I had a little free time this weekend, so I decided to rip into the bike and do a little maintenance. An oil change, a change of transmission fluid and clutch adjustment were in line. I ran by my nearby HD stealership to get some HD Formula+ tranny fluid. I also grabbed some Mobile 1 V-twin oil at my FLAPS. Okay. Got all the materials. now I'm good to go!
I don't have a motorcycle stand that will fit the Harley, so I had to shove some wood blocks under the jiffy stand to try and prop the bike more upright. From there, in order to access the derby cover, the driver side foot peg has to be moved down and out of the way. It wasn't too bad getting the allen bolts out of the derby cover- they're aluminum, so they're generally not torqued down all that tight.
When I popped off the cover, what oozed out was a creamy liquid that looked a whole like a cappuccino or a coffee and Kahlua! That sure didn't seem right!
The drain plug is right below the tranny case and was easy enough to find. I drained as much of the fluid out as possible. I just let it sit there, while I started working on the motor oil. For the engine case, there is a funny little rubber hose with a plastic plug hanging down a few inches in front of the rear tire- believe it or not, that is the oil drain plug! There is a worm screw that has to be loosened to remove the oil plug, which is no big deal. Just remove that plug and open the oil filler cap and let her drain!
With both cases draining, I went to work on my clutch adjustment. Once the clutch cable barrel screw was nice and slacked up. the clutch lever went limp. That way, after I could make the proper adjust to the clutch screw itself, then take up the slack to the appropriate tolerances. Once that was done, everything felt pretty awesome!
I removed the oil filter, wetted the gasket with some fresh oil and installed the new filter. I plugged up both of the case holes and went to work filling up the cavities again. I used a gear pump to inject the tranny fluid back into the case. When the fluid was about to start dripping out, I knew I was at the right fill point. After checking the gasket on the derby cover, I wiped the cappuccino foam from the inside surface and bolted the cover back on again. Done! Then I filled the crank case with four quarts of motor oil, capped it off and started the bike up. Everything sounded good- nothing broken or grinding. All that was left was a test ride.
I started out slowly, just a quick lap around the neighborhood to make sure that everything worked as it should. Next I took her downtown and on the freeway. The motor seemed to run much more smoothly than it had before! The transmission definitely ran smoother, shifted easier and I was able to find neutral with much more ease. I would say that the maintenance was much needed and it made a huge difference in the performance of the bike for such a nominal fee!
A collection of blurbs stemming from mostly the motorized projects that I do. Some posts mixed in have to do with my experiences in X-ray school. (Some entries are from older blogs that I killed off.) Some of my toys are a Mazdaspeed Miata that I work on and take to the track, a little Harley that I can't stop modding and an old Yamaha RD400 that I've been collecting parts for over the past 15 years. When I'm not wrenching, sometimes I mountain bike, sometimes I snowboard, sometimes I make beer.
No comments:
Post a Comment