I woke up this morning with the realization that I am making great progress on the bike, but not riding it is maddening. The previous owner gave me a good deal because the bike needed a good bit of service, and I am more than happy to do it (in fact, I love working on bikes), but I REALLY want to ride this again soon. Of course, I have mini nightmares of stuff randomly falling off the bike just before I have a major accident due to my sloppy excuse for mechanical expertise, but at least I will be riding when that happens. I am also frustratingly aware that this blog is supposed to be about riding bikes as well as working on them and the best I have managed so far is to post about an epic day trip I did 8 years ago. That's pretty pathetic. These things happen though and the less I complain about not riding and work on the bike, the quicker I can start boring people with my rides and trips as well as my sad bike repair skills.
In this episode of 990 Adventure washing, I clean some parts of the bike, remove other parts of the bike and even received a new part or two....for the bike.
So first up today was draining the coolant and removing the radiator. The hoses are a little worn, although they haven't started cracking from the dry heat here in Arid-zona, it won't hurt to replace them while everything is off the bike. At first I was going to go with some high tech orange Samco hoses, but they are nearly twice the price of the stock hoses, which just so happen to work fantastic. After all, this bike has 13 hard riding years on it and they are still going even though they are showing their age now. The coolant has to be drained from two separate locations, the left side of the radiator as well as the lower part of the water pump cover. The manual says to start with the water pump cover...ok here we go..first a good bucket and funnel...I know you wish you had a great funnel like this one...sorry, it's mine.
Then remove the lower center bolt from the WP cover.
Very little coolant came out. Then I remembered I needed to remove the rad cap...those of you who are smarter than me, which according to my wife is everyone, will know what happened next. I removed the cap and water shot out like someone was emptying Hoover damn...right into my lap. I was sitting right in front of the drain hole with my funnel. In seconds my phone went flying, I tipped over the bucket and dropped the funnel. I managed to collect everything though and was glad nobody was watching. It drained for a long time...
Once it stopped running, I let it continue to drip out while I cleaned up the floor and my phone and then changed my pants. When I got back I plugged the hole and went to drain what was left in the rad from this lower bolt here.
That done, I moved the bucket back to the other side and removed the thermostat connector first...Look at that dirt! There was even a cobweb in there.
Then I removed that lower rad hose, of course with the bucket underneath...
Then back to the other side of the bike to remove the remaining rad hose and viola, job done.
Afterwards, I flushed the inside of the rad with water and set it aside until I need it again. Then it was onto the clutch booster oil jet. KTM made that a pain to get to. You need to remove the sprocket guard, which can only be removed with the clutch slave. I had removed the sprocket earlier to make things even easier. I'm glad I did, my big caveman hands have a hard time fitting into small spaces...
I started by using some 409 and a bush to remove the remainder of the dirt around the sprocket and clutch slave so it was completely clean
That's better...
Then I removed the clutch slave, sprocket guard and plastic spacer...all held on by the slave's two mounting bolts. That cross pin on the push rod isn't fixed, so I immediately removed to put it somewhere safe and dropped it. It took me 45 minutes to freaking find it.
Then it was onto the oil jet... First this bolt comes out
Then the oil jet is loosened with a slotted screw bit and wrench (or spanner, if you want to sound really fancy and educated)
and finally, the oil jet can be removed with a Q-Tip of all things.
Easy! Then there was the bad news...when I cleaned the jet, there was no hole in it. In the center of the slot, there is supposed to be a 0.3mm hole to allow oil to flow to the clutch booster. Although this picture is absolutely horrendous, there is no hole. It was solid. I knew that the former owner would have never put a faulty part in there when he cleaned it, so I wonder what happened? I am thinking a bit of metal debris got in there and totally plugged the opening.
I used a sharp awl and poked a new hole, but I know that is a bad way to do things. Small differences in hole size can cause problems with shifting. I still have plenty to do. I went ahead and cleaned up around the clutch pushrod and also the parts I pulled off.
Then it was onto the rear exhaust header. They are subject to corrosion around the Lambda sensor and replacement pipes are pretty expensive. I decided to remove this one and give it a really good cleaning and inspect it for pin holes. First you disconnect the sensor...super dirty
and make sure you take a pic to see how the wiring is routed
Then you remove the two nuts that hold the header onto the engine
After I figured out how to fish the odd shaped pipe out of the bike, I stuffed a rag in the engine to keep spiders, chupacabras and other nasty things out of it
While I was doing that, the mailman stopped by and gave me a couple of boxes. In one was my new fuel injectors and some other OEM parts, in the other was a new chain. I know the current chain is fine and I am saving it, but I saw this DID ZVM-X for sale at less than half its normal price. No way I could pass up a deal like that. I might save this for later and get a new masterlink for the Regina chain the bike came with and use that until it is really worn out, but it's hard to resist putting a gold chain on the bike now.
That seemed like a good stopping point. I am dropping the oil tank from the bike next so that I can finally get at all the cooling system hoses. Once I am done that, I can spend a day cleaning the parts I've removed and perhaps even get onto some engine work. I am thinking that plugged oil jet could be the cause of the rattling noise the bike was making when I closed off the throttle. With no oil getting to the clutch booster, it would rattle quite loud like that. I am hoping it got plugged recently, as I really don't want to spring for a new booster set. I also need to install the new shift shaft and measure the clutch plates and springs. That rattle is coming from somewhere in there and the clutch or booster is high on my list of potential suspects.
I haven't been drinking lately. No beer for Chuck. I am trying to lose some weight and get back into some sort of cycling fitness. I have the dream of riding the Arizona trail. For those that haven't heard of it, it is an 800 mile back country trail which includes hiking down into and back out of the Grand Canyon (all with your bike on your back). That hasn't stopped my wife though. Although she is relatively new to drinking, she has taken to it with a frightening gusto. She heard of whiskey sours recently and decided to make one. I don't have the heart to tell her that sucking on a lemon wedge after taking a pull from a bottle of Jack Daniels is not what one is. After all, she really does seems to enjoy them. When she's had a few though, she wants to run around the neighborhood in her bra and panties. I guess I did similar things when I drank whiskey, so I won't judge her.
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