Carb balancing / Valve Clearance for dummies!

[Darjm]

Im stripping my bike down again. I want to get it as near to mint as i can, and fix a few niggles.

Whilst i have the tank and air box off , i was thinking about following the manual and doing valve clearances. It looks about as involving as changing CCT's which ive already done myself. Correct me if im wrong plz!

Can someone have a look on ebay, and check wether there are suitable feeler guages there. I had a look, but wasnt sure which ones i'd need.

Also..

I bought a carb balancing kit from ebay recently. This one.. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... K:MEWNX:IT

I understand how they work i think.. What im not sure of is, where i connect the adapters. Would love it , if someone who has past experience of this kind of balancer, could do a quick howto.

Cheers folks.

[sirch345]

So long as you don't need to replace any shims when checking the valve clearances, yes, it is more or less the same procedure as changing the CCT's.

The best feeler gauges for the job I found were a cranked set similar to these, although mine are made by Laser iirc:-
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Sealey-Feeler-Gau ... 5d281e43b2

The carb balancer you've listed is the same type as I use, I find it works very well.

I let some body else explain the rest.

Chris.

[Darjm]

Cheers Chris.

Just bought those you suggested. The bikes done ~34kmiles. I bought it with no history bout 4kmiles and 2 years ago. Hopefully they were done , when they were due. Unfortunatly, i wouldnt know what to look/feel/listen for, to give me any sign of them being out.

If i need shims, i guess i'll need a proper measuring tool, like a micrometer? To accurately measure the old and new ones. Im guessing a ruler wont do lol.

[Darjm]

Is there anyway of telling if my bikes been dynojetted?

[tony.mon]

Valve clearances- follow the Haynes manual. All the calculations and instructions are there, and it's quite easy with cranked feelers.

The easiest tool for shim thicknesses is a digital vernier gauge- around a tenner on E-Blag.

Dynojetted?
You could have a look at the main jet sizes and compare to standard.
Also with a Dynojet kit fitted you should be able to see a small hole in the bottom of the slide, but this isn't done when fitting a Factory Pro kit, so maybe jet sizes is the best way to tell.

[Darjm]

Thanks for replies..

Yea the reason i ask about Jetting, is, i normally run the bike with Art race cans. Its been mentioned to me that this might cause the bike to run lean? If its set up as standard. Also i think it has a K&N filter, so not sure how this affects the mixture. Last thing i want is burnt valves..

It pops more on the overrun with the Arts, than the stock exhausts.

Oh and about the carb balancing, ive tried searching the forum, and the internet, but couldnt find any concrete instructions as to how to connect up my afore mentioned balancer. Be great if someone could explain.

[tony.mon]

ok, there are two small screws on the intake side of the cylinder heads, under an diagonally down from the intake rubbers.

This is where you screw in the adaptors for your balancer.
You can make a permanent connection if you have brass adaptors, leave a short length of rubber pipe on, seal the ends with a golf tee and tuck away under the carbs when not in use.
They're a pain to get to, which is why a permanent take-off point is a good idea rather than taking half the bike apart whenever you want to balance the carbs.

The Haynes manual gives good balancing instructions.