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Proper rivet tools are like $100-$150. Anything cheaper than that will break after one use. So either pay that every time you need it done, or pay it once and learn to do it yourself.There's plenty of good videos and writeups online!
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May 28, 2015 00:25
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Lynza posted:I ordered a new chain and sprockets. The dealership charges $145 to put it on for me. I think a proper rivet tool costs something like $45. Opinions on whether I should just buy the breaker/riveter and do it myself? I've never done a chain on a bike or a bicycle. Do it yourself. I'm a moron and did it fine. Double check the chain master link type before buying expensive tools. If it's a clip just buy a cheap chain breaker.
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May 28, 2015 00:56
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So my neighbors are wrenching on a ~1995 EX250, and they can't get it to idle without a hell of a lot of choke. They've cleaned out the carbs, checked the needles, rebuilt the petcock, checked the tank, replaced the fuel lines. Anything else that could be the matter? After I got home, I realized that I forgot to ask them if they checked the idle speed screw but that's probably a silly question anyway.
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May 28, 2015 01:03
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Pilot screws?
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May 28, 2015 01:26
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Koruthaiolos posted:Do it yourself. I'm a moron and did it fine. Double check the chain master link type before buying expensive tools. If it's a clip just buy a cheap chain breaker. If it's not a clip, EK chains have a screw-on master link. I haven't used one, but google searches don't turn up any hits which say they're bad and they've been available for nearly 10 years. this post has some of the better installation pictures I found. http://www.vstrom.info/Smf/index.php?topic=2225.0 I found DID chains for less money, and I'm a tool hoarder anyway. If you are going to go with rivet-type master links, buy an extra one.
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May 28, 2015 01:46
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Lynza posted:I ordered a new chain and sprockets. The dealership charges $145 to put it on for me. I think a proper rivet tool costs something like $45. Opinions on whether I should just buy the breaker/riveter and do it myself? I've never done a chain on a bike or a bicycle. If you figured out how to post on the internet, you are smart enough to do a chain and sprockets. Yes, they are that easy. It's literally "break chain, unbolt sprockets, bolt on new ones, attach new chain, go enjoy your 'brand new' bike". The only real challenge is the front sprocket - generally they're torqued ridiculously tight and impact wrenches make the job a hell of a lot less miserable. That said, if you don't have access to an impact, just put the bike in first, have someone stand on the rear brake and use a breaker bar before you cut the chain off. After you cut the chain that can quickly become a nigh-impossible job without access to an impact wrench.
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May 28, 2015 03:42
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Ripoff posted:If you figured out how to post on the internet, you are smart enough to do a chain and sprockets. Yes, they are that easy. It's literally "break chain, unbolt sprockets, bolt on new ones, attach new chain, go enjoy your 'brand new' bike". How do you put it back just as tight? I was thinking about doing my own chain and sprockets to save money but I don't have any tools. I don't want to spend a bunch of money right now either buying tools.
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May 28, 2015 03:48
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Schroeder91 posted:How do you put it back just as tight? Most of the tightness is from thousands of kilometres of an engine working against the bolt, hot-cold cycles, fickle fingers of fate etc. You just tighten it to FT (loving tight). Smaller bikes often have two or three small bolts holding the sprocket on against an offset slot instead of one giant nut.
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May 28, 2015 04:10
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Schroeder91 posted:How do you put it back just as tight? Begone from AI/CA, traitor. All car freaks/motorcyclists enjoy collecting tools.  You can never have enough.Honestly what I do is find the torque values from a website/FSM and just tighten it down enough in the beginning before I start really moving the engine (if at all). If it's necessary to make it tighter and the sprocket is spinning, I put the other sprocket and chain on, sit the bike down, and tighten it while someone stands on the rear brake. Either way it's not "impossible" to fix, just a complete bitch if you lack some of the necessary tools. Also, when you're working with bikes and cars I can honestly say a torque wrench is a kind of un-fun but ultimately necessary expense, especially with all of the aluminum they love filling bikes with today. I'm paranoid about over-torquing a bolt in an aluminum part, because stripping out a screw and having to heli-coil/drill-and-tap is a hell of a lot more effort and expense than buying a $30 torque wrench. Even if you're not in love with tools, buying them and doing some basic maintenance (such as oil changes, etc.) can easily pay for the tool within 1 or 2 maintenance cycles. When you call a mechanic and tell them "you don't need to worry about X, Y or Z, I have it, just check/repair the valve clearances" you'll be surprised at how much that repair estimate can drop.
