How critical are the valve clearances. i have one or two that are marginally wider than the tolerances, about .003mm. i would have thought that slightly wider is better than slightly closer. any thoughts thanks

Slightly wider than the extreme loose tolerance? 0.18 or 0.27 + 0.003??

I would have thought it was better than too tugut..but not that good as the valve stem/shim will be taking a beating from the cam lobe and it may cause accelerated wear?

dunno though!

FWIW mine are all set up on the looser side of the middle range and it does make more noise but I am cool with that as long as my pistons and valves are on looking rather than touching terms...

you dont wanna end up with one of these

http://s133.photobucket.com/albums/q78/ ... broken.jpg

if you know how much they are out i assusme you have done most of the hard work so you might as well go the extra few yards and change them, with rick oliver doing a one for one exchange there's no excuse not to!!

I think i may have taken the readings from the wrong place. i took them from between the top of the shim and the under edge of the rocker, has anybody else done this or am i correct. don,t have my haynes to hand,at home. just trying to work out if i need to do them again. thanks

that is right - top of the shim and under the finger.

When I first did it I got halfway through measuring between the cam and rocker...then realised I was a dumb mofo and that the bike was sure to blow up!

It never did...so all is good!