[ted clement]

I do my own valve adjustments and did mine at 600 as called for. The exhaust was .008 (as many of you have also reported) and satisfactory. The Intakes were .002 (or .003 can't remember) and I adjusted them to .005. Point of all this is that a friend of mine with a 400 and nearly 7000 miles (in a little over 3 months) had his "serviced" by a dealer at 600 but no adjustments since. He had been suspicious that the mechanic had not done the valves since his answers to several questions about what the gaps were, and how certains parts were removed, were met with vague answers.

Well, today after doing his valves we are both certain that they have never been done. Not a nut, screw head, hose clamp, etc, etc, showed any signs of ever being touched.

The bad news is that he paid for service he never received, but the good news is that the gaps on the exhaust were at the good ole .008 and the intakes were .002.

Whether or not the 600 adjustment was ever done, this tends to show that the gaps are not changing much, and this is good news. I have 2900 miles on mine now and will do the 4500 service as suggested. If the gaps are within specs, I will extend the next service somewhat.

Would be interested in what any of you that do your own valves are finding after several thousand miles.

 

[ajwood]

It seems...

If your friend's service invoice does not have an itemized valve adjustment
description in writing he's SOL as far as assuming the work is included at
the total price.

On the other hand...

I haven't heard of anyone needing the valve adjustment at precisely
600 miles. My 400 first started to chatter after hard and fast riding while
nearing 800 miles ODO.

If the first adjustment is done too early then the second adjustment
may have to be done sooner than an owner wants.
My point is to have the owner allow the tappets to get far enough out of adjustment during break-in
so that adjusted tappets then stay adjusted longer, afterwards.

 

[NormanB]

Ted

If the situation is the same on both sides of the pond (and I think it is) these dealers or their employees are just not up to it. They will try to get away with- what they can get with. The mechanics I have dealt with tend to come from the 'monkey see-monkey do school' and have little general engineering appreciation or understanding and it pains me to say but are pretty low calibre all round.

I purchased my machine in a private sale on condition that the seller had it serviced at the Suzy dealership. I have the invoice and the evidence that the seller was ripped off.

I am working my through the machine revisiting the service items and there is no evidence (apart from clean engine oil) that they went anywhere near the machine. I phoned the dealer and had a conversation with him and came to the conclusion he was more a scam artist than a business man. So £145 ($270) for an oil change and an invoice - pretty expensive.

My sincere advice to all is to DIY as much as you are able, and if you ain't able get someone to show you. If you do not have tools and a manual - buy them. The fact is you do not need many tools for this machine - perhaps we should compile a list ot two?


NormanB

 

[ted clement]

Ajwood, you may be right on the 600 mile thing; however I did mine just to make sure and the intakes were at the minimum setting. Also I wanted to make sure there were no questions by Suzuki if I later required warranty work. I'll do them again at the 4500 mark just to see how much they have changed...if any. Don't know what they put on the repair ticket...but it would be our word against theirs, and thats an issue not work bringing up besides we might need warranty work done at some point, but that is all the business they will get from us. There are several other dealers around and we well be looking into their service practices to see if we can find someone more reliable.

Norman...on the tools, thats a good idea. Other than several metric wrenches, 10mm is the main one, and I think an 8 mm, and two allen wrenches 5 & 6 mm, a phillips screwdriver...thats about it. We're gonna buy two sockets in 5 & 6 to make it easier taking the fuel injector off (don't know about carb models..prob the same) . My buddy had the large socket to turn the flywheel and I didn't notice what size it was. Theres some tools...spark plug wrench for ex, in the tool kit, but we had better stuff available.

FWIW: it took us 3 1/2 hours...a lot of time figuring how to get the box/trunk out and stuff like that. Next time it will go much faster.