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May 28, 2015 04:18
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I ordered Caswell Epoxy Gas Tank Sealer to fix my gas tank in the end. It has quite glowing reviews online and seems easier to apply than POR-15. Has anyone tried it before?
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May 28, 2015 06:17
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Ripoff posted:Begone from AI/CA, traitor. All car freaks/motorcyclists enjoy collecting tools. Well I have a lovely home toolkit from Target. I WANT tools, I just can't afford it. I do my own oil though.
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May 28, 2015 07:11
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captainOrbital posted:So my neighbors are wrenching on a ~1995 EX250, and they can't get it to idle without a hell of a lot of choke. They've cleaned out the carbs, checked the needles, rebuilt the petcock, checked the tank, replaced the fuel lines. Anything else that could be the matter? After I got home, I realized that I forgot to ask them if they checked the idle speed screw but that's probably a silly question anyway. It's a silly question but that's exactly what was happening with my EX500 that wouldn't idle without a ton of choke.
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May 28, 2015 07:41
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Ripoff posted:Even if you're not in love with tools, buying them and doing some basic maintenance (such as oil changes, etc.) can easily pay for the tool within 1 or 2 maintenance cycles. When you call a mechanic and tell them "you don't need to worry about X, Y or Z, I have it, just check/repair the valve clearances" you'll be surprised at how much that repair estimate can drop. I disagree with you about torque wrenches (got my wank wrist right here buddy) but you're right about tools making poo poo cheaper. A chain riveter seemed so expensive when I bought one. Then I did four chains on my own bikes. Ditto with a carb balancer, c spanner and all that other specialised poo poo I have kicking around that I don't think about. Sometimes I find myself using such a tool and wondering to myself how anyone who isn't super rich can even afford to own one bike, let alone several, if they can't do poo poo themselves.
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May 28, 2015 08:26
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Run it till it falls apart.
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May 28, 2015 08:44
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I'm going to be installing a new crank in my Zuma soon. My original plan was to chill the crank and bearings and heat the cases to increase the clearances and allow everything to be put together without a press. Getting the old crank and bearings out turned out to be a major pain in the rear end so I'm a little worried that the above method won't go smoothly. Has anyone had good luck with this method of installing 2-stroke single cranks and bearings? Should I stop being a cheap rear end and just order the $70 one-time-use crank installer?
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May 28, 2015 19:08
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Boys who love boys
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Astonishing Wang posted:I have a '73 Honda CL350 with about 4,000 miles on it. I got about a half mile from home this morning when it hesitated on throttle. I kept the throttle cranked and the bike made a loud POP sound as the hesitation was gone and I was able to accelerate away. I pull over and there's a stream of oil coming down from behind the crank case cover. Any ideas what the popping was? I assume it was a gasket being destroyed... Gasket set and piston rings have been ordered - I'm getting excited to finally see how this thing ticks (and pops...)! I'm planning on taking care of the surface rust while the engine is out as well. The bike was in beautiful almost brand-new shape when I got it, but driving it thousands of miles along the coast seems to have introduced a little salt to the mix.
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May 28, 2015 20:32
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Seashell Salesman posted:I ordered Caswell Epoxy Gas Tank Sealer to fix my gas tank in the end. It has quite glowing reviews online and seems easier to apply than POR-15. Has anyone tried it before?
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May 29, 2015 02:47
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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:I've used Caswell a couple times and POR a bunch of times, and I've watched other guys at our shop use Kreem. What kind of a tank is it? A 88-07 Ninja 250 tank. I over-tightened one of the fairing bolts that goes into the tank. Apparently that's a very common way to break the tank on this generation of Ninja 250.
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May 29, 2015 03:33
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It's actually not overtightening, it's because certain years had a barely perceptible longer bottom bolt than the top one. Mix em up and you'll tear right through with relatively little effort.
