Hey, we recently had a 695 in a garage for a number of jobs including belt tensioning and valve clearance. When we picked it up, they said that they hadn’t done the valve clearance because they don’t think it needs doing. This was based on the fact that when they had the belts off, the cam pulleys rotated freely and they advised that if the valves were tight, that wouldn’t be the case. Does this sound reasonable to my fellow Ducati riders?? The bike’s done 15000 mi and to my knowledge it’s never been checked/adjusted before.
No mate IMO absolute cobblers. The gap between the valve stem and camshaft lobe can be too small, just right or too big but the gap needs to be physically measured. Experience tells but to subjectively decide that the camshaft rotates easily so you don't need to check sounds lazy. Andy
Absolute rubbish. The clearances should be with the specified range and you can't check that without measuring them. Too tight or too loose clearances can cause damage.
Agreed, the only time you would feel tight valves would be if the closers were binding but, in my experience this is unlikely to be the case as the closers generally open up as the openers close up with wear. Cams would rotate freely with huge clearances, in fact you could take the shims out and it would rotate freely with a clearances of a few mm never mind a few thou. They need to be measured properly and I wouldn't let anyone who made that statement near mine...
