10,000K Voyage, mechanical advice needed

[YoungEngineer]

Haha, touche, touche indeed.

[The Mighty Gryphon]

A solid understanding of the workings of your mount is the most important piece of luggage you can take on a trip like the one you are planning. 

Confidence in the fact that everything is going to work properly until your return runs a close second.

[Laitch]

Haha, touche, touche indeed.

It's a  clear indication you need to talk to yourself more often. Martin does that and his bike runs really well. :giggles

A solid understanding of the workings of your mount is the most important piece of luggage you can take on a trip like the one you are planning. 
Confidence in the fact that everything is going to work properly until your return runs a close second.

Once I'm on the road, denial is Numero Uno.

[Martin]

When you have multiple personalities it is sometimes hard to get a total agreement. So we have a vote and the majority win, this saves a lot of infighting.
Regards from all of us.

[MaraudeRS]

Thanks Gryphon. I shall do that.


No one told me that buying a K would mean becoming a full time mechanic :)


I suppose i've learnt allot :)

I'm in the same boat. I'm having to learn so much just to get mine rideable but I'm loving it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Filmcamera]

Me too but I will say that it has given me a huge amount of respect for the machines.  That I was able to ride my one at all when I got it is bordering on a miracle!


It has been botched, hacked, ignored and messed up for 14 years yet it runs...


I am getting pretty close now so we will soon see if I have made the situation worse or not!


Fingers crossed

[YoungEngineer]

I'm not sure if I'm becoming paranoid now but it seems that I am finding more problems. Today I noticed that the gear lever is becoming more and more sloppy. There was always some play when I first purchased the bike but now there seems to be an inch or more. I've already looked into it and it seems to be a loose grub screw which involves taking the gearbox completely out again? Pretty much the spline lube/clutch process which I just did less then 6 months ago.  You have to be kidding me..


My question is how bad is this likely to get? Could I ride 10,000km without the gear lever becoming so loose that it stops me from shifting?


What a ball-ache.

[Laitch]

My question is how bad is this likely to get? Could I ride 10,000km without the gear lever becoming so loose that it stops me from shifting?

It can get to where you'll be stuck in one gear. If you could ride 10K km without shifting very much, you'd be good to go. Otherwise you'd better fix it and be thankful it showed itself in the comfort of jolly old England instead of somewhere in a gnarled and apocalyptic landscape bereft of sympathetic counsel and latte.

There is plenty of Internet video and textual information concerning repair of that transmission grub screw, and that's not counting what you'll get here.
 :yippee:
Consider learning how to apply anapana when confronted by apparent adversity rather than dwelling on genital comfort.  :yes

[YoungEngineer]

Yes Il remember the open mindedness and about being at peace with the universe when I'm hauling all my tools over to the multilevel underground carpark in central London which is usually filled with drug addicts injecting heroin into their genital area. I shall practice Yoga and perform a spiritual chant whilst dropping the transmission for the second time. That should help haha.

[The Mighty Gryphon]

The grub screw on my first brick was the first thing I had to confront even before bringing it home. 

If it is any consolation to you, the job took less than 8 hours start to finish working in my son's driveway.  As I recall, it is all pretty straightforward and the hardest part of the job was getting the grub screw back in.  I think I dropped it off the end of the Allen wrench about 10 times before I finally got it started in the shaft.  Most of the time was spent carefully removing parts and putting things back together properly.  Total time messing with the transmission was less than two hours.  I could probably knock two hours off the total today, since I had never been in a brick before tackling the job.

My only advice is to have a box of zip loc sandwich bags and a sharpie pen to label the hardware as you disassemble things.  It will make reassembly go a lot faster to have what you need all together.  Since you will be dropping the screw into the transmission a couple times, you will need a means of getting it out of some tight places.  A small retrieval magnet or very long tweezers. 

Besides your tools, you want to have transmission oil, anti-seize, spline lube if you haven't done them recently, Blue Loctite, Brake Cleaner to degrease the grub screw and the shaft it goes into, some Permatex black gasket maker, and a couple rolls of paper towels for wiping things down.  It would also be nice to have some sort of stand where you can have the transmission standing on end when you split the cases.

I suspect the screw has been getting loose since you got the bike, so you will be in for a pleasant surprise when you get it tightened up.  The shifting will be so much more positive.

Keep your spirits up, you are bringing a neglected brick back from the abyss and soon she'll be repaying you with miles and miles of roads pleasantly put behind you.

[Laitch]

.  . . when I'm hauling all my tools over to the multilevel underground carpark in central London which is usually filled with drug addicts injecting heroin into their genital area.

Maybe they'll loan you some to help ease the ache from needing to do this job. :giggles  It sounds like this job is not only going to aid shifting but also tone your quadriceps and increase your aerobic capacity.  :2thumbup:

[YoungEngineer]

The grub screw on my first brick was the first thing I had to confront even before bringing it home. 

