Bendy toy
Registered user
Part 1
Refitted the front engine cover and front subframe.
Tip to anyone removing the front A frame and struts. First remove the beak subframe. Believe me it's worth all the hassle of disconnecting oil pipes and wiring. I took the short cut by hanging the weight of all the beak stuff from the garage roof timbers. Very clever. Yeah right.
Part 2
Fitted front shock and Telelever swing arm. Used new stainless A4 cap screws to replace all the rough looking little screws and bolts holding the ESA stuff.
Put bearings back into top yoke. The fork top ball joints cost !HOW MUCH ! Unsurprisingly, I reused the old ones which had no signs of slack. Steering head bearing is a standard double row ball bearing. The old one was knotchy so replaced and cheap anyway. Considering the Telelever bottom yoke ball joint is supposed to take all the force it's odd the steering bearing was anything other than perfect.
The yoke has to be heated to 100 degs C to fit the bearings. Thankfully it's not oily so Mrs BT wasn't upset when I used her oven.
Would I do it again just to get it powder coated? No it's far too much hassle. Just flat it down prime and paint.
I carefully prefitted the steering lock to the top yoke. Wrong! The yoke has to go on first but it takes much messing about before you'll realise. I just used ordinary M8 torx socket heads. The lock isn't going to secure the bike and the bolts are awkward to access without any bodywork so fancy one way bolts are TBH pointless.
I now have the front end all done except for handle bar clamps cable clips and bodywork.
One other snag - the swing arm ball joint is supposed to be torqued to 130 Nm. The bottom through bolt for front frame is the same - Fekkin tight. But the spindle has to be held still with a hex key. I'll need to get a special ring end for the torque wrench. Or a drilled out 1/2" drive pin. Its too tight to risk simply hammering it up with a ring spanner.
Refitted the front engine cover and front subframe.
Tip to anyone removing the front A frame and struts. First remove the beak subframe. Believe me it's worth all the hassle of disconnecting oil pipes and wiring. I took the short cut by hanging the weight of all the beak stuff from the garage roof timbers. Very clever. Yeah right.
Part 2
Fitted front shock and Telelever swing arm. Used new stainless A4 cap screws to replace all the rough looking little screws and bolts holding the ESA stuff.
Put bearings back into top yoke. The fork top ball joints cost !HOW MUCH ! Unsurprisingly, I reused the old ones which had no signs of slack. Steering head bearing is a standard double row ball bearing. The old one was knotchy so replaced and cheap anyway. Considering the Telelever bottom yoke ball joint is supposed to take all the force it's odd the steering bearing was anything other than perfect.
The yoke has to be heated to 100 degs C to fit the bearings. Thankfully it's not oily so Mrs BT wasn't upset when I used her oven.
Would I do it again just to get it powder coated? No it's far too much hassle. Just flat it down prime and paint.
I carefully prefitted the steering lock to the top yoke. Wrong! The yoke has to go on first but it takes much messing about before you'll realise. I just used ordinary M8 torx socket heads. The lock isn't going to secure the bike and the bolts are awkward to access without any bodywork so fancy one way bolts are TBH pointless.
I now have the front end all done except for handle bar clamps cable clips and bodywork.
One other snag - the swing arm ball joint is supposed to be torqued to 130 Nm. The bottom through bolt for front frame is the same - Fekkin tight. But the spindle has to be held still with a hex key. I'll need to get a special ring end for the torque wrench. Or a drilled out 1/2" drive pin. Its too tight to risk simply hammering it up with a ring spanner.
