Hello fellow Berg owners! I am new to your forum and firstly thankyou for the wealth of information already contained here - it has saved me asking MANY questions!
I am new to moto and have picked up a '09 FE450 w/ 22hrs. I now have 38.8hrs on her and decided to check the valve clearances. No reason, she is starting and running perfectly, just precautionary.
I did pull the front cowlings off and give the whole bike 2xclean and thought I got all the dirt and grime from above the valve cover prior to opening, but there was a little bit of sand trapped on top of the valve cover/donk interface.
Soooo - a few grains of sand dropped onto the valve spring (you can see in the attached picture about 40grains, so it would be reasonable to assume about 80grains ended up in there).
I got about a dozen or so grains out, put the thing back together and ran it for about 30seconds - with the assumptions that the oil would get up there, and sweep the sand grains to the filter screen or back down to the bottom of the engine - then turned her off.
I didn't have the correct set of feeler gauges, which I do now, so this weekend, I am rechecking and fitting new valve shims if required. So I will be pulling the radiators and fuel tank, giving it a PROPER clean this time.
After the adjustment I am changing the oil.
Question time:
a) should I be worried about this bit of sand - is it going to stay in the top end and wear stuff
b) and if so, how should I ensure that I get rid of it?
c) or is it going to get carried away by the suction pump and end up straight back down at the filter?
See attached diagram of oil circuit also.
Happy to drain oil, pull the whole donk off, tip it upside down and degrease and compressed air it if I have too.
Naugty, naughty sand. :cuss:
EDIT: re-counted and double the amount of sand grains.
I am new to moto and have picked up a '09 FE450 w/ 22hrs. I now have 38.8hrs on her and decided to check the valve clearances. No reason, she is starting and running perfectly, just precautionary.
I did pull the front cowlings off and give the whole bike 2xclean and thought I got all the dirt and grime from above the valve cover prior to opening, but there was a little bit of sand trapped on top of the valve cover/donk interface.
Soooo - a few grains of sand dropped onto the valve spring (you can see in the attached picture about 40grains, so it would be reasonable to assume about 80grains ended up in there).
I got about a dozen or so grains out, put the thing back together and ran it for about 30seconds - with the assumptions that the oil would get up there, and sweep the sand grains to the filter screen or back down to the bottom of the engine - then turned her off.
I didn't have the correct set of feeler gauges, which I do now, so this weekend, I am rechecking and fitting new valve shims if required. So I will be pulling the radiators and fuel tank, giving it a PROPER clean this time.
After the adjustment I am changing the oil.
Question time:
a) should I be worried about this bit of sand - is it going to stay in the top end and wear stuff
b) and if so, how should I ensure that I get rid of it?
c) or is it going to get carried away by the suction pump and end up straight back down at the filter?
See attached diagram of oil circuit also.
Happy to drain oil, pull the whole donk off, tip it upside down and degrease and compressed air it if I have too.
Naugty, naughty sand. :cuss:
EDIT: re-counted and double the amount of sand grains.