My sweet Black Cherry Pie Sloptail turned 18, or close enough now that the '05 bikes are out. We went out celebrating and she partied a little too hard, I guess. Noticed an oil leak on the right side of the oil tank and saddle bag. Nope, it ain't coming from the breather to the carb 'cause that's long gone. She drips her breather oil on the ground like any self-respecting bike!
The oil appeared to be coming from somewhere on the rear head. Checked the pushrod tubes, rocker cover gaskets, and no joy anywhere there. Time to pull the gas tanks and have a look at the top of the rear head. No apparent leaks from anything I could see, so it's "off with her rocker boxes!" Nothing coming from the rocker boxes.... Uh-oh, this ain't gonna be good!
Looked like the oil was seeping around the right front head bolt on the rear head. Not good at all, I sed, as visions of a cylinder stud stripping the threads outta the crankcase muscled their way into my thoughts. Put a torque wrench on the culprit and gently turned, but there was no resistance at all! This really and truly ain't good. Bit the bullet and got the head off and found the stud was intact in the cases, but missing a few threads at the top. Looked inside the head bolt and found 'em there.
Pulled the bad stud and installed a new one with no trouble. Time for a run to the nearest HD shop for a new head bolt and top end gasket set. Gottta do it on THE MAMA's Suzuki 'cause she has the car at her MSF course. Oh, the shame of it all!!!! (Oh well, at least I'm riding.)
Gotta get it done before Monday 'cause she'll be legal to ride her Savage solo, and she probably won't let me take it to work. Seems all the kids at the two campuses she nurses at want to see her ride it to work.
After talking to the guys at the not-so-local HD shop the mystery of why the threads stripped is solved. Seems there are early style and late style head bolts. The early style use thick hardened washers, and the late style has the washer built into the bolt head. Mine had late style bolts with the early style washers underneath. That caused too few threads to grab and led to the one stripping out. So now I've gotta pull all the head bolts and ditch the washers underneath 'em. Sometimes buying a used bike sucks. Oh well, if I can’t ride, I’m glad I can wrench.
__________________ Chrome sucks.
Barges are for chopping. Otherwise, they might as well be Gold Wings!
Ride it! Beat it! Break it! Fix it! Ride it some more!
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Runnin' fine and doing well since I made the repairs. Now if my hand will ever heal I might even get to ride her again.
__________________ Chrome sucks.
Barges are for chopping. Otherwise, they might as well be Gold Wings!
Ride it! Beat it! Break it! Fix it! Ride it some more!
LOL, no stitches! I swung my arm behind my head when I was getting out of bed one fine morning. Hit the dern headboard and evidently broke something. This was over a month ago and the swelling is just about down. I can pull a clutch lever for about a 20 - 30 mile ride, and then I'd best be in my driveway 'cause I got about 2 pulls left.
Got to get that rocker clutch back together!
__________________ Chrome sucks.
Barges are for chopping. Otherwise, they might as well be Gold Wings!
Ride it! Beat it! Break it! Fix it! Ride it some more!
Yeah, guess we sorta blew that opportunity, LOL. Oh well, give it a couple years and the story will have time to ferment a bit, and come out like a fine aged single malt. Or maybe it'll stink like stale water.
__________________ Chrome sucks.
Barges are for chopping. Otherwise, they might as well be Gold Wings!
Ride it! Beat it! Break it! Fix it! Ride it some more!
18th Birthday & Oil Leak
Chrome sucks.
