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ZR-7S Valve Adjustment with pics 1

56K views 60 replies 27 participants last post by  wesleybrolls 
#1 ·
I creating this post from memory as I did this valve adjust awhile back and pulled up the pictures from my computer. I think it's pretty much all there if my memory is correct.

Disclaimers:
I'm not a professional mechanic and I’m writing this document from my own experience and knowledge. No responsibility can be accepted for any damage or injury caused by any errors or omissions in this article. Make certain you understand what is described and why it is being done. Use at your own risk. If you’re not comfortable with this please take the bike to a shop.

Rules:
Please read this document fully before doing any work and remember safety first.
You should have a Kawasaki Service Manual on hand.

Use Relentless Patience every step of the way. There are no shortcuts available with this job, and it takes a lot of patience. Do not mix parts. Every bolt, nut, and part should go back in its original place during reassembly.

First thing is to make sure you have the proper tools required to do the job.
You will need to source your (13mm shims) to do this job. I bought mine from a local shop when I knew what sizes I needed. They are used from the shop supply. Some shops aren’t as helpful as this and you may have to order them.
*Inch* /pound torque wrench, Small 1/4 drive ratchet with a small 8mm socket, cam chain tensioner "Holder Plate", metric micrometer or sliding caliper, cardboard box to draw the valve cover on to hold bolts, Kawasaki ZR-7 Service Manual, ½ inch ratchet or flex bar to rotate crank, I can’t remember the size of socket for the crank (17mm or 19mm?), feller gauge to measure valve clearance, 5mm hex , and misc 10mm, 12mm, sockets and wrenches… zip ties, zip lock bags, anti-seize compound, always good to have a new gasket if needed, and shop towels or rags. You kind of know that you need tools by now.
 
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#2 ·
ZR-7S Valve Adjustment with pics 2

Okay time to get dirty or unless your bike is really clean. I try and make sure my bike has been washed really good before doing a job like this as it helps with falling dust and grim.

1. Remove the gas tank and put it in a safe place. I have a square frame made out of 2x4 wood and angle the tank on it so the petcock is elevated. Reminder: Make sure the petcock is on and not on prime before removing it.

2. You will have to remove the coils. Before doing this draw a picture, notes, or take a picture. Make sure you know how the wires are routed and which coil mounts right or left.

3. Remove the horn as it will get in way at the front of the valve cover. Again take note of wiring etc..

4. My bike has the air valve thing removed and it uses the hose between the two reed valves on the valve cover. If your bike is stock you will have to remove the vacuum line and vacuum valve etc..
5. You need to tie up the cables and wiring out of the way for clearance to remove the valve cover. See Pic
 
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#3 · (Edited)
ZR-7S Valve Adjustment with pics 3

6. Start loosening the valve cover bolts to remove them. I loosen them first then take them out to keep even pressure on the valve cover. Remember the cardboard box? Draw an arrow to represent the front of the engine and outline the valve cover shape. Draw circles to represent the bolt holes and then poke them out with something. This will enable you to put the bolts back exactly where they came from and not mix up sizes etc.. See pic.
 
#4 · (Edited)
ZR-7S Valve Adjustment with pics 4

7. I made sure the frame was clean above the valve cover to avoid dirt falling in the engine. Hence the clean bike as mentioned in the beginning of the document. I also left my spark plugs in as it would be another hole for dirt to fall in the cylinders. When you have all the bolts out you may have to pry the valve cover away as it will be stuck to the gasket. My old trick is to tap it with a rubber hammer upwards lightly. Usually the vibrations will knock it loose. If not, gently try to get it off. I removed my valve cover from the left side of the bike. You have to pull up and angle the front down toward the front of the bike, then out. I had trouble with this at first, but take your time and don’t bang up the cams. The cover comes off once you know the sweet spot. Place the cover aside for now.

8. Remove the timing/ignition rotor cover. This is on the right side of the engine. It is the small cover straight down from the number four cylinder side of the engine. Remove two bolts and this should come off very easy.

9. My gasket was reused by the shop for the last valve adjustment. They used some silicon, which made a mess. Before I started any work I stuffed shop towels at the edges of the inner top of the head beside the cam. Basically made a barrier of any area where stuff can fall in the engine while I’m cleaning this crap up. I arranged this so that I can pull them out away from the engine and any debris will fall away from the top of the engine. I used a scraper and some very fine sand paper. Be careful with using a scraper not to scratch or gouge the surface. I left the rubber caps in at the end of the head. They were getting hard, but still didn’t leak. I just cut off a piece that was about to fall off inside by the cam. Just to keep it from going in the engine. They say to replace these and use silicon to install them, but no leaks so I didn’t disturb them.

