Took off from a light the other day and by the time I reached the next one,it sounded like I had playing cards in the spokes of a bike. Sound seems to be coming from the left side of my engine. 1994 EX500D1 I had the valves adjusted a few months ago and its been running great. In fact it is still running great, just sounds horriable. (not still riding it but want to) I have ordered the clymores book but it wont be here for about 2 weeks. Since I have some down time I was wanting to check things over and see what I find can anyone give me the valve clearace specs please. THX Bullet

 

I hate to break it to you, but right after adjusting the valves on a motorcycle engine, the clearances between the valve stem and rocker increase. (BTW: The EX500 does not use shims. The 250 and 500 ninjas have screw & nut adjusting rockers which are inherently louder than shimmed valves.) The increased clearance causes more mechanical noise since the rocker travels further before contacting the valve. It is possible however, that somebody put too much clearance in between the rockers and valves. Over adjusting is very easy to do if the person adjusting the valves is a retard and uses the wrong gauges (Standard instead of metric when the specs are in metric values.), or turns the adjusting screw too far out without double checking clearances afterwords.

 

I know all that. This is why I want to recheck the gap. I'm thinking the set screw on one valve has come loose and is rattling.