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Valve Adjustment Specs


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Guest Steve T.
Posted

Can someone who services their own bike help me here? Some questions on valve adjustments from a new owner:

Are you removing the fairing or just the bolts above the valve covers and moving the plastic up to reach the valve cover bolts?

Do you re-torque the heads on each valve adjustment?

Do you have to remove the rocker arm to access all the head bolts?

What's the clearance specs for intake & exhaust?

What are the torque values for head bolts, rocker arm bolts, and valve covers?

 

I want to perform my maintenance at home and follow the factory specs the best I can.

 

Thanks,

Steve T

sthoerner@peoplepc.com

2002 red/grey

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Top Posters In This Topic

Posted

Well, I can't answer your Le Mans-specific questions, but here is some general info:

 

Head retorque: I'm not sure if it's required anymore, but it is a good idea to retorque the heads on the first valve check. After that, you shouldn't have to worry about it - unless you are really bored and have some time to kill.

 

Rocker arms: yes, you have to remove them to get to all the head bolts. Also, the top-center bolt is under a cap, and needs to be adjusted using a allen key.

 

Clearance specs (US): intake: 0.002" (0.05mm), exhaust: 0.004" (0.10mm)

Clearance specs (rest of world): intake: 0.004" (0.10mm), exhaust 0.006" (0.15mm)

Note: the only reason the US spec is tighter is because of EPA regulations. Do yourself (and your bike) a favor and use the looser "world spec".

And remember, "a tappy valve is a happy valve!"

 

I don't recall the torque values, but I can look them up in my manual at home. For some reason, I'm thinking 22 ft/lbs for the head bolts, BUT I COULD BE WRONG! :doh: Rocker arm bolts are not a big deal... it is basically a set screw that holds the rocker in place. I've never used a torque wrench for this. Same for the valve cover screws. However, keep in mind that with the covers, the screws are going into aluminum - very easy to strip. I tend to err on the side of caution. Perhaps someone else on the board can offer some proper numbers here.

 

__Jason

00 M900Dark

00 V11 Sport

Posted

Jason is correct with his info. I set up my bike exactly like that. The 22 ft/lbs is correct for the head nuts.

Guest Squashed Nose
Posted

22lbs/ft sounds terribly light for head bolts. Don't get me wrong, I'm no authority but the head bolts on my BMW 320i were up at 150lbs/ft. It took some straining to get them done up, believe me and there were 14 of them.

Posted
22lbs/ft sounds terribly light for head bolts. Don't get me wrong, I'm no authority but the head bolts on my BMW 320i were up at 150lbs/ft. It took some straining to get them done up, believe me and there were 14 of them.

No... that doesn't sound right. I don't even think any of my torque wrenches read up to 150 ft/lbs!

 

__Jason

00 M900Dark

00 V11 Sport

Posted

Hey,

 

I FINALLY remembered to look it up while at the house (I bought a shop manual for mine).

40 N.M, or 29.5 foot.pounds.

The reason I remembered is that I had to retorque the heads on my Eldo- 28.5 foot pounds. The last sentance is just to confuse you...

That's me...Agent of Chaos ™.

 

Cheers,

Jason

  • 3 months later...
Posted

My thought about retorquing the heads:

If you check the valves and they aren't out of alignment, leave it alone.

If you see the valves go constantly out of alignment re-torque the heads.

On my Quota the heads had to be retorqued after about 8k miles or so and since then the valve slash hardly drifts of. Because of the wear on the rockerarms, where it pushes on the valve stem, you may considere to have the backlash a bit tighter to balance with increasing mileage.

On my V11 Sport I had no drift at all so far with 3k2 miles.

Guest SteveT
Posted

Finally, some clear instructions. This was exactly the kind of detail I was looking for. Thanks very much. It's really great that the time was taken to document this with the pictures. If you do it yourself you know it's done correctly.

Thanks again,

Steve Thoerner

Posted

Excellent work Lex. Can I put up a link in the FAQ section?

Posted

Jaap,

 

Please put up a link.

 

I did this for two reasons. The first was selfish, I wrote manuals and training documents in a previous life (for Cisco) and found the best way to learn something was to try to explain it. The second was that Guzzi people have been great in my four moths of Guzzi ownership and I thought this might be a good way to do something positive for the Guzzi folks who have been so nice to me.

 

I'll try to do a few more of this type of page as I learn how to do some of the basic maintenance on my Goose.

 

Finally, PLEASE let me know if you find any errors or thing I could improve any of my pages. I used to have a non-geek (a guy who went to college and came out with a degree in English of all things* :grin: ) and a very close relationship with the development engineers to keep me accurate, I only have you folks now.

 

Cheers,

 

Lex

 

* American Geek humor:

 

Q: What are the words most often spoken by a liberal arts major after graduation?

A: Would you like fries with that?

Guest SteveT
Posted

I'd like to add another plug for the quality Lex put into developing this instruction. Riders out there, do yourself a favor and look this instruction over...even if you don't do the work yourself it's great to know exactly what should be done when your bike is serviced.

Thanks,

Steve Thoerner

  • 3 years later...
Guest trispeed
Posted

the valve clearance specs listed here are wrong. The sticker on my bike (US/ california spec, 2004 model v 11 sport) says .15mm IN; .20mm EX

what's wrong with the recommended values?

they also say 5/40 oil, there's a point of contention for the shadetree mechanics here!

Guest rosso mandello
Posted
the valve clearance specs listed here are wrong. The sticker on my bike (US/ california spec, 2004 model v 11 sport) says .15mm IN; .20mm EX

what's wrong with the recommended values?

they also say 5/40 oil, there's a point of contention for the shadetree mechanics here!

84668[/snapback]

 

I just set my Rosso Mandello on ,15 and .20, I have a fine stady idle and no noice from the valve cover,

Runs great.

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