10. Now you will measure the clearance between the cam lobe and the top of the bucket. Turn the ignition rotor clock wise (the direction of the arrow) to 1-4 to bring number one cylinder to top dead center. Depending where your engine is this may take a couple of turns. This is a pic of number one at the top of the compression stroke. Below is the rotor timing mark. The clearance spec from the manual is 0.08 – 0.18 mm (0.0031 – 0.0071 in) with cold engine.
 
#5 · (Edited)
ZR-7S Valve Adjustment with pics 5

Ignition rotor pic.
 
#6 ·
ZR-7S Valve Adjustment with pics 6

11. Inspect the clearance of intake valves #1 and #3 cylinders and the exhaust valves of #1 and #2 cylinders. This is out of the Kawasaki Manual.

12. You need to keep a work sheet and record these measurements. This is vital for doing the valve adjustment.

13. Turn the ignition rotor clock wise (the direction of the arrow) to 2-3 to bring the number four piston to top dead center.

14. Inspect the clearance of intake valves #2 and #4 cylinders and the exhaust valves of #3 and #4 cylinders. This is out of the Kawasaki Manual.

15. Once again record the measurements. The feeler gauge should slide in tight, but you shouldn’t have to force it. The write measurement would be like it feels like the gauge should be there. Some resistance, but not folding or breaking the gauge.

16. I will post a work sheet courtesy of AndreL from the news group. Thank you Andre.
 
#7 ·
ZR-7S Valve Adjustment with pics 7

17. After you measured and measured again! Once your confident of the recorded specs turn the engine to the cam timing marks. This is lining up the ignition rotor and timing marks on the cam. See pic.

18. From the right side of the bike you will see the outer left of the intake cam sprocket (IN) and the outer right of the exhaust cam sprocket (Z7EX). There is a line you look at on the two sprockets. These marks are level with the top of the head. You have to look straight across level with the head. Not from up above or on an angle. Once again a Kawasaki manual explains this in a drawing. This pic is a little high looking at it. I like to set the timing up so you have something to reference after you put everything back together.

19. As you see in the pic above, I zip tied the cam chain to the sprockets. This has to be tight to ensure the chain doesn’t move from the sprocket tooth. Some people have had zip ties break, so you may want to double them. Do this before taking anything apart. This will save your %*&*&*.

20. Loosen the cap on the tensioner before removing the tensioner. The cap would be hard to remove if the tensioner was in your hands and you don’t want to use a vise or pliers on it. Two bolts to remove the tensioner and you may have to wiggle and pull to get it out. The o rings make a pretty tight seal. Put it aside for now.

21. Remove the chain guide. This is at the top of the engine between the two cam sprockets. Be very careful not to drop any bolts in the engine. You can use a rag to cover any areas where they can fall in. This area is a big open void for something to fall in.

22. Do not turn the engine over at this point as you will jump the timing chain.

23. Here is the tricky part. The idea to zip tie the sprockets is to keep the chain on the timing marks while you keep the chain taught on the engine side. Meaning at this point if you hold the cam sprockets and rotate both of them toward the inside of the engine or toward each other. Basically pulling up, so the chain can’t fall off the sprocket in the crank case. This will keep the slack out of the timing chain in the crank case. The exhaust side should be taught, because the intake side has the slack that the tensioner takes out. I don’t know how else to explain this, so if your reading this and you don’t understand please do not attempt to do this on your own.

24. Removing the camshaft cap bolts. The manual states: loosen all cap bolts evenly half way and then remove all cap bolts. I do this across the cams with more steps. From one end of the cam to the other, nice and slow and even. Not sure if this is over kill, but I don’t want to warp, bend or break anything.

25. This is very important. The reason they say to put the bolts and caps back in the same place for the cams is that these are line bored at the factory. They were one piece and then bored. This is why you have those stupid rubber things on the side of the head. The line bore went right through it. One good thing is the caps are numbered. I have a rolling shop cart that I used for this to keep everything in order. I took them off in a sequence and put them back the same way. See pic.
 
#8 ·
ZR-7S Valve Adjustment with pics 8

26. To remove the buckets you have to move the cam up and away to the side. Do one cam at a time or you can even do half. Pulling up and angle to one side and then the other side. I used a valve lapper to pull the buckets out. It is basically a stick with a small suction cup. You need something as you have to pull straight up and they are slippery. See pic for intake bucket removal. Notice how I’m pulling up and back keeping the chain taught.

