Exhaust valve adjustment walkthrough

[seabeeman]

After last season's issues with hard cold starts, stumbling off idle, and occasionally dying when coming off throttle on my wife's 06 Attak, I'm going to check the valves (exhaust mainly) to make sure they aren't too tight. From everything I've read and what several said on my troubleshooting post last year, I'm sure they will be. I ordered the whole 7.48mm shim kit as my 08 may need it at some point, I have the service manual, and I'm about ready to start.

1 - Are there any good walkthroughs or tech articles on this process? I'm concerned about getting timing set back where it should, making sure I rotate the engine the right way, etc and while it's all in the manual...it's spread all over the manual. Anybody seen a good all-in-one walkthrough to supplement the book?

2 - Anything else to do while I'm in there? It got a new battery and plugs end of last season, and I'll install my oil filter relocation kit while I'm in the engine. I synced the throttle bodies last year as well but I'll do them again before I button everything up, and I'll make sure to put all the mixture settings in the diagnostic mode back to 0, as well as reset the throttle screw.

3 - Does it need a new valve cover gasket? I've never been into one of these but it appears to be a formed o-ring style, which are reusable unless damaged as far as I understand.

 

[72Gran]

I have done it twice and can offer two pieces of advice

1. make sUte when using your feelers to measure that you look for a very light drag on the feeler. The valve springs are very soft and you can actually compress them if your feelers are tight. This can cause a inaccurate reading.

2.make sure the back (exhaust side) of the cam chain is snug when installing the chain over the gears. If it’s not you cam index marks will not be lined up once the tensioner is installed. So don’t rotate the engine backwards always turn the clutch counter clockwise.

 

[72Gran]

Oh and the valve cover gasket can be re-used if not damaged

Forgot to mention that the shim may be stuck to the inside of the bucket so careful not to loose it as you remove the bucket.

 

[seabeeman]

Oh and the valve cover gasket can be re-used if not damaged

Forgot to mention that the shim may be stuck to the inside of the bucket so careful not to loose it as you remove the bucket.

Thanks for the help. Good advice on the feeler gauges. I ordered a set offset feelers to help with this. I saw a video where once he had things open, the guy ziptied the chain to the sprocket to ensure nothing moved.

Just to be sure, which clutch is rotating counter-clockwise to do this properly?

 

[72Gran]

The primary clutch should always be rotated same direction as the belt which should be counter clockwise