what did you wrench on today??

[dorkburger]

Ahhhh. That lovely feeling... the ten minute heart attack, crapping of pants type.
I was de- gunking the spark plug valleys because I may pull them out. I found #3 plug was loose. I tightened it. It turned and turned and was crunchy feeling while turning it. Commence crapping of pants... I stopped, took a breath, removed it, cleaned off the threads, checked the hole, and reinstalled it. It tightened properly... phew.... safe.

[Phred]

My 05 Ford Ranger developed an engine problem last November, so rather than having it repaired I parked it for a while and bought a newer F150. Had recently put a new clutch, ball joints and some other work into it. It's a good truck, 170,000 KM and in good shape, but it was time for a new one. Over Christmas dinner with my family, I discovered that my nephew was looking for a vehicle so I sold it to him for a Dollar. He had been struggling for a while and really needed a leg up on life. The proviso was that he work with me on putting it in shape and cover any material expenses.
He came over on the weekend and worked on removing the seats, the floor pan has a small rust hole and we are repairing that and painting the floor with Chassis Saver. I got into the engine and removed the head. There was no compression in the third cylinder and it was running real rough. Discovered that the exhaust valve had snapped. Everything else looks good so it is off to get re-built.
It was a lot of fun, spending some time with him and putting this together. There will be a few more weekends and a trip or two to the salvage yard. It is too cold to paint yet but we are getting it all prepped for that. He is 26 and so excited to be getting some wheels.

[cowboyup3371]

Replaced the left turn signal on the Bandit and put the fairing back on but I'll say I absolutely dread ever touching that part again. I know I busted one tab already so hopefully it will stay in place just fine.

Found out I ordered the right hand mirror instead of the left (dang fiche) so I'll try to get the correct one ordered tomorrow morning and be able to ride by mid-week

[Burque73]

I'd like to thank Bwringer for his nudge to get this done! I dug into the KLR's left side this afternoon to inspect the counter balance tensioner lever. Good thing too as the spring that provides tension to the mechanism was broken. This could have been real bad! There's only 8500 miles on this bike and the stock part already failed.

Here's the stator cover removed and tied off to the side. The aluminum tool from Eagle Mike worked like a charm! They also sent a rotor puller that popped the rotor off almost immediately.



With the rotor out of the way the counter balancer tensioner is visible. Intact fortunately but there's supposed to be a spring there.



With the inner cover removed you can see the spring, well most of it anyway.




I had to stop for the night since I don't have a telescoping magnet or one I can bend and poke down into the crank case to find the rest of that spring.

[dorkburger]

It had been bugging me for some time...... waaay back shortly after I got my bike, I had to pull the head off to replace two bent valves. It was 13 years before joining here, so while I knew the basics, I didn't know GS specifics. .....

I replaced and lapped the valves, reinstalled the head with a new gasket, checked timing, valve clearance and moved on.

After joining GSR, I found out that I lucked out big time by not having a leaky base gasket, but during this work I did nothing with the cam chain tensioner and for the last couple of years I've wondered if I might have caused problems so I delved into new for me territory. I pulled and inspected the tenssioner- it looks fine. I reinstalled and set it. I then I checked for chain stretch wondering if the tensioner tightened when I had the head off causing a too tight chain. The 20 pin measurement was well below the service limit. Yay.

I still want to check the valve clearance while it's open, but when I started mixing up inch and MM numbers on the feeler gauge I figured it would be best to stop for the night.

[Grimly]

Yesterday and today took the head and barrels off the '80 GS to finally fix the base gasket leak and investigate the lack of compression on all cylinders.
I found the inlets were all tight; that, allied with rings that were past their best made for a reluctant start-up last time.
The bike lift proved its worth, as was able to stand next to it and didn't have to bend over it at all, apart from the last lifting part, where the head was determined to hang up on the last dowel, and the barrels were reluctant to part company with pistons one and four.

I got it all off and called it a day just as my back was calling enough, but gave a quick, cursory inspection to the parts. Surprisingly good condition, considering the verve and gusto I've been giving it the past couple of years. Interestingly, the pistons were nearly clean as a whistle, which I put down to Techron use over the past couple of years.
Tomorrow, or next day, I'll commence cleaning all the bits and start measuring for wear. I'm not too sure about the camchain as yet.
Deffo new rings, as it was using a bit of oil, but not enough to justify a strip-down on its own. If the pistons are worn I have another good standard set.

