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Categories: all aviation bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater Tue, 31 Aug 2010The new Ninja 250 had a number of problems when I got it. The most obvious and worrying was the grinding and general unhappy feeling from the final drive. Obviously, the chain was in a bad way. The front sprocket was a bit hooked, but not excessively so. There was also the camchain slap, but that was pretty much cleared up when I cleaned the camchain adjuster before I bought the bike. So, last weekend, I took the bike apart some to check things out and do some of the work that needs to be done. I flushed out the coolant, and replaced it with water (no coolant allowed on the track, as it's slippery as hell if it spills, and nearly impossible to clean up), also drilling the drain bolts for safety wire as long as I had them out. I shot a bit of video showing the initial state of the bike, but it's pretty low quality, and I don't think I really have enough time to properly document what I'm doing -- it's looking like a tight squeeze to get the work done, much less jockey a camera around. As long as I had the bike apart with the tank off, I decided to check the valve adjustment. About half the valves were too tight, so I adjusted them. In the process, I tried a new method of doing the valve adjustment that I really like: I removed the front engine mounts. The rear bolts are enough to hold the engine up while the front mount is out, and it makes access to the head absolutely amazing. I'm doing it that way every time from now on. In the process of doing that, I had occasion to notice that the big fat bolt that goes through the front engine mount was actually backed out about 3/4 of an inch! That's nowhere near a good thing. When it all went back together, I was liberal with the loctite, and it shouldn't be backing itself out again. I also drained the oil, and drilled the oil bolts for safety wire (all fluid-retaining bolts have to be wired per race regs) today. I considered changing the filter as long as I had it out, but I didn't have any spares handy, and it looked to be in pretty good shape. I'll change it after the race, which is the last of the year. I'll have to winterize the bike anyway, since the water in the cooling system will be a freeze danger if I leave it in over the winter. Fortunately, the new sprocket came in today, and I was able to install it and the new (non-o-ring) chain I picked up last weekend. Most of the grinding went away, but there was still some disconcerting feeling about the engine, as I rode it around a little bit. I had a little brain spasm, and checked tonight (far too late) after getting back from a theater event: sure enough, both rear engine bolts are loose, and their threads munged up pretty badly. Off to Tacoma Screw with me! Two new M10x140 bolts will be mine soon. That should sort out the remaining odd grinding feeling. I knew it was somewhat familiar -- my 2006 Ninja had an engine mount bolt come loose like this (the nut was actually completely gone), and it was a very similar feeling. So, if you're keeping track at home, you will have counted three engine bolts that were loose. If you consult with the manual, you'll find that the Ninja 250's engine is held in with... yes, three bolts. That engine was only loosely held in place. That's a disconcerting thing to think about. I noticed a sticker on this bike (which is a 2005) that said "Made in Thailand." I recall vaguely that Kawasaki switched to the Thai factory (although I recalled it being Taiwan, not Thailand) in 2004, and I guess I'm not surprised to find little things like missing loctite on engine bolts in common between these two non-Japanese made bikes. It's inevitable when you switch factories like that, I guess, although it's disturbing that it should have spanned so many years. Once I get the new mount bolts in place, that should be the last reason I need to ride the bike (to confirm that those bolts nixed the vibration), and then I can start aggressively stripping off street parts. Right now, I have to leave it legal enough to drive for testing. New fork springs arrived today, and I expect to see the new rear shock in the next few days. The new front brake line arrived last week, but hasn't been installed yet. I'm stalling on those changes so I can take care of essential "race requirement" modifications before "wouldn't it be nice" changes. I can tackle the nice mods after the race, but I can't even race it if I don't make the required changes. So hopefully, after this coming weekend, I should have the bike race legal, and then I can ponder nice changes, or I can actually take a few minutes off to not be doing something. That would be nice too. Although I'm excited about the opportunity to race a Ninja 250, the additional time commitment of prepping the bike is a bit overwhelming. Posted at 01:26 permanent link category: /motorcycle Categories: all aviation gadgets misc motorcycle theater Written by Ian Johnston. Software is Blosxom. Questions? Please mail me at reaper at obairlann dot net. |