If it is any consolation to you, the job took less than 8 hours start to finish working in my son's driveway.  As I recall, it is all pretty straightforward and the hardest part of the job was getting the grub screw back in.  I think I dropped it off the end of the Allen wrench about 10 times before I finally got it started in the shaft.  Most of the time was spent carefully removing parts and putting things back together properly.  Total time messing with the transmission was less than two hours.  I could probably knock two hours off the total today, since I had never been in a brick before tackling the job.

My only advice is to have a box of zip loc sandwich bags and a sharpie pen to label the hardware as you disassemble things.  It will make reassembly go a lot faster to have what you need all together.  Since you will be dropping the screw into the transmission a couple times, you will need a means of getting it out of some tight places.  A small retrieval magnet or very long tweezers. 

Besides your tools, you want to have transmission oil, anti-seize, spline lube if you haven't done them recently, Blue Loctite, Brake Cleaner to degrease the grub screw and the shaft it goes into, some Permatex black gasket maker, and a couple rolls of paper towels for wiping things down.  It would also be nice to have some sort of stand where you can have the transmission standing on end when you split the cases.

I suspect the screw has been getting loose since you got the bike, so you will be in for a pleasant surprise when you get it tightened up.  The shifting will be so much more positive.

Keep your spirits up, you are bringing a neglected brick back from the abyss and soon she'll be repaying you with miles and miles of roads pleasantly put behind you.

Yes indeed. I think its just one of those jobs that needs doing. I think I will save myself the grief and do it once in France in my cousins garage.


I have another question to ask the experts here. I have always noticed horrible mileage when driving in town. I usually get 45 on the motorway but in town only 30-35. The fumes always stink. I've checked the error codes on the computer (Nothing serious, no sensor errors) I have synced the TB's as well as set the TPS to 0.370V (2mm slack on throttle cable) I also notice that even on the very most coldest day (-1c to -4c) I never ever need any choke this to me indicates running rich.    I am wondering if there is any way I can tune the air/fuel mixture using the idle bypass without the use of an exhaust analyzer? Are there any fancy tricks out there to achieve this? I know about pulling the plugs but its pretty labor intensive to pull them, re-install and check again, there must be a shortcut!

[Laitch]

I also notice that even on the very most coldest day (-1c to -4c) I never ever need any choke this to me indicates running rich.

Your bike doesn't have a choke that enriches the mixture. The "choke" increases the starting speed using the throttle. All mixture for cold and hot conditions is controlled by the engine management system sensors. Those can be checked using the troubleshooting guide here.

Your tank vent might be clogged and that is why you smell fumes. You cannot expect good mileage in urban traffic like London's, New York's, Chennai's or Miami's what with all the stopping, revving up to impress various copulation prospects, downshifting to avoid staggering drug users falling into the street on their way to your car park, and so on.

Be sure the air cleaner isn't clogged and if you need other tasks to take up your time there are plenty to choose from in the troubleshooting guide.  :yes

[YoungEngineer]

I started on a Christmas practice run to France. I wanted to see my grandparents and a friend who recently bought a farm pretty much in the most remote part of France often viewed as a Redneck area by many French. The total population of the nearest village was 6! I thought given all the space and lack of Heroin addicts this was quite the luxury for me and would make a great place to tackle the famous Grub screw which was recently dominating my thoughts.


The job took about a day, I managed to find everything I needed in the nearest village (30 miles away). I found a dusty French encyclopedia from 1997 on a shelf in the farm which i used to figure out all the technical terms in case I needed to explain to someone in French what I was trying to do. To my great surprise the motorcycle illustrated was a K75 which I thought was quite suitable. 


I built a jig from two ladders and a plank of wood which worked well. I then extracted the entire gearbox with the shaft and final rive still attached since I lubed all the splines less then a year ago and the final drive pivot bolt seemed to be completely seized requiring some heat which I did not have.


I could not source any Honda Moly but I did find some extremely thick and tacky Graphite based grease which I used on the clutch input splines which were now completely dry.


I removed the grub screw, cleaned out all the threads, blasted with brake cleaner, dried and reinstalled with Red loctite. I could see where the out side edge of the tapered hole was starting to wear for the screw being loose but it would not excessive. I would imagine that If one left this too long serious damage could be caused requiring a new shaft.


Bike is back together and shifts so beautifully you would think its a new gearbox :) How did I go so long with that horrible shifting.

[Laitch]

Good work! Thanks for the pics.

[The Mighty Gryphon]

Nice Job!!!   :2thumbup:

The job wasn't too bad, was it?  How many times did you drop the grub screw???  I must have dropped mine into the case at least ten times.

I'm really liking your red neck engineering, you did the job in a pretty decent amount of time.  These bikes are amazingly easy to work on for what they are.

Did you fix all those nasty noises the transmission was making?

