Tuesday, 6 Sep 2011
The GS is about 150 miles from 66,000 miles. May as well start its service, now.
Dirt everywhere
Spare parts
GS-911
First part of a service is hooking up the GS-911 to check for any faults. When I took the saddle off I found lots of fine dirt covering everything. That’s what I get, I guess, from following instead of leading when riding on dirt roads in a group. I wiped most of the dust off with a wet rag. The stuff in the plastic bags are spare parts that live under the GS “tool box”. Fine dust even got into that somewhat protected area.
The GS-911 found two faults, including a low brake fluid ABS fault. The faults were not currently present. I’m pretty sure that fault came while the GS was on its side. I didn’t bother pulling the tank to check fluid levels since the fault was no longer present.
Air filter access
Dirty air filter
Clean air box
I switched to an oiled foam air filter last service and figured that it needed cleaning. Yep. The good part is that all the dirt was on the outside. The air box was completely clean, inside. I washed the filter and set it aside to dry.
Clutch fluid level
I checked the clutch fluid and found it slightly above the MAX mark on the reservoir. A corner of a paper towel dipped into the fluid sucked up enough to bring it under the max mark.
Wednesday, 7 Sep 2011
I oiled the now dry filter and put it back in the bike. Next on the list was valves. The left bottom intake valve was ever so slightly tight. The right top intake valve was a touch loose. The right bottom exhaust valve was a touch tight. That’s it. All could have probably been left alone. Before cleaning up I dropped the oil pan to prepare for an oil change.
Thursday, 8 Sep 2011
I took the bike on a 10 mile test ride to get it up to operating temperature. Once back in the garage I hooked up the GS-911 and the Harmonizer to check throttle body balance. After syncing and parking the steppers using the GS-911 the side-to-side balance was 14 millibars. Speck is under 25. All is good. Next check was at about 1600 RPM. Side-to-side balance was about 3 millibar. Anything under 15 is OK. I didn’t bother trying to get it any better. This is the first time I used the Harmonizer. I like.
Drain old oil
Parts box
Crush rings
The last thing to do was change the oil. It was still plenty warm, but not quite hot enough to burn fingers… as long as I stayed clear of the exhaust… and used a rag when unscrewing the filter. It took a while for the old oil to drain. That gave the engine more time to cool down before re-installing the drain plug and new filter.
The bike is back together and ready to ride.