At this point I wish I could remove it, but I didn't have any credibility to begin with, so... whatever. Good news is that this was the last thing I've thrown in a long time. I'm learning to breath!
Great video,thanks for uploading.I checked my clearances the other month at 18000 miles,a couple of exhaust valves were right on the limit so I'm going to reshim the motor over winter. I'm seriously considering taking the motor out of the frame to give me better access to everything.The last minute from your upload is something we can all relate to!.
Thanks Mark. Access isn't *that* bad with the motor in the bike. If you don't have any other reason to pull the engine, I'd consider leaving it in. But totally up to you. I wish I could cut the last minute out of the video, lol.
@@matttriestodothings Yes,I'm wary of the exhaust studs shearing & making more work for myself.I'll just remove the rear shock for better access to the CCT
Engines do not have emotions, they just run good or bad depending on good maintenance. I did my Super BlackBird, which is 4 cvlinders/camshaft. Certainly teaches you patience. Good vid.
They certainly like to pretend they have emotions sometimes though! Oh man, I can only imagine how much fun a Blackbird is to ride. I saw one at a track day not too long ago and got really jealous, hah. Enjoy it!
I love the rage, it shows that you care, and that you can feel frustration doing manual labor :) . Great video, torque your bolts to spec, it will save you time and money ppl!
haha--I do wish I could remove that bit of the video at this point, but this is one of the few I have made that has some value. So... I just have to leave it in.
@Matt Tries To Do Things Keep the rage as far as i'm concerned, makes it so much more real, and the joy you can clearly feet at the end makes more sense.
After you set your cam timing points per the manual, and before you remove the chain tensioner, you should tie wrap the cam chain to the chain sprockets (one spot each sprocket) so you don't lose their spacing. You can now safely roll each cam off the buckets to remove them without fear of losing the chain position on the sprockets. Even if you lose the crank position, you'll only have that one spot to deal with a instead of all three.
I don't even own an sv650 or even a motorcycle with bucket and shims to adjust valve clearance yet I watched this. Your rage mode is quite entertaining. Btw, I've seen people have success with hammered in star torque bit into rounded off allen heads to remove them.
Heh, I usually edit most of em out, but I tossed that one in the end to ensure nobody got the idea that I actually know what I'm doing. Learning experience though, I should have just hit the rounded chain guide bolt with the impact right away and saved myself the elevated blood pressure. Getting better. Just managed to install a set of new rearsets without even making a chirp! Okay, maybe a short outburst when the axle pinch bolt snapped at 15ft-lbs..I'll find my zen... Someday. Good call on the star bolts. I need to get some larger ones in case I need to hammer em like you said. Thanks man.
Thank you so much for this video ! my Curvy is now burning oil so I have to replace the valve stem seals. At the same time I will be doing this procedure. Keeping my fingers crossed.
For sure. I've never actually done valve stem seals--so godspeed! I notice that I do seem to go through some oil on track days running high revs, but I don't notice any oil consumption with regular riding. Are you seeing blueish smoke or quickly noticing that you're running low on oil?
Great video. Best in depth one I've seen yet for 650 valve adjustment. Just bought a 2021 V Strom so I won't be doing this myself for a while, but I'm watch videos and have purchased the factory service manual already.
Thanks Adrian, I appreciate it. I've got a 2018 V Strom with about 6,000 miles that I may check (hopefully just check, hah) clearances on this winter. I think the newer style cam tensioners are supposedly easier to work with. We shall see.
@@matttriestodothings I did see a video where the guy zip tied the cam chain to the cam shaft sprocket through one of the holes in the sprocket so the chain would not come off the sprocket. He then removed the cam shaft retainer cover and lifted the free end of the cam high enough to remove the shim buckets without taking the chain off the sprocket and with out removing the cam shaft completely from the head. Don't know if I would try it that way.
