The big bike stripdown
Discussion
Mellow Matt said:
On a more serious note - any particular reason why one should go for fully synthetic oil over semi?
wihtout looking back over what your doing to check...the usual comments i see online is use a semi to run the engine in & then change to synthetic if you want.personally i run my stuff on semi, but then its a not a sportsbike engine in such a high state of tune as most peoples here.
Sorry for the delay in the updates!
Finally finished putting the bike back together this weekend and uploaded the photos
Here is the cause of all the problems, the worn out gear:
You can see that it's been rounded off quite a lot there, which was causing it to slip under power. The bits they slotted into were a bit worn out too:
As was the selector fork:
So after the new ones went in we just boted the bottom crankcase back on, and the sump and then placed it on our little wooden roller device to get it back under the bike. We had to jack up the front of the bike and (slightly precariously) balance the front wheel on some bits of wood to get it high enough for the engine to slide in underneath:
It was a pain in the arse trying to get the engine back up to the height of the mountings! We managed it in the end by being manly and lifting the engine up and putting more bits of wood (Dad's garage has an endless supply of bits of wood!) under the engine, until it was high enough to get a jack under it, and then jack it up to the required height. It was still a massive pain in the arse getting it in though, as the engine had to be tilting forward in order to get it lined up right, so I ended up having to lie half underneath it and hold it up at an angle from underneath, whilst it was jiggled to get it lined up. My arms took a while to recover from that one! Even once we'd got one lot of mounting bolts in it wasn't easy - it seemed that the holes no longer lined up somehow
We could get 3 of the four mounting bolts in, but then the last one wouldn't go in straight! We tried doing them in different orders and levering it a bit to get it in place, and eventually it worked, took ages though...
And then the nut on the last mounting bolt stripped its thread! It seems the book was right about it being advisable to use new nuts. Apologies for not getting any photos of that bit, we were a bit preoccupied!
Anyway, here the engine is with 3 of the 4 mountings all in (not that you can really see them):
Next we put the front sprocket back on:
Then put the carbs and the airbox back on. This was done without any hitches really:
Then all the wiring was done back up:
This wasn't too bad either, all our previous thoroughness of labelling all the wires and the routes they took meant that it was just a few minutes of snapping things back together again. Don't ask me what all the different bits do though...!
Then we slotted the clutch back in.
This went without a hitch, although we spent weeks waiting for new clutch bits to come. There's a little top hat shaped bit of metal that pushes down on the clutch springs which had 2 holes and 2 screws in when we took it out. We thought this was a bit odd as the book showed it with 3 holes and 3 screws, and the 2 holes we had were not opposite to each other, but at 0 degrees and 120 degress... So we thought we'd order a new one and the new one came with 2 holes too
You can just about see what I mean from the pictures - the 2 screws behind the main nut - any ideas?!
There was another curious bit of engineering here, as we had to dent the ring around the centre bit in order to stop it spinning around. You can see above that at the top of the ring we've bashed it in a bit. Apparently this is the way it's supposed to be done, but it seemed pretty crude to me!
Then we put the new clutch gasket on and then the cover:
Then the sprocket cover went on along with the gear lever:
Then the tank went on (another pretty easy job):
Had to do the wiring/plumbing for the tank too:
Next the radiator went on. Forgot to take any photos of this bit! It was pretty easy really - 3 mounting points, did those up, then a few wires for the fan, then a few tubes for the coolant.
Then we realised that we should really have put the exhaust back on before the radiator... So we undid the radiator again and put the exhaust back on! This wasn't too bad - put some new gaskets in and bunged the headers into the block, then bolted them in with some freshly WD40'd bolts. They had to be torqued up to a certain setting, which was pretty difficult to do in the confined space, but we managed it. Then we put the radiator back on.
After this we spent a while filling it up with coolant and oil, which has to be done slowly apparently to avoid too much air getting in. I think at this point we started her up! And SHE LIVED HOORAH!
But what's that?! SMOKE?! Ahhh it's just the WD40 on the header bolts smoking a bit
:
There is smoke in that photo, I'm just rubbish at photos.
At this point I was delirous with WD40 smoke and exhaust fumes filling the garage, along with my pleasure
Next we set about putting the fairings back on (not as easy as it sounds, getting all the holes to line up is a pain in the arse again!). Then we changed the brake pads as they needed doing anyway (I didn't really care about brakes at this point, I just wanted to ride off into the sunset, but I refrained and succmbed to sensibleness).
And it still wasn't ready! Argh! Now we had to adjust the chain, then torque up the rear axle nut. So we adjusted the chain, then went to do up the nut... Where the hell is the socket for the nut?! We undid the bloody thing so we must have one?! But no, we can't find it, so we had to go to the shops to buy one. I don't know if anyone's ever bought a 36mm socket before, but I advise against it - £23! The 35mm socket was about £7! What a rip off...
