my little tune-up and upgrade project

[Guest]

Figured I'd start a thread.



I'm hoping to do the following:

DONE - replace my rear shocks. 12" ikons installed
- replace my fork springs
- replace tach cable
- get fuel gauge working
- stainless front brake line
DONE - new cylinder cover head gasket and breather gasket
DONE - valve adjustment
- check my exhaust, maybe some work to do sealing where the megaphones attach to the pipes (exhaust connectors?)
- replace seat cover

[shwaz]

exhaust work

so a funny thing happened when i was taking off the exhaust. i probably didn't even need to remove it, but i got it in my head that I wanted to polish the old pipes, if you know what i mean. well, i got to wrenching on the exhaust flange bolt, in the winter in new jersey, with the bike cold, with corroded bolts, and the strangest thing happened - a bolt snapped. go figure, right? anyway, i chalked it up to a once in a lifetime thing and went to work on the next one. it came out pretty easily. i was sure nothing could possibly go wrong with the remaining six, so i went at it.
15 minutes later, i had 3 complete bolts in my hand, and 5 snapped ones. you can check out the whole story here.

I was unbelievably fortunate in that over the summer, i met one of my neighbors across the street. he's kind of a new jersey hillbilly (i don't mean that in a bad way at all) - big belly, bigger beard, overalls, rides a fully dressed harly. pickup truck+plow, a few other vehicles in the driveway in partial disrepair. gruff but a nice guy. a day after i snapped all those bolts, I asked if I could take him up on briefly using his garage. Turns out he's also a retired machinist and engine mechanic. That was two weeks ago, and things are progressing nicely.

i'm now quite proficient at drilling out bolts. also used a tap for the first time and got those holes nicely cleaned out. they've all been replaced with studs (thank you napa). while i'm not a stranger to hardware or elbow grease, this is my first time doing any real work to any kind of vehicle. it's already been a great learning experience, not to mention fun and rewarding.

exhaust pan came off, cleaned the inside to sparkly (pretty clean to begin, though).
took off the tank, horns, wiggled out the header cover and got to work on the valves and valve adjustment. a shout out to zip-ties, tweezers, TimTom, and more on that later. (i'm at work and better pretend i'm getting something done)

[razor02097]

5 broken bolts? Ouch man... Did you spray any penetrating lube on there before trying to get them out?

The two most important formulas for old motorcycles to remember is...
Aluminum head + steel bolts + many heat cycles = seized bolts
Heat + penetrating lube + patience = whole extracted bolts

[shwaz]

5 broken bolts? Ouch man... Did you spray any penetrating lube on there before trying to get them out?

The two most important formulas for old motorcycles to remember is...
Aluminum head + steel bolts + many heat cycles = seized bolts
Heat + penetrating lube + patience = whole extracted bolts

yeah, no. i just went at 'em with a wrench
had never heard of it before, but of course i own a few cans of PB Blaster now... anyway - patience is for next time.

thank god it seems like it all worked out ok. it's learning by breaking; i've been told by some notable authorities that it's the best way. or the most common. one of those two.

anyway it's funny in retrospect how impulsive it was to continue, and to hear everyone's shocked reactions. i'll probably react to others misadventures the same way years from now when i've forgotten about all the numbskull things i did as i was learning

regardless, i'm glad to have the studs in. i'll post up a picture of those later tonight.

[shwaz]

studded






right side exhaust was put back on last night. new exhaust gaskets, exhaust connectors. used some nevrdull wadding to get some of the smaller rust spots off the pipe (cosmetic)

[TheCafeKid]

Yeah maybe I've been just stupidly lucky, I've never broken an exhaust bolt pulling it out. Now, my brother, all eager beaver to help me once when I was working on one of my ex-GSes managed to snap one off going IN! First I'd ever seen that. Needless to say I, calmly as I could muster (which wasn't) took the ratchet away from him and banished him from the garage....

And those exhaust clamps will rust up again unfortunately. I've tried everything I can think of short of re-plating them and nothing seems to work for long. I've not found a "clear coat" that can withstand the temps up there either.

The studs are an excellent change, and should prevent any issues in the future, unless of course the whole thing comes out next time. But even that isn't so bad.

Looks like you're learning and having fun! Keep up the good work.

[chuck hahn]

I find that you have to take them out or in as a set. IE..loosen them both a little at a time going back and forth. Seems that the collars like to scave off to one side or the other and bind up the bolts.