Okay, So I am about to check the clearances on the F4i. I did the valves on my Ninja 250 but that was not the same style. I will admit that I did not realize that you must pull out the camshafts to do this. It makes me just a bit nervous.

The work I am planning on doing is a full cooling system drain/flush, oil change, valve clearance check/adjustment, and Manual CCT install along with some other things. It says in the procedure to remove the CCT screw and back it out to loosen the chain. One question of mine is how should I go about doing this if I am going to replace the CCT? Should I just pull the old one out, and install the APE when I am done with the check/adjustment?

I am going to take the radiator off the bike to clean the tar and bugs off/out of it. Should I keep the radiator off when I do the check to give me some more room? Are there any things I can do or things I can remove to give me more room to work? Any general advice? Im pretty confident I can do this, I am not mechanically stupid. I just have to make sure that I pay attention to all the timing marks and make sure I do things in the correct order.

I am also going to be pulling off the wheels for cleaning and a rear tire replacement. Im pretty much going to have all the plastics off the bike along with the wheels and have it hanging from a beam because I have no stands. Should I do the valve work after I get the wheels back on it? Thanks for the time and hopefully the responses.

 

you don't have to pull your cams out unless your clearance is wrong
also, you can check your clearance either before removing the stock CCT or after installing your APE manual tensioner

just remove everything you're going to remove before you start your valve clearance check, that way you'll have the most room possible to do it, but i have done mine without removing the radiator.

if you have to change any shims, you'll probably have to pull your motor out

if you do need to replace any shims you can figure out what size you need by adding your measured clearance value and shim size together then subtract your ideal clearance value
hopefully you won't need to do that though

good luck

any more questions, just post 'em up i'm normally in here atleast once a day

 

For what it's worth, I was told by a motorcycle maintenance guy friend of mine that checking the valve clearance isn't really a big deal unless the bike is acting funny.

Now if your bike has 30-40k on it or something, then it can't hurt. But before than it's probably not a big deal.

 

that's the truth, lets keep that on the DL though
I get paid for such things

but I would say to check them atleast by 30k miles and if you can do it yourself and have the peace of mind that they're right then I say do it

 

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