Since there is to much white stuff to do any normal riding I have chosen to do some needed maintenance on the XR and prepare it for doing some winter riding toward the spring and have some friends that keep a small track open nearby so might tag along with them a few times.
Started with the rear end:
Everything should be taken apart at least once a year and lube everything, first time it I had it apart the swing arm bolt needed plenty of hammering to get it out and it can be fused to the point there is no getting it out without starting to cut things to pieces.
This time everything came out quite easy.
Some minor issues like this washer that had cracked:
This time around I sent the shock off to a local suspension guy for an oil change, was very needed:
One bearing in the linkage was very rusty so this one I replaced, several of the other starts to be quite bad also but will last a little longer so added the stickiest grease I could find to keep moisture out even if several of the seals are a bit bad also, had this bike been used more replacement of all of them would have been needed but since its more of an extra bike that mainly my dad uses I just replaced this one and will aim to have an entire kit to replace everything next winter:
Tried in the bench vise with some sockets to get the bearing out but that wasn’t enough so ended up borrowing a real press (a smaller simpler press is on the wish list but no that high priority since I have the possibility to borrow one when needed):
Rear pads was badly worn disc is also quite bad but will last another season since its limited used, a C-clamp and some sockets to push the brake piston in:
Replaced the pin holding the pads since that had some grooves that can cause binding of the pads and a dragging brake, lubed the pins allowing the caliper to center itself on the disc also:
Had foolishly put the swing arm in place and it was possible to slide the shock in place:
The top shock bolt is a bit tricky, extra tricky on this bike since it has had extra wiring added for indicators and stuff to be street legal in Sweden so that is in the way of the bolt:
So had to remove the swing arm to get the linkage in place:
After that getting the swing arm back in place:
Rear end done:
But more problems to come on the front end:
Found this minor damage to the wiring guide:
But will leave that as is until the tank is off and see if it can be tacked back in place.
Used our lift to hold the handlebars:
Undoing nut holding top triple clamp:
Knew there was some damaged threads on the top triple clamp so had sourced a cheap new set and a set of fork legs to go with that but turned out they have changed some of the mounts for the dashboard so decided to fix the threads in the old, drilled out the old threads:
Had to thread from the backside since the tool would not fit through the unthreaded section of the clamp and to get a good start we used a drill press but just hand turned it so the start would be perfect:
So finished the threads:
Only had short inserts so added two of them:
Second one was sticking out some, so cut the excess off:
And next was a broken bolt holding the front fender:
Used a soft piece of aluminum to the the special nut holding the lower triple:
Removed the seal and top bearing to clean and relube:
After two attempts to weld material to the broken bolt and it just snapped:
Drilling and re taping new threads was next:
Not perfect but good enough.
The bolt and washer seems fused together so will buy new or manufacture some:
Plenty of fresh lube and lower is ready to go back in place:
A bungee cord around it to hold it in place while getting top bearing and nut in place:
Top ready to go back in:
Seal and nut next:
Before torquing the top triple back up the fork legs were temporarily installed to align things, used the spare set that had the springs taken out for shipping:
New pin bolt for the spare fork that had one broken:
My dad helped out doing some new spacers for the front fender and bolted that in place:
Also looked over the air filter:
Had some issues with the front forks but that will be a post of its own later on.
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