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May 29, 2015 03:37
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M42 posted:It's actually not overtightening, it's because certain years had a barely perceptible longer bottom bolt than the top one. Mix em up and you'll tear right through with relatively little effort. It definitely felt like very little effort. This was my first attempt at doing any maintenance on my very first motorcycle and I felt very sorry for myself when it happened. Now I'm just glad it was a cheap bike and will (probably) be cheap to repair. I will have to repaint the tank since the gas dissolved the paint entirely off part of the tank, but I don't really care how it looks and kind of resigned myself to just spraying it with truck bedliner.
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May 29, 2015 03:44
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So the tank isn't like messed up already, meaning not rusty as poo poo etc? Then yeah caswell should do you ok. Just make sure you get the tank nice and clean of gas, wash it with soap and really hot water or whatever the caswell docs tell you to do and blow it dry with a hair dryer for a long time before sealing. The problems you run into when sealing tanks are when the tank is in rough rusty messy shape with 10 year old gas and poo poo in it. Then it's just horrible disgusting messy noxious work and takes forever. Depending on how awful the tank is, we charge people up to around $500 to do that kind of job.
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May 29, 2015 04:50
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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:So the tank isn't like messed up already, meaning not rusty as poo poo etc? Then yeah caswell should do you ok. Just make sure you get the tank nice and clean of gas, wash it with soap and really hot water or whatever the caswell docs tell you to do and blow it dry with a hair dryer for a long time before sealing. The problems you run into when sealing tanks are when the tank is in rough rusty messy shape with 10 year old gas and poo poo in it. Then it's just horrible disgusting messy noxious work and takes forever. Depending on how awful the tank is, we charge people up to around $500 to do that kind of job. The tank is in great shape as far as I can tell. No rust at all. Makes me feel even worse about having dissolved all that pristine paint off it.
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May 29, 2015 05:25
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Slavvy posted:I disagree with you about torque wrenches (got my wank wrist right here buddy) but you're right about tools making poo poo cheaper. A chain riveter seemed so expensive when I bought one. Then I did four chains on my own bikes. Ditto with a carb balancer, c spanner and all that other specialised poo poo I have kicking around that I don't think about. Sometimes I find myself using such a tool and wondering to myself how anyone who isn't super rich can even afford to own one bike, let alone several, if they can't do poo poo themselves. Run it for 6kmi/until the tires are showing cords in 9 years.
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May 29, 2015 05:48
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M42 posted:Proper rivet tools are like $100-$150. Anything cheaper than that will break after one use. So either pay that every time you need it done, or pay it once and learn to do it yourself.There's plenty of good videos and writeups online! I bought this http://www.amazon.com/Motorcycle-Chain-Cutter-Breaker-Riveting/dp/B0099Z4MJ2 for $30. Seems to be the same thing as every other cheap chain tool, but it served me well enough to do a 530 chain just yesterday. It seems that people break these tools due to two things. Trying to push out a chain pin without grinding the head, and having the punch pin extend out of the "sleeve" too far. Doing either at the wrong angle and apparently they break. But I think if you're careful and take your time, it will work out for you to use something cheaper. I absolutely cannot justify $100+ for a simple cast iron tool but I guess if you need to replace chains more often than once or twice a year, it may work out for you. In that case, after a lot of digging I have found the D.I.D. and Motion Pro Jumbo chain tools to be the most highly regarded.
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May 29, 2015 11:45
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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:I've used Caswell a couple times and POR a bunch of times, and I've watched other guys at our shop use Kreem. What kind of a tank is it? I used Caswell back in 2009 on my enfield's tank and it's the only part of the POS that hasn't fallen apart.
