Valve clearance Check and Adjust

[Van Voyager]

I'm pretty sure the valve clearance has never been checked/adjusted on my Voyager. Can the Cam cover on an 86 ZN1300 be removed to check valve clearance without removing the fairing? What else has to be removed (besides the gas-tank)? Thanks for any advice.

[Me Again]

I truly doubt it.You are going to have enough trouble with clearance as it is without trying to deal with the fairing too .
For what it is worth it is not that hard to remove the fairing .4 nuts under ,2 nuts inside ,a few wire harnesses and the airline for the pump .
Hardest part is the harnesses
Probably weighs around 40ish pounds

[Van Voyager]

Thanks MA.

[jorgeno]

It’s not necessary to remove the head faring, only the two lower fairing, gas tank, coils and air suction valve.

[Thadbaker86voyager]

Aren’t they hydraulic lifters? No adjustments necessary??

[jorgeno]

There are no hydraulic lifters on 86 ZN1300, valves must be checked every 6000KM

[Van Voyager]

It’s not necessary to remove the head faring, only the two lower fairing, gas tank, coils and air suction valve.

Thanks for the tip.

[Thadbaker86voyager]

totally missed the 1300 part!

[Me Again]

It’s not necessary to remove the head faring, only the two lower fairing, gas tank, coils and air suction valve.

I have been thinking of changing coils on my 84 but decided it looked like to much work so I have been looking for a different bike.
Gotta rethink that and maybe do the valves as long as the coils would be out already.

[jorgeno]

It’s not so much work, just be patient and see inside the manual p.341.
Here are some pictures from my valve clearance job

https://imgur.com/gallery/ZTHAyy6

[Van Voyager]

It’s not so much work, just be patient and see inside the manual p.341.
Here are some pictures from my valve clearance job

https://imgur.com/gallery/ZTHAyy6

Awesome. Thanks for posting.

[Van Voyager]

The manual I have mentions that there is a knock pin in front on the tach drive on the head. Of course, my 86 doesn't have a tach drive as the tach is electronic. The knock pin hole is there in the head but it's not drilled out on the valve cover (or more accurately, not drilled out large enough). So there's no knock pin on the later model engines - right?

[jorgeno]

That’s right

[Van Voyager]

That’s right

Thanks for your help with this stuff Jorgeno.

[Van Voyager]

Well, I have the valve cover off. Wasn't that big of a deal (thanks to Jorgeno re tip about only removing the fairing lowers - two screws and one bolt each), but my God, it took 2 days of careful scraping to get the cover the head gasket surfaces clean! The new gasket will be going on with plenty of grease so I don't have to go through that again. Next challenge is going to be getting the Alternator cover off - got all the bolts out which was a bit of a challenge - but the gasket has welded the cover on here too. Pretty sure none of the engine covers have ever been off this bike.

[Me Again]

Those are big magnets holding those covers on . It may seem like the gasket is stuck but it is probably the stator holding it together.
I have always managed to get them loose with a couple of firm taps then a steady pull

[jorgeno]

Glad I can help, Mr. Van Voyager :-) Sounds like it’s been a while since last valve check. I’m looking forward to hear your valve readings, I’m sure you will notice some positive changes.

I don’t know if you now this, but here is a good tips to make your own special tool for change shims:

http://gsarchive.bwringer.com/bikecliff ... ip_tie.pdf

It works on a Kawasaki engine to
It helped me a lot

[Van Voyager]

Thanks for the tip on the shim changing tool. I made one myself when I had my KZ1300 back in 79. I think also have the Genuine Kawasaki tool laying around too but not much chance I'll find it amongst all my junk.

[Van Voyager]

Glad I can help, Mr. Van Voyager :-) Sounds like it’s been a while since last valve check. I’m looking forward to hear your valve readings, I’m sure you will notice some positive changes.

Pretty sure the valves have never been checked on this motor (it's very low mileage).

All of the exhaust valve were within spec but right on the edge of being tight (0.15mm). I'll fix that the next time I check the valves and putt them all at the loose end of the spec. I need to get a better shim collection first.

Only two intake valves (#4 and #6) were out of spec. I managed to get #4 back in spec by using #6's shim (down two sizes) so I only needed one shim to replace #6 -(also down two sizes). The rest of the intakes were all within the spec. I'll adjust all of those to the loose end of the spec the next time.

[jorgeno]

That was not so bad, how many mileage does your bike have? When I did my valve adjustment, three of the exhaust was out of spec and two of the intake.
My odometer shows almost 25000 miles, but I don’t believe it. Maybe it’s 125000. Or maybe something else, the upper fairing have some damage on the right side, beside the pocket fairing. I think it has hit the ground once. Maybe someone replaced the meters when they did the repair. I don’t know.

But this is what I know: the cam chain is within spec, and when I replaced the cam tensioner (zzr) I counted 12 clicks. I could also see some wear on the cam chain sprocket when I adjusted the valves. I’ll guess it will soon be necessary to replace the gear and at the same time do some top end refreshments. It makes a bit engine knocking noises when it’s hot. The manual suggests carbon buildups. Maybe becaus long time without adjusting the valves?

I’m wondering if the cam chain sprocket can estimate the mileage? And how far does Voyagers-bikers travel before it’s necessary to do some engine overhaul?

Other than that, the bike runs great, I have ride 1600miles in three weeks with no problems