Valve Specs On Speedmaster

Hello,
I would leave them as they are, the gaps do tend to open up at first then slowly close, no harm being at the top end of the scale.Yes check at 24,000 just for piece of mind

 

Smaller
The valve wears into the valve seat

 

Triumph's tend to go a long way between needing the valves adjusting, especially if you do longer ride's , or don't do lots of starts and short runs where the bike doesn't fully warm up. I've had three high mileage Triumph's now. 94 trident, 99/00 sprint and 09 America, they had very little adjusting done on the valves. Trident had two valves out of twelve adjusted in 161,000 KLM America hasn't had any valves adjusting yet now 110,000 but two might be a bit tight and need adjusting when I get cam chain replacement in near future !!

 

Yes, never heard of valve clearances opening up unless the cams and valve train are wearing faster than the valve seats hammer and wear.

 

My 2014 Speedmaster had valve clearance adjustment at 20,000 km.
It now has 40,000 km and the service manual says to do it again. In your experience (this is my first bike) how important is this? It is very expensive!

 

It's easy enough to check yourself, if you find they are out and don't feel confident to do the job at least you will know it's worth paying the professionals to do it for you.

 

Not sure on the speedmaster but my sprint sent the valve straight through the piston and anilated every thing it had 19000 on the clock. But not sure if it was adjustment or just a dropped valve.
Ride Safe.
Joe.

 

Bike specifics aside valve clearances are easy to check with a feeler gauge, a quick check should reveal whether they need adjustment and the process is quite easy, but it will depend on your confidence levels and ability, i doubt that the clearances would have closed or opened up enough to warrant adjustment...but it never hurts to check, getting it done professionally will obviously cost more than DIY.

Once the initial break in period is over the rate of the valve clearance closing up will slow considerably as the valve seats settle down,
Joe your valve making piston contact is unlikely to be clearance related, as if clearances close up enough a burnt valve seat is the usual result, i would suspect over-rev or collet failure is the most likely cause.

 

Tricky-Dicky.
As I said I was not sure. My son was riding the bike on the M6 boy did it make a mess of the engine.
Regards
Joe.

 

Very few modern bike's need valves adjusting after only a few thousand miles, modern engines now last well into the 200,000 plus miles. As mentioned it's easy to check the clearance and if too tight get it adjusted, if bit loose you can hold off for a bit, either way will/can affect engine running a little bit, but would need to be severely out to make a big difference. My 09 America hasn't had valves adjusted yet! 110,000 and head has been Off for access to barrels, did big bore kit @94,000 checked valves on re-assembly all were within tolerance still

 

So Capt do you think if I put off me second valve clearance adjustment on my 2014 Speedmaster I will be OK since I did it at 20,000 km and now it has 40,000? When would you suggest I do it again? I am scared to neglect necessary maintenance because of cost but from what I am reading it sounds like I may be OK for a while. Do you agree?

 

Listen for excessive top end noise , if there isn't any valves are OK , if very rattley with loud ticking they are loose and if they are too quit and exhaust noise has popping noise all the time or fairly regularly you have tight exhaust valve/s. It how I monitor my valves ! I do clearance checks if I don't like the way it runs/sounds !!
All Three Triumphs I have owned have been high mileage Bike's, nothing under 70,000 . And all have had minor adjustment on valves, biggest fluctuation was 6`oooth of an inch and that was an exhaust valve on middle cylinder on my 94' Trident . That same valve was adjusted twice in 161,000 klms that I owned the bike, only did 4 out of the Twelve ever on that motor, I do oil and filter every 5,000 on all my machines, and do Lot's of longer runs ! A days riding is usually between 250 to 450 klms.

Listen to you motorcycle it will tell you when it needs a service/check if you are observant !! I suppose it help's me that I've had Bike's all my life, was a trained mechanic at 22 , I had exceptional hearing and much better than 20/20 eye sight ! Tested when I was a Mechanic in Australian Army. Best advice Anyone will give you 'If in doubt' take it to a trained professional.

Cheers capt.