Two Updates!

Fixed the rattling

It was my chain. Hooooly shit there was a lot of slack. It was banging against the swingarm quite badly. I tested this by putting the bike on the paddock stand, using a cable tie I wrapped the tie around the bolt that holds the chain guard on and cable tied the bike to the paddock stand - just to make sure it didn't vibrate off as it's not the best stand. Popped it in 1st and let the clutch out and it was banging all over the shop.

Grabbed the book of lies, undid the pinch nut and using a small hammer and a suitable drift;

http://af-design.com/blog/wp-content/up ... 00x225.jpg

I tightened it up to about 15mm of slack. Took it out for a blast and it didn't rattle any more, yay! Since it's been so loose, I'm going to whip the front sprocket cover off sometime soon and inspect.

Quick question, how quick should the back wheel stop? When I pull the clutch in, the wheel stops pretty instantly and when it's on the stand and turned off, the wheel doesn't really spin easily, takes two hands to push it round.

Update two; the exhaust.

Discovered air was leaking from a cracked pipe before the final Y joint to the can, quick ring to the welders and a trip over in the afternoon and the leak was sealed, still a loud ticking noise though. I tested to make sure it was leaking using a suitable exhaust blocking tool;

http://i.imgur.com/h9JBl.jpg

Revs bogged down only about 100RPM and that was it. Leak. Rear fairing off, remove rear brake lever mounts, remove heat shield and tie them out of the way to reveal manifold. Now I have the proper tools (an 18" extension bar and a massive torque wrench with a knuckle joint) I could tighten them up better than I could before with my crappy little socket set.

Worth mentioning, for bolts as old and rusted as these, don't use a 12 point socket - it chews through them like butter. I found a 6 point with the wrong size drive, so a quick trip to halfords to get an adapter and it saved me chewing up the 3 bolts.

http://i.imgur.com/eAiU9.jpg

After tightening them as much as I dared, I started her up and put the hammer back in the exhaust, the revs bogged down from 1500RPM to about 500RPM and the bike almost stalled - yay! It didn't quite stall and I think there's still a tiny leak somewhere, but before I risk over tightening the rears any more, I'm going to make sure the front pipes are tightened properly - although this scares me more as if a bolt gets sheared it's no longer a case of a new manifold but a new head (if I can't extract the bolt). Scary shit.

The next job is definitely the clutch. My clutch removal tool arrived but doesn't fit the swingarm by a few mm - can anyone confirm that the clutch nut is a bit smaller than the swingarm nut? Ordering friction plates and a gasket tomorrow - I'll also measure the engine plates using my new digital vernier and see if I need to order some of them too!

When it's clutch time, I'll prob start a new thread in Workshop as I have no idea what I should do with the clutch cable (free it, loosen it, tighten it - whatever) and I'll undoubtedly run in to problems.

Won't let me post images, just keeps saying image dimensions were impossible to determine

Do you not have a proper chain tool instead of a hammer and chisel? You can also check your chain by just putting a finger on it you know

Your rear wheel should turn a lot easier than that, time to strip your hub down, that is assuming you havent done the chain up super tight.

I don't have a chain tool

Nah even when the chain was super slack, the wheel doesn't spin easily at all, I thought it's either something in the rear hub like it needs new bearings or more grease, or maybe something to do with the front sprocket.

What would I be looking for with the rear hub?

your rear brake could be sticking i'd check that first before the hub

coming along nicely

unbolt the rear caliper completely and hold it out the way. how does the wheel spin then? if it is spinning a lot more freely it is going to be sticky back brake

Good idea lads, I'll check the brake next time I'm working on the bike.

Oil leak is getting worse, can anyone shed some light? Thinking it could maybe have something to do with the rear head as the back of my engine is always wet, unless that's just shit flicked off the road. Not investigated much yet;



Slow news on the clutch, no fucker has a gasket in stock and I messaged a guy about friction plates, still no reply.

Rear sprocket cover off (which was a job in itself using just an open ended 8mm spanner, smallest socket I had was 9mm...).

There's a fair bit of sh*t in there behind the sprocket which I'll spend some time cleaning out now with a rag, but if you look above where the sprocket housing is, that's where the oil seems to be coming from, in the 2nd picture you can see a drip just above the sprocket itself. It's odd because if you look, where the head meets the block it's bone dry, just the head that seems to be wet - head gasket?

The bike is still in pieces, so now I'm going to clean as much sh*t out of the sprocket as I can and maybe oil it a bit, then re-assemble for now. Where is this oil coming from!

Oh and does anyone have any preference between Ferodo vs EBC(road kit) friction plates?

What I found behind the sprocket cover;



Yup, that's a very oily nut about the size of a 2p.

It was just sat behind my sprocket cover, layered in oil, mud and general chain flick sh*t. I was scraping the sh*t out and couldn't believe it when I found that, I'll do myself a favor and not think about what could of gone down if I hit a bump at speed and it interacted with my chain...

I don't even know where the f*ck it's from, there was another stray bolt I found ages ago around where the shock goes through the swingarm.

Anyway, never did find the oil leak, but for now the bike is running fine and it's not doing any harm, so before I investigate further I'll fix the clutch and get the engine cleaned up so it's easier to tell where it's leaking from, right now the engine is pretty filthy so it's hard to see where anything is leaking from.

Postie brought me some more goodies!



Also got the gasket too, I've not opened it, but it looks like it has a plastic film on, do I just peel this off and stick it on or something? Never replaced a gasket bar exhaust gaskets and they're just a ring of metal.

Won't get time today as I have to go buy Portal 2 (have to!) then work later, work all day tomorrow too - so hopefully get it done at the weekend.

My plan of attack is;

• Drain oil, put new plates in old oil for an hour or two (also check oil for any bad stuff)
• Remove clutch cover + gasket
• Remove outer washers and circlip etc
• Struggle like mad trying to 'unstake' the clutch nut - probably swear a lot
• Remove old friction plates, check engine plates for warpage, check springs for height
• Make up new clutch assembly + put into engine
• Add all the washers, nuts + stake clutch nut (more swearing)
• New gasket + bolt up clutch cover
• Replace oil, hope to fuck it works

Should be a good laugh, biggest mechanical job I've had a go at, we'll see how it goes - I'll undoubtedly get stuck and run back here for a Q+A session!

What should I do about the clutch adjusters? On the lever at the bar it's wound all the way in to the lever, not sure about the adjuster on the L/H side of the engine.