Shim clearances

Hey Kaw Gurus,

My bike is a 79' KZ 1000-B3 LTD with 20,000 miles on it. Last night I yanked the valve cover off to replace those pesky little cam end caps that have been spitting oil on my fins for the last month. I decided to check my valve clearances while I had her open and here's what I found... intakes measured .102, .102, .076, and .076. Should be o.k. right? When I checked the exhaust side I found... .063, .063, .038, and .063. The .038 has me slightly worried. The .038 gauge was tight! but the bucket did spin easily by hand. I don't have the valve shim tool or the shims needed to widen the clearance in my posession yet. Could I get by with closing her up and waiting till winter to do the fix or should I just bite the bullet and fix it now? It's not a daily rider but I might put 150 miles a week on her till this winter. Just need some input. thanks Tom

It is my opinion to NEVER leave a valve tight. If it's an exhaust valve, it's even worse becasue they get hotter so they will expand more going cold to hot. The specs on mine are .05 - 0.10 mm which is about .002" to .004", and I never let mine go below .003". It is WAY better to have one a thousandth too loose than too tight.

BTW: how do you get clearance measurements accurate to the third decimal on a mm like .076? Are the feeler guages labeled with those values?

Yup. It is just a cheap feeler gauge I bought at AutoZone, but thats what it reads. Thanks for the help.