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Help with Shims

Posted: Sun Jul 02, 2006 11:22 pm
by Marinus
I need to do my shims and want to do them myself if possible.
What I need to know is. Is there a guide in the Haynes book or a peace on this site. Are there special tools needed?

Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2006 1:30 pm
by delagem
Well, you've got a great bike to learn valve adjustment on! There's a good video that Pro Italia made a few years ago, the service manual helps, but probably the single best source of info to do the valves is this website, run by Chris Kelley:

http://www.ducatitech.com/2v/maint/adjust/index.html

As far as special tools, you'll need a decent micrometer, and the tool to measure the closer shims with. It's just two machined pieces of steel that add up to 10.00mm, you fit them to either side of the shim, take a measurement, then subtract 10mm from it to get the actual shim size. That plus your slop, minus your required clearance, equals your new shim size!

I've mentioned this in other posts, if you find a shim needs adjustment, throw a new set of split rings on first, and re-measure. Frequently this is all that's required to bring the valve back into tolerance.

Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2006 11:03 am
by jcslocum
This site is good too: http://tinyurl.com/z6bjj

IT can be very hard to measure the shims properly so what I do is take the measurements and then send the shims that need to be changed to BCM and they do the measuring and send me the proper sizes back.

Can anyone here tell me where to buy that elusive 0.000 feeler gauge??

Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2006 11:23 am
by delagem
I struggled with finding the .000 mm feeler gauge too. .000 is when you push down on the closer arm with a screwdriver, to overcome the hairpin spring, and don't feel a click-click, yet you can spin the closer shim easily on the stem while pushing down.

I have never, ever, gotten a valve adjustment right with the first set of shims I picked up, which used to mean several trips to the dealer. Then I found a company selling shim kits, EMS Ducati. http://www.emsduc.com

I haven't been using them long enough to see if there's any problems, but the quality seems good. They're not cheap, but cheaper than 2 services at the dealer, and when I count in drive time...

Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2006 4:14 pm
by jcslocum
I was making a joke about the feeler guage! :D

Send the old shim with you clearance mewsurements is the key. Using the same indicator to measure old and new is the only way.