what am i looking at in the 2nd to last pic??

 

It is the 2 little covers you have to remove on the starter gear cover. You stick a T50 torx on a ratchet in the center hole to turn the crank. You look for the timing mark in the other hole to know where TDC (top dead center) is.

 

my 09 is going on 25k miles so im sure im due for a valve adjustment. ive never done this and i want to do it myself. pictures are great but can you add some text?

 

I intentionally left text off because I wouldn't want people to try and use this thread as a step by step instruction on how to check your valves. The procedure is clearly laid out in the service manual and you should follow that. I only have 10,000 miles on this bike and I have many valves that are out of spec which bothers me. I do ride this bike like a cheap whore 100% of the time though so I guess it might be possible to have that many wear that much in that short bit of time. Here's the measurements I just took 10 minutes ago:

Guess it's time to pull the cams.

 

Okay, got it done and the check flight went well. I put new plugs and air filter in it too. The old filter was clogged bigger'n shit. Probably picked up a few HP right there. I changed all the exhaust shims and half of the intake shims. More pics:

Final results:

 

I hate you for posting this.

My bike is due in for a valve adjustment but I'm not as mechanically inclined as you are.

Wish I could find someone to do it here in Georgia that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

 

Honestly it wasn't all that difficult. It was a little intimidating since it was the first time I did the valves on the 600. I just did the valves on my 650 (2 cylinder) a couple of months ago as practice. Now I need to do it on my other ZX6R which has a few more miles on it. Maybe next week since I have a 500 mile twisty ride planned for tomorrow.

 

I'm hesitant to do this myself just cause I'm damn near broke but my bike really needs this done. I just synced the carbs too, I should have done this beforehand. I did all of this stuff in highschool when I took motorcycle repair. That was well worth it.

It's too blazin' hot to be out int he garage tearing my bike apart.

 

It's too blazin' hot to be out int he garage tearing my bike apart.

Not if your garage is air conditioned.

 

I hear ya about the air filter. a couple of times i let my filter go to long in between cleaning. Once i cleaned it.... it was a nice difference.
You'll pick up a couple of ponies by cleaning a dirty air filter. Or putting in a new one.

 

I had so much fun doing my green ZX6R that I thought I would do my Blue one tonight:

Of course I needed the same fricken' shims I didn't have enough of for the green bike. Just ordered a bunch more shims.

 

I had so much fun doing my green ZX6R that I thought I would do my Blue one tonight:

Of course I needed the same fricken' shims I didn't have enough of for the green bike. Just ordered a bunch more shims.

Cant believe Iv not seen this thread before.
Damn good writeup TDH. Super pics too.
I'm going to have to get this done before next riding season.
Never done this myself, I get it done at a race shop each year.(skipped this year do to low funds)
Id like to do it myself, But Id be lost. What does a set of shims like this cost? & or would it be better to take the measurements & then get only the shims I need?

One more thing I sure wish I could be there to watch over your shoulder when you do this.

Well if your just doing valve clearance you don't need one. Only time you need one is when your removing the whole valve

You done this? Want to come up & help me?
we could set a time, maybe in the spring or before it gets to cold.
Hell maybe I could just ride here down to MS????:grinning:

 

hell if it is that much fun, fly your ass here and do mine!

 

To be honest I was working from home today and tore it all down over my lunch hour. Yep, had it down to where I could measure things in under an hour. Buy me a plane ticket and I'll fly down there and help you out.

 

Come do mine, you're only in Il :bigsmile:

 

If I had the money for the ticket I would, I need to get it done badly...

 

Yeah, did they get that bridge fixed yet?

 

Yea they got it fixed back at the end of March

 

Looks like fun TrackDayHero. I only know I had a blast when I did mine. The worst part for me was pushing the start button after finishing up, I had to have my friend come over and push it for me since I was so terrified of it blowing up. That was nearly a thousand miles ago now so no worries anymore.

On a side note your shims look quite thin compared to mine. Mine were about 2.9mm and yours look to be in the 1.XX.

 

Yeah, the '08s run around 1.75 to 1.90, at least both of mine do. Guess the older ones ran thicker shims huh?

 

Great thread! What are the special tools needed? I have an '05 636.

Tools:
-Feeler Gauge in mm
-Torque wrench
-valve spring compressor assembly 57001-241
- valve spring compressor adapter 57001-1272
-molybdenum disulfide grease
-valve guide drive 57001-1564
-attachment 57001-1624
valve guide reamer 57001-1274

Anyone know of any substitutions that I can make with the spring compressor, etc?

Thanks.

 

Well if your just doing valve clearance you don't need one. Only time you need one is when your removing the whole valve

 

you don't need valve spring compressors unless you are planning to do heavy valve work.

Feeler gunge is the most you need, plus needed hardware to get the valve cover off. 1/4 tq wrench. some zip ties or something to hold the chain up when you take the cams out (if you need to even re-shim).

oh and mainly a digital caliper. so you can measure the shims coming out to make sure you need to put in the right shim in.

 

Man, after reading through this thread and perusing the images, I may have to tackle this job over the winter.

I have been wrenching on cars and bikes for a long time and have done all sorts of work woth great success, but have never really tore into the internals. Always wanted to do a valve check and shim job.

My Triumph has 16xxx miles and the Ninja 19xxx so I think both are prob due for a check.

Other than a torque wrench, feeler gauges, and some shims, and a torx bit to get the motor to TDC, is there anything else that I need or would want to do this job?

 

Other than a torque wrench, feeler gauges, and some shims, and a torx bit to get the motor to TDC, is there anything else that I need or would want to do this job?

The only thing that might be a little odd (and I had what I needed) are hex (allen) bits with long enough extensions to 1) fit through the holes on the side of your frame to get the air box screws out and 2) to fit under your frame to get to the clamps on the bottom of the throttle body. You may be able to get to them with regular allen wrenches but I found it was a little easier to go through the side of the bike with a long extension (I even have a flexible one) to more easily get at those clamp screws. I can't think of anything other than that. I found taking pictures of my cams and chain before removing them and dabbing a little paint in key spots helps give me a good feeling that I have them back together the same way they came out. Good reference.

 

Cracking write up trackdayhero, I wanna do mine eventually so cheers

 

How long did it take you in total? I know you spread out a day or two, what's the total hours?

 

I think I could do the entire job in 2 hours start to finish, 3 at the longest after doing 3 of them now.

 

Hey man if you could do a details write up that would be the shiznit! I need to adjust mine but since I have never done it before I dont even know if I have all the right tools. Please give me an idea of what i need i dunno about the shims n all I got a 06 636 im sure its slightly different but atleast ill have an idea of what im doing. I am having my mechanic friends help but they have yet to do this as well so were all kinda rookie with vavle adjustments.

 

The details write-up is already done, better than I could ever imagine doing it. It's in the service manual which you can download from a link on this site somewhere.

 

really becuase I DLed a service manual and it just it didnt seem as thorough as I am use to with my A&P manuals from school lol. just seems liek unscrew this and take this out didnt list what tools i needed or whatever. I am just afraid ill will get it apart and bne missing something important i need like specific shims I dunno which ones to even get.. Ill reference it again.

 

Well, after spending 12 years as a fighter aircraft mechanic I can say that I am VERY impressed with the Kawasaki service manual. It is very thorough. At least it is for my 2008 ZX6Rs and my Ninja 650 that is. I don't know about other years, I would assume the same.

 

This is an awesome write up. Looks like something new to add to the list of To-Do's.