2002 triumph sprint st valve check

[oldschoolsdime92]

2002 Triumph Sprint st valve check; 19,803 on the clock.

I have spent the last roughly month calling around getting quotes on my valve check. I got price quotes that range from 150-375 (us) dollars. The small independent shops seemed to be cheaper than the triumph dealerships. I had one dealership in particular never even return my phone call. So with that being said, I decided I am halfway mechanically inclined, and could approach this task myself. With the help of a few on the forum, I have successfully checked my valves. It turned out to be a very straight forward job. I put together this little how to incase anyone else would be interested in giving it a shot.

The manual states the checking of the bike needs to be done cold, so your best bet would be to just start in the morning, before the riding bug bites you, and you HAVE to go for a ride. Keep your day free, as it does take some time. I started about 1230, and had it back together and on the road again by 730. This included Three trips to the parts store. The NGK spark plug book has the wrong number in their book, for the 02 sprint. Well anyways lets get this thing started.

First thing you need to do, is get your bike up on the center stand, and to have a reasonable amount of room around the bike. Also, you may want to lay down a blanket to have a place to lay your fairings on.

The manual states to remove the side fairings. On my bike particular, I could have checked the valves with the sides on. I’m not sure off the top of my head if it says the tail needs to go, but I removed mine just to give it a look over, as I have never dug into this bike. Here is my blanket of goods. We decided if someone were to come by and run off with my blanket, technically buying the parts new, would cost more than what I paid for the bike!

Now here she is with the tank off. This is where it gets interesting. There are two quick connect hoses, which It appears I do not have pictures of. They are very easy to unhook, but the manual says they will be self sealing once removed. One of my certainly was not self sealing, as you can see its sitting on a 5 gallon bucket, It spent the afternoon dribbling into that bucket. There was a vent tube, and an overflow tube, both that once unhooked will drop down onto the ground under the bike. There is an electrical plug on the fuel pump, and another plug under the tank. You can unhook everything you see on the side, and then lift the tank up and get the connector underneath. This is where its helpful to have a buddy or someone to help you out. I should have replaced mine with the metal fittings offered from team triumph, but I didn’t. The recall work on the original fittings had been already done.

Heres the airbox. Right in the middle on top, you can see a sensor. Once I started removing hoses and wires, I thought it might be a good idea to label them with a piece of masking tape and a sharpie marker.

Edited February 18, 2010 by oldschoolsdime92

[oldschoolsdime92]

There was a sensor on top of the air box, and then on the bottom of the air box, you have a sensor on the right side, and then a bigger hose in the middle, and a smaller hose on the left.

Once I removed the lid to the air box, I discovered I had the factory air filter. If your filter is dirty, this is a good opportunity to give it a change. Now I noticed something odd, once I was in the air box. There were a few little pools of oil in the corners. I am not 100% what this was all about. To remove the base of the air box, there are two t30 torx screws, below the throttle bodies, that hold it down. Once those are removed, you have to place your hand on the front of the box, and pull back, and it will pop free. There are is a spring, on each duct on the air box that holds it to the throttle bodies. You do not need to remove these. They stay on the base when you remove it.

Here is what you will find once the air box is removed. It may be a good idea to put some masking tape over the throttle bodies ,so you don’t spill your Pepsi in there or, you don’t drop an unsuspecting bolt at the same exact time your neighbors kids opens the throttle!

Now you can see a rubber splash guard sitting on the cam cover, and runs up and hooks to the radiator. The manual says to remove this. We found out that’s not nessicary, You can unhook it from the cam cover and flip it up in front of the radiator, and have it out of the way. .Hang in there, were almost to the good stuff!!

Here’s the ignition coils. I don’t know if it makes a difference which cylinder they go back on, but I thought it would be a good idea to label each one. You will need to remove the coils in order to get the cam cover off. Mine did not want to pull straight off as a spark plug wire would, so I had to twist them counter clockwise as if I were unscrewing a screw. Once I got all three coils out, I discovered an odd thing. The number one cylinder plug tube had a bunch of rust in it, along with the plug being rusted pretty well.

If you look you can see the rusty tube on the number one cyl. Now here’s the good stuff, the manual says to unbolt the cover in a certain sequence. I do not if this is necessary but I did. It’s just a typical cross pattern. Number 1 in the far left upper corner, Number 2 in the lower right corner. Number three in the lower left corner, number four in the upper right corner. And then you’re left with the two middle bolts. 5 was on top and 6 was on bottom. Note that not all the bolts match, as the ones on the right side will come right out of the valve cover, and the ones on the left will have a shoulder that won’t allow them to be easily removed. Once the bolts are out, the cam cover maybe stuck. I had to use a shop rag, folded multiple times and a ½ inch extension and a hammer. I tapped very lightly on the throttle body side of the cover. I can’t stress this enough, light taps. There are two flat spots, one on the left and one on the right. I tapped on those two spots. I recommend not sticking a screw driver between the cover and the head, as you will ruin your gasket. There are three round seals on the plug tubes that also need removed. You then should remove your spark plugs. Now here’s a bone to pick, supposedly these plugs were changed and only have 8k on them. Maybe the middle plug was changed. You need to take out the plugs to lower the compression a little bit, so you can turn your engine over checking the valves.

