Ding Ding Ding, I am a tightwad (my wife spends all my money), but part of it was convenience. I could dust one into size in about 10 min, vs going and trying to find a replacement at one of the bike shops in town. Seems like everything I go to the shop they have to order.
I came to the conclusion that for less than $10 I wouldn't chance it. I would buy a new one.

$$Dan$$

 

I'll measure them before I grind them. If they're not hard, I'll make some that are.

 

They grind like D2 or something similar. They're at least 60RC. My scribe wouldn't even leave a line in them before and after grinding. .0003" passes and I blocked them in with strips of banding material. I only took off a thou/side or so.

 

You just took me back about 4 years Before I was at the shop I'm at, I worked in a header shop for 17 yrs. We made replaceable caps for our dies out of D2, or S7, they were about 62 rockwell, and we ground them on the table the same way. The fastener industry is loosing a lot of business to china, we did a lot of work for automotive suppliers too. Between china and the crappy economy that little die shop was slowly going under. Good luck with the shims, I really don't think .001 off a side is going to ruin them even if they are case hard.
Dan

 

I ended up with both exhaust valves with .009" clearance cold. A lot of the problem went away. Then I played with the jetting and pilot screw a little more and almost got it all gone. I still need to gas it some when starting it hot. The smog pump went out in the trash and the hoses are plugged off. I don't know if that did anything or just made me feel good about myself.

Can I just slice a chunk off this spark plug wire and screw the boot back in again? When removing the smog pump thing it came off the barbed sheetmetal things on the frame suddenly and violently. It took the spark plug wire with it. Pulled it right out of the end with the spark plug boot. I looked at it and screwed it back in again. Then I checked it for spark and it was a little yellowish but the battery seems to be losing juice fast too. I think maybe that's the next place to look.

The more I tinker with this bike, the more I realize I really like this little bike.