What did you do to your Yamaha today?

Got front wheels of both bikes back from the bike shop. Apparently, both wheels are true and both rotors are true within less than 1mm of deflection. "I'd ride on 'em," is what the tech said.

I don't know how I got the front wheel off with the caliper on there, but I went ahead and took it off to make the whole spedometer gearbox thing easier. Cleaned the right spacer and the axle and re-greased them with lithium grease. Re-assembled front wheel (never took apart anything inside of the oil seals) and put in a new cotter pin.

Aside: I think the space between the outer surface of the rotor and the left fork is greater now. Either I don't have the spindle nut tight enough or the PO had it torqued down WAY too tight. I don't have a torque wrench that will do 77ft-lb, but I got it "good and tight" with a 1/2" drive wrench and put a brand new cotter in it, so I think it'll hold. (Though a second look at the torque specs has reminded me that I need to go tighten the pinch bolt. Whoops!)

Anyway, removing the caliper reminded me about how the front brake hasn't been working well. I took the pivot bolt out and took it apart to find quite a bit of corrosion between it and the pivot sleeve. Cleaned all that with brake cleaner and greased both the bolt and the outside of the pivot sleeve with lithium grease and reassembled it. Again, used the "good and tight" method and tested that the caliper rotates (floats) properly on the pivot. Installed brake pads (worn).

So I'll probably need to replace that bolt sometime soon, but given how smoothly the thing pivots, I think that the problems with the front brakes are either simply the worn pads or the caliper needs to be completely disassembled and rebuilt (piston could be sticking).

To do: Check that all bolts are tightened to spec. Attach battery tender. Attach all blinkers and re-test best-looking flasher relay. Send a coupla hundred bucks to chacal for various parts (including front brake pads). Probably disassemble spedometer and see what's worn out. (Can't break it if it already doesn't work, right?)

As usual, many thanks to all here for their advice.

 

Clutch removed, I was surprised at how much water came out with the case oil (water not gas). I had a good look at it as most of it spilled out on the floor!

 

Rhys...don't know/can't remember what problem you were having with the front brakes, but lube up that pivot bolt (that the caliper pivots around) really well...the pivot bolt, the pivot tube (outside and inside the tube), the washer at the top, etc.....as I've always found them to be dry and a source of brake dragging and squealing. I use a mix of hi-temp grease and some graphite powder (after burnishing the bolt shaft smooth) to make sure that puppy can rotate super-freely at a moment's notice.....

And don't forget that there's an o-ring at the very top of that pivot tube (under the top washer)!

 

rhys:

Looks like to have a handle on it.
Chuck the Pivot Bolt into a High-speed drill and "Shine" a new surface on it with 600, 800 and 1000 grit Finishing Papers. Make it a "Friction Free" spindle.

Lithium Grease isn't a good choice for repelling moisture.
Stop at a Bicycle Store and get some synthetic waterproof grease.
That stuff stays greasy, repels moisture and won't "Cake-up" or dry-out.

 

If I may make a recommendation for brake grease:



I've used and sold this product for years and swear by it. It works really well.

 

Found some of that high-grit sandpaper on fleabay in acceptable quantities (3M wants to sell you 4000 sheets at a time). Should get those ordered soon.

As for the grease, I'll stop by O'Reilly and get something better sometime next week. The bike isn't going anywhere soon anyway. Was mounting the rear blinkers, which meant removing the stock handle that passes for a sissy bar. In re-mounting it, something horrible happened to the left front mount on the frame which now eats bolt threads. I'll probably have to tap it out.

If I have this thing in decent running condition by April, it'll be a miracle at this rate...

 

It all comes together fast. One step at a time. Don't be in a rush if its really off-season for you.

 

Pulled out the clutch. Suprised that the center nut that holds the clutch in place, was only finger tight ... shop manual says tighten to 52ft. lbs. Well it was nice not to have to shop around for a 30mm socket (yet). There was a lot of what I thought initially was rust ... but when I wiped it off (the roller bearings)it was grease ... anyone ever used a rust colored grease?