@@amv606 I think I saw that one as well. It seemed like it could save you some time, but I think you'd really want to make sure you knew what you were doing first. Definitely more than one way to skin a cat--I just wanted to be as close to the manual as possible. It was a little bit intimidating to do the first time, but turned out it was just tedious but following instructions wasn't so bad.
whenever i see valve adjustments on sv650, i always believe it is a lot more likely to do something wrong that will damage the engine than just simply keep riding with oil and filter changes and hope the valve clearances will never go out of minimal intervals...mine is 60000km, bought with 50000 and i am sure this service was never done.
I think you're probably right about the SV engine in that it's unlikely to be a big issue since most people report that they're very rarely more than a thousandth out of spec after 20k miles. I still think it's probably a good idea to check them at some point if you're getting in there for other maintenance since the check procedure is rather simple--if tedious. But you don't run the risk of hurting anything just by checking.
I don't want people to get the wrong idea that I'm a professional, lol. I've vowed to not throw hammers anymore though. That one damn near wiped out the laptop.
Good vid, thanks for making it! I am so glad I'm about to move into a place with a garage so I can finally do this procedure, I'm not looking forward to having to re-mount the rear wheel though, I seem to remember the spacers would continually fall out. Also, that ending lmao.
I figured nobody would actually get to the end, hah. Thanks for the kind words. Get a block of wood the correct height, it makes it easy to get the spacers aligned if you're not having to raise the wheel assembly and also balance the spacers. I used to struggle mightily with it until I made that change. If I were to do this again, I would spend more time making (2) perfect cam chain tensioner tools. You should be able to wind them up into the tensioners to relieve chain tension and leave them alone. This would negate the need to actually remove the tensioners completely. That is, assuming you don't bump them off on accident like me.
I'm going to check mine but I am waiting for spring because garage is really cold and could will give me false readings. this was an excellent video. I saw another one the guy just loosened the tensioner bolts but didnt fully remove them, I'm curious on your opinion of that.............................JB..
If you're working with a gen2 or gen3 engine, the cam chain tensioner is a different design where you can just remove the spring and plunger without having to remove the entire assembly. That may have been what you were seeing. You could also likely just wind up the tensioner in the gen1 completely and leave a stopper tool inside of it to remove of the tension on the chain. It would probably be a little bit more difficult to remove the camshaft without removing it fully but doable. Mad8v has a good video about the differences in the gen1, 2, and 3 tensioners here: ua-cam.com/video/w_A6wQ7p-PM/v-deo.htmlsi=RRSpGhBgABvXY2ZD
Lots of great info., Matt. I've been putting this off on my '17 650 Vstrom. I'm at 15,000 miles and ready for a check. I will remove the rear wheel! The worst part on my bike is that the ABS control box is almost in the way of the rear tensioner. By the way, you mentioned a tensioner tool or key - what is that and who makes it?
I've actually got a 2018 650 VStrom that will need this done as well. I'm only at about 5,000 miles, but I was planning on doing it next winter. Just coming out of hibernation now, so no plans to actually tear into it yet. The Gen1 tensioner (from my research) is quite a bit different than the Gen2 and Gen3. Not sure if there are tools to be purchased from suzuki/motionPro/etc., or if they can also be fabricated fairly simply. Now you've got me worried about the VStrom. Totally forgot about ABS.
I'm fairly certain you could just loosen the bolts on the radiator to hang it forward to get the valve cover off. However, I'd probably just try to time it with a coolant change because it's so much easier access if you pull the radiator off completley. Unfortunately not near the bike now to check to say for certain. I'll take a look when I get back to the bike tho.
Fuel, air, compression, and spark. Those are the four things you need. Without knowing more, my first suggestion is going to be to make certain that you've got your battery fully charged up. Are you getting any popping when trying to fire? Is the bike carbureted or fuel injected?
Oh man, great job on that 5mm allen bolt at the end! I know how pain in the rear are those little fuckers if they're rounded. The same thing goes to a torx bolts. I guess the only option there is to weld the 5mm allen key to the bolt but you need to own a welder.