Also, the tube on the underside of the air box was full of oil, and its about impossible to get to without taking the whole thing apart. We run a new hose, about 12 inches long or so, down underneath and tied the lower end so it wouldn't flap around. That way it will be easy to get to without taking anything off. His had a lot of oil...the tube was full and when we pulled it off a fair amount ran out of the air box. I guess that was 7K miles worth of accumulation from the crankcase breather.

 

[Randy]

Speaking of tools ,
next time you have Chinese take out save the chop sticks
they work very well on the plastic fansners and no worry if you slip.

 

[ajwood]

Randy, that's right. I put a couple scratches on by prying with a flat bladed
screwdriver. One broke off ($1.75).

Ted,
You don't have to remove the trunk box.
By replacing the squeeze clamp at the PCV fitting (forward of rear wheel)
with a screw clamp, it slides off and back on easy.
I sprayed the PCV metal fitting outsides with silicone spray to get the hose to slide
off or on much easier.
When the air cleaner box gets removed, let the hose detach itself at the
box side.
Remove the hose at the PCV side fitting after the air cleaner box is removed
then re-attach to removed air box.
When the air cleaner box is set back down into the engine, route the attached
hose back to near the metal PCV fitting. The screw clamp can then be used to secure
the hose to the metal fitting with a nut driver in the blind.

Silicone spray is also handy to prep the PAIR solenoid/valve hose fittings so that
future work in that cramped space will still allow hoses to slip easily on or off.

 

[ted clement]

Randy, I know what you mean regarding the hoses, but how did you get to the rear bolt on the air box without removing the trunk? Maybe a flexible extension rod ?

 

[NormanB]

Ted

I am with you on this one - why mess about? Get the Burger naked!

Now that I am experienced at de-frocking the Burger and a zen master of tupperware oragami it takes me 6 mins to get the helmet box out and 15 mins to get it back in (always more troublesome to get it back in - have not figured why yet).

During my first oragami training exercise which involved much studying of the manual I got the bike naked except front and rear mudguards in 1 hour 40 minutes, it took 2 hours 30 to reassemble I reckon if I needed to do again I could knock 40 mins off those times easily.

With reference to the tube full of oil under the air filter housing, it is easier to access that if you take the frame covers off (both sides together - 4 mins to take off, 6 to put back). If that tube was full of oil it was due to either over exuberance in oiling the filter after cleaning OR the engine sump has been overfilled at some point - I guess.

Regards
NormanB

 

[ted clement]

NormB....re' the drain tube, I just got thru putting a longer tube on. Managed to squeeze my hand down in there and pull old one off and it was full of oil, but there was no excess in the air filter box. When I change oil and filter I put in only 2 quarts so it must be just slinging a bit out. Going up towards the mountians tomorrow for a couple hundred miles with 2 others so i'll be draggin tomorrow evening. :lol:

 

[NormanB]

Ted

You may well be right I have no real experience of what is normal (yet) as regards this system.

I thought I had an oil leak and found the tube had fallen off the botom of the air filter box. I put it down, at the time, to my over oiling the air filter.

It is conceivable that the tube could be full of oil and the air filter plenum to be relatively oil free - after all that is the function of the drain/collector tube.

I will monitor and gain this experience over time I guess! :wink:

Hope you had a good trip - 'Thars gold in them thar hills'!

Regards
NormanB

 

[ted clement]

More on the above mentioned dealer: was there today while a buddy picked up a new oil filter and the owner and I had a good chat about scooters. He is also the Yamaha dealer and was showing me pictures of the '05 Majesty, and we got into how little maintenance it took. He said something about the biggest problem was getting all the body panels off, etc. I told him I always do my own maint and that we recently did the valves on one of his customers scooter and he did not seem at all bothered by that so I proceeded to tell him I was pretty sure the valves had not been done by his mechanic when it was there last. I explained why, and he acknowledged that my reasoning was logical...and again did not take issue with my comments. I just wanted to tactfully let him know that we knew his mechanic was not doing a proper job. Whether it will help or not...who knows.