I believe we are aving two different siscussions her.First we are looking at a dealer shop that has a average A tech who maybe see;s a nt700 once a yar and has to refere to book for every move, who has not pulled Tupperware off a NT often enough to know what he is doing and even the shop manual leaves some gaps on how to.Same tech doesn't know what tools to have laid out to do the entire job in advance and he is playing hunt and peck in his tool box, etc. At the dealership that maintained my NT the SAME tech that did the pre service to the bike,& installed all farkles etc and was the only one who worked onit for 50,ooo mi was allowed too touch it per my instructions!Iwould drop bike st vlosing time with only about a gallon of fuel in tankand tech would know I was coming, He met me at door to shop and as I steped of bike he steped on and rode it onto his lift and parked itI would go to service desk a nd sign service orderand usurally shop owner would tell me to hsng loosw for a few minuts and he would ive me a ride home!
next morning bike is cold when teck comes to work. as soon as he punvhes in on clock tool box comes open and he quicl;y pulls ALL tools out and places them on lift platform, zip zip zip tuperware is off and fuel tank completely remove ona on bench along side of seat I had heli risir si much easuer to pul fuel tank rather than fuss around trying to tyr it up out of way.Then he would disconnect the plug NS P;ywire hRNWAEA WHICH ALLOWS ACCESS TO VALVE COVERS, hE WOULD REMOVE SPARKPLUGS AND STUFF CLEANS RAGS IN HOLES, AND REMOVE THE INJUCTE BODIES SYSTEM SI IT WAS OUT OF HIS WAY AND COVER AL PORTDDDOFF WITH VALVE COVERS AND BRING ENGINE TO PROPER SETTING POSITION FOR FIST PORTION OF VALVE AND DO INSPECTION , IF NOT SPOT ON DEAD CENTE HE WOULD ADJUST AND GO TO NEXT ETC. INSTAL NEW PLUGSAND AIR CLEANER nd back togather againin less that 2 hours. Yes he had service manual on bench so he could refer to specs as needed . He would normally have had drain pan unde engine with oil draining NS WOULD CHANGE FILTER AND PUT INNEW OIL ALL IN THE SAME MOTIONS. if THERE WERE OOTHER THINGS DUE SUCH AS COOLANT AND HYDRAULIC FLUIS THEY ALSO WERE DONE WITH THIS SAME EFFICIENCY. I WAS ON A EXTENDED SERICE PLAN THAT I PURCHJASED WHEN I BOUGHT THE BIKE. I lao was in the service area while work was being accomplished, thus I knew how much time was expanded etc.The reason I was in service bay is that I have a running QUAINTENCE WITHOWNER OF SHOPGOING BACK TO 1960 BEFORE HE EVER WENT INTO BUISNESS, AND UP UNTIL ABOUT A YEAR AGOi KNEW ALL THETECHS IN SHOP AS WELL AS SERVICE MANAGER,''lol HIS GRANFATHER AND I WERE RIDING BUDDIES IN THE 60'S.
nOW THERE HAS BEEN A MAJOR CHANMGE OF SHOP TECHS, only SERVICE MAGR IS LEFT , MY PRIMARY TECH GOT A REAL JOB WITHCITY OF pORTLAND , OREGON WITH MUCH BETTER MEDICAL, RETIREMENT, VACATION ETC. BUT HE STILL HAS HIS OWN PLATFORM LIFT IN HIS GARAGE AND HIS TOOLS, AND STILL WORKS ON MY TOYS FOR MUCH LESS THAN Honda DEALER SHOP RATE. tHE ONLYPROBLEM WITH ALL OF THATIS THATi Hve not been able to add any mileson any of htebikes in about 14 months as of now.
so to sum it all up I feel thaht 5 hours for complete valve adjustment ND COOLANT FLUSH IS A BIT ON TH HIGH SIDE, Mybe 3 .5 or a max of 4 hours might not be too bad , IFF you can TRUST the tech knows what he is doingand is doing everything he is saying he did! Why doI say it that way? there is a practice refered to A PENCIL WHIPING ITEMS IF NO ONE IS WATCHING THEM GET DONE nd there are still some unscrupleuas dealers etc out there.
There are also shortcuts that knowledgable techs can use to beat the flat rate system that are learned through tiem of scraped and bloodied knuckles that don't generly get shared wih the general public, thease are refered to A TRICKS OD HE TRADE. bEEN THERE DONE SOME BACK IN THE DAY.
Eldon