Someone "Splain it to Me"

[Rio Wil]

The valk valve train is a cam follower system with the lash taken up with a screw/nut arrangement on the valve end of the rocker arm. I have heard it said the GL1500 GW is a hydraulic lifter tensioned valve lash.  Looking at a parts breakdown I see a rocker arm that is a cam follower (like the valk), but on the end that contacts the valve, there is no adjustment screw and nut......OK.....hydraulic......so where the hell is the hydraulic lifter!!!!!

[Rio Wil]

never mind.....i found my answer......

[The emperor has no clothes]

never mind.....i found my answer......

And it was ?

[gordonv]

Sounds interesting. So are you trying to change to GW heads for the hydraulic lifters, or?

Wouldn't you want to keep the Valkyrie Cams, higher performance. How about the cc's of the cylinder head?

[Rio Wil]

Actually, I just was helping a friend clear up some confusion about his '97 having solid lifters and catalytic converters. That led to GW1500's having hydraulic lifters and I got curious (I know it killed the cat), looks like the gl1500 was hydraulic until '98 and it got the valk style valve train.  But I am still curious as to the lash adjustment in the hydraulic style heads.......I can't find no stinking lifter.

Well I will be cursed!!!!!!!!!  I just looked again at ebay heads and finally see how they did it......there are 6 bores on top of the the cam retainer plate. The gl1500 rocker arm has a protrusion that extends up to the end of that bore and the hydraulics are in there.  They just blocked off the bores, removed the protrusion on the rocker arm, added the screw/nut adjustments in a new arm for the valk heads (and later gl1500  heads)......  

[Rio Wil]

In these two photos, you can see thew protrusion on the gl1500 rocker arm that extends up into the end of the bore on the cam housing.....on the later head, the bores are simply not used , no protrusion on the rocker arm......Honda just used the same cam cover and didn't machine the bores out for the hydraulics.............Oh well....

[Rio Wil]

It is kinda curious that hundreds of folks have had the valve covers off to  check/adj valves, and not one ever noticed/wondered just what purpose those 6 big cylindrical castings served in the cam cover on valk head........ .....or maybe everyone knows and I am a slow study.....

But i bet one could take a gl1500 head, use the valk cam and have hydraulic lifters......

[Ricky-D]

Cams ground for solid lifters and cams ground for hydraulic lifters are different and not normally interchangeable.

Cams ground for hydraulic lifters are ground with a relief to allow lubrication to migrate between the two friction surfaces.

Cams ground for solid lifters have no need for an oiling relief since there is a clearance generated with proper valve adjustment.

***

[falconbrother]

I hope I never have to go in there..  I'm getting old and it's not fun anymore. 

[Rio Wil]

Hey  Ricky-D......I guess I am just having a kind of one sided conversation with myself, musing about an oddity  in the Valk engine head, an artifact of the old gl1500 head and how the Honda engineers deemed to deal with removing the hydraulics and going an adjustable rocker arm......I thought it was a interesting piece of development history.

Another thing along the development line and apparently undocumented anywhere is the front axle alignment mark that makes short work of knowing for sure you have the front axle inserted the proper distance......would be no more questions about 'hey, I removed my front wheel and now the rotors grind'....its a dead sure alignment method.

Anyway....its kinda fun to discover stuff like this.....what the heck....

 

[The emperor has no clothes]

Hey  Ricky-D......I guess I am just having a kind of one sided conversation with myself, musing about an oddity  in the Valk engine head, an artifact of the old gl1500 head and how the Honda engineers deemed to deal with removing the hydraulics and going an adjustable rocker arm......I thought it was a interesting piece of development history.

Another thing along the development line and apparently undocumented anywhere is the front axle alignment mark that makes short work of knowing for sure you have the front axle inserted the proper distance......would be no more questions about 'hey, I removed my front wheel and now the rotors grind'....its a dead sure alignment method.

Anyway....its kinda fun to discover stuff like this.....what the heck....

 

It wasn't really one sided. I've been following. Just didn't know enough to add anything. 

[Rio Wil]

hehehe.....I have to confess I might have been under the influence of about 3 fingers of Nikka Coffey Grain Wiskey and thought I was talking to myself.....