27. Here is the exhaust cam. Notice how I’m pulling up and then back to keep the chain taught.
 
#9 · (Edited)
ZR-7S Valve Adjustment with pics 9

28. Here is the cam resting after pulling up, then back, and resting with the chain taught. When putting the cam back on the bearing the same thing, keep the chain taught. In the picture you can see the cam resting with the chain taught and I removed the buckets. I may have repeated this in many ways, but this is the critical part of the job. If you lose the timing, good luck brother!

29. My shims stuck to the bottom of the bucket when I removed them. Remember the zip lock bags? Label the bags 1 to 4 for intake and exhaust. You must put the shims in the bags to keep them in order; otherwise your measurements mean nothing. You can do this as you remove each bucket or however you want to organize yourself. Just remember you need to know which cylinder, intake, and exhaust where the shim was taken from.

30. You have to measure each shim to figure out the correct clearance. If you’re lucky you measured the valve clearance and put your valve cover back on (all in spec). I needed to adjust a couple of valves, but I figured since I was this far I would measure all the shims and document it. This way I know what’s in the bike and what I need before taking it apart next time.

31. Example: Intake 1 was a very tight .102mm (.004 in), which was more like .0035 in. Existing shim was 2.80mm. Replaced the shim with a 2.75mm to get a .152mm (.006 in) clearance. I found going down by 0.05mm was = two steps up in clearance.

32. Do what you need to do to correct the clearance and place the new shims in the appropriate zip lock bag. I put the shim on top of the valve keeper with some oil. There is a recessed part that the shim fits in. You will understand when you see it. I put some oil on the valve keeper, shim, and on the inside of the bucket where the shim mates against. Lube the outer part of the bucket before carefully installing it. Repeat until you have all the buckets and shims installed.

33. Ensure that everything is clean before you lube and put it back together. I covered my engine up when I wasn’t working on it to keep dust out.
 
#10 ·
ZR-7S Valve Adjustment with pics 10

34. Now to install the cams in the opposite removal procedure. Lube the bearing, caps, journals, and lobes. Install the caps in proper order and then tighten them from one end to the other. A little at a time to seat the cam slowly and evenly. (104 in-lb) Use the same precautions as you did with the timing chain.

35. Then install the chain guide. ( 95 in-lb) As you can see in the pic below I keep the chain taught with the slack in between the two cams. The reason for this is when I install the tensioner. I will hold the intake sprocket with my hand and role it back toward the tensioner. This will absorb the chain slack and keep the chain taught inside the crank case.
 
#11 · (Edited)
ZR-7S Valve Adjustment with pics 11

36. Now to prepare the tensioner. The holder plate is a tool used to preload the tensioner and release it after it is installed. In the pic below you can see what it looks like. I made this from one of the bigger feeler gauges I have using a metal cutter and dremel tool. Measurements are in the manual for the holder. Wider part is 9.5mm and the smaller part is 4mm with a total length of 15mm. The cut out smaller running length is 6mm.

37. On the bench hold the tensioner face down and turn the slot with a small screw driver clockwise while pushing down. Hold it there when it bottoms and insert the holder plate. Pull the holder plate while holding the tensioner in your hand to see how it works and it’s a good test. See below pics
 
#12 · (Edited)
ZR-7S Valve Adjustment with pics 12

38. The tensioner is preloaded and ready to install. Install the tensioner so that the arrow on the side of the tensioner body faces left side of the engine. Tighten the two bolts (97 in-lb). This is not cave man tight if you know what I mean. These are small fine thread bolts so start them by hand and don’t cross thread them. People have screwed the threads up in the past, so be careful and gentle. In the pic below you can see the tensioner installed with the holder plate sticking out and the pair of bent needle nose pliers that I’m going to use to pull the holder plate out. Lube O rings with a bit of oil on your finger.

39. Pull the holder plate out and the tensioner will release. Then install the cap on the tensioner. (46 in-lb)
 
#13 · (Edited)
ZR-7S Valve Adjustment with pics 13

40. This is the small ratchet I used for the cam tensioner mounting bolts. See pic below.

41. Back to the explanation on step 35. I will hold the intake sprocket with my hand and role it back toward the tensioner. This will absorb the chain slack and keep the chain taught inside the crank case.

42. Verify the timing marks etc.. ( Remove zip ties first!) Now turn the engine over by hand slowly a few times to ensure everything is seated and the chain slack has been absorbed. Use the same method for turning the engine as you did when measuring the valve clearance. Now measure the valve clearance and record it as a before and after documentation. If all is good clean up your valve cover and install it. (104 in-lb)

43. I used a new valve cover gasket and smeared it with anti-seize compound before installing it. This is supposed to keep it from sticking so you can reuse it. I replace the O rings on the tensioner also. Not sure if it was needed.

