Wednesday, Aug 6, 2008 [16020 miles]
I’ve found some drops of gear oil on the garage floor. Both FD and transmission have a very, very slow leak from their drain plugs. I gave both a little extra “oomph” and felt the crush washers give way a bit more. I hope that solves the issue. This is strange, in that those crush washers were replaced last oil change. The one that I didn’t change (swing-arm) isn’t leaking.
While working in that general vicinity of the bike I took time to reverse the rear brake bell crank. I noticed mine was different from another /2 and, after some thought, realized mine was the one that was incorrect. The two arms are different lengths. It makes sense to connect the longer arm to the brake pedal to get maximum mechanical advantage. I think the rear brake will feel better, now.
Saturday, Dec 27, 2008 [16866 miles]
The bike has needed its 16,800 mile service for about a month. The weather (too cold to work in the garage) and the holidays have conspired to keep me from the job. No longer! Today, after a short ride following breakfast, I started the service by draining the oil while it was still warm and checking out the battery.
16,866 miles
30 engine hours
The bike is a few Saturday breakfast runs past 16,800 but right at the 30 hours of engine time which seems to be the typical amount of time between services. In addition to the scheduled items I’ll also tighten the steering bearings to (hopefully) get rid of a slight head shake and flatten the oil pan to get rid of that slow, annoying oil leak. It wasn’t the drain plug like I initially thought.
No fuzz on oil drain plug
There is no fuzz to speak of on the magnetic drain plug.
I didn’t expect to find any. I loosely placed the drain plug back in
the oil pan so I wouldn’t accidently misplace it. I wont torque it down
with a new crush ring until I’ve taken care of the oil pan.
Time for battery maintenance
Battery crud
On the charger at 4:29
Cleaned battery pad and tray
Fully charged at 4:40
The above images show the state of the battery. There was
crud, especially around the positive lead, that almost looked like
melted battery case. Some of the crud had fallen into the air cleaner
housing. Strange. I took all of the connections apart and cleaned
the lead ands and battery terminals the best I could. With the battery
and charger leads replaced I put the battery on the 6 volt charger to
check its condition and, indirectly, the condition of my charging
system. It took me about 10 minutes to clean up the battery tray.
That’s how long it took the charger to decide that the battery was fully
charged (the green indicator is hard to see in the last picture, but it
is on solid). That tells me that the battery and charging system are
likely OK.
Sunday, Dec 28, 2008 [16866 miles]
Oil pan removed
Oil strainer
I felt a bit foolish when it came time to remove the oil pan. Every single one of the 12 retaining screws was very loose. No wonder there was a slow leak from the pan. I never thought to give them a check in the last 1200 miles. I took the pan off anyway to give it a good cleaning. Note to self: brake cleaner removes cheap rattle can paint.
After cleaning up the bottom of the pan and letting the softened paint firm up a bit I applied some goop to the pan and the gasket on the pan side and let it set for about 10 minutes.
New crush washer
Fresh oil
When the goop had set I put the gasket on the pan, gooped the retaining screws, and put the pan back on the bike. I use a nut-driver on the screws to not tighten them too much.
They are now, however, quite a bit tighter than they were when I started. I’m hoping that will be enough to keep the oil on the inside of the engine. Finally I added two quarts of the good stuff.
Air pressure low
Tire tread good
While waiting for the last drops of oil to transfer from bottle to bike I checked tire pressure. I run about 30 PSI front and 32 PSI rear. Both were about 4 PSI low. The tires otherwise look good with lots of tread left. I also oiled the brake and clutch linkages.
Almost finished
That’s all for today. I’m busy tomorrow and will likely finish up on Tuesday. I need to clean the air cleaner housing, put the battery back and check the electrics, and tighten the steering bearings. I also need to give the bike a good bath. It’s been many months since the bike has been given a proper cleaning and it shows.
Tuesday, Dec 30, 2008 [16866 miles]
Reset hour meter
Time to finish this service. I started by putting the
battery in the bike and resetting the hour meter on the tachometer.
Before hooking up the ground wire, though, I removed the front cover to
take a look at the advance mechanism.
Initial stop screw setting
Adjusted stop screw setting
I’ve a stop screw that limits the advance from over advancing. I suspect that I’ve it set a bit to far such that it is limiting full advance as the bike runs out of oomph about 80 MPH. I backed the screw out a few turns and will see if that makes a difference.
Eventually I’ll put a timing light on the bike and check if I’m hitting full advance. For now I just put the front cover back on the bike and hooked up the battery ground cable.
Indicator lights
Headlight
Parking light
tail light
Stop light
The next task to check off on my list is Check Lighting. Indicators work with ignition on. The headlight and parking light work although it’s hard to tell the difference in the photos. Tail light and brake light are fine, too. Time to move on to the steering.
Pitted damper rod
I removed and cleaned the steering damper rod and friction plate. The chrome on the damper rod head is quite pitted, but still usable. I polished it the best I could. I also sprayed some brake cleaner on a paper towel and wiped the crud off of the friction material on portion of the damper that stays on the bike.
Loose steering stem nut
Damper, nut, and wrench
Steering stem
My bike has had a front end shimmy for a while. There was no noticeable play in the steering head so I kept looking to other areas for the cause. With no cause found I thought I’d follow some advice given to me to check and tighten the steering bearing pre-load a little bit.
I should have done that much sooner. The upper nut was loose. No wrench needed. I removed the nut and cleaned off the grease and crud around the top of the steering stem.
Tighten pre-load
Scissor jack to raise front wheel
With the front end jacked up to check the steering I tightened the lower nut a touch. Steering felt fine. I put the upper nut back and tightened it. That also seemed to tighten the steering a touch.
Maybe too much. I’ll take a test ride and see how it feels after putting the damper back on the bike and giving it a good cleaning.
Clean, ready for test ride
Good looking bike!
I think it took me longer to clean and polish the bike then I spent doing the actual service. Cleaning had been neglected for too long, I guess. Plus, riding in the fog and rain is guaranteed to make a white bike look quite dirty.
After cleaning I took a test ride and found that the steering is a touch too tight. It’s OK at speed, but the front doesn’t track correctly at very low speed, e.g. for parking lot. On the plus side, there was no shimmy at 35-40 MPH, down hill, with trailing throttle, a situation that was guaranteed to shake the front end before changing the pre-load.