Flyinfool

Pull your radiator cap and see if the radiator is actually full, A bad cap can have coolant in the overflow bottle and an empty radiator. How old is your antifreeze? Possibly a bad thermostat? Is the radiator clean to allow good airflow? Does a 2nd gen have a drain valve like the first gens?

I definitely need better front brakes. I did the delink and had better braking power before the delink. I have SS lines. Very fresh Dot 4 fluid. HH pads. Stock calipers and Master. I did rebuild the master as best I could but there was some very deep pitting at the bottom of the stroke that I could not hone completely out. I did not rebuild the calipers but they were working perfectly at the time if the delink. It feels to me like there is still some air in the system, but I have bled every which way there is and and then some. I can easily pull the lever all the way to touch the grip and that only gives me moderate stopping power. The bleeding tricks I have tried; normal bleeding with the pump bleed tighten release. vacuum bleeding buy pulling a vacuum at the bleeder. pressure bleeding buy using pressure to force fluid backwards thru the system. bleeding at each banjo bolt. bleeding with the bike almost laying on its left side. bleeding with the bike almost laying on the right side. bleeding on the center stand bleeding on the side stand wheel turned right wheel turned left wheel straight tying the lever back overnight. Dot 3 fluid dot 4 fluid. AND many combinations of the above. I have pumped 3 QUARTS of break fluid thru trying to find that last air bubble. OR what did I miss. I am at a point of starting over? I have tried 2 different masters and they were both just as pitted as my original one. I am thinking of getting a NEW 16mm master and a set of R1 calipers. The new SS lines should be fine. I will try the new 16mm master first. I need to get this figured out before MD. There is no way that these brakes are going to stop in a reasonable distance once I attach the trailer.

Well it is all done and back together. I went for a short test run and ended up visiting a friend 150 miles away..................... I should have done this years ago. The bearing replacement its self was not so bad, it was all of the "as long as I'm in there"s that killed me. The steering has not felt like this since I bought the bike back in 06. I have always felt like I was fighting with it at interstate speeds. Today I hit 90 a few times without even realizing it, and the first clue was that I was wondering why everyone else was going so slow................ There was no wandering, no shimmy, no shaking, and best of all no locking up, just tracked smooth as could be. I will have to attempt to either bend the handlebar back where is belongs or replace them, it feels weird having the bars turned to go straight. I am not even sure which one is straight and which one is bent but there was no combination of splines to get it right. I also changed the front springs to the progressives, I used the full 1.25 inch spacers that came with the springs and put in 7lbs of air. It raised the front of the bike about 1.5 inches. I have 12.5W oil filled to 5.5 inches from the top, measured very accurately. The ride is softer than the stock springs. Stock springs are 18.2 inches long new with a wear limit of 18 inches, mine measured 17.75 inches. I did leave the Anti Dive unhooked, and am going to hook it back up and try it again. I though the front had more dive than I like, and now has a lot more dive than the stock setup did. But the smoothness of the steering is just amazing, the steering has not moved this free in forever. Yet there is zero slop. The next thing is to get some better braking power in the front end. AS is not going to be safe pulling a trailer to MD. But that is another thread.

You must have missed me by seconds, I was there for about an hour and 9:45 is right about the time i gave up and went to take a shower and head for bed. I will be in tonight. Got even more news..........................

Or an old pair of @BigToms underwear. But then it ain't red..................

Where is it leaking from? The common leaks are; 1. Where the wires come out thru the rubber plug. 2. Leaving out the copper crush washer on the bottom bolt of the middle gear cover. 3. Not doing a good job of cleaning all of the old gasket off of all four gasket surfaces before reassembly.

How wide is it? I think it is way to big for you to tow. You should bring it up here and I will trade you for a smaller more appropriate sized trailer. I'll even come down there and pick it up for you and deliver the more appropriate trailer......................

I will be in there fora bit, I even have some news....................

Who would ever say "While you are in there........"

I just wouldn't be CowPuc and Tippy if not surrounded by stickers that tell their story.

:sign yeah that: There is an upgraded segment available that will not loose its pins.

I would get a real volt meter directly across the battery terminals. Dash gauges are notoriously inaccurate.

Also when you first start it up, check all of the exhaust pipes at the head to see if they are all heating up at the same rate. These bike still run pretty smooth on 3 cylinders.

Puc, don't make me take a detour and pick you 2 up on my way there, if I am in the cage. If I am on the bike I guess I can only bring one of you...............

Thanks Will That #7 nut that is supposed to be torqued to 80 lb/ft, I removed with no tools, it was about a half turn LOOSER than finger tight. I made my self a tool to push in the races. Your link did not work, but I found the vid I never learned any way other than to get my hands dirty to pack a bearing. Even my 3 daughters learned how to pack a wheel bearing when they were teens. That was my "payment" for helping them do front brakes on their cars. The look on their faces was priceless the first time they had to stick their hand in the tub of grease.

The trick of adding in some gap length was also good for getting a flooded engine started. You pulled all the caps back a bit and the extra length of spark gap would allow the plugs to fire thru the wet. I do not know what the theory behind it is but I know that I got me running more than once.

