I am looking for a cheap place to buy lifters? Who knew they were so expensive!

I was wondering...for the people that have already checked there clearances and performed the adjustments.....what size shims where existing in the bike and what size and how many shims did you require to bring your bike to spec?

 

yeah, I'd not actually bother sanding stuff down. Too much work, and way too hard to ensure a flat part. A surface grinder could possibly produce the right finish and smoothness, but would need to be setup very carefully. They use specialized grinders for these sorts of parts, due to the need to make the shims even. But it depends a lot on the allowable tolerances.

So much easier to just buy a shim kit for even $100. That would get you one ground shim at a shop that has to setup for it and do it one-off.

I routinely watched machines be down for 4 hours to get them setup and tuned in for a run of a specific part (and slowly worked into the appropriate settings so as not to over-grind the parts down out of the low-end for tolerance). Then we'd crank parts through for a couple days if we could. But anyone needed a dozen parts (collet-shank 0-flute chamfer drills, for instance) was going to spend FAR more per part on setup than on actual grinding time. 15 seconds a part per pass, usually 3 passes to walk it down safely (any longer/faster and the heat generated will cause the part to swell enough to cause it to come out undersized when it cools back down). So.. 2 hours setup, then 5 minutes of running parts through, turn down machine another .01" or so and go again. Removing more than .015" (IIRC) and your hogging off so much that if they've been heat treated they're going to get insanely hot (>300*F on exit), and you start worrying about damaging the heat treatment, burning your hands more than usual, and parts cooling down to the wrong size. And if your'e REALLY unlucky, the 450*F flash-point of the cutting oil is exceeded, and that's FAR too interesting of a day. We ran 3 separate machines for extreme material removal (when grinding, cutters are totally different). water/glycol based coolant. Unfortunately, it destroys the machine over time as the glycol doesn't protect the machine against airborne humidity (and the water of the coolant). Just like an iron block needs constant coolant changes to keep the rust inhibitors in the system.

sorry... just a bit of nostalgia kicking in for running grinders with my father back in HS. We got a lot closer as friends then. We didn't have a project bike/car to work on, so we'd chat while running parts through grinders instead (one feeding, the other removing from the other side). As I'm in an office now, with my kids I'm going to want to do project bikes/cars instead. Something, at least...

Ok, I'll un-hijack the thread now...

 

Right on. Labor cost for a modification on hardened parts like valve shims would get a guy more than one of the size needed. Sanding steel that hard? LOL Got a nephew who is a tool and die maker (die sinker) who rides. He thought that was hilarious. Then again, he is easily amused..

 

dino...most commonly they are in spec and you won't need any at all. I'd be surprised if you needed more than two shims and on those the measurement's gonna be so close you could probably just leave 'em. More often than you might think, you can 'swap' a couple around and get everything in spec. Best money option...see what you need first. If you must, order the shim kit but it's probably gonna sit around and collect dust for another 16K.