Can anyone give me some advice please on measuring valve shims? When measuring the closers I am zeroing the the shim measuring tool before inserting it into the shim. The measurement is way off what is stamped on the shim. Am I doing something wrong? The shim I am measuring in the photo has 3.30 stamped on it.
If it's like mine the brass tool has a small shoulder on the end that can't be seen in your image. The length of the tool is to the shoulder, not the total length, as it's the shoulder that sits on the measured part of the shim.
Found this: So the measurement of your tool is 'B' not the total length. The image shows how the tool fits in the shim.
It's obviously far more awkward to measure the length of the tool to the shoulder than it's total length as the shoulder isn't very wide.
And just to make matters worse the shoulder inside the shim isn't square because it fits around the split collets/rings - well it does on the 2 valve bevel but I'm not sure it is the same for the newer models. I bumped into the same issue when using a ebay tool and using the measurement results to buy replacements from Lacey Ducati which of course didn't fir because I measured the shim incorrectly. So I ending up buying a proper accurate tool from him. This has a 'known' measurement of the tool length to the shoulder of 10 mm and notice how fine the shoulder is to account for the curve.
So when buying shims you need to know that both the old one and the new one have been measured to the same degree of accuracy otherwise you might end up spending days on a wet stone.... don't ask how I know