At this point, you are ready to check your valves. You will need to have your feeler gauges out and ready. You will need to have a good angled set that goes rather small. I purchased mine at Napa.( the deluxe 26 blade) I rubbed a little oil on my camshaft lobes as the bike has not been ran for 2-3 weeks with this lovely 10 degree weather we have had lately. Checking the valves is the quickest part of the entire job. I will break it down into a few steps. You want to have a piece of paper handy to write down your measurements. The cam on the throttle body side is the intake, and the cam on the exhaust side, is the exhaust. Another way you can tell the cams apart is the intake cam has a groove cut in the middle of it, and the exhaust has a flat spot in the middle. It’s nice to have a buddy to help for this part. Here’s the steps

1) Put your bike into 6th gear, which ill allow you to turn the engine over fairly easy.

2) Have your buddy turn the rear wheel forward, until you see a set of cam lobes pointing away from the valve, pointing straight up, which puts the valve fully closed. If it’s the intake side you need to get your gauges that go from 0.10-0.20.If it’s the exhaust side, you need to get your gauges that go from 0.20-0.30

3) I started with the smallest gauge and worked my way up until it was a good fit. To small is sloppy, too big, won’t fit. It will be a nice snug fit.

[oldschoolsdime92]

4) You are able to check four valves at one time. Two on the exhaust side, and two on the intake side, which makes the job go pretty quick.

5) Once you have checked the two, turn the wheel again, until you see another set of lobes pointing straight up and down, repeat the process, writing down your measurements, until you have checked all valves. Here’s my chart.

Once you have checked all the valves, its time to put the bike back together and maybe go for a ride! When reinstalling your cam cover, the manual suggests putting a spot of high temp RTV sealer in each of the corners of the hump. I don’t think its necessary, but I did it anyways in the event that it actually is necessary, I don’t want to tear it back down to fix an oil leak. The manual also says to tighten the cam cover bolts to 10nm. The right side of might tightened down to that, but the left side made me nervous as it felt it may strip, so I stopped before the wrench clicked, but it did not leak when I did my test ride. I hope this has helped anyone who wants to check there own valves, and if anyone wants to add anything to this feel free!

[MidgetTodd]

Wheres your 4th cylinder?

[Hoblick]

wish the VFR valve check was that easy

[oldschoolsdime92]

Wheres your 4th cylinder?

pfft who needs it!

[oldschoolsdime92]

wish the VFR valve check was that easy

it was a very straight forward job. I was worried about doing it, and was going to have pauly do it, but i decided if I am going to keep this one for awhile I'd better just learn to do it myself.

[RSVDon]

Wheres your 4th cylinder?

I've been robbed! There's only two underneath my fairings?!?!?! Should I call the police?

Nice write-up Brandt. Looks like fun. Reminds me of the ol' CBR days rebuilding and syncing the carbs, etc. Fun Fun.

[oldschoolsdime92]

id always like to thank granda080 for the help on this little project!

[cmh_sprint]

Thanks for posting this. This gives me a good idea of what to expect when and if I try it on my 1050 Sprint. Out of curiousity what did Joe's Cycle quote you?

[oldschoolsdime92]

joes didn't want to give me a quote for just the valve check. The lady I spoke with said well the service for that mileage costs this, so probably just alittle less than that. So I asked her for a ballpark figure, and she said between 210, and 375, but it could be more and they'd let me know if it was going to be more than that.

[Anden]

Unfortunatly Triumph seems like a bastard brand around here I get dumb looks when it comes to servicing mine. Or parts for that matter. I do believe in supporting local buisness but I find my selfeither hitting Joe's, ordering from the internet (parts) or doing it myself.

[RSVDon]

Unfortunatly Triumph seems like a bastard brand around here I get dumb looks when it comes to servicing mine. Or parts for that matter. I do believe in supporting local buisness but I find my selfeither hitting Joe's, ordering from the internet (parts) or doing it myself.

I find myself doing the same with the Aprilia. I do all of my own maintenance and since dealers are non-existant I've learned to just do all my own work and order my parts from AF1 Racing in Texas.

[oldschoolsdime92]

I go to joes for parts, and advice. Most of the time the service is A+++. I just figured I am mechanically inclined, why not give it a shot. 375 seemed like alot of money for somthing i could possibly do on my own.

[Anden]

Now you need to take that $375 and buy yourself something nice for a job well done. At least I try that mentality with the wife.

[Mikejr879]

joes didn't want to give me a quote for just the valve check. The lady I spoke with said well the service for that mileage costs this, so probably just alittle less than that. So I asked her for a ballpark figure, and she said between 210, and 375, but it could be more and they'd let me know if it was going to be more than that.

what if your valve check comes out to be wrong and you have to adjust the valve play? Thats when it gets expensive, "it could be more". So as long as the valve play checks out good its all good.

[oldschoolsdime92]

Then they come out wrong, I pull the cams out and swap the shims. I understand why they had to give me the range they did, but 375 bucks was more than I wanted to fork out, if in the event it needed adjusted. So I opted to take matters into my own hands. I was not down talking the dealer by any means, as they have been very helpful.

[max power]

Who is this Joe's Cycle you speak of?

[oldschoolsdime92]

http://www.joescycleshop.net/ They are the only trumpie dealer in this area,and they are also a yamaha dealer.Joes is a smaller family owned dealer and ahave beem more than willing to answer any of my questions I have had on my bike.