Yeaaaaa I should have tried the impact before I got all angry, lol. But I couldn't believe that bolt was rounded given its a low torque bolt in an area that won't see rust, so it shouldn't get stuck. Included it at the end to drive home the fact that I'm not a professional in any sense of the word, hah. And yea, I think you're welding at that point if you can't get a vise grip on it. And even then, you're risking getting foreign material into the engine. All around bad situation.
@@matttriestodothings I have to admit - it was hilarious watching this because I saw myself in those kind of situations, swearing as hell and throwing things all over the place. Oh man, what a stories I have, especially those with over tighten or rounded allen bolts haha. Lots of mechanics don't give a fuck, they tight every single bolt with impact wrench because it goes faster, instead of using their brains and torque wrenches. That's why I love to do repairs or maintenance by myself. If I screw something up, it's on me.
The bandit is pretty straightforward once you get the valve cover off because you don't have to mess with timing or pulling cam chains out. The locknut-type valve adjusters are easy to work on and adjust. The inline 4 configuration has pretty simple access to all the adjusters (relatively). Everything's relative. The actual valve adjustment of the SV wasn't terribly difficult since I had a collection of shims on hand. The toughest part was dealing with those cam chain adjusters--though I think if I made two more rigid and capable special tools, I wouldn't even need to pull them off again for the next time. Luckily, at 27k miles and now adjusted to the loose end, I highly doubt that these valves are going to need adjusting anytime soon.
@@apauma1 The VStrom should be pretty similar to this; however, the cam chain tensioners are going to be different depending on the model year you have. I'm planning to check my clearances on my 2018 VStrom over the winter next year. I'll need to do some reading up on the Strom's cct's and how they differ from the gen 1 sv650's. I think they're easier to work with from the little bit of research I'd found so far.
@@matttriestodothings Very nice video btw, well done. Learned a lot. Looks fun, almost. You remind me of Bill Burr, could be the dialect. Also, wouldn't being on the tighter end of spec be preferable since wear will loosen it over time? Or perhaps I've misunderstood the terms.
@@F3udF1st hah, maybe I've listened to too much of Bill's Monday Morning Podcast for my own good over the years. Intuitively you would think that valves would get looser over time. That's what I thought at least. However, they generally tend to actually tighten over time as the valves and valve seats wear down which tightens up the lash between the valve stem base and the cam lobe.
From what I have been reading from people much smarter than me (and also the suggestion from the factory service manual) is that "In Spec" is "In Spec". Leave it be. It shouldn't drift too much more, and check it again in maybe another 5000 miles. If you were well within the center of tolerance, go the whole recommended service interval of like 12-16000 miles. Can't remember exact figures. There are obviously caveats to that. If the bike had 3000 miles on it and this single valve was on the tight end of spec and the rest of them were loose or in the middle.. I'd probably get a smaller shim in. Or if you were racing--you may actually choose to tighten or loosen the clearance based on when you wanted the cam to start pushing against the bucket and opening the gap. But if it's bugging you and you've got the time, I think there are some ways to simplify this process. Namely.. I don't see why I couldn't have just wound up my cam chain tensioner with the tool and pulled the cams out while leaving the tool in the tensioner.
That last minute or two was worth the price of admission.
At this point I wish I could remove it, but I didn't have any credibility to begin with, so... whatever. Good news is that this was the last thing I've thrown in a long time. I'm learning to breath!
Finally Ive found video, that someone actually shows how to do valve clearance from A to Z. Thank you very much! :D
Sure thing man. Hope it's useful!
Great video,thanks for uploading.I checked my clearances the other month at 18000 miles,a couple of exhaust valves were right on the limit so I'm going to reshim the motor over winter. I'm seriously considering taking the motor out of the frame to give me better access to everything.The last minute from your upload is something we can all relate to!.
Thanks Mark. Access isn't *that* bad with the motor in the bike. If you don't have any other reason to pull the engine, I'd consider leaving it in. But totally up to you.
