Need Help Valve adjustment?

[JeffG]

Just bought 2014 Valk with 2400 miles on her. Bike is completely stock. When I picked it up there was a very noisy valve tappet on left side. Sounds like only one valve. Seller said he took it to the shop and it needed a simple shim. After research I see the cam must be removed, and I probably need to get a video? However, the real question is why a bike with 2k miles would have this problem. Thanks in advance for your expertise!

[Chrisj CMA]

The Valkyrie doesn’t use shims for valve adjustment. It’s a mechanical adjustment with a 10mm box wrench and a screwdriver. That mechanic didn’t know what he was talking about. And, you do not need to remove the cam to adjust the tappet.

[Frank4]

I think the board is getting confused between the 1500 and 1800 Valk.  The 1800 Valk does indeed use shims and camshaft removal for replacement according to the shop manual.

Frank

[Robert]

Wow I had the valve cover off mine and had to recheck because I had a slight seeming valve noise in mine also. I checked all the clearances and they were within spec. But I did not remember that it was the shim and not an adjustable rocker. There have been a few others who complained about the same noise and I have not heard a resolve yet.

With that said, I also had a slight noise that I thought was valve noise and it turns out it was not. I still have not found the cause of the noise 20k miles later. It comes and goes and I think it was just put there to annoy me.  

[luftkoph]

I would check the valve lash first to make sure it is a lash problem, out of spec at that mileage is very very unlikely

[F6Dave]

I've read that GL-1800 valves rarely are out of spec when checked at the recommended 32,000 mile intervals. In fact, automotive engines using this very common valve train design typically call for valve clearance checks at around 100,000 miles or more. It makes me wonder if this is another case of Honda recommending unnecessarily short maintenance intervals, like 12,000 mile air filter changes.

I had a Kawasaki KZ-900 and a Suzuki GS-1000 that both used a system with very large shims that sat in recesses on top of the cam followers. Both companies offered inexpensive tools that compressed the edge of the follower with the cam lobe out of the way, allowing an easy shim swap using tweezers. No camshaft removal needed!

[Robert]

I've read that GL-1800 valves rarely are out of spec when checked at the recommended 32,000 mile intervals. In fact, automotive engines using this very common valve train design typically call for valve clearance checks at around 100,000 miles or more. It makes me wonder if this is another case of Honda recommending unnecessarily short maintenance intervals, like 12,000 mile air filter changes.

You wondered the exact same thing I was always thinking about. Honda and their maintenance overkill.

I have seen many cars with this type of adjustment and some never had been adjusted and ran great.

The only reason I checked was I had the occasional tick that I thought was valve train and checked valve clearance and it was fine. I finally said the heck with it and rode with the noise and it finally disappeared and I have never heard it again.