Valve Adjustment Question

I adjusted my valves today and the right side exhaust valve was so tight, it took 3-4 full revolutions of the adjuster screw-out to get the feeler gauge in. The other exhaust valve was right on the money and the intakes' were slightly loose, but almost not worth adjusting.

Bike history: I bought it from it's second owner, who admitedly never adjusted the valves, but claimed to only have put 200-300 miles on the bike. No knowledge of first owner's use. Don't know the mileage. Bike is not beat on and fairly well maintained. Against better judgement and in my excitement at owning a "new" BRP, I put 250 miles on the bike myself without checking them until now.

Bike has run fairly well, especially after I put the Edelbrock on last weekend, and the plug looked normal. The thermostat had shit-the-bed like I've read about on so many others. I don't have it back together yet as I'm waiting on a new thermostat from Kragen from a 1990 Suzuki Swift (best replacement I've read of for the stock unit), so I don't know how it's going to run with the valves within spec. Should run like a champ and pull waaaay stronger?

It seems to me that with the valve that tight, it would have run like crap.

I guess my question here is: If I didn't burn a valve, is there any other lasting damage from running it that tight? Anyone else run into this situation? What did yours run like?

When i bought mine I checked the valve adjustment and one (can't remember which side) was so tight I could barely get any size gauge to go through it. I called a friend and had him come look just to see if I was missing something. It was just tight, after adjusting and several adjustments later have never seen any damage done by the tight valves. Did not notice any difference in performance either.

Glad I'm not the only one who's experienced it.

Thanks for giving me a heads-up.

You didnt pull the flyweel backwards so the auto decomp turned in?

JossaXr wrote:You didnt pull the flyweel backwards so the auto decomp turned in?

No, I made sure I didn't. I had it 180 out at first, with tension still on the springs. But once I got it right, it was the only valve tight. The others were basically right on.

Sounds like you might have had the auto decomp open; you shouldn't have to back out your adjuster screw that many turns, esp if your valves are anywhere in check, and that was the ONLY one you had to adjust. The right side is the side of the auto decomp as well. I experience this many a few times the first few times I adjusted my valves; I couldn't figure out why the right side was so tight. But then I found out why...

Maybe you didn't, and the one valve was just that far out of whack, but thats just what it sounds like to me...

I'm not sure if I would run that thing until I triple checked. Did you use the sight hole or did you remove the side cover?

Thumpmeister wrote:Sounds like you might have had the auto decomp open; you shouldn't have to back out your adjuster screw that many turns, esp if your valves are anywhere in check, and that was the ONLY one you had to adjust. The right side is the side of the auto decomp as well. I experience this many a few times the first few times I adjusted my valves; I couldn't figure out why the right side was so tight. But then I found out why...

Maybe you didn't, and the one valve was just that far out of whack, but thats just what it sounds like to me...

Follow up:

Yep, I had the auto decomp open .
Thanks Thump

This is cash money right here!

Thumpmeister wrote:Sounds like you might have had the auto decomp open; you shouldn't have to back out your adjuster screw that many turns, esp if your valves are anywhere in check, and that was the ONLY one you had to adjust. The right side is the side of the auto decomp as well. I experience this many a few times the first few times I adjusted my valves; I couldn't figure out why the right side was so tight. But then I found out why...

Maybe you didn't, and the one valve was just that far out of whack, but thats just what it sounds like to me...