[Guest]

Well my day wasn't nearly as productive or ambitious as you guys', but I pulled the rear brake caliper on my Honda again today to try to figure out why the brake would not release after I took my foot off the brake pedal. I pulled it last week also and found that the square-section gasket had been glued in by a PO (yes, glued in!), and that the piston required quite a bit of working to remove (I ended up using numerous blasts of compressed nitrogen in the brake line port to push it out from behind). After cleaning everything up - especially the channel that the gasket resides in - I put it all back together, using brake fluid to lubricate the gasket. When I took it out for a ride around the block afterwards, the brake worked exactly once then froze again. I have ordered a rebuild kit and hope that resolves the issue.

Other than an old gasket, do any of you guys have any ideas what might be happening? (BTW...... other than being dirty, the old gasket really didn't look bad; it was not cracked and seemed to still be fairly pliable, but I ordered a new one anyway). Oh..... and one more note; I did install new brake pads last week, and of course flushed out the master cylinder and brake lines with fresh DOT3 fluid.

Any hints/tips/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[Grimly]

Well my day wasn't nearly as productive or ambitious as you guys', but I pulled the rear brake caliper on my Honda again today to try to figure out why the brake would not release after I took my foot off the brake pedal. I pulled it last week also and found that the square-section gasket had been glued in by a PO (yes, glued in!), and that the piston required quite a bit of working to remove (I ended up using numerous blasts of compressed nitrogen in the brake line port to push it out from behind). After cleaning everything up - especially the channel that the gasket resides in - I put it all back together, using brake fluid to lubricate the gasket. When I took it out for a ride around the block afterwards, the brake worked exactly once then froze again. I have ordered a rebuild kit and hope that resolves the issue.

Other than an old gasket, do any of you guys have any ideas what might be happening? (BTW...... other than being dirty, the old gasket really didn't look bad; it was not cracked and seemed to still be fairly pliable, but I ordered a new one anyway). Oh..... and one more note; I did install new brake pads last week, and of course flushed out the master cylinder and brake lines with fresh DOT3 fluid.

Any hints/tips/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

By gasket, you mean the piston seal? If everything is clean and the way it all should be, the new seal will probably fix it. Old seals get weird - they should work but they get stuck.

[Guest]

By gasket, you mean the piston seal? If everything is clean and the way it all should be, the new seal will probably fix it. Old seals get weird - they should work but they get stuck.

Yes, I meant seal. And that's what I'm hoping for, is that the old one has gotten "weird". Thanks for the tip!

[Grimly]

Yes, I meant seal. And that's what I'm hoping for, is that the old one has gotten "weird". Thanks for the tip!

If you can find a close-up diagram of the parts fitment, check to see if there's a taper section on the seal, as some of them aren't square in cross-section. Also, some of the seal grooves in the piston have a non-square bottom in them which pushes out the seal at a slight angle. The latter type are nearly foolproof, but the former type can be fitted backwards, and might cause binding.
Otoh, it's likely just old rubber and lost its resilience, so goes out and stays out, causing binding.

[dorkburger]

Valves done. A few loose, a few tight, a few ok.
Valve cover set in place, plugs hand tight. Need to button it up this week.

[ddaniels]

Mounted a trunk on the back of the Ninja. Turning this squid machine into an old man rider.

[pete]

Gave the Kat tank a quick once over with Meguiar's Ultimate Compound on a wool pad on the drill, pretty happy with the results so far! I've only done the black and it needs more work yet.

Untitled by starpoint73, on Flickr

And got second gear chamfered at a mate's last night so it can be welded on.

Untitled by starpoint73, on Flickr

[aclaytonb]

Finally got the stitches out of my wrist and elbow. Took the wire wheel conversion, new tires, and tire beads out for a quick run. Handles sooo much better than the 8 yr old Kendas. Not quite wrenching but it was the fruits of some wrenching.

[Grimly]

Mounted a trunk on the back of the Ninja. Turning this squid machine into an old man rider.

"Yah, bloke with a top box, he can't be very fast."

Oh yeah; lull them into a false sense of security and then strike hard.
Works every time.
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On the wrenching front; today was spent browsing various diy / homebrew parts washers and my eyes were opened at some of the ingenious and some downright dangerous contraptions that have been dreamt up.

One of the best was this one...