BUCKETFUL OF FUN
Valves clearances in Kawasaki’s earliest dohc fours were set by inserting interchangeable shims in recesses on top of the bucket cam followers. To avoid a tendency for shims to be shot out of their recesses by the wiping action of the cams, the Z650 engine has captive shims of smaller diameter fitted under the followers, on top of the valve stems. A disadvantage of this arrangement is that the camshafts must be removed for access when shims are changed. Shim thickness ranges from 2.00mm to 3.20mm in increments of 0.05mm.