[Martin]

 :clap:  Good job, what's the graphite content of the grease and how thick is it. It might be of interest to our European & Brit members.
Regards Martin.

[YoungEngineer]

Nice Job!!!   :2thumbup:

The job wasn't too bad, was it?  How many times did you drop the grub screw???  I must have dropped mine into the case at least ten times.

I'm really liking your red neck engineering, you did the job in a pretty decent amount of time.  These bikes are amazingly easy to work on for what they are.

Did you fix all those nasty noises the transmission was making?

Thanks, my inner redneck always seems to come in handy in these situations.


It was not bad indeed but having done the splines less then a year ago made the process allot easier and when I say it took a day I mean a full day, 9am to almost 11pm. But there were some significant breaks including one where I had to move two mules Into a truck. The phrase stubborn as a mule is no joke.


I'm not sure if I actually dropped the screw but it was certainly fiddly as anything, at one point I thought the loctite would go hard before I had got it in.




The noise i talked about seems to be from the alternator and not the gearbox. That's another job I need to tackle.

[YoungEngineer]

:clap:  Good job, what's the graphite content of the grease and how thick is it. It might be of interest to our European & Brit members.
Regards Martin.y

It may be indeed. I looked for a LONG time in the UK and found very little. Most recommendations seem to be for greases only available in the US.  I ended up buying a moly based grease of very poor quality on my first spline lube which flung off within a few hundred miles as I notice shifting worsened.


I'm not sure of the Graphite content but it is some of the thickest grease I have used, it's like tar or nutella.
 
I will look at the pot tomorrow and see if I can figure out any more details, it's available at BRICOMARCHE one of Frances most popular diy stores, like Home depot in the US.

[The Mighty Gryphon]

Have you looked for "high moly assembly lube" on eBay?   Another source might be a supplier to the aviation industry as I believe that molybdenum lubes are used extensively on helicopters.

Would have been perfect time to do the alternator when the transmission was out.

[Martin]

Mercury Marine do a high moly grease, Honda & Subaru car dealerships do a high moly spline grease.
Regards Martin.

[YoungEngineer]

Guys I just wanted to share with you my latest issues! Yes there are more. I finally got back to the UK after a 10 hour ride through France in a -5C fog storm. When I arrived at the ferry port at 4AM there were icicles hanging from the bike some almost an inch long, the front grill was so iced up that the light was almost completely blocked, I wish I took some pictures but by then I just wanted to sleep. The fog got so thick towards the afternoon that you could barley see the trees on either side of the road, it was hitting the bike (and rider) and turning into ice.
Both my fork seals had started leaking quite badly which caused me to loose about 80% of my front braking power, this was not ideal as my rear master cylinder seal had started weeping a few days earlier after bleeding my brakes removing all pressure. So I was pretty much using engine braking at this point and what was left of the front brakes.
Anyway despite the obvious dangers I ended up getting home safe. I removed the front wheel and brakes and cleaned off all the contaminating oil from the pads and discs and inspected the oil seals. It seems both the springs in the seals are broken, looks like they rusted out and snapped leaving them hanging around where the cir-clips are so they will need replacing, a job I'm happy to take on.
I also decided to fit fork gaitors just to minimize the oil loss for now.
I want to replace the rear master cylinder completely. I don't think at this point its worth repairing. The rebuild kits are bloody expensive and the brake line fitting is already stripped, I used loctite to repair it last time which has worked since but I'm not sure if it will take another repair. Has anyone here used a third party rear MC? I've seem some cheap universal Ebay ones with the same bolt spacing, I wonder if they might work?
I'm also going to remove my alternator and replace the bearings and brushes. I have found the front and rear bearings for under £5 total. Does anyone here know what size brushes are used on the regulator? I would like to save as much as possible and solder new brushes in rather then replace the entire regulator.

[Laitch]

I wish I took some pictures but by then I just wanted to sleep.

The pictures you supply are good enough to tell the story, YE. Thanks. That grill picture is impressive. Anybody who hasn't ridden or driven in freezing fog should appreciate that one. It can be a slide-a-thon and is not a place I want to be for sure.

As far as your brush issue is concerned, start with this thread. Other threads might have more specific options.

[The Mighty Gryphon]

Good to hear you made it back ok.  Reading your description of your ride gave me the willies.  Ice is probably the scariest thing to ride in. 

it sounds like you are shaking out a few more bugs in the bike.  Won't be long when it will be as good as new.

[The Mighty Gryphon]

Replacing the rear master cylinder is the way to go.  I am guessing that because it's at the low point in the system, when the bike sits for an extended length of time water in the brake fluid collects there and corrodes the bore.   

I have one on my K75RT that has leaked since I got the bike.  I have honed the bore and rebuilt it twice and it still leaks no matter what I have done.  All I have done with all the fooling around done to date is increase the already stupid price for replacing it. 

Bite the bullet, get a new one and keep the brake fluid changed.