What did you do to your motorcyle today?

[dicken]

i cut the brissles off a small paint brush down to about 1/4" long. that enables me to get a very controled thin layer onto both surffuces. then there is hardly any goo squeezing out or in around the gasket. it is also easy to remove the gasket next time you are in there. i use permatex copper.  ken.

[754]

This old trick may or may not work.
 At times guys used grease to hold a gasket in place during assembly, also used to. Seal dips and voids on aircleaner backing plates.
 Now keep in mind , gaskets take up irregularities between two machined assemblies.  If they were flat enough you might not need a gasket.

 Sooooo.. Maybe just smear grease on it, and see what happens..

[jetta90]

This old trick may or may not work.
 At times guys used grease to hold a gasket in place during assembly, also used to. Seal dips and voids on aircleaner backing plates.
 Now keep in mind , gaskets take up irregularities between two machined assemblies.  If they were flat enough you might not need a gasket.

 Sooooo.. Maybe just smear grease on it, and see what happens..

Good thought Frank - haven't tried that trick in this application....... but I wouldn't think it would work.  Lots of oil splashing around under pressure up top under the cam cover area.   Especially at each of the 4 corners of the cam cover where there are four half moons machined into the head.  Maybe worth a try down the road?

[azr]

Odd....I read that Suzukis were an improvement of Kawasakis....

Anybody else tried these gaskets?    http://realgaskets.com/

I had one their valve cover gaskets on my 78' GS100 but I won't use them again. The co-pilot and I were heading toward Yellowstone when it blew a 1 cm section clear out, talk about oil spill. When I pulled the cover off there were cracks ever where. This was after about 2 years of service. Now I'm not exactly sure if I caused it from over torquing as you they require very little torque, but I was always cautious of that issue, but after that experience I'll happily stick with OEM. I can get about 3-4 changes from an OEM gasket if I apply some grease to them when installing. Oh, and the only place you should be using any sort of gasket maker is on the bottom the half moons, NEVER use it on the gasket it's self. I always use a small dab of the bottom of the half moons though as they are notorious for leaking, they get hard as a rock over a very short time. Good info on the 16 valve stuff, although all my own bikes are 8 valve I've done some valve adjustments on 16 valves and found it to be soooo much quicker. The one thing I've thought about with the 16 valve engines is that on a long trip you can do valve adjustments without the need for shims, that's handy. But I'm yet to make a trip so long that I need to worry about valve adjustment but I do know of someone that did the Alaska to Argentina run and blew his engine up because of that issue.

[MJ]

I replaced the ratty reservoir covers

[Billy D]

When I bought my bike ten tears ago I had trouble with the brakes sticking on . It took awhile but someone had put car brake fluid in it , Dot 5 I believe , it ate the rubber and had chunks floating around sticking in my brakes . That wasn't good , I was happy to get that fixed . $$$

[Bucko]

Brake fluid is brake fluid; there's nothing differentiating car and bike brake fluids... but there are different grades of brake fluid and some grades cannot be mixed.  I believe for instance that you can mix DOT 5.1 with DOT 3 (in a system that takes DOT 3 but maybe not in a system that takes DOT 5.1) but you can not mix DOT 5 with any other fluid even in small amounts.  DOT 5, contrary to urban legend, does not eat or swell seals or other rubber parts.   Your problem was probably that a PO had had switched to DOT 5 without fully disassembling their entire brake system and cleaning/removing all traces of DOT 3 first, or did clean everything but a subsequent owner added the wrong fluid after the system was switched to DOT 5.  Mixing DOT 5 with other fluids will lead to chunks of goo floating the brake fluid which can clog ports in the system.

[Kawyblaster]

Purchased and installed NOS Shoei saddlebags from the 70's

[HAMMERHT]

Did nothing except took a bus from Fairfield to Sluggett Rd to pick it up from the mechanic.
I'm still on the bus.
The mechanic on the other hand changed my fork seals.
Now all I need to do is get a new chain, sprockets and tires.

ps: I do all the easy stuff.... for now.   

[kilowop]

Spent toooooo many hours polishing aluminum.  I now have great respect for people who have the patience to restore old bikes to museum quality.  I just don't have that sort of patience, or a workshop full of specialized buffing wheels, polishing wheels, etc. My 'old Blue' will never be a trailer queen, just a nice example of a well used, but well maintained original.
CHEERS

[754]

Fork seals is one of the easy stuff..

[HAMMERHT]

Fork seals is one of the easy stuff..

Maybe for experts like yourself, I also don't have a garage.

[754]

On a lot of bikes,  you can leave the forks, trees, light etc intact, and remove. Lower legs to swap the seals.. Minimal Tools and fairly quick.
Often folks on a forum will walk you through it..

[Billy D]

Brake fluid is brake fluid; there's nothing differentiating car and bike brake fluids... but there are different grades of brake fluid and some grades cannot be mixed.  I believe for instance that you can put mix DOT 5.1 with DOT 3 (in a system that takes DOT 3 but maybe not in a system that takes DOT 5.1) but you can not mix DOT 5 with any other fluid even in small amounts.  DOT 5, contrary to urban legend, does not eat or swell seals or other rubber parts.   Your problem was probably that a PO had had switched to DOT 5 without fully disassembling their entire brake system and cleaning/removing all traces of DOT 3 first, or did clean everything but a subsequent owner added the wrong fluid after the system was switched to DOT 5.  Mixing DOT 5 with other fluids will lead to chunks of goo floating the brake fluid which can clog ports in the system.

Thanks , I never heard anything about that till it happened to me . 

[1000J]

Reinstalling some chrome Trevor picked up for me at Victoria Plating this weekend..