Valve shim adjustment?

[midohiojohn]

I messed up. While checking and changing valve clearances, I dropped a valve shim while replacing one and it went down one of the oil return holes in front of head, between cylinder 1 and 2. I feel like a complete idiot. I used a 6mm long flexible magnet to try and retrieve it, with no success. I'm being totally transparent here. I need some help. Do those oil passages run straight to the block? I have a complete shop manual but it is hard to tell. Has anyone experienced this, or something like it and can give me some guidance? I am willing to drop oil pan but don't know if it would have gone straight there or somewhere else 1st. I have not done any additional work yet.

 

[tntmo]

Oh snap!
Yeah, I've done similar stuff, dropped a washer down the cam chain tunnel on a bike once. Had to do a lot of digging with the magnet and it kept getting stuck on the cam chain but eventually got it. Now I have one of those small fiber optic camera things, they are pretty cheap and can help find the mistakes I make. I believe they make one with a magnet on it, too.

The oil pan appears to be pretty easy to remove, if you can't easily find the shim just order up a new oil pan gasket and give that a try. Let us know how it turns out.

 

[Mr. BR]

When I read your post, the first thing I did was go to Ebay and look at Super Tenere cylinders, heads and crankcases for sale. There are clearly 3 holes in the front/center of the head, 1 is for a head bolt and the other 2 are oil drains. Those 2 holes continue through the cylinder and into the crankcase. Although not as easy to see on those ebay pictures, it does appear that these 2 oil drains simply open up just above the front balancer shaft. I'd venture there's a good chance your shim is down in the sump assuming it didn't get stuck in the hole... might want to run a wire down the hole.
Mr. BR

 

[~TABASCO~]

Pull the pan.... you might have got lucky ! If you dont immediately see it in the pan, poke from the top and see if you can have it fall down onto the ground....

Im not 100% sure the surroundings pertaining to the location, but double check the top of the oil pump pick up... It might be sitting on the top or "roof"..... (just a thought)

 

[midohiojohn]

Thank you for the response. I will try the wire to see if it goes down as far as the oil pan. Meanwhile I am going to order the pan gasket. Do you happen to know if you have to remove the strainer cover to remove the oil pan, or can you leave it attached to the oil pan and take the pan off with strainer attached?

 

[Jlq1969]

I don't think the shim falls directly into the crankcase...above the crankcase are the oil pump and the counter-rotating shaft

Search Results for “Yamaha super tenere” – thetenerist

A fine WordPress.com site

thetenerist.wordpress.com

 

[~TABASCO~]

Thank you for the response. I will try the wire to see if it goes down as far as the oil pan. Meanwhile I am going to order the pan gasket. Do you happen to know if you have to remove the strainer cover to remove the oil pan, or can you leave it attached to the oil pan and take the pan off with strainer attached?

Memory serves me..... Yes... the center small one & and the large one... Make sure you get the 1-2 hidden ones.. In my experience DO NOT use any type of 'electric gun or air' to remove these. It can strip the heads.. Just use a ratchet....

While your in there look up in the oil pump screen and eye-ball it.. Yours will/should be totally clean, but while your there just look "incase".......

 

[midohiojohn]

I was able to get a wire all the way down into the oil pan, from the cyl. head. I'm going hunting with a magnet, and a great deal of caution.

 

[Tenforeplay]

May the magnet gods be with you!

 

[midohiojohn]

No joy, I'm ordering the oil pan and strainer gaskets, I was hoping, but you know how the saying goes. Hope in one hand and #2 in the other & see which hand fills up faster. Keeping a positive attitude. I'll check back in once the dreamcycle is back together.

 

[midohiojohn]

sorry about the image of MOM, but I love her. It should have been my bike, Later.

 

[Cycledude]

Are you absolutely sure it went down the oil drain hole ? Last year I dropped a screw and thought I heard it fall all the way down to the skid plate after lots of looking and even laying the bike on its side to maybe get the screw to move I never found it so went to town and ordered a new screw. A couple months later a friend noticed the missing screw trapped near the bottom of the engine in pretty plain view and asked where did that screw come from ?

 

[gv550]

Maybe it didn't fall down that hole, could it be laying in the puddle of oil surrounding one of the valve springs?

 

[midohiojohn]

Pretty sure, I was exchanging a shim on cylinder 1 exhaust valve 2 and my friend Arthritis stepped in and I dropped the one I was holding. Hind sight is 20/20, and I now know I should have covered those holes before I started. You would think after 66 years one would know better, I'm still learning.

 

[midohiojohn]

I never thought of that. Thanks for the suggestion. I'll check that out. I did here it, but never saw it. I totally cleaned up the area around the bike, and didn't find it.

 

[WJBertrand]

Just a thought. Maybe you can fish around through the sump drain holes if you have a small enough retrieval tool. If that works you could avoid pulling the pan.

 

[MattR]

Are you sure your mom hasn’t tidied it up??


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[midohiojohn]

Well, victory at long last. I was able to take a relatively straight forward job, and turn it into a much more involved one. I finally found the valve shim I dropped into one of the oil return holes in the front of the head. Found in oil pan. Thank you for your input. I can finally start putting my ride back together.