How To Adjust Valves on a Motorcycle or ATV - Shim Type

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Is your machine in need of a valve adjustment? Is it hard to start or not running quite, right? It could be that your valves are not in spec... This video will demonstrate how to check your valve clearances, and it gives you all the steps to perform a valve adjustment on your motorcycle, atv or utv! Rocky Mountain ATV/ MC carries all the parts and tools you would need to adjust the valves on your machine.

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[N]

that's 100% the video I have wanted to find for now 2 years. So grateful this was made.

[TSER]

Fantastic step-by-step guide to doing a job that is often deemed more difficult than need be. This video is definitely confidence inspiring, and gets me thinking the process is totally within the reach of an amateur mechanic.
Thank you for posting this.

[ivailogeorgiev]

English is not my native language and yet i got it all thanks for the great explanation !

[LowTierPancakes]

I heard about this scheduled maintenance a little while ago and was dreaded by it. Thank you for showing me how doable this work is, even though I’d rather not have to do it 😂

[kogi]

This video is awesome. Had no idea how this was done and now I do. Thanks.

[AdventureWithDanan]

Guys,

You do excellent instructional videos! Thank you very much. All of these videos make it super simple for a DIYer.

Keep it up!

[lancelittleton]

Thank you SO much for a very thorough video! I will be using THIS video while doing the job on my DR-Z tomorrow!

[DaveWatts_ejectamenta]

what would be nice is listening how rough it runs before and how nice it runs afterwards

[rmatvmc]

@Kevin Martin Titanium valves will have different coatings on the valve face which will affect the life of the valve and how often you have to actually adjust the clearance. We've seen older YZF's with the stock Ti Valves go years without adjustment and be fine... Stainless Steel Valves on the other hand are hardened steel and tend to last longer than the Ti valves and generally require less maintenance than the Ti valves. The only downside to the steel valves is the weight difference which isn't significant but with the Ti valves being lighter they take less force to open and more importantly less force to close avoiding valve float at the really high rpms. We always recommend replacing the valve springs when replacing valves with the correct springs for the valves you are installing. The stainless steel valves will require a little heavier duty spring to handle the added weight but as long as the proper preparation and steps are taken for installing the new valves whether they are Ti or SS you shouldn't have any problems. Generally if you are looking for longevity SS valves are the way to go!

[adamw]

Who knew it would actually be so easy. Great video.

[rmatvmc]

@Kevin Martin I'm not 100% sure what you are referring to when you say valves come out of alignment but as your valves wear they tend to stretch out in a sense causing the clearances between your valve buckets and the lobes on your camshafts to get smaller which if they get too small can actually hold the valve open causing compression problems and starting problems. The valves can also slowly wear into the cylinder head reducing the clearances also causing problems so it's crucial that those clearances are regularly checked and adjusted correctly to ensure easy starting and for the motor to run right. You adjust those clearances with different thicknesses of shims. If the clearance was too small you would go to a smaller shim to open it up a little bit. You need the timing of the valves to be spot on and the valve clearances to be adjusted correctly in order for the bike to run properly

[billross]

I see "red" RTV silicone sealant on the head to help seal the valve cover gasket. As a 40+year Yamaha/Honda factory trained Tech, (now vocational/technical high school Powersports Instructor) I recommend to my students to use Yamabond-4, much cleaner than the red

[bluehuman]

Attempting this job for the first time on my bike, I was confused looking at the workshop manual how to reset the timing chain tensioner, although you only breezed over it, I have it worked out now thanks.

[connorwasson]

I was sceptical about doing the valves myself but after watching this I'm deffinetly not paying a shop to do such an easy job, awesome video! I plan on picking up my shims from your site aswell

[zAqRpS]

You are giving me the confidence to do this on my own bikes! Thanks for the great video

[RVMTube]

Beautiful, concise, detailed presentation.

[lightedgestudios]

I think this is the best video on youtube for valve adjustment :)

[thegoldenman]

Very instructional awesome video! I'll definitely use this when I go to adjust my valves

[alack]

I don’t know why it took me over 20 rewind to learn how to do the math but I just got it figured out. Thanks so much. Just need to get my shins in the bike and go ride again.

[mikemallory]

Thank you for showing the math, I needed that.