What Did You Did To Your Motobrick Today ?

[Scott_]

I did a brake fluid flush on all 3 bikes.... and a new front tire on the R.

[Past-my-Prime]

I removed and reinstalled my transmission --- twice!

The first time I put the clutch diaphragm spring in backwards.  Who does that? (This guy)

This is how you'll know it's in backwards, should you ever do it:

It all goes in very easy. Too easy!

There's no messing around getting the clutch bolts in.

The clutch plate doesn't feel very "firmly" in place. Well that SHOULD HAVE been a clue.

The transmission slides in super easy.

Of course, you're on a roll so you keep putting more pieces together until you start to think "is this right"?  Then it all comes back apart once your realize your mistake.

When you do it correctly, everything is a bit harder. But now the clutch works (disengages the driveline). So time to reassemble everything from there, back.

(Also, the clutch centering tool is very handy, I found. Once i found it, of course)

[Chaos]

Yeah, anytime things are going too smoothly something obvious is probably f**ked up.  I once did a perfect oil change (no drips, spills, nothing on my hands) then backed the bike over the full drain pan. 

[frankenduck]

I once changed the oil on my K1100RS from the right side because it was tight quarters in my old garage. Got everything buttoned up with the new oil filled and topped off. All ready to go. Then I noticed the new oil filter still sitting in its box on the left side of the front wheel. DOH! Drained the new oil into a clean pan and then actually installed the new oil filter.

[Laitch]

After having a persistent slight motor oil leak for the last 10,000 miles at the engine/transmission weep hole that would only leave a few drops per week on the shop floor but would cause the clutch to slip when goosing the engine at high speed, I undertook a Stick Season tour of the clutch and output shaft environs. In advance, I obtained a clutch disc, screws, washers, clutch nut o-ring, compression ring and clutch nut for installation. The engine already had the latest release bearing assembly; the clutch rod and rod bushing were ok. The clutch disc was oil soaked so was replaced. The transmission input splines where ok and lubed with the remainder of my Staburag NBU30 PTM. The cover for the gear indicator assembly was in good condition despite being subject to the gravel and mud road riding provided to me by town roads here.


Note the sawtooth profile of the driveshaft socket splines, the rear drive input splines didn't look any better. I decide to replace both the driveshaft and the rear drive with a low mileage 32/11 unit I bought as a set a couple of years ago in anticipation of this. I bought it from a member here who replaced it with a paralever drive. I moved the brake disc from the old unit to the replacement by heating the final drive disc retention screws on the old drive with a Mapp torch then attacking them with a hammer-operated hand-handheld impact tool. Success was not elusive; transfer was completed.


No body parts were injured nor were there any failures of small part search-and-recovery efforts during this dance. 

[The Mighty Gryphon]

Nice job Laitch!   

I've been busy, too.  Did an end of season oil change and replaced the steering head bearings on Moby Brick Too the other day.  The bearing job was less of an ordeal than I thought it would be.  Since they were the third set I've done, I may be getting good at doing the job.  Once the bodywork was out of the way the bearings were out and replaced in only an hour.

Took the bike out for a short ride yesterday and tightened up the steering head when I got back.  Then I went out again.  It's amazing how less scary the bike's handling is at slow speed with good bearings.  The front wheel doesn't flop to the inside of the turn anymore.

[The Mighty Gryphon]

Took Moby Brick Too out of storage last weekend and found that the front master cylinder had dumped all the brake fluid.  Fortunately, the resulting paint damage is minimal and easily overlooked. It's been slowly leaking since I got the bike.  Time to bite the bullet and get an anodized master cylinder from Euro Moto Electrics.  $413 shipped 

It arrived yesterday and this afternoon I pulled the old one off and got the new installed.  The job was pretty straightforward, I only had two glitches that slowed me down.  First and worst was removing the pin that holds the lever.  I was able to unscrew it, but nothing I did made it possible to pull it out.  I finally had to drill a hole in the reservoir so I could drive it out with a drift.  I pissed away about an hour screwing around with that pin. 

The other glitch was with the brake light switch.  When I installed it, the brake light was on continuously.  Luckily, it only took a couple minutes to figure out that I needed to bend the lever on the switch to get the light to cancel.  While I had the grip off the bars I took the opportunity to clean the crap off the bars under the throttle and rubbed some candle wax on it.  Throttle snaps back really nice now.

Filled the reservoir and it only took 5 minutes to get all the air out of the piston and get a firm lever.  Total time was a bit over two hours including that damn lever pin.  Not bad.

Next job is to replace one of the LED driving lights that has a rapid flicker that is annoying when riding at night.

[Laitch]

I removed the brake pads, the pad mounting pins and springs from all three calipers. I scrubbed the pins, springs and backs of the brake pads with scotchbrite pads, wiped them off, applied silicone grease to the backs of the pads, the pins and the springs. After reassembly, all three calipers were flushed and bled with new fluid. I use speed bleeders on all three calipers; they make flushing the brake lines an appealing job and allow more time for contemplation and bird call identification.
After cleanup, I rode down the mountain to town so I could cover everything with moist gravel-road grit. 

[Scott_]

Finally realized how bad the fork seals were leaking on the '95, so I pulled the forks off of my '97 parts bike and swapped them to the '95.
I suppose some day I'll strip them down and rebuild them, with bushings and seals, but not today... now to mow the yard.