Yes! You certainly did. My reply was not intended as contradictory to your remarks.
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Kawasaki W800
- Thread starter Raymond
- Start date
Presently in the middle of a service.
Yesterday, went out for a quick spin, as one does, just a dozen miles to warm up the oil. Dropped the old oil, swapped the filter - HF303, the last one in my stock. Knew I didn't have enough fresh oil, so bunged in what I had, about a litre.
Village m/c engineer's prices have been getting somewhat steeper of late, so went on-line and ordered oil and filters. Used Sportsbikeshop.co.uk 'coz they have the best price for Putoline - £24.70 for 4 litres. That's less than people are asking on Ebay. Free delivery if you spend more than £75 so ended up buying three bottles of oil and three filters at £5.98 each. I like to have spare consumables.
Obviously, other oils and suppliers are available but I'm happy enough. Works out to less than £22 for oil and filter change. It's been so long I literally have no idea what a dealer would charge.
Email says it's coming this afternoon, so will probably be tomorrow before the oil is topped up and the other service items given due attention.
But the special item this service - really must remove the centre stand because as well as rusty it's getting stiff. At the very least, will clean and lubricate. Might decide to have it blasted & powder coated? Also, might take a look and see if I can buy mounting bolts with grease nipples? Or failing that, drill into the mounting tubes and fit nipples there. If I had the kind of workshop many of our Murrican friends seem to run with pillar drills and lathes and stuff, I'm sure it would be easy to fit grease points to the mounting bolts. Deffo worth looking after - a centre stand is just so useful.
Yesterday, went out for a quick spin, as one does, just a dozen miles to warm up the oil. Dropped the old oil, swapped the filter - HF303, the last one in my stock. Knew I didn't have enough fresh oil, so bunged in what I had, about a litre.
Village m/c engineer's prices have been getting somewhat steeper of late, so went on-line and ordered oil and filters. Used Sportsbikeshop.co.uk 'coz they have the best price for Putoline - £24.70 for 4 litres. That's less than people are asking on Ebay. Free delivery if you spend more than £75 so ended up buying three bottles of oil and three filters at £5.98 each. I like to have spare consumables.
Obviously, other oils and suppliers are available but I'm happy enough. Works out to less than £22 for oil and filter change. It's been so long I literally have no idea what a dealer would charge.
Email says it's coming this afternoon, so will probably be tomorrow before the oil is topped up and the other service items given due attention.
But the special item this service - really must remove the centre stand because as well as rusty it's getting stiff. At the very least, will clean and lubricate. Might decide to have it blasted & powder coated? Also, might take a look and see if I can buy mounting bolts with grease nipples? Or failing that, drill into the mounting tubes and fit nipples there. If I had the kind of workshop many of our Murrican friends seem to run with pillar drills and lathes and stuff, I'm sure it would be easy to fit grease points to the mounting bolts. Deffo worth looking after - a centre stand is just so useful.
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Powder is great, not perfect. I think I would go after the rust, then rattle can. Touch ups as frequently as needed might be easy.
Drop it off at the barn in Harrow Raymond - I will drill the stand for you and I'll even tap the holes and install some grease nipples - something like what is shown below....but perhaps slightly different.
Pete
You gave me a dilemma there, Pete - didn't know whether to put laugh or love on your post.
I'll drop off the stand tomorrow then . . .
I'll drop off the stand tomorrow then . . .
Did I miss the grand opening of your shop Pete?
Hi Vic: Actually, I am operating at limited capacity because my buddy still has his big rusty Grove 3248 ManLift stored in the barn. I can do certain types of work but the welding area is still not setup.
Pete
Pulled the centre stand off.
Uhm, lack of maintenance plain to see. Rusty nuts, anybody?
Uhm, lack of maintenance plain to see. Rusty nuts, anybody?
So far, washed the stand in paraffin (kerosene), then Muc Off degreaser, then plain old water. Still looks abused and neglected but at least you can now pick it up without getting filthy. The bolts and nuts are soaking in salt & vinegar, so the garage will smell like a chip shop tomorrow.
Might buy new nuts and bolts. But then again, as they would have to go into the old stand, might just clean, emery paper, clean again, grease and refit.
A new stand is listed by Cradley Heath Kawasaki at £154.64 which with VAT and postage means about £200. So with that in mind, will probably do a bit more emery paper, clean, dry off and paint with Hammerite paint.
For them as ain't familiar with Hammerite, their blurb says 'Simply remove any loose rust with a wire brush or coarse sandpaper and clean the surface with brush cleaner & thinners and allow time to dry. Then apply Hammerite Paint directly onto the rusty metal surface. No primer, no undercoat needed.'
Centre stands live in a very harsh environment - power sprayed with water, salt, gravel, cow shit and everything else thrown up by the front wheel. In an ideal world, the careful owner would take the stand off, clean, apply molybdenum grease and refit oh, say every coupla years?
But as that 20th Century icon Shirley Conran said, 'Life's too short to stuff a mushroom'.
Might buy new nuts and bolts. But then again, as they would have to go into the old stand, might just clean, emery paper, clean again, grease and refit.
A new stand is listed by Cradley Heath Kawasaki at £154.64 which with VAT and postage means about £200. So with that in mind, will probably do a bit more emery paper, clean, dry off and paint with Hammerite paint.
For them as ain't familiar with Hammerite, their blurb says 'Simply remove any loose rust with a wire brush or coarse sandpaper and clean the surface with brush cleaner & thinners and allow time to dry. Then apply Hammerite Paint directly onto the rusty metal surface. No primer, no undercoat needed.'
Centre stands live in a very harsh environment - power sprayed with water, salt, gravel, cow shit and everything else thrown up by the front wheel. In an ideal world, the careful owner would take the stand off, clean, apply molybdenum grease and refit oh, say every coupla years?
But as that 20th Century icon Shirley Conran said, 'Life's too short to stuff a mushroom'.
No great rush to get stand back on't bike, so giving it a couple of days for the paint to harden.
Looking a lot better already, might go over it again. But at the end of the day, it's a stand not the flaming petrol tank.
Factory manual says the locknuts should be replaced. I'd be inclined to grease it all up and whack 'em back on again. Opinions?
Looking a lot better already, might go over it again. But at the end of the day, it's a stand not the flaming petrol tank.
Factory manual says the locknuts should be replaced. I'd be inclined to grease it all up and whack 'em back on again. Opinions?
My inclination would be replace. I’m sure the sacrificial coating is gone. So, I guess it depends upon the difficulty in the sourcing of new ones. Mine weren’t rusted, so they went back on.
Looks good. I’d clean the bores well where the mounting bolts go and grease them well. If the bolts are cheap and easily attainable I’d replace them as well as the lock nuts. If you get new bolts you can try modifying the old ones to accept a grease fitting. Like this:
Would love to replace the bolts with ones with grease points but on-line searches have failed to find any. Certainly intend to clean the bores and then I'll probably just reassemble with plenty moly grease.
What diameter are the factory bolts?
Apologies for not the best photo.
Thread M10, diameter of shank 14mm, length of shank 28mm, length OA 46mm
Borrowed Ads' micrometer specially like . . .
Raymond what you got is my dads vernier.
This is a micrometer:
I aint got one of those either!
Well I have that rusty ole vernier caliper which certainly don't owe me anything, And I have a similar caliper thingy, electronic one, bought from Lidl's, works well enough. When I remember to buy and not lose the correct size of button batteries, that is.