44. Continue to put your bike back together. I turned my engine over with no choke a couple of times to get oil pressure and to listen to the engine before firing it up.

45. To finish the job do a carb synch to get her running really good.

46. This was my first attempt at the valve adjustment on my own. Everything went well except for a bad number 3 spark plug cap that was going bad and went when I first fired up the bike. Messed up my head until I figured out what was going on and trouble shot it. Really thought I @&$%^& it up.

47. I'm not a professional mechanic and I’m writing this document from my own experience and knowledge. No responsibility can be accepted for any damage or injury caused by any errors or omissions in this article. Make certain you understand what is described and why it is being done. Use at your own risk. If you’re not comfortable with this please take the bike to a shop.
 
#14 · (Edited)
ZR-7S Valve Adjustment with pics 14 of 14

Here is the work sheet courtesy of André from the news group. Thank you André.
 
#17 · (Edited)
ZR-7S Valve Adjustment (easy way to remove shim buckets)

For me the most frustrating part of valve adjustment on the ZR-7 is removing the shim buckets to get at the shims. The buckets are so slippery and recessed I have always struggled getting them out.

This past weekend when I adjusted the valves again an idea popped in my head. The idea was to use a small suction cup from a toy dart to pull the buckets out.

A firm push down to seat the suction cup, gentle twisting and pulling and out it comes in 2 seconds.
Wow! how easy is that! :)
 
#18 ·
Great idea, you just need kids of the right age !

I usually use an old magnetic cup-hook. The magnetic base is about the same diameter as the the buckets.
Takes a litle twisting to break the oil film, and occasionally the film proves stronger than the magnet.

Now if I still had that old valve lapping stick...................................
 
#21 ·
Great idea, you just need kids of the right age !

I usually use an old magnetic cup-hook. The magnetic base is about the same diameter as the the buckets.
Takes a litle twisting to break the oil film, and occasionally the film proves stronger than the magnet.
Hey, who said you had to have kids to own a dart gun. :D

I had thought about using a magnet several times, but figured it was just to easy and obvious to be a good solution.
Something about possibly magnetizing moving engine parts always seemed like a bad idea to me...perhaps it is just all in my head.
 
#20 ·
I used suction cups on mine also. I used one off the windsheld mount for my radar detector. I learned the trick working on a 1966 Lotus Elan. Back then the tool I used was meant for grinding valves. A wooded stick with suction a cup on each end.

John
 
#23 ·
Question - please help a newbie

This is great. Especially the pictures help.
Two weeks ago, I started my own project and I'm totally new at this, so I need some help. I heard a clunk sound every time I started the bike and it would go away once the engine warmed up. Talking to some neighbours, they said it could be the valves. I also noticed a leak and thought the cylinder head gasket was cracked. So, with the manual in my hand and some new tools I took on the task of taking the engine apart. Now, here's the weird thing. I checked the valves and the clearance was fine, so I took them off to get to the gasket. Unfortunately, the new gasket didn't come in on time, so I had to wait a week. During this time, the valves were just sitting in my shed. Once I got the gasket, I started putting everything back together. Before putting the cover back on the valves, I thought I would check the valves again and ... there was no clearance anymore, nihil, nada, zero, nothing. They were all slammed close to the cams ... I talked to the neighbourhood mechanic and he thinks it's because they sat in my shed without pressure from the top, that the "springs" expanded, and/or that the oil pressure was gone ... I find this very weird. Plan is now to continue putting everything back together and turn the camshaft a couple time to get the oil topped up in the engine.
Anybody have any ideas?
 
#49 ·
This is great. Especially the pictures help.
Once I got the gasket, I started putting everything back together. Before putting the cover back on the valves, I thought I would check the valves again and ... there was no clearance anymore, nihil, nada, zero, nothing. They were all slammed close to the cams ...

This guy's misery is over 8 years old, but I just ran into this EXACT same problem. Measured all clearances and waited 10 days for the two shims I needed. (six of eight were fine) Replaced the shims and got ZERO clearance on 7 of the eight, .002 on the eighth. I've disassembled and reassembled about 5 times. Engine turns over smoothly and what feels like very normally. Timing appears to remain correct.

I've done 4 or 5 successful valve adjustments on dual cam single cylinder bikes, so I am not exactly a newbie, but this bike makes me feel like a complete idiot.
 
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