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Valve Clearance and Carb Balance On the Fazer
Blog Date - 26 July 2011
I normally do my own servicing on the bikes I own. I'll change the oil, adjust the chain, check the bearings and replace brake pads with no worries. I have, in the past, adjusted tappets on bikes I've owned too. In fact I've completely stripped and rebuilt the odd motor and got it back to running just fine. I know my way around a bike but I'm no mechanical wizard.
I've owned my Fazer FZS 600 now for two and a half years and in all thet time I've done my own serviceing. Not that I've done anything major as it's not required it. I change the oil every 3,000 miles, the oil filter every 6,000, I've fitted a new air filter and I replaced the spark plugs with NGK iridium at 8,000 miles. I used the expensive Iridium plugs because the plan is to put them in there and forget about them. I don't plan to change them until at LEAST 50,000 miles, they should last a lifetime really.
There has been one job I've been loathed to do, and another I can't do. The job I did not want to do was the valve clearances. I know I'm capable and I've got the Haynes manual for the bike so I have access to the knowledge too. Yet with a bucket and shim setup on the Fazer as opposed to the screw-and-locknut tappets on previous machines the job is much harder and much more involved. Removing the vavle cover should be easy and measuring the clearances is fairly basic, but removing the cams, accessing the shims, calculating the new shim sizes, purchasing the shims, fitting the shims then rebuilding everything and re-setting the cam chain timing is a fiddly old job.
The job I can't do is balancing the carbs. It's not actually that difficult, as long as you have a set of carb balance guages. I don't. I could of course purchase some, it seems a set can be had from £25 through to £50, so that's not too bad. I guess I should invest in some. The Fazer now has 26,000 miles on it and the valve clearances and balance are due at 24,000 miles so it's overdue. The tickover has been a tad rough, one valve has been a little tick-ticky at startup and the bike needed a good dose of looking at.
I did ask at a couple of bike shops how much this would cost. One shop would only do it as part of a full 24,000 mile Fazer service, with a cost of "Up to £400, depending on what's needed". The other shop said they'd never done a valve clearance check on any bike as the damn things never go out of tolerance anyhows. Both of these answers seemed most unsatisfactory. That said, I put 80,000 miles on a CB 400 Super Four and never once opened any part of the engine and that was running fine, and my NTV 600 Revere never had a rocker cover removed in it's 77,000 miles either. Still, for peace of mind I want the Fazer at least checked.
There's a chap up at Rivington whose mechanical ability is legendary. He's raced bikes in the past and has been fixing them since long before I was born. He currently rides a pristine Sunbeam and a Bandit with 30,000 miles on the clock yet both bikes look almost new. He's worked on several friends bikes and they all report he's some kind of wizard and completely obsessed with things being "just right". I asked him if he could do the honours on my Fazer and he said "No problem"
I was a little nervous leaving my bike with him. He always has things "just right" whereas I always have things "about right, it'll do". His garage is nothing special but seeing the tools in order on the wall points to his meticulous methods. The workshop looks used yet incredibly tidy and orderly. I left the bike there expecting a call a few days later where I would get a right bollocking for this and that being wrong and how could I ride a bike in this terrible condition.
I did get a call the next day. "Your bike's ready". I waited for the dressing down. He informed me the valve clearances were all well within tolerance but the carbs were well out of balance and the pilot screws were all wrong, 2 had been "seized". However the work was complete and I could collect my machine. No bollocking...phew! When I collected the bike later he asked "When did you fit the spark plugs?" I told him 2 years ago. He said they're fine, the iridiums are a good idea, but I need to ensure the area around the plugs is kept clean as the drain holes had blocked up and the plugs had started to corrode badly. It was a very polite dressing down.
I duly made a mental note that at each oil change I should thoroughly clean around each plug and make sure the drain holes are free of dirt. He then moved onto the clearances. He produced a piece of paper with a simple diagram of the 16 valves. Next to each valve was the correct clearance, and the actual clearance. The inlets were slightly out but well within the prescribed tolerance set in the Haynes manual, each of the exhaust valve was spot on. Nothing to worry about there an no reason at all to remove the camshafts, if it's not broke, don't fix it.
He then asked I'd ever touched the carbs. Nope, not once. I bought the bike with 7,800 miles on it so I had no reson to believe the previous owner would have had cause to touch the carbs either. It seems the pilot screws were all over the place, he'd reset them to the default 2 turns out. He'd then balance the carbs, apparently the 2 lefts and 2 rights were not far out, but between the 2 pairs there was a massive discrepancy. He'd adjusted accordingly and now the bike should run a little leaner and a lot sharper at small throttle openings.
He doesn't work for free. He's retired and does not want a queue of dirty bikers outside his house each day asking for freebies. I paid him what he asked and what I considered a fair amount for his time, knowledge and meticulous ability. Riding the bike home I could tell the difference. The bike is so much smoother, the gear changes cleaner and the slow speed riding snappier and smoother. It's not transformed the bike into some amazing hot-rod, but it does feel so much nicer. Well worth the cost for peace of mind and pleasure of riding.
In the future I'm going to do 3 things. First off I'm going to clean around the spark plugs, but I still intend to leave them in there for quite some time. Secondly I'm going to invest in some carb balance guages and learn to do it myself and finally next time I'll CHECK the valve clearances myself. If, and only if they are out, I will then call in professional help to replace the shims. I'm glad I did decide not to do it all myself though.
Reader's Comments
FreeBird Mani said :-
Pretty impressive write up. I am due for my 30,000miles service so I think its a good idea to have my shims checked.
Will take the pointer on the SparkPlug cleaning.
Thanks for sharing.
Cheers
Freebirdmani.wordpress.com
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
phil said :-
Seems the Carb'd fazers valve clearances rarely go out of tolerance. I'm gonna check mine soon at 35k, idn if they're ever been checked by previous owners. The thing that is worrying and seems to be more common is the camchain itself needing replacement due to being clattery or stretched, and the tensioner is unable to quieten the engine. Bit worrying! Carb screws in general are 2turns out but its better practise to set them where the engine idles happiest. Mine are almost 3 turns.
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
Adam said :-
Great write up I want mine checking and carbs balanced I'm not to far from rivington does anyone know contact details for the guy mentioned in the post thanks in advance if so contact me on 07562439382
03/04/2016 20:10:23 UTC
Ren - The Ed said :-
Hi Adam. Unfortunately the chap who did the work has recently moved to Canada! Was it something I said?
He and his wife have family out there and while all the local bikers will miss his abilities and his personality I wish him well.
04/04/2016 07:27:14 UTC
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