Fritzer

What is your method of determining the condition of the axle bearings?

My left front fork sprung a leak about a month ago. I caught it pretty early so it didn't make a big mess. While I had the bike apart, figured that rebuilding both would be the wise course to take. I am very luck to have friend that was a dealer mechanic for many years and his knowledge is amazing. I took my forks out and he did the rebuild on them. One of the things he pointed out to me was the micro pits in the fork tube from encounters from rocks. The tube guard blocked most of the impacts, but not all. One of the things Jim recommended was to install some fork boots. His arguments were very compelling, so I ordered up some Polisport fork bellows to fit a 40mm fork tube to a 60mm housing diameter. They were only $20 and good quality rubber material. However, they were too long so I just cut them to length. Zip tied to the fork tube at the top, and covered the entire top of the lower housing, including the existing fork tube guard. Zip ties bellows to the lower housing (with the vent holes rear facing). This effort does a couple of things. Stops contact between seals & dried bug remains Stops rock pitting Dramatic reduction in dirt making it past the seals into the fork oil. Way less wear on bushings. There is a caveat here however. The bellows are wider than the fork tubes and enter into the airflow pathway to the radiators a little bit. I have noticed that moving thru un-turbulated air, my cruise temperature is about 4 f degrees higher. Turbulated air makes a +7 degree over normal condition. I live in Portland Oregon area, so it is usually not super hot here. Mostly dealing with slow or stopped traffic around town so when it gets to fan on temp, there is no difference in cooling ability. So if you are needing to rebuild front forks in the future, this might be something of interest.

I think stuartb is right on about old underused bikes potentially being a hidden nightmare. Oil turns acidic when sitting in a crankcase for years. That can affect many things inside the engine. Seals can be hard as a rock and start leaking when put into regular service (or become flexible when heated up and seal). I think if you pick up something like this, it is best to know that there are going to be some maintenance issues coming due before the normal mileage time would indicate. How much, who knows? All I really know is that I love my machine. It fits me perfect in size, power, handling, and looks. I am planning on running it into the 120,000 mile range. The smiles to mile ratio is very high. Good luck with your purchase.

I very much appreciate the help. I will follow up on my progress.

Sometime this winter I was planning on going through my rear suspension components for a mid life rebuild at 60,000 miles. Everything works fine now with no loose fittings or noise but just want to be ahead of the wear out curve. My plans are to replace the pivot bearings & such, remove the axle assembly/clean up/regrease then reinstall. That leaves me original OEM monoshock. It still seems to work fine but since I will have it all apart, thought it might be wise to replace it while I am in there. I was wondering if anyone had any advice or recommendations concerning the shock. Should I just replace it with a new OEM unit or is it worth moving to a aftermarket shock or just leave it until the dampening is gone? I ride at a fairly brisk pace but definitely not a racer. And has anybody had to deal with the axle assembly going bad? I had it out and greased it up when I bought the bike in '15 @ 37,000 miles. Everything looked fine but just wondering if they wear out and when? Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks very much for your help. I will order up a FH020AA and get it installed.

Very nice installation jzh! A setup I will shoot for when the system needs more work. The R/R currently installed is a SH689DA. Looking back in the service records, the only time the RR is mentioned was back in 2004 when it was replaced and the bike had 12K miles on odo (it is now on course for 52K). I guess you just run it till it quits? I take Zarquon's distrust of crimps to heart. I like to solder mine if possible.

The stator wires are the ones going to the surgical tubing. The regulator wires are insulated with the clear tubing. The machine screws are 4 mm stainless steel and a zinc nyloc nut (that is what my local ACE hardware had in stock). I will keep an eye on the connections and change out if corrosion becomes a problem. The nice thing about the the tubing for insulation is that you can see the connections when you take the body work off.

In response to Grum's observation of stator wire gauge. I was surprised at the wire gauge coming out to the stator when I did the blockectomy. They were 14ga or smaller. I used a 12ga wire to extend to the R/R.

