Winter refresh

[TimV]

Hi all, I thought I'd give my Vee a winter refresh- basically a good service, to reflect it being 10 years old although it has only done 15500-odd miles. The rough plan is full service, replace all fluids, regrease as necessary, paint a couple of bits, fix a couple of issues, and just get it ready for the year ahead. I only bought  it 6 months ago & already put 5000 miles on it, and to be honest it doesn't feel like it needs much doing at all.

My first query has arisen this evening - just checking the valve clearances and the service manual & other posts on here both refer to the timing marks under the 8mm allen bung on the front lhs of the engine as being "F/T" and "R/T". I cannot find those! All I can see on mine at around the relevant points is a small drilling on the flywheel surface. Is this usual? And are the drillings the actual TDC marks? 3 of the valves (exh) are at .007" so I need to remove the cams for a slight reshim (or is it OK to gring .001" off these shims?) and wish to be 100% certain of the timing marks beforehand.

Cheers

[mr_diver]

if you look at section 2 part 8&9 in the DL1000 service manual you'll find the relevant information.

- you need to remove the plugs, remove the cap on the L/H/S with an Allen key(centered on the big round flat part), this will expose a 17mm(is on the 650cc) nut?? and need a long reach socket to rotate the crack, there is another cap you need to remove on the front/upper bit, same side, that will reveal the timing marks as you rotate the crank. the crank should only be turned in the direction it normally travels (think it's counter clockwise)

hope that helps.

[TimV]

Thanks, yes that's what I've  done, but those F/T and R/t marks don't appear under the smaller cap as I rotate the crank- just a couple of shallow drillings into the surface at about the right point.

Unfortunately the plug holes are too recessed for me to use a dial guage to confirm TDC, I can try feeling it with a rod but that's not ideal.

[Jacko]

If the marks correspond with the front and rear TDCs then they're your marks. Occasionally they change things like that and manuals don't auto update so you have to use common sense. When checking clearances, so long as the lobe on the cam isn't near the top of the valve bucket/shim, and well away from it you can get an accurate clearance reading.

[greywolf]

The marks are there. Either you haven't turned the crank far enough to find them or have moved the crank so fast you flew by them. The drillings are for balancing the rotor and are much easier to see than the etchings which are easy to miss.

[hookie]

Once you've found the F/T and R/T marks and are ready to take the cams out, have a good look (and perhaps take a photo) of how the timing marks on them line up, as they are very unlikely to be exactly as the manual suggests and will be a little bit one way or the other, so you can put them back in exactly the same position. I'd only suggest grinding down the existing shim if you have access to a proper surface grinder as doing it by hand it will be tricky to get them parallel and therefore giving an accurate clearance. The same shims are used in several other bikes including some Kawasakis, Yamahas and Hondas so they should be easy to get. Good dealers may well let you exchange them for free or for a small charge. It might also be better to set the exhaust clearances to midway I.e. 0.25mm/0.010" rather than the lowest possible. I would suggest that after fitting new shims and replacing the cams that you rotate the engine several times and  re-check the clearances before re-assembling everything. Best of luck.

[TimV]

Hi all... so far so good, I went with fitting replacement shims in the end but it took a few days to get them from the dealer - they didn't have my size in stock - hence the delay in posting. I've also done the plugs, air filter, (oil & filter were done just before parking it in the autumn), coolant, I've had the broken radiator bracket repaired, renewed the radiator mounting rubbers, removed the secondary throttle butterflies, emptied (most of) the tank to clean it out ( was pretty clean actually) and had a general clean up. Has anyone any ideas for anything else I should do while I have the bodywork off?   I do have a dodgy connnection in the headlight loom to sort, and am a little tempted to repaint the fairing/clocks frame, can ao also regrease the head bearings and change the fork oil, change brake & clutch fluid, then move on to the rear end & do the linkage etc.  Should soon be like new at this rate....

[Locky]

Lockwire the throttle boddies on , this would be easy while you have it in bits ..

[TimV]

Today's fun involves a spot the difference competition involving 2 fork stanchions. But not a pair of fork stanchions....





I would welcome anyone clarifying what's going on here. Going by parts books etc these 2 are meant to be identical, but I haven't found a photo that shows which of these 2 is correct. All other components are identical. The forks work fine - was just changing the oil as part of the servicing when I noticed one had no bottoming resistance when emptied (the right one in the pics). Most mysterious....

Thanks