I recently did a major maintenance job on my 09 Concours at 29,000 miles. I bought it last April with 10,000 on it so this was surely its first maintenance other than hydraulic fluid and oil change. I also changed spark plugs, air filter, coolant since these jobs all require most of the same tedious and time consuming fairing and frame parts removal. With coolant drained I also removed the radiator which makes it easier to access the exhaust cam lobes with the feeler gauge. I think it is important to have good sightlines and not to have to contort your arm and wrist to insert the feeler gauge if I want to make accurate clearance measurements. I am sure pro mechanics have the experience and touch to bypass this step but I don't! Also an issue with the Concours is everyone I know of has found their header flange nuts to be loose. Having the radiator off makes tightening these much easier. Also replacing the frequently leaking exhaust cam position sensor O-ring. This O-ring has been determined to be undersized from the factory and better ones have been identified. I did this upgrade as well (after cleaning the greasy sludge off the front of my motor)
Another issue with the C14 is having to remove the right engine mount to remove the cylinder head cover. Well, that is not the problem, the problem is you can't really do decent work on the opposite side with the left engine mount in place. But removing both at the same time is a no no! THis risks the possibility of the engine shifting in the frame and then the mounting holes don't line up. Don't ask how I know this.
(I have done 3 checks/adjustments on my 08 Concours). So my solution is after doing what needs done on the right, put the right mount back on and remove the left. You'll need to do this swap several times, if you take the work seriously, such as using a torque wrench on fasteners. Tedious but better than figuring out how to re-align you motor in the frame!
Kawasaki uses thread lock on the engine mount bolts and the manual says to replace these bolts. I suppose it makes sense for dealers to just charge customers for the new bolts which come pre-loaded with thread lock but I save $20 bucks or so by soaking the old bolts in laquer thinner then brushing with a wire brush and then using semi-permanent thread lock.
My biggest gripe about this job is the lack of metric feeler gauges and the poor quality of Kawasaki's shims. Kawasaki labels their shims with a code rather than the actual thickness and has a chart in the service manual that you refer to to determine the thickness. I don't get it
but no matter, the labels are in paint or ink and all were worn off after 29,000 miles. No big deal since you have to measure the shims anyway with a micrometer if you want accuracy. Most of the OEM shims were not within .002 mm of any nominal size. I have been told the shims are hardened steell and do not wear. Hot Cams and Pro X both etch the actual thickness into the shim and all measured to within .001 mm. Jake Wilson sells the Pro-X shims for $1.99. Kawasaki OEM go for 6 or seven dollars.
Valve clearance specs for the Concours and probably most Japanese and European bikes are in millimeters. They give equivalent in inches but that equal a built in error:
"Exhaust 0.19 ∼ 0.24 mm (0.0075 ∼ 0.0094 in.)
Inlet 0.12 ∼ 0.17 mm (0.0047 ∼ 0.0067 in.)"
I search for hours for metric feeler gauges and thought I had found a set. Although they claimed to be metric they were actually dual labeled inch gauges. The increments were in thousandths of an inch not hundreds of a millimeter.
If anyone has a source for true metric feelers I would be appreciative! I also plan to buy a digital micrometer before my next valve adjustment.
All but 2 of my 16 valves were out of spec on the tight side. All are now either pretty close to center of range or on the loose side. The bike runs the same as far as I can tell except the idle was lower by 200 rpm. Theoretically increasing valve clearance should have the effect of changing valve timing although the amount could be insignificant.
Anyway I feel a sense of accomplishment even tho with better tools I could have done better. But the Concours is now ready for STAR (except for two new tires that I ordered yesterday) WooHoo!
