| Author | Message | ||
     Littlebuggles |
Anyone ever do just the uppers, cause it looks like my lowers are fine. I've not done this on the XB yet and it seems a lot more invloved than my M2. Can I do just the upper gasket without dropping the motor on my XB12STT or is it too tight? It looks like it might be possible so I just thought I'd ask before I got myself in too deep and had to rotate the engine anyway. Associated question, need to clean my fan, it's all oily and burned a fuse, this is how I knew the rocker boxes were leaking bad enough to replace... it it best to pull the fan, access looks especially tight, is it just a per the manual type job? Thanks for any help you guys can offer!! | ||
| Jramsey |
Doing an XB right now as a matter of fact. Yep, have to rotate for clearance,pain in the ass compared to a tuber.  Only bike I've worked on in the past 40+ years that you have to loosen the rear axle to change a valve cover gasket....lol | ||
| Jramsey |
And yes you can do the uppers only, this bike here had the rear lower leaking and front upper so going to replace them all front and rear. | ||
| Slaughter |
Yeppp - what THEY^^^ said. Rotate the motor, top end is doable. Don't fake it on the socket head screws though - make sure your motor is rotated so you can get good, square access to the screw heads. I'd also recommend using the LOWEST recommended torque specs on the fasteners when reinstalling (DAMHIK) Top end work on these is pretty easy actually - watch that temp sensor lead on the rear cylinder when reassembling - you can easily pinch the lead when bolting her back together (DAMHIK #2) | ||
| Littlebuggles |
Cool, thanks guys! That's funny Jramsey, 'bout loosening the rear axle, I hadn't thought about it from that angle. Erik's innovation requires us to adapt to new methods I guess. Can't imagine having to do the same for my truck though! I thought I was going to be off the next four days but have to go to training tonight and tomorrow... ...sigh  Maybe Friday I'll have time to work on it again. Took the plastics off last Saturday, then back to work. Thanks for the additional tips Slaughter, I'll be careful. Can you guys advise me on that fan? I don't want to burn it up, so I'm hoping that parking the bike after the fuse went was the best option. I'm gonna read the manual for that, but there's always that stuff that didn't get in there, like the rear head sensor wire note. | ||
| Littlebuggles |
Pulling that fan was surprisingly easy! Dang though, that thing is directly in the oil path when the rear rockers go, what a mess, I hope it's still okay!! Gonna leave it out and put the shock back in so I can get it off the lift and remove the muffler. Hope it will give me more room to work if I need it - on the rear head. Shoulda had this job done WEEKS ago, but there's too much else going on. This is why we got a second bike, one can be ridden while the other is serviced... | ||
| Boltrider |
FWIW, my fan got very wet from the same thing. One year later, it still works fine. | ||
| Rr_eater |
Little If that fan got oily enough to blow a fuse, my inclination would be to NOT reuse that fan! I say that for 2 reasons; 1 is that if it blew the circuit once, it will do it again, and as our harnesses are picky enough as it is, I would not want to keep doing that: 2 you cannot really disassemble the fans to clean and de-oil it, and if you just hose it out with degreaser or brake cleaner, the bearings will be dry or full of crap, and the fan will fail again eventually. BUT, like Boltrider, you may put it back in and never have a problem with it again. Finicky are these dam fans, but I would not have it any other way! JUST my .02 Bruce | ||
| Littlebuggles |
Thanks for the input. I scrapped and wiped away the crud from the fan. I'm going to wipe the blades, hub, and frame down with a cloth dampened with degreaser and follow up with a cloth dampened with water. Bearings feel smooth, not sure how freely the thing should turn but there is no grinding or crunching from dust, dirt, or sand that I was concerned might have gotten itself in there with my logging roads in the rain adventure... or my lapse of focus adventure (that involved just missing shrubs and freeway signs as I swerved off the road to get around a slow moving RV) I thought I was gonna total the bike on that one. I guess I'll squirt a little more black paint on the muffler while I'm at it. Those things rust, what's the deal there!?! Anyway, if the fan burns out another fuse I'll know I need to replace it... still a much easier job than I expected, so going back in there won't be a big deal if I need to. Thanks again!! | ||
| Littlebuggles |
Hey I know this thread is archived, but I'm hoping you guys that responded here may have email alerts on... I got this project done, took me forever to get back to it once I'd pulled and cleaned the fan. Found some rough edges on the inside lip on both covers so I filed those smooth. Used a light coat of hylomar on the gaskets and mating surfaces... reassembled, watched for pinched wires, proper torque on bolts and all that. Then I rode it across town. I may have been into my reserve fuel, didn't realize fuel level was so low, I didn't get a low fuel light. Then the thing stalled out (in traffic). That's when I got a fuel light. I was right by a gas station, so when it started back up I carefully rode it in, stalling once or twice on the way. Filled up with highest octane we have around here (91). Then started her up and took off. She idles fine, but any more than about a quarter throttle stalls the bike out. Oh, fan is working, and I didn't burn out the fuel pump fuse. Seems like flooding or plugged filter or maybe fuel mix is off? This is something a lot of FI'd tubers experienced with the first DDFI - run out of gas, need a TPS reset and fuel ratios corrected. I don't see any reports of this condition with the XB bikes. I also don't have a laptop, though I did build a ECM Spy cable last year... maybe I'll download the soft ware to my desk top and lug the thing down to the garage, it's that or try to get an appointment with the local HD dealer if they can plug in to my Buell and do diagnostics and such. My auto experience says replace the fuel filter, but that's not so simple on these bikes. I'm open to suggestions. |