 

I'm trying yo convince the wife to get me a new dremel or rotary tool of some sort so I can start fabbing the mounts and so I can cut the new fender to make it fit.... She's not budging though oh well I guess some closet time is all she needs. HAHAHA Juuuust kidding! Someone in the VA area needs to have their wife or S.O. go shopping wit mine so can sneak out and buy all of this stuff!.

 

While mounting new tires I snapped the small swingarm bolt. fixed it by locking on with Vice Grips and wiggling w/lots of Blaster. Made headlight work by unplugging-re-plug as many electrical connections I could. Rode about 12 miles and totally plugged the petcock with rust. Walked.

 

Reinstalled viper fairing, got confirmation that the flyscreen I ordered was being sent. Only bitch i have is that the headlight is 8" instead of the normal 7" so it is hard to get a good fitting fairing without making mods. Hoping to get 1 more day of riding in tomorrow before winter finally closes in. cruzerjd

 

Question:

Whats another name for a TORX Bolt?

 

Answer:

A "$!&&#@0&&%%%#"
Well I Did get it out finally, had to buy a new tool as I bent the T40!
But I am surprised at all the little crannies that oil hides in, waiting to cascade out all over you when you tip the engine.
My garage floor is as slippery as a sunday drive on Bullfrog mating day!

 

I've had Bullfrog Mating Day in the garage a few times; too.
Like when my buddy wanted to change the oil in his Porsche.
There's considerably more than 4 quarts of oil in those baby's!
Two bags of Kitty Litter worth.

 

I built 4' x 6' pallets (sp?) for my bikes to help with this sort of thing. Oil changes, chain cleanings, and even storage (protects the tires in a garage that gets wet a lot) have been a lot easier with those.

I no longer have a garage built just on top of a water table, so the wet floor isn't as much of an issue any more, though it was still nice to have the pallet when I was changing the oil on the Ninja and the CBR and didn't notice that the drain pan was getting full...

Not quite as bad as the San Francisco bay, but bad enough that I had to go to O'Reilly to get some of that kitty litter, another drain pan, and a metric buttload of shop towels (probably about 2 qt. of dirty oil spilled). Ruined that pallet, but they aren't expensive to build, and I need a third one for the 650 anyway. That, and the 'litter' did a fantastic job of sucking the oil out of the concrete that I couldn't mop up with the shop towels.

 

I can't find a metric buttload on my converter?

 

It is similar to the R scale of speed described by the late Douglas Adams (RIP). It is not a fixed size, but rather relative to the speaker's level of comfort, butt size, and patience. I have a rather slight build and am a pretty patient guy, but last week my patience was wearing kinda thin and was both cold and rather short on cash. Also bear in mind that I got to O'Reilly about 10 minutes before they closed and stood behind some talkative idiot for 5 minutes - despite the fact that he knew I was standing behind him laden with merchandise - while he rambled on AT GREAT LENGTH about some crazy project he had going.

Therefore, 1 buttload = 4 rolls of shop towels.

Most other days it would be at least 10, especially considering that it's metric. That, of course, leads to questions about "millibuttloads (mbl)," "kilobuttloads (kbl)," and "megabuttloads (Mbl)," but that is beyond the scope of this post.

:wink:

 

wow...you've really thought about this!!

 

<Tom Hanks> Well... anything worth doin'... worth doin' right... </Tom Hanks>

It's a long-running joke around here. I work with some weird people.

Hooked up the charger to find that, despite the fact that I've been doing all sorts of electrical testing on the bike, I apparently haven't drained the battery appreciably. This is good, because the CBR needed a charge. Also found out that I won't be going hunting this weekend. While this is a big disappointment for a variety of reasons, it does mean I'll be getting XJ parts sooner than I thought!

(Yes, chacal, I'm talking to you.) :wink:

 

Rhys, I hear you buddy! I'm ready when u are.