Re: Valve shim question

["Leslie J. Singh" <Les.Singh@domain.elided>]

At 08:42 PM 6/5/02 -0400, you wrote:

>     There is no problem grinding down the shims as long as you get them 
> flat and parallel.  A friend has a surface grinder that does a wonderful 
> job accurate to less than half a thousandth.
>     I once had a shop offer to grind my valves and set the clearances.  I 
> asked how they would set the clearance and they replied that they ground 
> off the butt end of the valve.  That might have been the only way to do 
> it on a flathead Ford, but that is why Alfa has replaceable shims.
> Ciao,
> Russ Neely
> Oklahoma City
This business of grinding the valve stems to shorten the protrusion above 
the top retainer is a real trap. I once had troubles getting the clearances 
right, then found that exactly this had been done so that my standard 
height shims were fouling the retainer instead of resting on the valve stem!!!

As Russ and others have said, grinding the shims is not a problem and I 
have done this many times, the slow way, using a grindstone that I 
inherited from my dad who used it for sharpening blades on woodworking 
planes and other tools. A diamond impregnated "stone" or a proper lap (such 
as the one in our rock thin-sectioning lab!!) makes the job much 
easier....  :-)

Ciao
Les
re-timed the ignition, rebalanced and tuned the carbs ... GTV is sweet!
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