Progress Report — First Week of May
As of May 5th...
Well, the rear wheel assembly is apart, cleaned, and inspected. Everything except the bearings looks fine, but the bearings are showing tiny lines and shades. Think we'll replace those, along with the bearing seals. There's an interesting "wear" pattern on the rear brake caliper mount; looks as if the caliper mount was allowing itself to do part of the braking. Not a good situation.
The swing arm is in good shape. No sideways movement, and vertical movement is smooth and not too hard. So that'll get some lubrication, and that'll be it.
Primary case: Well, there are problems here. (sigh) When I took off the derby cover, I found that the top of the derby cover mounting flange was broken; the top mounting screw had a portion of the flange attached to it, but wasn't attached to the primary cover.
But as they say on TV, "Wait! There's more!" When I pulled the primary cover, I heard a "clank" — and it turned out to be the clutch adjusting rod locking nut. Apparently it had fallen off the adjusting rod just before I laid the bike up at the end of the season. I checked the inside of the primary cover and found several areas that had been abraded; most likely by that nut. I also saw several dings in the clutch basket.
The good news is that after removing, cleaning, and inspecting the primary parts I found that the clutch disks are in excellent shape, the basket is still round, and the primary chain and compensator are in fine shape. The other primary case parts are in good condition, too. There weren't any excessive amounts of metal filings or any chips present, either.
I still need to measure the clutch springs in their relaxed state, to ensure that they meet spec. They should be all right, but why take chances, when I already have the basket apart?
As of May 6th...
Got the clutch hub out today, and wasn't that a tough job! Took lots of heat, and lots of impact wrench time. For a while there, we weren't sure it was going to come out! After cleaning and inspection, it looks just fine.
Also went after the inner primary cover... Following the factory manual, I took apart the starter solenoid pin, spring and retaining ring — and then discovered that all I had to do was dismount the solenoid from the engine side of the primary case! (laughter) Well, we live and learn, don't we? To make up for that little item, the starter housing bolts came out very nicely.
Got all the inner primary case bolts out, except for one — it's way up under the front of the transmission, and for some reason the 4x4 block that's holding the bike up is exactly in the way. Can't see the damned thing, but I can touch it. I can get a wrench on it, but there isn't enough room to swing it far enough to get a click out of the ratchet. So tomorrow, looks like jacking the frame up again, moving the block, and then trying to get a wrench in there in between the two cross members. I'll let you know how it goes...
As of May 7th...
The inner primary is off! I had to shift the block under the frame, and then Chris (who has smaller hands than I do) was able to get a wrench on the last bolt and get it free. I was then able to take off the oil pump feed line to the inner primary, and drop the case. (BIG smile!)
As of May 9th...
The tires, Avon SuperVenom, came in on Friday, and Chris picked up the rear axle bearing and seal set. So today, I put in the bearings and seals, and Chris aided me in getting the right combination of spacers and getting the end play down around .010 inch. Got the wheel and the new Avon SuperVenom on, and now I can jack up the bike and take out the block. Once I can do that, I can drop the lift and roll the bike outside to clean all the areas that are hard to get to with the primary covers in place.
As of May 13th...
Change in plans... Because the inner primary case will have to be welded (there's a crack in the bottom front section of it), I'll do the front end next instead of finishing off the primary assemblies. So the front wheel is off, getting another Avon SuperVenom; and I'm working on cleaning up the fork assemblies, bearings, and the front brake calipers instead.
On to Part Two of the Progress Report...
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