I wish I could cut the last minute out of the video, lol.
@@matttriestodothings Yes,I'm wary of the exhaust studs shearing & making more work for myself.I'll just remove the rear shock for better access to the CCT
Engines do not have emotions, they just run good or bad depending on good maintenance. I did my Super BlackBird, which is 4 cvlinders/camshaft. Certainly teaches you patience. Good vid.
They certainly like to pretend they have emotions sometimes though!
Oh man, I can only imagine how much fun a Blackbird is to ride. I saw one at a track day not too long ago and got really jealous, hah. Enjoy it!
Well you got it done, I had a few good laughs at your expense. Cheers
Heh, thanks Eric. Cheers.
I love the rage, it shows that you care, and that you can feel frustration doing manual labor :) . Great video, torque your bolts to spec, it will save you time and money ppl!
haha--I do wish I could remove that bit of the video at this point, but this is one of the few I have made that has some value. So... I just have to leave it in.
@Matt Tries To Do Things Keep the rage as far as i'm concerned, makes it so much more real, and the joy you can clearly feet at the end makes more sense.
After you set your cam timing points per the manual, and before you remove the chain tensioner, you should tie wrap the cam chain to the chain sprockets (one spot each sprocket) so you don't lose their spacing. You can now safely roll each cam off the buckets to remove them without fear of losing the chain position on the sprockets. Even if you lose the crank position, you'll only have that one spot to deal with a instead of all three.
So *that* is why I saw a few pictures of people with zip ties on the chain/cam. Thank you for that.
I don't even own an sv650 or even a motorcycle with bucket and shims to adjust valve clearance yet I watched this. Your rage mode is quite entertaining. Btw, I've seen people have success with hammered in star torque bit into rounded off allen heads to remove them.
Heh, I usually edit most of em out, but I tossed that one in the end to ensure nobody got the idea that I actually know what I'm doing. Learning experience though, I should have just hit the rounded chain guide bolt with the impact right away and saved myself the elevated blood pressure.
Getting better. Just managed to install a set of new rearsets without even making a chirp! Okay, maybe a short outburst when the axle pinch bolt snapped at 15ft-lbs..I'll find my zen... Someday.
Good call on the star bolts. I need to get some larger ones in case I need to hammer em like you said. Thanks man.
When I first started the video, I thought damn he took the bike down to the frame 😂
Thanks for making the video !
@@treering hah, sure thing man. Yea I was doing a few other things as well so it looked like a skeleton
Thank you so much for this video ! my Curvy is now burning oil so I have to replace the valve stem seals. At the same time I will be doing this procedure. Keeping my fingers crossed.
For sure. I've never actually done valve stem seals--so godspeed! I notice that I do seem to go through some oil on track days running high revs, but I don't notice any oil consumption with regular riding. Are you seeing blueish smoke or quickly noticing that you're running low on oil?
Great video. Best in depth one I've seen yet for 650 valve adjustment. Just bought a 2021 V Strom so I won't be doing this myself for a while, but I'm watch videos and have purchased the factory service manual already.
Thanks Adrian, I appreciate it. I've got a 2018 V Strom with about 6,000 miles that I may check (hopefully just check, hah) clearances on this winter. I think the newer style cam tensioners are supposedly easier to work with. We shall see.
@@matttriestodothings I did see a video where the guy zip tied the cam chain to the cam shaft sprocket through one of the holes in the sprocket so the chain would not come off the sprocket. He then removed the cam shaft retainer cover and lifted the free end of the cam high enough to remove the shim buckets without taking the chain off the sprocket and with out removing the cam shaft completely from the head. Don't know if I would try it that way.
@@amv606 I think I saw that one as well. It seemed like it could save you some time, but I think you'd really want to make sure you knew what you were doing first. Definitely more than one way to skin a cat--I just wanted to be as close to the manual as possible. It was a little bit intimidating to do the first time, but turned out it was just tedious but following instructions wasn't so bad.
whenever i see valve adjustments on sv650, i always believe it is a lot more likely to do something wrong that will damage the engine than just simply keep riding with oil and filter changes and hope the valve clearances will never go out of minimal intervals...mine is 60000km, bought with 50000 and i am sure this service was never done.
