The story of Tenzing the Super Tenere

[pete376403]

If your engine valve gear is similar in concept to the 5 valve FZR 700/750/1000 the shim thickness is marked on the side. Are these quite small (say 7mm diameter) with a recess that fits over the end of the valve stem?

[pete376403]

Ah yes, the Triumph runs shim over bucket. No rockers, the cams ride on the shims, which are 25-ish mm diameter. .

Same as Kawasaki Z, BMW K and Suzuki GS 2 valve motors, among others. Only disadvantage is that if you float the valves at high RPM, the shim can come out and get half over the bucket/half over the carrier. Next time the cam comes around the valve gets a lot more lift than is good for it and meets up with the piston.

Incodentally talking of price - the BMW shims are a direct replacement for Kawasaki KLR one AND are a lot cheaper(!) - (in the US, anyway)

[cooneyr]

If your engine valve gear is similar in concept to the 5 valve FZR 700/750/1000 the shim thickness is marked on the side. Are these quite small (say 7mm diameter) with a recess that fits over the end of the valve stem?

9.48mm shim diameter and the shim thickness is etched into one of the flat surfaces (top of the disk), not curved side. They are disks with no recess that fit into the valve spring retainer and sit on top of the valve stem.

Bro in law managed to borrow a micrometer from Uni so I have checked all the shims and they as specified which is nice. Hopefully there will be no issues when put back together.

Cheers R

[warewolf]

Same as Kawasaki Z, BMW K and Suzuki GS 2 valve motors, among others.

Yes, have got shims at a Yamaha dealer in the past. Nothing special about the Triumph configuration at all.

[cooneyr]

Following up on putting the bike back together. We managed to get mine back together OK and El did his but it ran pretty crappy and wouldn't pull out to over 6k rpm. Talked to him about how he timed the cams and it would seem that the exhaust cam was probably one tooth behind. Stripped it down and when redoing the cam caps the torque wrench stopped working for some unknown reason. Just today I went and got a Teng Tools 1/4" drive torque wrench so we can finish off Els and recheck mine after it has done a couple of hundred kms.

Anyway some pics of my bike before I put the cams back in. You can see I have most of the buckets (and shims) back in except the left most inlet valve for cylinder 1.

The well laid forward parallel engine configuration is a pretty nice twin configuration to work on, didn't have to take the tank off and there is a reasonable amount of room between the front forks and the head. I'm guessing that a V-twin would be a bit of a pain in the arse by comparison let alone the more complex valve train timing.

Cheers R