Sweet fab'd valve adjustment tool

[diamond_jim]

I made this to make it easier to adjust the valves on my M50.



It's simply a cut down square drive screw set inside of a cut down wire nut. It's small enough to get to the rear cylinder exhaust valves.

[07M50Limited]

That is frekin cool....Great tool. I cut up a few credit cards makin a tool....And lost count of feeler gage's

[diamond_jim]

I'll put a mark on it so I can tell how much of a turn that I've made. I believe I'll be able to better feel when the adjustment bottoms out. If I can consistently find that, for example, one full turn from bottoming out gives me 0.004" clearance, then I might start using that and then verify, speeding up adjustment.

[Hotform]

I like it DJ.
I was running it down by hand. The problem was I had to hold it while tightening the nut to keep it from going too tight and I was using needle nose pliers.

[diamond_jim]

Originally Posted by Hotform

I like it DJ.
I was running it down by hand. The problem was I had to hold it while tightening the nut to keep it from going too tight and I was using needle nose pliers.

That's what I was doing when I tried my first valve adjustment. That was a nightmare. It's like trying to do brain surgery with a butter knife.

[Don M50limited]

I gotta say that's so functionally simple........it's great. Guess what I'll be copying.....thanks man.

[DaveAlvarado]

Paint it black, use chrome screws, sell for $20 a pop.

[cyclechris]

Awesome idea! Oh this post SO needs to be pinned!

[chinard]

my god, i didnt think they even HAD square headed screws in the states

[diamond_jim]

I did my valve adjustment again today. I had to redo because I made them too loose the first try. Man, what a difference the this little tool makes. It was so simple this time.

Here's a quick tutorial with it.

1. Loosen the adjuster screw lock nut with a 10mm wrench and loosen another 2 full turns by hand. Then back the adjuster screw out a full turn.


2. Make sure your feeler gauge is bent correctly. I used 0.004" (intake) and 0.007" (exhaust).


3. Slide the feeler gauge into the clearance space and let it just rest. You can see how it is relaxed and leaning against the edge where the valve cover sits.


4. Use the DJ VAT (valve adjuster tool) to tighten the adjuster screw until you start to feel the first bit of resistance. You'll notice that the feeler gauge is no longer relaxed but standing up some as I tightened the adjuster til I just started to get resistance.


5. Tighten the lock nut some by hand until you feel a little resistance. Remove the DJ VAT, place the 10mm wrench on the nut, put the DJ VAT back on and hold while you tighten the nut.



Remove the tools and double check the clearance. I got 7 of the 8 right on the money on the first try. The other one I got just right on the second try after I figured out the best method to do it. This was so much easier than the needle nose pliers or credit card technique.

I marked the lines on the tool to note the amount of turn I was doing but found that it wasn't needed. But in experimenting, I found that 1/3 turn from 0 clearance gave me 0.007" clearance and about 1/6 turn (which is a lot harder to judge) gave me 0.004" clearance. Just an FYI.

[chinard]

this needs sticky

[diamond_jim]

I was trying to find the other size square head screw so I could take a pic of the two side by side to point out something but darn if I can't find it. Anyhow, I'll explain. I've only ever seen two sizes of square drive screws, meaning the bits used to drive them are different sizes. One uses a smaller size square bit that I've usually seen on screws with smaller heads such as finishing screws. The other one uses a slightly larger square drive and it's for more heavy duty applications and on screw heads that are larger. That is the size that is needed to fit the valve adjusters.

[chinard]

here, this may help

Robertson screwdriver - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

the proper term is robertson screwdriver.
in canada you see this kind of fastener widely used but i have very rarely seen it used in the states.
Now sizing for the heads is pretty straight forward. Everything is colour coded. Gonna have to do some experementation to figure out what the correct size screw head to use is, but it will be either a green or a yellow for sure.

[diamond_jim]

Originally Posted by chinard

here, this may help

Robertson screwdriver - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

the proper term is robertson screwdriver.
in canada you see this kind of fastener widely used but i have very rarely seen it used in the states.
Now sizing for the heads is pretty straight forward. Everything is colour coded. Gonna have to do some experementation to figure out what the correct size screw head to use is, but it will be either a green or a yellow for sure.

Yeah, you have to really look for them here. If you go to Lowe's, Robertson screws make up maybe 2% of the screws they keep in stock. Looking at that size chart I'm guessing it would be the green size.

[paullit77]

If the square at the top of the valve is 2mm then it would be yellow as 2mm = .0787".

[dualsporter]

Great stuff! Diamond Jim, it looks like you did'nt remove the tank, is that correct?

[diamond_jim]

I just checked and it uses a S2 square bit. So it's the Red (#2).



Color Screw types Max Min Fraction
Orange (#00) No. 1 & 2 0.0710 in. 0.0696 in. 1/16+
Yellow (#0) No. 3 & 4 0.0910 in. 0.090 in. 3/32-
Green (#1) No. 5, 6 & 7 0.1126 in. 0.111 in. 7/64+
Red (#2) No. 8, 9 & 10 0.1330 in. 0.1315 in. 1/8+
Black (#3) No. 12 and larger 0.191 in. 0.1895 in. 3/16+

Originally Posted by dualsporter

Great stuff! Diamond Jim, it looks like you did'nt remove the tank, is that correct?

No, the tank is off. What you probably think is the tank in the pics is the frame.

[dualsporter]

Thanks for clarifying that!

[UpstateM50]

Sticky! Sticky! Sticky! Why is this not a sticky yet!?!? This just saved me about $350 at the stealer!

[GadZooks]

Man those are great photos, way better then the service manual pics and the Volusia Valve adjustment pdfs pics. You can see exactly what you are doing!

Thanks a million. Wicked.