Anyway, got back and did it up, then lubed the chain and went out for a test ride I went very slowly to so that if it all fell apart I wouldn't die, and listened out for any odd noises, but it seemed fine. Then I tried accelerating through the rev range in second to see if it would jump and it didn't! SUCCESS!
So now it's back and fully working, I'm completely prepared to completely destroy it at Brands Hatch on Thursday. At least I know how to fix some of it if the worst happens!
Finally finished putting the bike back together this weekend and uploaded the photos
Here is the cause of all the problems, the worn out gear:
You can see that it's been rounded off quite a lot there, which was causing it to slip under power. The bits they slotted into were a bit worn out too:
As was the selector fork:
So after the new ones went in we just boted the bottom crankcase back on, and the sump and then placed it on our little wooden roller device to get it back under the bike. We had to jack up the front of the bike and (slightly precariously) balance the front wheel on some bits of wood to get it high enough for the engine to slide in underneath:
It was a pain in the arse trying to get the engine back up to the height of the mountings! We managed it in the end by being manly and lifting the engine up and putting more bits of wood (Dad's garage has an endless supply of bits of wood!) under the engine, until it was high enough to get a jack under it, and then jack it up to the required height. It was still a massive pain in the arse getting it in though, as the engine had to be tilting forward in order to get it lined up right, so I ended up having to lie half underneath it and hold it up at an angle from underneath, whilst it was jiggled to get it lined up. My arms took a while to recover from that one! Even once we'd got one lot of mounting bolts in it wasn't easy - it seemed that the holes no longer lined up somehow
We could get 3 of the four mounting bolts in, but then the last one wouldn't go in straight! We tried doing them in different orders and levering it a bit to get it in place, and eventually it worked, took ages though... And then the nut on the last mounting bolt stripped its thread!
It seems the book was right about it being advisable to use new nuts. Apologies for not getting any photos of that bit, we were a bit preoccupied!Anyway, here the engine is with 3 of the 4 mountings all in (not that you can really see them):
Next we put the front sprocket back on:
Then put the carbs and the airbox back on. This was done without any hitches really:
Then all the wiring was done back up:
This wasn't too bad either, all our previous thoroughness of labelling all the wires and the routes they took meant that it was just a few minutes of snapping things back together again. Don't ask me what all the different bits do though...!
Then we slotted the clutch back in.
This went without a hitch, although we spent weeks waiting for new clutch bits to come. There's a little top hat shaped bit of metal that pushes down on the clutch springs which had 2 holes and 2 screws in when we took it out. We thought this was a bit odd as the book showed it with 3 holes and 3 screws, and the 2 holes we had were not opposite to each other, but at 0 degrees and 120 degress... So we thought we'd order a new one and the new one came with 2 holes too
You can just about see what I mean from the pictures - the 2 screws behind the main nut - any ideas?!There was another curious bit of engineering here, as we had to dent the ring around the centre bit in order to stop it spinning around. You can see above that at the top of the ring we've bashed it in a bit. Apparently this is the way it's supposed to be done, but it seemed pretty crude to me!
Then we put the new clutch gasket on and then the cover:
Then the sprocket cover went on along with the gear lever:
Then the tank went on (another pretty easy job):
Had to do the wiring/plumbing for the tank too:
Next the radiator went on. Forgot to take any photos of this bit! It was pretty easy really - 3 mounting points, did those up, then a few wires for the fan, then a few tubes for the coolant.
Then we realised that we should really have put the exhaust back on before the radiator... So we undid the radiator again and put the exhaust back on! This wasn't too bad - put some new gaskets in and bunged the headers into the block, then bolted them in with some freshly WD40'd bolts. They had to be torqued up to a certain setting, which was pretty difficult to do in the confined space, but we managed it. Then we put the radiator back on.
After this we spent a while filling it up with coolant and oil, which has to be done slowly apparently to avoid too much air getting in. I think at this point we started her up! And SHE LIVED
HOORAH! But what's that?! SMOKE?! Ahhh it's just the WD40 on the header bolts smoking a bit
:There is smoke in that photo, I'm just rubbish at photos.
At this point I was delirous with WD40 smoke and exhaust fumes filling the garage, along with my pleasure
Next we set about putting the fairings back on (not as easy as it sounds, getting all the holes to line up is a pain in the arse again!). Then we changed the brake pads as they needed doing anyway (I didn't really care about brakes at this point, I just wanted to ride off into the sunset, but I refrained and succmbed to sensibleness).
