Grinding it down

...As the diagnosis brought to light, the valve clearance in both exhaust valves is zero. Boring... This means either valves and valve seats are tremendously worn down (from one second to another?? Remember: she was running, then didn't start any more) OR in best case, a pile up of soot creating bigger clearances in the past that now just cracked and flew out the tube, allowing now the valves to sit in their original seat which means no clearance. If, if ....
Maybe not willing to know the truth and also in lack of new valves, head and pipe gaskets, we leave the head where it is and grind and grind and grind the shims down to allow some clearance. This took the entire day ....The idea of reducing the thickness arose through deep discussions with Luca and Fiore, our Italian friends we met in Bishkek, and telecommunication with their XT350 pope back in Italy as well as our XT-legend Nico back home.
At the same time, severe investigations are performed in order to get a spare head because you never know.

In the end we try to always be grateful: this day allowed us to bite the bullet and do some uncomfortable work that you would not do when you have access to all the spare parts. For some reason, Fiore and Luca stayed all day long with us in the workshop rather to explore the city, helping us with the work, bringing us drinx, being a sunshine. Finally, we go to have the famous one meter mixed grill kebab for dinner.

Guys, thank you, you are awesome!

So back to the same boring hostel, catch some sleep, and back to grind the shims... Let's see where this journey brings us!Read more