Cleared a rite of passage - adjusted valves

So, I bought a set of gauges, dived in, and set my valves. Wasn't too bad.

Had a tense moment before I realized the valves would be open on one side and closed on the other, and I have to turn the engine over to change that.

The main takeaways are:

• Putting that little rubber cap back in is a bastard. What the hell, BMW? Couldn't you make it a threaded plug?
  
• Previous owner was a bit more into shortcuts than I thought - throttle body nipples had short bits of hose with bolts instead of vacuum caps. They were also loose and leaky, so fixing that should be a good thing.
  
• I might need a valve cover gasket. Alternately, it could be that damn oil filler. Fixed that too. Also a bastard. And a stupid design. Why do you hate threaded plugs, BMW?
  

Bike runs afterwards, so I consider it a success.

So, I bought a set of gauges, dived in, and set my valves. Wasn't too bad.

 

Had a tense moment before I realized the valves would be open on one side and closed on the other, and I have to turn the engine over to change that.

 

The main takeaways are:

 

• Putting that little rubber cap back in is a bastard. What the hell, BMW? Couldn't you make it a threaded plug?
  
• Previous owner was a bit more into shortcuts than I thought - throttle body nipples had short bits of hose with bolts instead of vacuum caps. They were also loose and leaky, so fixing that should be a good thing.
  
• I might need a valve cover gasket. Alternately, it could be that damn oil filler. Fixed that too. Also a bastard. And a stupid design. Why do you hate threaded plugs, BMW?
  

 

Bike runs afterwards, so I consider it a success.

Afternoon J. Paganel

You are lucky that you didn't push that little rubber plug into the cavity of he!! There are hundreds if not thousands of BMW 1100/1150 bikes riding around with that rubber plug down in the depths where the flywheel lives.

Next time either use a pencil or a chopstick into a spark plug hole, or use the arrows on the cam sprockets to set the engine to TDC for a valve adjustment.

Forget the rubber cap. Use the arrows on the cam sprocket.

Yep, that rubber cap is the worst part of doing valve adjustment. These days I just cover up the hole with a piece of duct tape.....

Next time, will use dirtrider's recommendation and use the cam sprocket arrows.....

Keith

I've always used a chopstick, even have a special one in the tool box for the job. With the plugs out and the bike in a high gear I just move the rear tire until I see the piston at tdc and the all the lifter loose. Just grasp the lifters and give them a shake. They will rattle a bit.

Forget the rubber cap. Use the arrows on the cam sprocket.

Yep. Unless the cam sprocket is in the wrong position (very unlikely) the arrows on the face of the sprocket will indicate TDC. I don't remove the timing hole rubber plug.

Heh. So many workarounds...

So, now that we're done with torrential downpours, I rode to work. Runs nice.

Yeah, my first valve adjustment --- I lost the rubber cap down there. I freaked out until I read this forum and felt better. I saw that the plug was $6 on Ebay and freaked out again. I ordered it. I proceeded to put the new plug in and down that went as well.

Duct Tape lives there.