It's been one of those days.

[Marcarl]

Got up this morrow with purpose in mind, Evan was coming over to change his fork springs and head bearings, Bongogbobny was coming to bring some parts and Wizard765 was coming to put his 2 cents worth in as well.

So get ready,, have a coffee, check the site, weather and news, go get some Citrosolve for Ground Hugger, check things out at the butcher shop, get my wife some meat and at 10 I was ready.

Lets see, drop the steering head with the two of us, pop in the new bearings and we should be waiting for Bob by 1pm,,,, not quite so fast here Carl, keep in mind that this has been done before and you might encounter some re-engineering, not by Yamaha. Steering head wasn't too bad, it was back in by 2 with lunch on the patio included, then came the fork springs. Had the forks down, cleaned and ready to go back in, no we didn't need to take them apart, so didn't,, well not yet,,,,, not until I noticed that compressed, the one was shorter than the other, not only that, the other one was longer than the shorter one,,,, well best to drop one out of there and see what it is that makes it shorter, maybe we can do the same to the longer one,,,, took it apart, noticed some different parts than what I'm used to with the mrk1s, but hey this is an 88 so is built different,, well at least that's the input from Bob, so we check it out and put things back together,, seems to work, but still not any more length so the longer one comes apart,,, yep some pieces missing, wave washer gone, flat washer not to be found, lucky I got some spares, put that back together, still not matching up those two,,,,,,,,

Trader calls and needs to know which side the spring goes in the oil filter,,,, and he's asking who?????? me?????? and I'm supposed to know why,,, well I told him one way, but then my experience with springs and forks had me thinking that just maybe the book didn't agree with me so I went to search for the right book,,, but knowledgeable that was present said the spring goes on the engine side, although I always put mine on the cover side, but hey, he could be right so I tell Trader that maybe it goes wherever he's feels it might works best. He discovers that I was right and it goes on the cover side.

Back to the forks, took both of them apart once more, discovered that one little part was inserted backwards so that problem was solved,, wonder why Yamaha didn't think of that,, I mean why not make it so that you could put that thingie in either way, would have saved a lot of time at this end. For now I know these forks springs inside and out, backwards and forwards, side to side and cleaned and greasy.

Ok then,, they can now go in the bike, not so smooth as riding, but not bad, only forgot one crown washer, and the right seating for the right side air collar, until it was time to put that plastic bracket back that hold the lines onto the triple tree,,,, darn the brake lines ended up on the wrong side,,,, big decision,,,, drop the forks or bleed the brakes,,, supper time,,,,, so after supper it's bleed the brakes,,, yea! only took about ten minutes and worked out excellent,,,buttoned it all up, greased the speedo cable and we were on the patio having a coffee,,, Evan and I,, ya those other two left for parts unknown,,, can't say as I blamed them,, we were looking to start on the trike next.

So that's one day in the life of a retired guy,,,, how did your day go??

[playboy]

I'm still trying to figure out who was on first. The longer one or the one that was longer than the short one. But thats why OLD GUYS RULE

[bongobobny]

Wayne and I had an excellent time riding towards the states, and delicious chicken wings in Ft. Erie! Ask Wayne about the Chuck Berry song!

 

The border guard was bored so he asked to look in my trunk. I had a choice of 2 empty lanes...

 

What a great day!!!

[XV1100SE]

...The border guard was bored so he asked to look in my trunk. I had a choice of 2 empty lanes...

 

What a great day!!!

 

You sure Carl didn't call ahead to warn them of your arrival? You did abandon him and Evan.

[pmelah]

well Carl i wish i could have been there i would of had an 84 we could have started on next :whistling:

[CaptainJoe]

So that's one day in the life of a retired guy,,,, how did your day go??

 

A lot like yours my friend.

A most of you know I bought a JD 440ICD bulldozer while back. At 3 tons i can easily haul it on a normal car trailer.

It had a inner 6 way manual blade and I bought a inner 6 way hydraulic blade for it.

After replacing $500 of hydraulic hoses I discovered the tilt ram was bent and one of the bottom lugs was gone. Found it as cheaper to replace than repair. then when I went to bolt new one up noticed the brackets were bent? what??? someone had welded a chain hook to the side of the tilt shroud and distorted the bejesus out of it. Took my cutting torch and cut it off. bent the pieces back and rewelded. then when i went to bolt up, the top wasn't even close. they must have welded on the top shroud after the tilt shroud got bent.

 

Ok... I cut that off as well and welded it where it was suppose to be, ensuring a full range of movement (level to full tilt)

 

No wonder the lug broke off the bottom and the ram bent...

 

talk about an all dayer...

[XV1100SE]

So Carl...sounds like you fixing bikes is much like the rides you lead.... few u-turns here and there, little off the map (side trips thru farmers fields/lane ways), creative thinking ("how can I make the bike not fall over without putting the kickstand down?").

 

Ahhh.... the joys of retirement with sooooo much time on your hands ! Think Marca better find more for you to do to keep you out of trouble !

[Evan]

Yup, it happened just about like Carl said, except he may have underestimated the number of times we tore the shocks apart. For example, we thought we had fixed the original problem but when tested, one fork had almost no play. Acted like it was seized. Well, back apart they both came (we had to compare) and with all four of us focusing on the problem, I noticed that one of the three washers which Carl supplied from his hardware inventory (to replace the missing washers) was a fraction of an inch larger in diameter which was just enough to prevent shock play. What Carl didn't mention because he is ever the gentleman is that the original problem was probably my own doing from when I had another friend help me change fork seals.

 

So, another day in the life of a beloved first gen owner with a few friends.