I just got done checking the valve clearances, learned something new about my tappet feeler gauge - it has .008 inch and .009 inch blades, nothing in between. That was fine and all until I got this..

Exhaust .008 .008 .008 .009 .009 .008 .009 .008

Intake .006 .006 .006 .006 .006 .006 .006 .006

Everything is on the tight side, and pretty close to each other. The exhaust is all inside of spec, but I'm unsure about the intake. The clearance range for the exhaust side is .0087 to .0106 inches. Since I don't have anything between .008 and .009 I don't know where exactly they are in regards to their clearance. So I have a couple options.

1.) I leave them where they're at, I understand the clearances are there for a reason, at most they're .0007 off, enough to go through the headache of changing them?

2.) Buy a new set of tappet feeler gauges... This can easily be done and I don't need to ride the bike today or tomorrow.

3.) Buy some new shims and forget about it the rest of the mess.

Ideas? Within the next 5k miles (8 months) I'm going to be out on the open road driving a big rig. So the bike will be lucky to get 1k miles in a year once that happens.. Ideas? Thanks!

2.) Buy a new set of tappet feeler gauges... This can easily be done and I don't need to ride the bike today or tomorrow.

I'd say your a step ahead--you know the range you have with your current set of feelers and you know you don't have enough to measure as accurate as you could. I would just run down to the auto supply and see if they have a set that contains blades between .008-.009 cost yu ~$5 and buy you peace of mind.

I was contemplating which set of feelers to buy myself. Finally decided I would never know until I tried one so I just got the set with the most blades. Even if that doesn't get me in the ballpark, it was just a few bucks and I will know what DOESN'T work.

* Last updated by: Rook on 7/27/2011 @ 10:00 AM *

---

I use a step feeler guage just because I am lazy but them suckers are costly.

How hard is it to get the valve cover off?

---

The shim table in the SM might direct you to replacement shims that drop you right at the center of the spec range. I have heard that the tighter end of the range is optimum. .006. for intake and .009 for exhaust. Based on this premise, I think I would let them go a while if I were you. You are not going to find shims that come in .001 increments. That is what you will need to get you .009s. Your intakes are perfect. Let it go a while and come back when it is farther out of spec.

---