I used ring connectors to have the ability to disconnect the R/R from the bikes systems for testing purposes in the future (i.e. you don't have to cut and resolder every time you need to test). Also, the effort to bring 5 wires together, in a clean & compact manner, is very difficult with soldering. The voltage drop with the ring connector method is very negligible, so this way made sense to me. If you are a artist with the soldering gun, go for the solid connect if you don't care about disconnection in the future. In addition to that, the ring connectors were not a additional connection system but rather a replacement of the stock regulator and rectifier connection blocks that have been proven to be major problems in the charging system. Way better connection, especially for the stator leads sealed in surgical tubing. There no doubt, is a better way to seal the regulator side connections

In essence, a new direct path from the regulator to the battery was installed. It is now a solid charging system with today's ride showing a 14.1v idle and 13.8v at speed.

Thinking more about the fuse size coupled with this 2 battery pathway system. First of all, I am not a electrical engineer. However, I believe the following is the way the fusing should be. I am pretty sure that amperage is comparable to water in a volume/time (i.e. gal/min) aspect. Understanding the fuse requirement to keep the system safe in this 2 battery pathway arrangement is easier if put into gal per minute visualization. To achieve the stock system requirement to limit flow of electrons (water) in the single battery pathway the designers put in one 30 gal per min safety valve (30 amp fuse). When a 2 battery pathway system is installed with 30 gph safety valves to each pathway, the system will allow 60 gph into the system before one of the safety valves will shut down. I believe the fuses at 30A each would behave the same and allow 60A into the system before either fuse would break. Hence, I would recommend 15A fuses on each pathway for a total of 30A for the double battery pathway modification.

I am not sure about the fuse size being halved in this arrangement. In the tips & hints thread there was mention of fuse sizes but don't know if that is a fact. Better safe with the 15 amp fuses than risk burning things up. I haven't had a 15A blow yet, but spare 15 & 30a fuses are at the ready in the tool kit.

Having owned my '99 for a couple of years now, it had become obvious that the charging system was not up to the job. It was getting 13.6v at idle but when at cruising speeds, voltage dropped to 12.3v. Looking through the forum for remedies, I came across advice to do "the drill". This is a systematic troubleshooting procedure. Do this first to determine if your issues are stator or R/R issues. It turns out that my stator was in good condition so problem had to be the R/R to system. Not sure of R/R failure since it was producing. I then came across another forum post with heading of "Tips & tricks to help your charging system". In summary, his point is that the system from the regulator has undersized wires that are too long of runs. Connector block voltage losses & poor grounding add to the unsatisfactory charging performance. Read his post for full understanding of remedies. I did just a quick implementation of his advice giving the effort only 50% of working. When I fired up the engine, IT WORKED!! I decided to go back into the wiring and get it set up for the long term. I cut the stator connector block out, installed ring connectors sized for 4mm machine screw by crimping and soldering. One side will need a wire extension. I inserted lengths of surgical tubing for insulation, then bolted the appropriate wires together with screw & nyloc nut. Side the tubing over the connection and zip tie for waterproof. Dealt with output side of the R/R by cutting out the connector block and installed ring connectors sized for 4 mm machine screw by crimping & solder. Add wire extensions to the regulator side. Connect all positive leads on one screw/nyloc along with a direct fused lead (use 15A fuse) to the positive battery post. 5 ring connectors on one screw. I connected all negative leads on one screw along with a 8 ga wire going to the main grounding point on the right frame side then to the negative batter post. The 8 ga wire is very heavy, hard to deal with & kind of overkill. I think 10 ga is plenty fine. Again, 5 ring connections on one screw. For insulation, I took some 20mm clear tubing, cut it lenghwise, heated it up, wrapped it around the connections and zip tied. These connections are not waterproof but allow for drainage. Use di grease to protect if desired. Replace the main 30A fuse with a 15A. This, along with the new reg to battery fused lead gives the needed 30 amps. I now have 14v at idle and 13.7v at speed. Attached photos can clarify.

Poor charging performance on my '99 led me to your post. After determining that the stator was in good working order, your solution made much sense. After a short time implementing your solution my charging troubles are a thing of the past! Thanks for your posting, it sure helped.