XT 600 VALVE CLEARANCES
 

HI CAN ANYONE PLEASE TELL ME HOW TO INSPECT AND ADJUST THE VALVES ON MY 2003 XT 600 E.MANY THANKS LONDONER

Don't. Start thinking about that in a few years.

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Fred, XTZ660, Holland.

Hi LONDONER

The Clymer manual for the earlier XT600's is also relevent to your bike in many areas and covers this.

Briefly, the basic drill is when the engine has not been run for quite a few hours (IE: left overnight) :-

First time doing this, remove petrol tank for better visability / easier access

Remove spark plug making sure no dirt falls down it's hole & into engine (again, not essentiol but makes turning engine over by hand easier, I wouldn't do this if spark plug tunnel has dirt in it and air line not available to blow it out)

Remove the large round cover (that is near your left ancel when riding) & the small one just above it. Use a large socket on the nut on the end of the crank that is now exposedand rotate the engine ANTI-CLOCKWISE ( I think, best double check) and look through the small hole for timing marks on the rotor as it passes. These have varied over the years, but you should see 2 or 3 lines pass behind the hole, the last one is TDC and may have a T stamped to the left of it ( on my 88 tenere it's badly stamped and looks like another line. The other tines are for ignition timing)

Position the engine at TDC

Again making sure no dirt can fall in, remove the inspection cover that's above the carb inlet stubs and the 2 inspection covers above the exhaust headers.

You should now see 4 rocker arms, Check to se if they can all rock up and down slightly. If not, rotate the engine one ful turn and recheck.

Use feeler gauges to measure the gap between the bottom of the adjuster screw that is in the end of the rocker arm and the top of the valve that it pushes on. You are looking for a bit of drag as you slide the blade(s) through the gap, but no a lot of fource.

Remember that the required gap is different for inlet and exhaust,

Hopefuly Fred is right and you will verify no adjustment necessary.
If not, use a ring spanner to loosed the loc nu that secures the adjuster screw (they round off if you're not careful) and screw the adjuster up or down as required, re-tighten loc nut, find thst retightening it has changed the setting and try again !
There are tools that help here, but it can be done with a ring spanner, allen key & patience.
Small, angled feeler gauges also make it much easier but are not esential

Replace engine covers, cheching o rings are correcly located. I put medium strength loctight on the screws and lower covers, partly to prevent dissimilar metal corrosion between engine alloy and steel screws, but it's not essential.

Hope that helps

Mark

hi mark sorry im late with rep,thanks so much for your info,dont supose you know correct gaps?if not thanks again man.londoner

Inlet 0.10 mm. and outlet 0.15 mm. But I warned you..... don't bother.

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Fred, XTZ660, Holland.

thanks fred im going to take your advise,its just for future reference.

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Just a small note. Yes do check the valves occasionally. Some of the same model wear in quicker than others. Better safe than sorry. Also to get an accurate gauge reading try the next larger feeler gauge (if .10 than try the .11 or .12. if the correct one fits and the next larger doesn't than you have the right clearance. I have corrected lots of others mistakes and one of the most common is adjusting the valves on overlap, when both valves are slightly open. You discover what appears to be tight valves and adjust them only to start the engine and have it sound terrible. Double check that the valves are at there loosest point before you start adjusting.

THANKS BILL,THAT MAKES SENSE ,ITS A VERY HANDY TIP.RIDE SAFE =LONDONER

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Londoner, just a little tip - ALL CAPS is SHOUTING on the web, AND is very hard to read.

Proper case is best, and all lower is better than all upper case.

Grant

Don't suppose anyone have some pictures of the valves or know a guide with pictures?

Ive seen guides with pictures and even videos about valve check but not on this exact model xt600.

Would be awesome if someone with a clue about what theyr doing made a video of valve clearance check for xt600 :welcome: Im sure its dead easy but when you have never tried it before it sounds scary.

ps. To the hero:clap: that in the future makes the video, put it on youtube :smartass:

here- wrong bike type but same principles

nope thats nothing like the xt motor at all :nono:

the video is for bucket and shim type valves on a twin cam motor with cams above the valve/bucket single contact patch/wear point.
the xt is single cam so uses a rocker and follower two contact patches/wear points setup with the cam lobes up for opening the valves lobe down for valve closed.
no shiming on the xt motor its lock nut and adjustment screw as per erlier in this thread which is 5 yrs old btw.

I stand corrected :blushing: but what I know about XT's can sit on a microdot! I'm a GS man and we have shims :smartass:

Massive bump but I have put together a guide here

Yamaha XT600E Valve Clearances

I know it's not perfect but it might help someone.