And it still wasn't ready! Argh! Now we had to adjust the chain, then torque up the rear axle nut. So we adjusted the chain, then went to do up the nut... Where the hell is the socket for the nut?! We undid the bloody thing so we must have one?! But no, we can't find it, so we had to go to the shops to buy one. I don't know if anyone's ever bought a 36mm socket before, but I advise against it - £23! The 35mm socket was about £7! What a rip off...
Anyway, got back and did it up, then lubed the chain and went out for a test ride
I went very slowly to so that if it all fell apart I wouldn't die, and listened out for any odd noises, but it seemed fine. Then I tried accelerating through the rev range in second to see if it would jump and it didn't! SUCCESS!So now it's back and fully working, I'm completely prepared to completely destroy it at Brands Hatch on Thursday. At least I know how to fix some of it if the worst happens!
Mellow Matt said:
Where the hell is the socket for the nut?! We undid the bloody thing so we must have one?! But no, we can't find it, so we had to go to the shops to buy one. I don't know if anyone's ever bought a 36mm socket before, but I advise against it - £23! The 35mm socket was about £7! What a rip off...
I paid around £10 for a Facom 6 point 36mm 3/4" drive socket, trade discount from when I worked in motorsport. Couldn't live without it! Over the years it has been needed for many Suzuki rear axle nuts, Volvo axle nuts, and Triumph 675 front sprocket nut, so has paid for itself!You can usually get an impact socket for less.
How much was the replacement gearbox bits for the gixxer in the end?
Cheers guys It was actually quite fun despite the frustrating bits, I recommend it!
Sounds like I got conned with the socket then! I went in 2 different shops and they both priced it about the same, although I couldn't be bothered trecking to Halfords, which probably would've been wiser.
In the end it cost me about £400 I think, which is more than I thought it was going to cost, but less than if I'd got it done by a garage. The actual gearbox bits cost about £200 I think, and then add in gaskets, gasket glue stuff, nuts, bolts, screws, a bit of labour for putting the gears in, oil, coolant, brake pads, tools and some other bits I've probably forgotten about.
Sorry for referring to my bike as a "she" by the way Tim. She is quite curvaceous though.
It was actually quite fun despite the frustrating bits, I recommend it!Sounds like I got conned with the socket then! I went in 2 different shops and they both priced it about the same, although I couldn't be bothered trecking to Halfords, which probably would've been wiser.
In the end it cost me about £400 I think, which is more than I thought it was going to cost, but less than if I'd got it done by a garage. The actual gearbox bits cost about £200 I think, and then add in gaskets, gasket glue stuff, nuts, bolts, screws, a bit of labour for putting the gears in, oil, coolant, brake pads, tools and some other bits I've probably forgotten about.
Sorry for referring to my bike as a "she" by the way Tim. She is quite curvaceous though.
Andy XRV said:
Ditto the great thread and 10/10 for the photography.
I'm quite looking forward to meeting "her" on Thursday
Haha if my photography is 10/10 I'd hate to see the other photos you've seen! The last photo was taken by TimmyWimmyWoo, who is actually quite good at pikchure takin'. I'm quite looking forward to meeting "her" on Thursday
I'm looking forward to meeting everyone and their bikes on Thursday too
As long as you don't look too closely at mine and spot the couple of slightly tasteless additions to "her" (which I didn't put on btw!).Great thread - pleased it's worked out well too. Personally, I'd use high temperature grease such as Copperslip on the header bolts rather than WD40 - it evaporates/smokes out and will likely be seized next time you come to take them up. Copperslip should mean they come out easy for the future.
Top job though - I'd never take on a gearbox!
Top job though - I'd never take on a gearbox!
3doorPete said:
Great thread - pleased it's worked out well too. Personally, I'd use high temperature grease such as Copperslip on the header bolts rather than WD40 - it evaporates/smokes out and will likely be seized next time you come to take them up. Copperslip should mean they come out easy for the future.
Top job though - I'd never take on a gearbox!
I think Copperslip would've been wiser then, we did have some, don't know why we didn't use it!Top job though - I'd never take on a gearbox!
We only sort of took on the gearbox
We took the engine apart, got someone else to take the gears off the shafts & put them back on again.
Mellow Matt said:
3doorPete said:
Great thread - pleased it's worked out well too. Personally, I'd use high temperature grease such as Copperslip on the header bolts rather than WD40 - it evaporates/smokes out and will likely be seized next time you come to take them up. Copperslip should mean they come out easy for the future.
Top job though - I'd never take on a gearbox!
I think Copperslip would've been wiser then, we did have some, don't know why we didn't use it!Top job though - I'd never take on a gearbox!
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