[vulch]

HI i was reading my repair manual on valve adjustment they mention a tool to set TDC but it seems that no one mentions it when doing a valve adjustment how does this tool work and is worth getting does it do a better job of finding TDC.. 06 r1200rt Thanks

 

[prostreetdon]

You can use a long drinking straw to find out when you are approaching top dead center. Start on the right side of the bike and remove that valve cover. Remove both main spark plugs, one on each cylinder, and with the bike on the center stand you can rotate the engine by turning the rear wheel in the normal direction of rotation with the transmission in sixth gear and the straw in the spark plug hole. You can tell when you are approaching top dead center as the straw gets pushed out of the cylinder by the piston. You can then confirm that you are at top dead center by looking for the arrow on the cam sprocket. The arrow will point straight out when you are at top dead center. At that point you can adjust the valves on the right side. After you're done there rotate the engine until the lug on the cam sprocket is in the same position as the arrow was in the previous step, pointing straight out, then you can adjust the valves on the left side. This has worked well for me and no special tools are required. Hope this helps.

 

[New2rt]

You really don't need that tool, it does lock it at TDC but no reason to do that.
It's a pain in the arse to use because it's difficult to locate the hole and bumps against clutch hardware trying to find it.

 

[JonA]

Whatever you use to poke through the plug hole onto the piston, make sure it is one item and cannot come apart.. this happened to me when I had the R1100

I had a magnetic pickup tool - basically just a long thin rod with a magnet on the end. Perfect I thought, pushed it through the spark plug hole and the magnet stuck to the piston. As I rotated the crank, with the rod going in and out it was dead easy to find TDC. It worked like a charm on the first cylinder, second time around I finished the adjustment, pulled out the rod, and oops no magnet. It had come off and was still stuck to the piston. Needless to say I was not a happy bunny!

 

[vulch]

Thanks for the replies

 

[hopz]

7/11 has really long straws- use them.