I think you're probably right about the SV engine in that it's unlikely to be a big issue since most people report that they're very rarely more than a thousandth out of spec after 20k miles. I still think it's probably a good idea to check them at some point if you're getting in there for other maintenance since the check procedure is rather simple--if tedious. But you don't run the risk of hurting anything just by checking.
The ending was the best.
I don't want people to get the wrong idea that I'm a professional, lol. I've vowed to not throw hammers anymore though. That one damn near wiped out the laptop.
Good vid, thanks for making it! I am so glad I'm about to move into a place with a garage so I can finally do this procedure, I'm not looking forward to having to re-mount the rear wheel though, I seem to remember the spacers would continually fall out.
Also, that ending lmao.
I figured nobody would actually get to the end, hah. Thanks for the kind words.
Get a block of wood the correct height, it makes it easy to get the spacers aligned if you're not having to raise the wheel assembly and also balance the spacers. I used to struggle mightily with it until I made that change.
If I were to do this again, I would spend more time making (2) perfect cam chain tensioner tools. You should be able to wind them up into the tensioners to relieve chain tension and leave them alone. This would negate the need to actually remove the tensioners completely. That is, assuming you don't bump them off on accident like me.
I'm going to check mine but I am waiting for spring because garage is really cold and could will give me false readings. this was an excellent video. I saw another one the guy just loosened the tensioner bolts but didnt fully remove them, I'm curious on your opinion of that.............................JB..
If you're working with a gen2 or gen3 engine, the cam chain tensioner is a different design where you can just remove the spring and plunger without having to remove the entire assembly. That may have been what you were seeing. You could also likely just wind up the tensioner in the gen1 completely and leave a stopper tool inside of it to remove of the tension on the chain. It would probably be a little bit more difficult to remove the camshaft without removing it fully but doable.
Mad8v has a good video about the differences in the gen1, 2, and 3 tensioners here: ua-cam.com/video/w_A6wQ7p-PM/v-deo.htmlsi=RRSpGhBgABvXY2ZD
Lots of great info., Matt. I've been putting this off on my '17 650 Vstrom. I'm at 15,000 miles and ready for a check. I will remove the rear wheel! The worst part on my bike is that the ABS control box is almost in the way of the rear tensioner. By the way, you mentioned a tensioner tool or key - what is that and who makes it?
I've actually got a 2018 650 VStrom that will need this done as well. I'm only at about 5,000 miles, but I was planning on doing it next winter. Just coming out of hibernation now, so no plans to actually tear into it yet.
The Gen1 tensioner (from my research) is quite a bit different than the Gen2 and Gen3. Not sure if there are tools to be purchased from suzuki/motionPro/etc., or if they can also be fabricated fairly simply.
Now you've got me worried about the VStrom. Totally forgot about ABS.
Is it possible to check the valve clerance without draining the coolant?
I'm fairly certain you could just loosen the bolts on the radiator to hang it forward to get the valve cover off. However, I'd probably just try to time it with a coolant change because it's so much easier access if you pull the radiator off completley.
Unfortunately not near the bike now to check to say for certain. I'll take a look when I get back to the bike tho.
What do you suggest to check if sv650s suzuki doesn't start. I don't know why she is not starting 🤷🏾♂
Fuel, air, compression, and spark. Those are the four things you need. Without knowing more, my first suggestion is going to be to make certain that you've got your battery fully charged up. Are you getting any popping when trying to fire? Is the bike carbureted or fuel injected?
Fucking great video! Especially the ending ahahaha! Really useful!!! Instant subscribe
I've gotten much better at calm breathing since shooting this video, hah. And thanks Obayd, cheers.
