Zealot
The Village Idiot
Here are a couple of photos of me in the process of taking my bike apart. All in all, to get to the point where the plastics were off, it's taken me about two hours due to a number of hang ups along the way.
I got my little oil filled heater I picked up at Canadian Tire hooked up and on max, closed the garage door, and got to work. It's a huge difference being able to work and feel your fingers properly, as I noticed about an hour in. I'd already shed my jacket, and was debating if it would be frowned upon to shave my arms too for further heat dissipation, but decided against it because I'm Canadian and we're probably this particular breed of hairy for a reason. I grabbed the Allen keys, a metric set being all we had on hand, and my Stanley ratchet/socket set which I use for these kind of occasions, and got to work removing various bolts from the fairings. It went relatively easy, save for an inner cowling on the front of the bike located between the two side fairings, which had tough to find bolts and one particular bugger in which the part it threaded into spun along with it. After failing to grasp the rubber boot with pliers, I decided to go the route of tearing flesh from my fingers and pinch it as hard as my little digits would allow. It worked, in part due to my cursing (which as anybody who's ever turned a wrench would know is verbal WD40), and I got it free - only to discover that the side fairing was still uninterested in coming off. Some of the inner fairing pieces near the dash were holding it up, and I pulled them free, but quickly noticed that the bolt to which the fairing and frame slider were mounted to, was likely bent out of whack.
I tried pulling and prying the fairing to no avail, and upon closer inspection it seemed that the bolt had been jammed through the fairing after a hex shape was cut out. This was a serious case of black magic, and I quickly dove for cover behind the snow blower (ran and cried) until I was able to gather my courage and give it another shot. A bent bolt, which had gotten itself jammed through a plastic fairing somehow... The bolt which held the slider on had obviously broken inside the hole before, its replacement a smorgasbord of washers on a short one. The mount was partly out near the frame, and I noticed it wiggled along with the fairing. I tightened up the short, rusted bolt, and tried a few things but had no luck until I went to loosen it and the entire mounting bolt began to come out with it, freeing itself from the fairing. I was overjoyed at having freed both sides of fairing, and will be trying to find a more effective fix for the future - since there's no way I want to wrestle with this thing every time I decide to crack it open. The steering damper mounted on the gas tank bolts was a drawback, and as I loosened one of the bolts holding it down the head snapped off entirely. Technically, it's free, but I'm look at having to drill it out and replace it - a shoddy layout and design. The tank came off relatively easy, although I'm going to need to investigate into how to remove it without spilling gasoline everywhere, and the connecting lines are looking rather old and in need of replacement across the board.
I'm rather sure this bike has been down on the right side before, based on the slider, and the fact that the gas tank has paint chipped away near some of the bolts and it's yellow underneath. Alignment is spot on however, and it rides great otherwise. Slowly getting to the bottom of the presumed leaky valve cover gasket, seeing as it's weeping from the top right of the engine block. Going to continue my investigation as I go!
Anyways, here's what you were likely waiting for:
Thanks for reading! Going to do some research in the mean time on figuring out the tank removal (it's almost empty already, thankfully) and eventually what needs to be fixed up on it.
I got my little oil filled heater I picked up at Canadian Tire hooked up and on max, closed the garage door, and got to work. It's a huge difference being able to work and feel your fingers properly, as I noticed about an hour in. I'd already shed my jacket, and was debating if it would be frowned upon to shave my arms too for further heat dissipation, but decided against it because I'm Canadian and we're probably this particular breed of hairy for a reason. I grabbed the Allen keys, a metric set being all we had on hand, and my Stanley ratchet/socket set which I use for these kind of occasions, and got to work removing various bolts from the fairings. It went relatively easy, save for an inner cowling on the front of the bike located between the two side fairings, which had tough to find bolts and one particular bugger in which the part it threaded into spun along with it. After failing to grasp the rubber boot with pliers, I decided to go the route of tearing flesh from my fingers and pinch it as hard as my little digits would allow. It worked, in part due to my cursing (which as anybody who's ever turned a wrench would know is verbal WD40), and I got it free - only to discover that the side fairing was still uninterested in coming off. Some of the inner fairing pieces near the dash were holding it up, and I pulled them free, but quickly noticed that the bolt to which the fairing and frame slider were mounted to, was likely bent out of whack.
I tried pulling and prying the fairing to no avail, and upon closer inspection it seemed that the bolt had been jammed through the fairing after a hex shape was cut out. This was a serious case of black magic, and I quickly dove for cover behind the snow blower (ran and cried) until I was able to gather my courage and give it another shot. A bent bolt, which had gotten itself jammed through a plastic fairing somehow... The bolt which held the slider on had obviously broken inside the hole before, its replacement a smorgasbord of washers on a short one. The mount was partly out near the frame, and I noticed it wiggled along with the fairing. I tightened up the short, rusted bolt, and tried a few things but had no luck until I went to loosen it and the entire mounting bolt began to come out with it, freeing itself from the fairing. I was overjoyed at having freed both sides of fairing, and will be trying to find a more effective fix for the future - since there's no way I want to wrestle with this thing every time I decide to crack it open. The steering damper mounted on the gas tank bolts was a drawback, and as I loosened one of the bolts holding it down the head snapped off entirely. Technically, it's free, but I'm look at having to drill it out and replace it - a shoddy layout and design. The tank came off relatively easy, although I'm going to need to investigate into how to remove it without spilling gasoline everywhere, and the connecting lines are looking rather old and in need of replacement across the board.
I'm rather sure this bike has been down on the right side before, based on the slider, and the fact that the gas tank has paint chipped away near some of the bolts and it's yellow underneath. Alignment is spot on however, and it rides great otherwise. Slowly getting to the bottom of the presumed leaky valve cover gasket, seeing as it's weeping from the top right of the engine block. Going to continue my investigation as I go!
Anyways, here's what you were likely waiting for:
Thanks for reading! Going to do some research in the mean time on figuring out the tank removal (it's almost empty already, thankfully) and eventually what needs to be fixed up on it.
