all within spec, two were close though. Dealer told me this is quite common and the 955's generally don't need adjustment at 12K intervals. Also told me one of the first signs is hard starting??

Of course, this could have been "dealer speak"... :wink:

[greenocktriple]

got mine checked at 12k service 4 needed adjusted,so worth checking at least.

[02S3]

I didn't need adjustment at 12k although 2 were close to the minimum.

[crashmasterd]

Due to the nature of the valve train in Triumph triples it is unlikely that the valves would become loose enough for you to hear them. The normal evidence that you have valves out of tolerance is difficulty starting, particularly when cold. Usually you will have one or more valves too tight which kills your compression on those cylinders. Thus, the hard cold starting. Once the bike warms up the components "grow" due to the heat and the valves start seating better. When warm the bike starts much easier.

The good news is that Triumph triples are very resistant to valve wear. 12000 miles is a recommendation but many bikes have gone far past that interval with no damage whatsoever. As long as the bike starts easily there's little to worry about. However, it's good practice to have the valve adjust done on schedule.

As a side note, the T300 Triumphs were supposed to get their valves adjusted at 8000 miles. I finally got my Trident in at 16000 miles and they changed one shim. Even that shim was still in tolerance, but it was the farthest out of the 12 so the mechanic changed it. Other people have other stories, but this is mine.

Probably a result of my near fanatical oil change ritual at 2500-3000 miles.

[miker]

Beware of dealer speak, but be more aware that it is far cheaper and easier to keep the specified valve services up to date.

My '99 model has been diagnosed with "mushroomed" valves, which means the valve service was left too long and the seats started to deteriorate. The compression was still OK, but because the hard facing on the seats was wearing faster because they were out of adjustment, they are far harder to keep adjusted properly.

One dealer told me I had to have the head re-conditioned. New valves, guides and seats ground. Another dealer told me to keep them in adjustment by doing the service at smaller intervals and it would last a whole lot longer, which is the option I took so far.

My bike has 75,000 Kms (45,000Miles) and the service was not done at the specified intervals early in the bikes life.

The clearances will rarely get larger, causing a rattle, but they will get tighter, because the valve seat is wearing. The first sign is that when you turn over the engine to start it, it sounds like it's un-even, then may or may not stall when it's cold. If you continue to run the bike in this condition the worst that will happen is a burned valve and Crash said, so long as when this does happen you do something about it you'll be fine. If you don't you may break a valve and cause all kinds of internal damage.

Do the service,

Mick

[kuhlka]

Anyone know where to get the full kit to do this maintenance by myself? I see Jack Lilley has the removal kit, but I'd need shims, a feeler guage, and other bits as well, right?

[crashmasterd]

On 2005-10-19 22:27, kuhlka wrote:
Anyone know where to get the full kit to do this maintenance by myself? I see Jack Lilley has the removal kit, but I'd need shims, a feeler gauge, and other bits as well, right?

A set of feeler gauges you can get at most any auto parts store, tool supply house, or motorcycle dealer. Be sure to get ones marked in millimeters, not thousands of inches. These should only cost you a couple of bucks. You should also buy a Dial Caliper or micrometer for measuring the shims. And inexpensive one for $13 to $16 is sufficient.

Dial Caliper

The only other thing you might buy up front is the valve cover gasket. You may be able to get by with reusing the old gasket, but then again, maybe not. It's all in how comfortable you are with doing that.

Do not buy a full set of shims. At $6.00 each this is prohibitively expensive as you will need more than 12 for a full set. If you are lucky you will be able to just switch shims between valves and won't have to buy any. Probably you will only have to buy two or three. Some dealerships will swap you used ones out of their shop kit for a discount ($2 to $4 each). Figure out which ones you need, and then take the old shims with you to the dealer/mechanic.

Your 2003 has shim under bucket valve adjusting, so for any adjustment you have to remove the cams. You don't need a removal kit for this. (The earlier T300s have shim over bucket and have a special tool for removing the shims without removing the cams.) Keep good records of all your measurements and be sure to use a Dial Caliper or Micrometer to check the thickness of the shims. They're marked, but don't assume the marks are correct.

Pick up a factory service manual for this procedure, or Haynes makes an arguably better one. It's not difficult if you are handy, and from what I know of you, you are.

[s2kf4isabre]

Has anyone done a writeup of how to check (not necessarily adjust) valves? I've searched around the forum, and this is the most descriptive I could find.

Thanks to a parts store giving me the wrong size spark plugs, my bike is just sitting here w/o the tank and airbox - waiting until I get the right ones. At the same time, I hear just checking (not adjusting) the valves should be somewhat easy enough. I have a set of standard tools, torque wrench, and a micrometer.

Any references, pointers, etc, would be greatly appreciated!!!

Also: if the valves are out of spec, is it a lot of extra effort or difficult to make the adjustments myself? Pretty generic question w/ lots of variables, I know, but I'm shooting for not putting myself in a position to really F up my '06 S3 or spend more than 3-4 hours on it.