First Major Service that presented me with problems

[dduelin]

The mileage is now 86,244. First, the front right side of the engine was very dirty with an oily residue I immediately and perhaps rashly attributed to the square weep hole in that area. Some of the oil was blown back where it collected some lesser amounts of grime at a few spots along the right side of the crankcase. I cleaned it all off before I read various posts on this so I do not know if it was from the square hole or the round weep oil of the water pump. I did not even remember there were two holes on the right front side that might weep or drip fluids - all I wanted to do was clean it up before pulling the valve cover on that side. It was definitely not the valve cover gasket, much too low on the engine for that and all around the cover was clean. I read up on the weep hole coolant or oil leaks after putting the buttoning everything back up. I guess I will ride it a few hundred miles then pull the cowl off the right side again and determine the actual weep point. I did not think it was coolant at all - too oily. No oil use yet between 5000 mile changes. It is not a drip or leak (a seep or a weep?) and it was not there 20,000 miles prior. I do my valve checks at about 20,000 mile intervals

The other was the foremost exhaust valve in the #2 cylinder came back loose .008". The .009 petal was no-go and .008 was very loose. I tried the .006 and .0025 petals stacked and it passed real draggy so I know the clearance was more than .0085" but less than .009 with .009 being tolerence in inch measurement units in the service manual. I see that the metric clearance is .25 mm with .03 mm tolerance converted to inches is .0087" so I am at or just beyond the limit of tolerance with this valve. I did not have a shim kit or desire to put the bike out of service until I could get the stuff together so I put it all back together with plans do this again in a few thousand miles. This valve of course is very easy to measure and was a tight .010 at 23,000 miles and .009 at both 45,000 and 65,000 miles. The bike as usual is running great and am not much worried about running the bike awhile like this but I can't ignore it either. I guess I'll have to learn how to do the shim under bucket adjustment soon.

 

[uptoblackwood]

Dave....you probably won't have to ride it 100s of miles to fine which weep hole is the bad boy. On mine...it was oil at the round hole. Spray some dry foot powder around that area and go for a ride. I was able to see the powder "get wet"....in only about 20 miles of riding. The round weep hole services the water pump seal. That seal is a slipper seal. Oil on one side, water on the other. Most techs say, if it's water...let it go and often the seal will reseat....if oil, it's needs to be done. Mine was a warrantee repair and the shop did a great job. I'm 30,000 miles past the job and still no leak has returned. I'll try to find my thead on the site...w/images.

https://www.st-owners.com/forums/showthread.php?64362-Oil-leak...&highlight=

 

[okmurdog]

Here is my article re adjusting the valves (left side):

https://www.st-owners.com/forums/showthread.php?93484-ST1300-Valve-Adjust-Left-Side&p=1140858#post1140858

Higher resolution photos also in my album.

 

[wjbertrand]

The other was the foremost exhaust valve in the #2 cylinder came back loose .008". The .009 petal was no-go and .008 was very loose. I tried the .006 and .0025 petals stacked and it passed real draggy so I know the clearance was more than .0085" but less than .009 with .009 being tolerence in inch measurement units in the service manual. I see that the metric clearance is .25 mm with .03 mm tolerance converted to inches is .0087" so I am at or just beyond the limit of tolerance with this valve. I did not have a shim kit or desire to put the bike out of service until I could get the stuff together so I put it all back together with plans do this again in a few thousand miles. This valve of course is very easy to measure and was a tight .010 at 23,000 miles and .009 at both 45,000 and 65,000 miles. The bike as usual is running great and am not much worried about running the bike awhile like this but I can't ignore it either. I guess I'll have to learn how to do the shim under bucket adjustment soon.

Actuall, at 0.008" that exhaust valve is too tight. The exhaust clearances should be 0.010" +/- 0.001"

 

[dduelin]

Actuall, at 0.008" that exhaust valve is too tight. The exhaust clearances should be 0.010" +/- 0.001"

I need to take care of it but let me clarify what I posted. The clearance of that valve is greater than .008" but less than .009" using "go" or "no go". The metric values Honda gives, .25 mm +/- .03 mm, are a little wider than English measurement so the metric tolerance is slightly less than .009".

.22 mm is .0087" and I passed .0085" which means the clearance is at or close to .0087", in other words "at or just beyond the limit of tolerance". .009" does not pass, .0085" is draggy, clearance is between these two.