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May 29, 2015 16:32
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astrollinthepork posted:I bought this http://www.amazon.com/Motorcycle-Chain-Cutter-Breaker-Riveting/dp/B0099Z4MJ2 for $30. Seems to be the same thing as every other cheap chain tool, but it served me well enough to do a 530 chain just yesterday. It seems that people break these tools due to two things. Trying to push out a chain pin without grinding the head, and having the punch pin extend out of the "sleeve" too far. Doing either at the wrong angle and apparently they break. But I think if you're careful and take your time, it will work out for you to use something cheaper. I absolutely cannot justify $100+ for a simple cast iron tool but I guess if you need to replace chains more often than once or twice a year, it may work out for you. In that case, after a lot of digging I have found the D.I.D. and Motion Pro Jumbo chain tools to be the most highly regarded. I'm not sure I understand the point of these things for chain removal. If you have to grind off the rivet head in order for the tool to work why not just sawzall thru the chain and call it a day? It's going in the trash anyway right?
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May 29, 2015 18:34
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It's like a hundred times easier to break a rivet than saw through a link.
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May 29, 2015 18:36
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Angle grinder will do it in about 30 secs.
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May 29, 2015 18:52
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If you're ever concerned about the strength of your chain rivets, I can say that a chain tool pin is much weaker than a chain rivet. An idiot (I'm speaking hypothetically here) who tries to push out a rivet before grinding its head off is well advised to use the size of pins they don't otherwise use for flattening the rivet head.
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May 29, 2015 19:38
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revmoo posted:I'm not sure I understand the point of these things for chain removal. If you have to grind off the rivet head in order for the tool to work why not just sawzall thru the chain and call it a day? It's going in the trash anyway right? I have never understood this either because: Uncle Ivan posted:Angle grinder will do it in about 30 secs. Having done the grind+push out method once, and the cut-through-like-a-motherfucker method several times, the angle grinder is about ten times faster.
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May 29, 2015 20:52
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Ola posted:If you're ever concerned about the strength of your chain rivets, I can say that a chain tool pin is much weaker than a chain rivet. An idiot (I'm speaking hypothetically here) who tries to push out a rivet before grinding its head off is well advised to use the size of pins they don't otherwise use for flattening the rivet head. On the other hand, I don't have an angle grinder and just used a cheapo $10 chain breaker from Harbor Freight without doing any grinding and it worked just fine. If it breaks, I'm only out a cheap Harbor Freight tool. I use a Motion Pro for riveting and pressing though.
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May 29, 2015 20:58
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revmoo posted:I'm not sure I understand the point of these things for chain removal. If you have to grind off the rivet head in order for the tool to work why not just sawzall thru the chain and call it a day? It's going in the trash anyway right? You may need to shorten the chain like I did.
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May 29, 2015 21:13
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xergm posted:On the other hand, I don't have an angle grinder and just used a cheapo $10 chain breaker from Harbor Freight without doing any grinding and it worked just fine. I think a hammer (which one already has) and a chisel (which one will get good use for) might do the same job, if you don't have any electric spinning tool.
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May 29, 2015 22:04
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Using a claw hammer on a cold chisel sounds pretty frustrating (but the kind of thing I see myself doing out of desperation).
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May 29, 2015 22:26
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astrollinthepork posted:You may need to shorten the chain like I did. I wasn't sure what length chain I was going to need when I did my sprocket change so bought one +2 and cut it to the right length. That would have been a bitch without a grinder.
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May 29, 2015 22:59
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Why don't service manuals always specify what size bolt gaskets are for the maintenance guides, sorry I can't replace this oil and coolant gasket because I have no idea what one to buy until after the bike is un-usable.
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May 30, 2015 17:35
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That's what parts catalogues are for unfortunately.
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May 30, 2015 21:15
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I asked a couple experienced friends and it seems like I'm not the only one with this issue - I have problems with left handed deep curves. It's like I can push on the left bar but only if my body's crossed the hell up. No problem leaning way in on right handers. Anyone have this problem? I tried to 'fix' it while riding in the mountains today, but no luck. I realize it's kind of a vague/subjective thing to ask.
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May 31, 2015 02:52
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Slavvy posted:That's what parts catalogues are for unfortunately. Is there a rockauto equivalent for motorcycle parts? I know rockauto has some parts for bikes but its limited to spark plugs, oil filters, and bulbs it seems for kawasakis.
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May 31, 2015 03:12
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Gillingham posted:Is there a rockauto equivalent for motorcycle parts?
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May 31, 2015 03:54
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