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developing feeler gauge 'feel'

rritterson

rritterson

wish I was the bike
Joined
Mar 2, 2005
Location
SF
Moto(s)
None now :( Many previously.
Yesterday I did a valve adjustment on my DR650- my first ever. All of the valves were slightly tight, which makes sense given how many short trips I take on the thing, accelerating valve wear. (Bike has 7500 total miles on it, but the head has been ported and polished and the cases have been split, so the number of miles on each component are fewer)

Setting the intake valves was no problem, but I had trouble with the exhaust. Either because the tappet makes contact with the valve at an angle, or because of the angle I had to use to get the feeler in between them, when I set the clearance such that the correct feeler had the same drag as the correct feeler on the intake side had, the exhaust valves were set comically too loose. Like 5x the correct clearance, so obvious I could see with my eyes too loose.

I kept looking at the clearance gap, then the thickness of my feeler, then put the feeler in the gap, felt drag, then looked at the clearance gap, ad infinitum and couldn't make sense of it. There really should have been NO resistance on the feeler at that point. The spec on the exhaust side is .007-.009. I was using a .008 feeler. I ended up setting the clearance so that a .010 would not fit and a .009 would if I jammed it. At that point, the drag on a .008 was really quite a lot, but by feel the clearances were just slightly higher than the intake side.

I buttoned the bike back up and it runs like a champ with a little bit of valve lash noise but nothing ridiculous. If anything it runs slightly better than before, but that could just be placebo.

Am I fine leaving the bike as is? What was I doing wrong with the feeler gauges? Or was I doing what I was supposed to do?
 
Some bikes are really a PITA due to clearance issues. I have a similar problem with the exhaust side on my XT. The thing to remember, (IMHO, YMMV) is that you can't possibly push that valve down with just your fingers, so you can't really manage to jam a too big feeler under there either.

In other words: it sounds like you're right where I'd try to set my valve clearance. On the loose side of the spec. :thumbup


Edit: Oh, and my 'quickie' when I find a really loose (or tight rocker) is to put the feeler underneath, loosen the locknut and finger tighten until it bottoms against the feeler gauge. Then tighten the locknut, and check clearance. You should be pretty close that way, without having to tighten,loosen,check,tighten,loosen,check,tighten... :laughing
 
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You might need narrower gauges, or just learn to "see" the proper angle to hold the gauge. If you can get some "go-no go" gauges in your desired size, using those for a while, can greatly increase your confidence and speed.
 
If you have to bend the feeler to get it into the gap, there will always be drag, and the drag will always increase as you use larger feelers (more resistance to being bent.) With valves like that, I try to find a set of feelers that can be used without bending, but if that fails I'll simply keep going until something won't fit. My experience has been that it's very very difficult to insert a feeler larger than the gap, especially if you have to bend the feeler to get it in.
 
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^+1
Procycle sells the pre-bent feeler gauges for the DR650, but you can get them lots of other places, as well. The angle that you have to stuff a feeler gauge into to get in between the valve and tappet on the DR650's exhaust side is pretty significant; I find that I really have to get the feeler in there and eyeball it to make sure that the gauge isn't canted upwards/sideways and producing more drag before assessing the true feeler drag.

My DR seems to run like a champ when the exhaust valves are at the loose end of the range, too.
 
Another + for the Luckett Tool.

There are complications with feeler gauges, giving reasonably accurate readings...in other work.
But for valve clearances...the main thing is a guage you don't bend to get to the gap being guaged.

And...it's safer to be on the loose side, than the tight...cause You don't want to have a hammering valve head, beat it's self deeper into the valve seat, and close the clearance gap even closer (or tighter) while you're un-knowingly putting miles on the bike.

The valve head (especally Exhaust valve head) has to transfer major heat into the seat, in the Nano second the valve is seated....and a tight clearance, shortens the seat time, Thats Bad Bad.
 
As long as it's not 0 lash,(if it clicks) it's fine.

After you waste 2 hours doing a 15 minute job you'll be like, 'fuck this feeler gauge', and just do it. :laughing
 
It sounds like you did ok. You can always bend a feeler gauge to lesson the angle just don't bend it to far. The tighten it down on the gauge method is one I often use of if the angle is ridiculous.
 
I was about to say to just use something like luckett posted. My set of feelers was originally all flat but now they are no longer so straight...
 
My bent ones are in a holder with a screw on the end that allows the blades to be removed. Remove the one(s) you need, bend them, and access becomes much easier. A set of feeler guages is less than 5 bucks, and the others will still work fine for applications that need staight ones. Buy one to bend, keep one for straight.
 
If the adjustment is the type where there's an adjusting screw, the bottom of which makes contact with the end of the valve stem (and a locknut to lock down the adjustment), then difficulties often occur from excessive wearing of the curved surface on the end of the adjusting screw. What happens is that a flat area wears into the surface and that makes it much more difficult to find the sweet spot when you're adjusting the lash. Next time you are checking the valve lash, remove the screw entirely and give it a very close inspection. If there's a noticeable arc of flat area on the end of the screw, it might just be time to replace all the screws.

This is an area that a lot of mechanics overlook. A worn face on the adjuster screw can make it hell to properly adjust valve lash.
 
yeah... im a huge fan of the feelers that are already bent :p

they actually make a plastic set to thats supposed to be easy to bend but they claimthey are only use for like 100 slides per blade before the feelers are out of spec :\

(thats not enough for some engines lol)
 
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