Oh man, great job on that 5mm allen bolt at the end! I know how pain in the rear are those little fuckers if they're rounded. The same thing goes to a torx bolts. I guess the only option there is to weld the 5mm allen key to the bolt but you need to own a welder.
Yeaaaaa I should have tried the impact before I got all angry, lol. But I couldn't believe that bolt was rounded given its a low torque bolt in an area that won't see rust, so it shouldn't get stuck.
Included it at the end to drive home the fact that I'm not a professional in any sense of the word, hah.
And yea, I think you're welding at that point if you can't get a vise grip on it. And even then, you're risking getting foreign material into the engine. All around bad situation.
@@matttriestodothings I have to admit - it was hilarious watching this because I saw myself in those kind of situations, swearing as hell and throwing things all over the place. Oh man, what a stories I have, especially those with over tighten or rounded allen bolts haha.
Lots of mechanics don't give a fuck, they tight every single bolt with impact wrench because it goes faster, instead of using their brains and torque wrenches. That's why I love to do repairs or maintenance by myself. If I screw something up, it's on me.
Look like a lot of work. What is harder bandit or the sv 650 vavlve adjustment?
The bandit is pretty straightforward once you get the valve cover off because you don't have to mess with timing or pulling cam chains out. The locknut-type valve adjusters are easy to work on and adjust. The inline 4 configuration has pretty simple access to all the adjusters (relatively). Everything's relative.
The actual valve adjustment of the SV wasn't terribly difficult since I had a collection of shims on hand. The toughest part was dealing with those cam chain adjusters--though I think if I made two more rigid and capable special tools, I wouldn't even need to pull them off again for the next time. Luckily, at 27k miles and now adjusted to the loose end, I highly doubt that these valves are going to need adjusting anytime soon.
Your video about the bandit valve maintence help me a lot.
Now thinking to change to vstrom 650 wiht similar engine, but the valve job scares me.
@@apauma1 The VStrom should be pretty similar to this; however, the cam chain tensioners are going to be different depending on the model year you have. I'm planning to check my clearances on my 2018 VStrom over the winter next year. I'll need to do some reading up on the Strom's cct's and how they differ from the gen 1 sv650's. I think they're easier to work with from the little bit of research I'd found so far.
What book is that you're following?
I believe I was using the Clymer manual.
@@matttriestodothings Very nice video btw, well done. Learned a lot. Looks fun, almost. You remind me of Bill Burr, could be the dialect. Also, wouldn't being on the tighter end of spec be preferable since wear will loosen it over time? Or perhaps I've misunderstood the terms.
@@F3udF1st hah, maybe I've listened to too much of Bill's Monday Morning Podcast for my own good over the years.
Intuitively you would think that valves would get looser over time. That's what I thought at least. However, they generally tend to actually tighten over time as the valves and valve seats wear down which tightens up the lash between the valve stem base and the cam lobe.
What if one valve is little too tight ,but still within specs..does it still needs adjustment?
From what I have been reading from people much smarter than me (and also the suggestion from the factory service manual) is that "In Spec" is "In Spec". Leave it be. It shouldn't drift too much more, and check it again in maybe another 5000 miles. If you were well within the center of tolerance, go the whole recommended service interval of like 12-16000 miles. Can't remember exact figures.
There are obviously caveats to that. If the bike had 3000 miles on it and this single valve was on the tight end of spec and the rest of them were loose or in the middle.. I'd probably get a smaller shim in. Or if you were racing--you may actually choose to tighten or loosen the clearance based on when you wanted the cam to start pushing against the bucket and opening the gap.
But if it's bugging you and you've got the time, I think there are some ways to simplify this process. Namely.. I don't see why I couldn't have just wound up my cam chain tensioner with the tool and pulled the cams out while leaving the tool in the tensioner.
Wouldn't be a motorcycle job with out some problems, lol.
Ain't that the truth! Keeps you humble, haha
23:28 haha you made me laugh.
heh, I was actually spooked I may have been dropping the shim into the crankcase which would be... not fun.