valve adjustment questions : Kawasaki ZX Forums: Kawasaki Ninja Forum

moose_grunt · 10-28-2009, 07:25 AM

Hi. I took a look at my valve clearances as a suggestion to my off and on hard starting problem (turns out the battery needed to be charged a bit), and had some questions about the process in general. To start off, I've never done this before on any engine, but I do have a fairly good idea of how a 4 stroke works and what is going on.

1) When you guys set your bike at TDC, do you go by the mark on the ignition rotor, or by the piston position (put a chopstick down the spark plug hole and watch it rise and fall). There is a slight discrepancy on my bike between the two, and I'm not sure which to measure, or if thats a very bad thing....

2) What do you do for the intermediate measures? I've looked at 6 hardware stores and all over the internet, and have been unable to find a set of feeler gauges that has anything between the 15-25 range in .01 increments--best i've found is .05 (15, 20, and 25). Is it as easy as 10+6, 8+9, 10+8, 10+9, etc?

As always, thanks for all the help!

**Shifty1** · 10-28-2009, 08:49 PM

I bought my feeler gauges from Sears...I doubt you have that option in Japan, but maybe you could buy them online and have them shipped. They were like $15, have more options than you need and they are offset which makes it easier to check your valve clearances.

Also, when I did my inspection, I went by the rotor. That's how the service manual suggests doing it.

TwistedKestrel · 11-01-2009, 07:25 PM

1) I don't know how accurate TDC measured by chopstick is. Are you measuring it on the #1 cylinder? If the ignition rotor was actually off, your bike could be either be running slightly bad or REALLY BAD (depending if it is positive or negative offset). As far as valve clearance measurement goes, it won't matter. All that really does is ensure the cam lobes are not pressing down on the valves, and there is a fair amount of wiggle room (as far as valvetrain timing goes) for that to happen.

2) Are you sure you're looking at the right unit of measure for feeler gauges? I have two pairs that between the two of them, cover every increment I needed.