Topic: valve adjustment

[vistirus]

Sorry to be a pest, but I have another service manual conflict.  One service manual (the one I downloaded from this site) says to adjust the valves you set the #1 piston at TDC and adjust half the valves and then set the #4 piston at TDC and adjust the other half (it includes a chart of which valves to include in either the #1 cycle or the #4 cycle.  The other manual I consulted says EACH piston should be set at TDC to adjust its' valves.

Again, any ideas on which way is correct?

Thanks a lot.

[lucky]

Yes each piston must be at TDC to adjust the valves BUT...They must be at TDC on the compression stroke. Very important.

WITH ALL PLUGS OUT:
You can tell if it is on the compression stroke, because if you try to wiggle the rocker arms up and down they will both have a little movement.
IF one is tight rotate the engine 360º and check again.

If the valve cover is off - both cam lobes on the cylinder being adjusted should be pointing downwards on a 45º angle.

If you see that the rocker is pushing down on a valve spring on that cylinder it cannot be on the compression stroke.

Valves are adjusted on when both rocker arms are not under any pressure and the piston is at TDC.

[Deltarider]

It doesn't matter, but to avoid mistakes (due to lack of concentration) however, it's better to have each cyl at TDC and then check both it's valves.

They must be at TDC on the compression stroke.

In my book TDC is compression stroke, but I see what you mean.
Tip: Concentrate on one cyl at a time. Watch inlet valve go down and come up. Then rotate crank a bit further until you align the TDC mark and then check both it's inlet and exhaust valves. Almost impossible to make mistakes this way.

[TwoTired]

Sorry to be a pest, but I have another service manual conflict.  One service manual (the one I downloaded from this site) says to adjust the valves you set the #1 piston at TDC and adjust half the valves and then set the #4 piston at TDC and adjust the other half (it includes a chart of which valves to include in either the #1 cycle or the #4 cycle.  The other manual I consulted says EACH piston should be set at TDC to adjust its' valves.

Again, any ideas on which way is correct?

Thanks a lot.

Both methods work fine. 
The key is to have the rockers off the cam lobes during adjustment.  Honda has figured out there are two crank/cam positions needed to achieve this goal, in order to speed the job for mechanics.  Without this unique data available for the SOHC4.  You can position any engine, including the SOHC4, so that the piston is at TDC between compression and exhaust stroke, when both rockers MUST be off the cam lobe, giving you maximum gap at the tappets, which you then proceed to measure and set.  With a 4 cylinder motor this means four crank positions/movements.  With the Honda method, you only position the crank twice, which is faster and costs less in mechanic's time/pay.

Cheers,

[CycleRanger]

Someone else posted this yesterday:

Rotate until 1:4 is TDC.  1 being in the compression stroke.  Adjust both valves on cyl. 1, exhaust on 2, intake on 3.  Then rotate forward 360° and adjust both on 4, intake on 2 and exhaust on 3.

Intakes valves are a .05mm shim, exhaust are a .08mm for stock valves.

It works.
I just finished adjusting mine moments ago.

[That 70s Bike]

Pistons #1 & #4 are both at Top Dead Center (TDC) at the same time, while
Pistons #2 & #3 are both at Bottom Dead Center (BDC).
BUT each piston is on a different ONE of the FOUR strokes. [intake,compression,power,exhaust]
If #1 is at TDC (end of COMPRESSION stroke) then #4 is at TDC (end of EXHAUST stroke & beginning of intake stroke) where cam lobe contact is changing valves as exhaust is almost closed & intake is just opening.[not a time to adj. these valve]

Spark plugs #1 & #4 controlled by (1 set of points) both fire a few degrees Before both TDC's- the spark on compression begins the POWER stroke, the spark on exhaust is "wasted".

I like the idea of the chart with only 2 positions to set 8 valves, or simply turning the crank 4 times "chart free".

[dave500]

i do them one by one,if you have a wild camshaft the lazy way of doing them staggered as per the book might not work correctly.

[Sdsbassist]

IMO, this is the easiest, most simplistic, and fail proof way to do it. Thanks man!

Someone else posted this yesterday:

Rotate until 1:4 is TDC.  1 being in the compression stroke.  Adjust both valves on cyl. 1, exhaust on 2, intake on 3.  Then rotate forward 360° and adjust both on 4, intake on 2 and exhaust on 3.

Intakes valves are a .05mm shim, exhaust are a .08mm for stock valves.

It works.
I just finished adjusting mine moments ago.