[Astroguy]

Just brought my ZR7 in for valve adjust. It had 25,000 km on it and I've put on 5,000km of them.
Three of the exhaust valves were so tight that even the 1/1,000th blade wouldn't fit. I was told however the buckets would spin so there were still closing.
Because of the inablilty to measure they had to guess the shims and remeasure and then take apart and install corrected shim sizes. This ended up with much more labour charge......$600! for valve adj and carb balancing.
The shop said that it's extremely likely the valves have never been adjusted before.
Bike is running fine now....question is ...how often is the recommended valve adjust.

 

[Boscoe]

Get the valves adjusted ASAP. Just because the buckets spin when cold does not mean they spin when the engine is hot and the metal has expanded. That is the reason the engineers specify a clearance! If the metal did not expand when hot, there would be no need for clearance. My guess is you are losing compression and power when the engine is warmed up, and you are risking burning your valves do to insufficient/lack of contact with the seats to transfer the heat away from the valves.

Get it done properly ASAP! You already know they are too tight. Why ruin your engine by failing to adjust them?

NEVERMIND MY RANT! Sorry- re-read and saw that you got them serviced. Nevermind.... :slap: :doh

 

[Easy Rider]

question is ...how often is the recommended valve adjust.

Get an owners manual.
Even if you have to buy one through a dealer they are fairly cheap.

 

[Smash]

Owners manual: ZR-7 and ZR-7S Maintenance Manual Backup | jadz

I downloaded one from here for Karla's ZR7, it's a safe download.

 

[Obo]

Bike is running fine now....question is ...how often is the recommended valve adjust.

According to the service manual first check should have been at 800 km (from new) then checked at 10,000km and every 10k thereafter.

 

[custer]

20k miles.

 

[JonF]

The valve check interval is every 10,000 kilometers (6000 miles) as stated. I think mine had pretty much settled at around 18,000 miles so I started checking them every 10,000 miles.

 

[locojim]

I haven't had to change anything since I checked them at around 15000 miles..Have 35 now and they're not perfect but in spec....

 

[custer]

check the compression first, without oil in the cylinders then with(if the compression is low) to see if it is the rings or the valves, then check the valve clearance.

 

[Hugo Delgadillo]

It all depends on how it is ridden. Recommendations by the manual are really average, they don't know how the bike is going to be treated or mistreated. The milder your riding is the more they tend to stay put, and likely, you may have to do it no more than once during the life of the bike, unless you trash it.

Do it yourself. That's the only way you know what you got, and what you've done.

 

[zr7_interloper]

Just brought my ZR7 in for valve adjust. It had 25,000 km on it and I've put on 5,000km of them.
Three of the exhaust valves were so tight that even the 1/1,000th blade wouldn't fit. I was told however the buckets would spin so there were still closing.
Because of the inablilty to measure they had to guess the shims and remeasure and then take apart and install corrected shim sizes. This ended up with much more labour charge......$600! for valve adj and carb balancing.
The shop said that it's extremely likely the valves have never been adjusted before.
Bike is running fine now....question is ...how often is the recommended valve adjust.

Just curious and this may be instructive to others here.
How poorly was your bike running and in what way? (before the adjustment)

 

[custer]

why not pull out the compression tester and use it. it is not like you have a ninja with the fairing.

 

[Astroguy]

Just curious and this may be instructive to others here.
How poorly was your bike running and in what way? (before the adjustment)

Hi, my ZR was running reasonably well. The cold starts however were less than perfect.....the bike would catch instantly but then settle into a stumble for 30 to 40 seconds......this has gone away completely since the valves were adjusted.....but I should point out the the carbs were balanced at the same time.
It seems like it revs up a bit quicker from 6,500rpm to 8,000 also but this could be me rationalizing the fact that I spent over $600 : )
This bike was relatively new to me and I didn't know the previous owner so I didn't know if they ever were adjusted when I purchased it at 19,000km .....this plus the fact that my engines left side bank had a slight tappet noise that was completely absent on the right side of the motor. This was very evident in the sound difference and I know that it's better to hear valves than not hear valves. These were the main reasons for the valve adjust. The bike itself was running well and the fuel mileage has remained the same since the valve adjust.
Like I mentioned, the engine starts are definitly improved and the engine noise is now equal exactly on both the right and left engine sides.
Shop said my # 3 and #4 exhaust valves were very tight and #2 exhaust valve was tight.

 

[zr7_interloper]

Hi, my ZR was running reasonably well. The cold starts however were less than perfect.....the bike would catch instantly but then settle into a stumble for 30 to 40 seconds......this has gone away completely since the valves were adjusted.....but I should point out the the carbs were balanced at the same time.
It seems like it revs up a bit quicker from 6,500rpm to 8,000 also but this could be me rationalizing the fact that I spent over $600 : )
This bike was relatively new to me and I didn't know the previous owner so I didn't know if they ever were adjusted when I purchased it at 19,000km .....this plus the fact that my engines left side bank had a slight tappet noise that was completely absent on the right side of the motor. This was very evident in the sound difference and I know that it's better to hear valves than not hear valves. These were the main reasons for the valve adjust. The bike itself was running well and the fuel mileage has remained the same since the valve adjust.
Like I mentioned, the engine starts are definitly improved and the engine noise is now equal exactly on both the right and left engine sides.
Shop said my # 3 and #4 exhaust valves were very tight and #2 exhaust valve was tight.

Good to know...
When you mention "cold starts", do you mean starting in the winter time or the first time you start the bike, regardless of weather?

 

[Astroguy]

Good to know...
When you mention "cold starts", do you mean starting in the winter time or the first time you start the bike, regardless of weather?

Nope could be 80 Degrees F outside.....if she sat for more than an hour, I'd always have this issue. I tried so many different startup routines and never found one so I just got used to this. But now it has gone from 100% always rough start up to now 100% gone so I know this servicing did something......but the carbs were balanced as well so that could be the cuplrit as well.
I don't really see how a valve adjust could have corrected the startup issue. I've gotten valves done dozens of times on my 15 or so previous bikes and I never notice anything.
The big improvement also is that now both sides of my engine makes the same noises and that does my heart good.