Hi Tam,

> 
> Poor Alyce has been in the shop for 2 days (fuel injection nightmare - another
> story for another day).  The mechanic said part of the reason she ran rough was
> because "the valves tightened up again".  The valves had just been adjusted 2
> weeks ago (by the same person at the same shop).  Has anyone ever heard of
> valves tightening up like this on their own?  What causes it?
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Tam
> 
> '76 Westy (aka Alyce)
> 

I had this happen on my `74.  I took it to a shop who told me that the valve
seats were getting pounded down or somesuch (the "or somesuch" is mine, I
don't remember exactly what they said).  The upshot was that I had to replace
both heads.  The symptom I had was that I kept having to loosen some of my
valves until the adjustmo screwy things were backed out so far that I had to
bend the feeler guage funny to do it.

There could well be other causes.  I can't think of any that would be good,
though.  The one thing I would check would be to tighten my own valves so you
can keep track of what they're doing yourself.

John Ritchie
ritchiej@ucs.orst.edu