Sunday, June 11, 2000

Got back from the breakfast club ride this morning with the odometer at just over 1250 miles. Guess it’s time for the 1200 mile service. Unfortunately, this is going to be a busy week for me (now that the landscaping is more-or-less done there are tasks I need to do). Plus, next weekend I’m gone on a 4-day ride. Well, I can at least start the service by draining the fluids while the bike is warm.

Approximately the same amount of oil going into the final drive came out, which is a good sign. There was some sludge on the drain plug, but it looked better than the oil that came out prior to the rebuild.

I only got about 60 cc out of the drive shaft where I had put in about 100 cc. I suspect that the missing oil is in the boot that covers the u-joint. I remember getting a lot of spillage when I removed the boot prior to the restoration. I added 100 cc. That’s what I’ll expect to get out next time.

The transmission oil is drained and about 800 cc of new oil is added. This brings the level just to the bottom of the filler hole threads. The old oil didn’t seem too bad, although there’s a pretty big color change between new and 1200 mile engine oil. The drain plug looked fine.

The main engine oil drain plug (first picture at left) is clean. The picture is before I cleaned the plug. I pulled the oil pan to clean and see what was collected on the magnets I installed. That gave me a bit of a shock.

• One of the magnets broke
• The magnets were no longer fastened (JB Weld) to the pan

Apparently, JB Weld doesn’t work in that environment. There is no evidence that the magnets were ever fastened. When I replace the pan I’ll leave the magnets out. I suspect that they’ve done most of their work already, catching the results of break-in.

Tuesday, June 27, 2000

Been busy around the house plus a 4 day ride to Mexico.
Time to get back to the bike.

Cleaned the oil strainer and the oil pan. The gasket was in excellent condition so I re-used it with a thin layer of Hylomar on both sides. The oil pan screws were cleaned before installing, again with a thin film of Hylomar. The drain plug got a new crush washer.
No leaks from the pan 24 hours after adding 2 quarts of BMW 10W-40.

The air filter was checked and the battery put on the charger. The charger went `green’ fairly quickly – expected as I rarely ride at night when lights are needed.

Friday, July 14, 2000

Where does the time go? I’ve had hardly any time to ride the old bike this past month, so never got around to finishing the service. Yesterday I cleaned out the garage in preparation for working on the bike and today I adjusted valves, cables, and various torques. Tomorrow I’ll check the timing. That still leaves pulling the wheels and checking wheel and swing arm bearings, but I think that can wait a bit longer.