Now that sounds like a challenge if I ever heard one. My money is on Eck.........

@VanRiver I do not consider myself a highly experienced rider. Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good. Yes you sound like a dirty old man................ @Uncledj I do not think it was the dimples that caused the lock. There are marks on the smaller bearing that I could not get in a pic that show that the rollers were skidding and not rolling on the race, whether it was from dried grease or other crud that got in there I can not say, I did not find any foreign material in the bearings. I am still thinking it was a combination of the top bearing seizing and the fender coming off that did it. I am NOT going to put it back the way it was to do any testing. One new pair of shorts needed is enough. I will never know for sure what it was, but at least I found 2 possibles that are both being remedied. If it was the bearing I do not think it would have fixed its self on the trailer ride of shame to my house. Once the wind loads were off the fender the plastic would have gone back where it belonged. But at this point this is all guess work.

Well it is to late now. The front of the bike is scattered all over my shed. As soon as all the new parts are here I get to see if i still remember how to put it all together again. I do intend to do a "How To" writeup on the steering bearings.

A smaller phone will also be less wear and tear on your lawnmower blades........................

Oh man, I'm a day late again. Even though the add has to be gone can the pics still survive since they are helpful to this thread?

2 weeks ago riding home from work on the interstate at 75 MPH, with the cruise set and just enjoying being able to ride again after last years health crap. I noticed the bike starting to wander in my lane and getting hard to keep on line. A few seconds later I heard a crack sound and the steering locked nearly solid. I was just able to muscle it to the side of the road and get it stopped while still upright and not hitting anything. It took enough force to control the bike that I bent the left handlebar. I really did not think I was that strong or are the bars that week? So I called a buddy and he came with his trailer to get me home, It was interesting loading a bike that will not steer. Now the fun starts. By the time we got it home and went to unload it from the trailer, the steering was back to normal. It felt fine. Dang, I HATE intermittent problems. Once I got the bike up on the center stand, and put 80 lbs in the trunk to hold the front wheel off the ground. I did the usual checks for steering bearings. There no perceptible play in the bearings but there was a very noticeable notchyness at center. So I figured that I had found the problem, worn out steering bearings. So I ordered a set and set out to do the change. I noticed a few strange things during the disassembly process. First odd thing I got to was the front fender, it was broken into many pieces around the mounting points, to the point that it looked like the front fender may have fell nearly off while on the road and that the steering lock "may" have been caused by the front fender hitting the front of the bike. There are scratches on the fender and paint transfer on the front of the bike to indicate this may be what happened. The bouncing on the trailer coming home bounced the fender back into its proper position to allow the breaks to hide. The next strange thing I noticed was that the nut that holds down the top of the steering head was not even finger tight. I was able to tighten it about a quarter turn with just my fingers. As I went in deeper, I found the same issue with the top jam nut for the bearing preload, it was also just a bit looser than finger tight. But the bottom nut that actually does the preload was properly tightened. I was able to get the bearings out without any cutting, my bike had the 2 notches to allow a punch to get to the back of the lower bearing to be able to drive out the race with very little difficulty. The top bearing was a bit more challenging, there was such a small lip of the bearing showing that I could not catch it with a punch to drive it out. Sooooooo. I headed for the basement and made a driver out of a hunk of scrap metal that I had laying around, I turned the whole thing to fit into the head tube of the frame but tight enough that it would not fit thru the bearing. a couple of whacks from below with this special hammer and the top race went flying out all the way thru the open door and landed out in the grass, making no sound for me to track. I had to use my magnetic broom to find it. My new bearings and bottom seal should be here today. It will take me a couple more days to get the fender repaired. I plan to install as much as I can till I need the fender. Once I get that much done it sounds like a good time to install the progressive springs and new fork oil. I do plan to make a how to thread on changing the steering bearings once I am done. I could not find one when I went looking. Yes after the fact I am realizing just how lucky I was to keep the bike upright and me on it. heavy rush hour on a Friday is no place to not be in full control. Then I remembered a post a while back of someone had a front fender break and drop down and lock the front wheel causing a bad crash. I guess some one still has some plans for me.............. Here are some pics of the outer races that I took out. The bigger one is the bottom one, it carries the weight of the bike, it is heavily dimpled, that would be the notchyness, the smaller one that just hold alignment and carries the weight of the front end during wheelies , shows signs that the rollers were skidding on the outer race, with some galling around center, This is the other possible point of causing my steering stiffness. Unfortunately I was not able to get a good pic of that galling.

Not me, way to much chrome fro me to have to get rid of................

Done???? Are you ever really done? Doesn't done mean it is time to sell it and start over?

Well ya see its likea dis..................... I was out working in the shed trying to get my bike up and running. Then I ran into some issues, with the work on the bike. I started to get a bit frustrated and one thing led to another.............. It might have been when I started to throw things that I might just have also thrown that big white switch....................... But then ain't snow pretty . Sides, If I cant ride, it might just as well be snowing.................