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Just when I thought I only needed a simple valve adjustment

Olsensan

New member
I have owned my 02 1150RT for the past 6 years, I bought it from a friend whom had it serviced at a dealership but it never quite felt or ran right. After buying it, I bought the CD service manual, Clymers and Hayes manuals and joined the MOA and took advantage of these forums and assistance from its members. Over the years I had found that the valves, particularly the right side valves would go out of speck faster than the left and recently a good bit of noise coming from the right side, again suspecting those pesky valves. One thing I did notice after receiving the bike is that in fact, it did run rough so I adjusted the valves and did a good throttle body synch and it worked, the bike ran great for the past 22,000 miles but I found that the right side valves would go out of spec more so than the left.

After thinking about how the past dealership performed the tuneups on the bike and past problems, I wondered what could be leading to the frequency of valve adjustment problems and noise. Clickity clack-clickity-clack.....

A little history first: I found out that the dealership had gone out of business some years ago and any bikes there, including those of owners waiting for them to perform maintenance, where seized by the local authorities due to failure to pay taxes etc. Later I heard that more was involved but that goes beyond the scope of this writing and is not indicative of other above board honorable dealerships. Anyway, good practices were not in the forefront of the maintenance performed on this bike or others.

I had to wonder if the 600 mile service was preformed properly so I bought the dial gauge needed to re-torque the head bolts and check the rocker arm end play gap on both sides. Wouldn't you know it, there it was, plain as day! The rights side was barely torqued down to the initial 20 ft. lbs, not to mention an additional 180 degrees needed to properly torque the heads down. Anyway, I torqued everything down properly, adjusted the valves, synched the throttle bodies, buttoned everything up and the engine runs without any noise and sounds like a Swiss watch.

I wanted to share this with you guys and gals just in case you have wondered yourself about noise and valve adjustments varying after a short time, it is worth the look-see. Funny how some of us have a problem believing others might do things with the same accuracy or quality that we would expect of ourselves. Again, the old adage applies: If you want it done right, do it yourself!
 
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Today's Handy Household Hint:

For my past several bikes (actually since my first R100 with the unleaded valve seats), I've kept a record in my spiral-bound maintenance & receipts log of what valve adjustments have been required - see attached picture.

I write in a "T" if it was tight, "L" if it was loose, and a checkmark if it was OK. This tells me beforehand if something is consistently moving around.
 

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Thanks and yes I'm feeling like I saved my butt from a big $ layout and possibly worse. Like you said, it is interesting that this potential disaster took as long as it did to rear its ugly head. It was a shot in the dark and it paid off, whoooo hoooo! The real credit goes to this site and its members who share ideas etc. Thanks everyone!
 
Haven't had one apart myself but curious. Does a new head gasket have much crush? If it does then the bolt force resulting from the torque spec would be much different using a new gasket instead of a pre-crushed one. One reason engine repair procedures require a new head gasket.
 
Haven't had one apart myself but curious. Does a new head gasket have much crush? If it does then the bolt force resulting from the torque spec would be much different using a new gasket instead of a pre-crushed one. One reason engine repair procedures require a new head gasket.

I also think a retorque after XX miles is required after installation of new gasket.
 
Yep. It's not just a new bike thing.
Any top end disassembly involving the heads coming off requires a re-torque after 600 miles.
 
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