earemike

Thanks guys, yup I used lex's guide which was pretty awesome. I weighed up the idea of removing the exhaust to get the alternator cover and rolling the bike along my garage floor and checking. I figured the time I saved removing the exhaust (since there's a bead of silastic in all the joints) would be time spent guessing TDC. I'll have to search the forum to see if that tab at the bottom of the alternator cover is necessary, if not it's removal might make the whole job quicker. Thanks for the feedback, Alex's answers to some of my questions has certainly eased my mind. Good stuff, thanks guys.

OK I spent a couple of hours doing my valves (yeah I know it shouldn't take that long). It took a while to find TDC, since I was just rolling the bike on the garage floor and watching for rocking valves. Then I'd check for an s/d/t first question: whats the T mark on the flywheel for? second question: why did I get the impression the valves rocked at other times? ie I thought on anything with reasonable performance the intake actually opened just before TDC on the exhaust stroke, but this didn't appear to be the case. Thanks for the link to lex's page by the way. curiously there were a few different occasions where I could get both rods to spin freely but not be at TDC at the top of the compression stroke. third question: has anyone else noticed this/is it normal? So I finally got to checking my valve clearances and had: LH in 0.1mm LH ex tight 0.18mm (ie not 0.18) RH in tight 0.13mm ex tight 0.1mm I was worried about the RH ex being .1mm and adjusted it to .18mm so both cylinders are within .01mm I left the in as they're within 0.02mm at a guess. I chose the .13/.18 based on what I read here as there seems to be a lot of views on valve clearances, so I preserved the 0.05mm difference and adjusted as few as possible fourth question: do you ever get clearances tightening over time? I was of the impression that they'd always get larger. Obviously if my dealer set tight clearances it could have been that 3 had been out and that exhaust was as originally set... fifth question: is there a concensus on how long the valves go before usually needing adjustment? ie do people find 1 or two out usually or more? if so are in/ex most common to need adjustment? While doing the exhaust clearances there seemed to be a high point on the rocker but I hadn't read about this. sixth question: Is it normal for the exhaust rockers to have high points where they touch the valve? In my mind this definitely effects how you set your clearances. after that I had to regap the right plug (it was .8mm not .7) but the plugs looked like new. We used to check colours with leaded fuel but now I'm told that doesn't work as well. seventh question: is plug colour still a good indicator of how the bike is running? after all that I took the bike round the block and it ran fine. I'll be doing one or two tasks a weeked for a while so I don't rush (or get shitty! ) that way I can enjoy the old tractor Thanks for reading and in advance for any tips/advice/answers. If I'm out of line don't be too harsh, point it out and I'll listen Thanks

Saw a Le Mans 3 racing a while back and looking pretty good. Racing in the historic classes would be fun

I've looked over the forum a few times but only recently registered. I've found the forum really informative, and in spite of the search function will probably ask a few questions. I've only been riding 20 odd years and I'm from down under. Cheers