Winter Projects

[PieEater]

Been very quiet here of late so thought I'd ask people what if any winter projects they have lined up for their bikes.


I'm thinking of stripping the plastics and tank off so I can give them a good clean and also get to the nooks and crannies to makes sure everything is free of rust and corrosion (ACF50 where required), this will also make the electrics more accessible so I am thinking of going through all the connector blocks using some contact cleaner to clean them up and then painting some ACF50 on the connectors to keep the gremlins away. Might also take the swingarm off to give it a good clean and re-grease all the linkage and swingarm bearings. Does anyone have any recommendations for grease to use with bearings, I've just been using multi purpose stuff but don't know if there is anything that would be better.


Also does anyone know if you can get tapered feeler gauges at particular sizes i.e. .11mm through to .30mm as I'd like to recheck my valve clearances (probably next year) to get exact measurements without having to resort to using multiple guages to measure the gap. This would help to accurately figure out what shims I would need to get all of the clearances to the halfway point. I did a half arsed job last year and found that some clearances are pretty close to the limits but I'm not at 50K yet so plan to do a better job probably next year when I will have hit the 50K and am thinking I will need to re-shim.

[tommyardin]

Tapered feeler gauges  :eek
Can you get such a thing and how does that work?


Winter projects are good and help keep the bike up together for sure, just finished going right through my brakes, good clean up and lubed the piston with Red Rubber grease.
I used Red Rubber grease on the rear suspension bottom linkages when I upgraded the suspension a year and a bit ago, Red Rubber will not harm any rubber seals at all and it is waterproof, it will not wash off, in fact its a bugger to get off when you want it off, it is impervious to a lot solvents as well. the rear suspension linkage take a battering from rain and grit , salt and s--t in the winter this stuff does not wash off. (Not that I am ever out in that weather) but I am anal about washing the bike and soapy/shampoo water will not remove Red Rubber grease.
That why the stuff is so good on brake caliper pistons it does not harm the seals and does not come off easily.


Keep us updated on your winter projects and some please explain to this old boy tapered feeler gauges, we used to call that a wedge.  :lol

[PieEater]

Tapered guages are narrow enough at the ends to slip between the cam guides to reach the valve buckets and measure the gap




Non tapered guages are too wide at the business end to get to the buckets.

[reggit]

Never seen the ‘non-taper’ types before.  The normal ones are commonly available.

[tommyardin]

Tapered guages are narrow enough at the ends to slip between the cam guides to reach the valve buckets and measure the gap




Non tapered guages are too wide at the business end to get to the buckets.

[slappy]

Thats what I thought he meant, a stepped gauge.
I used to have a spark plug gap measurer that looked something like your sketch.

[tommyardin]

Thats what I thought he meant, a stepped gauge.
I used to have a spark plug gap measure that looked something like your sketch.

Same as that, still got it somewhere in the abyss of my sheds :rolleyes

[tommyardin]

Jewellers have something like that, but, much bigger for measuring your ring  :'( :moon 

[tommyardin]

Jewellers have something like that, but, much bigger for measuring your ring  :'( :moon

Wife just told me they use them to stretch your ring  :eek  Don't think she is on the same wavelength though. :lol

[unfazed]

:rollin :rollin :rollin

[windyg]

Bolt this to your bench , sit your ring on it and swing on the leaver :eek :eek

[BJohnD]

Bolt this to your bench , sit your ring on it and swing on the leaver :eek :eek

that brought a tear to my eye  :'(

[PieEater]

Well at least we have some posts now although not entirely on topic  :eek  FYI the non tapered feeler gauges are called parallel feeler gauges - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feeler_gauge


This afternoon I spent a couple of hours cleaning the bike, next step is to strip some bits off so I can clean it better and get the paintwork treated with Autoglym Clar Bar, Super Resin Polish & Extra Gloss Protector.

[Andy W]

Ok, I've managed to stop laughing enough to type this post!  :rollin


I too have never seen the parallel type feeler gauges, can't say I'd buy any either! But as to PieEater's original question, I think gauges tend to come in sets of "standard" sizes but a mechanical engineer, or maybe a bike mechanic, would be the one to ask.......


A lot of you folks really go to town cleaning your bikes, I am obviously very lazy by comparison....if any of you feel the need to practice your motorcycle deep cleaning technique, my bike is always available! 

[Mustang]

You can buy parallel feeler gauges on eBay. And single 0.11mm gauges but they are 300mm long and 13mm wide