Prep & Mods (07/97)

Prep & Mods
07/97

Maintenance prep this month:

Cleaned & adjusted chain

Mods:

The Lockhart Phillips Speed Screen started to crack towards the end of last month. It's seen just over a year of service and a few too-tightly turned mounting bolts. LP makes the screen to replace the stock part, but the mounting holes on the Targa fairing and the Graves fairing bracket aren't exactly stock. A bit of filing was needed to make it all fit.

I replaced the LP bike numbers with new ones from Dirt Digits. The LP numbers were OK, but the Dirt Digits simply look better - they're thicker and have a slight slant to them.

The stock Honda front brake pads were starting to wear thin and since EBC sponsors some of our race series, I picked up a set of their new HH Sintered pads and installed them. The pads came with bedding-in instructions specifically for racing - 10 to 20 miles of cold scrubbing, two steady laps, then one hard braking lap to heat them up.

Not only did the temperature sending unit for the Yoshimura temp gauge go bonkers again last month, but the Yosh muffler clamp broke off as well. The good news is that Yosh replaced the sending unit under warranty - the bad news is they've discontinued the gauge in favor of a multi-function water temp / volt / time gauge that has a totally different sending unit. There are no plans to manufacture any more of the 'old style' sending units so when this one goes, I'm SOL (or I'll have to fork over some $$$ for the new style). As far as I know, only Daytona and Yosh make aftermarket temp gauges. I've used the Daytona and while it worked fine, it only registers to 99c. The Yosh gauge measures to 150c, but I've gone through two sending units in five months.

I ordered a replacement muffler clamp from Escondido Cycle Center and paid particular attention to relieving any tension between the clamp, the exhaust, and the mounting bracket when installing the new clamp. Everything lined up fine.

The Auto Meter tach arrived a couple of weeks after sending it in for repair. Although I wasn't expecting it, Auto Meter again repaired it without charge, even though it was out of warranty. It's damn nice to see a company stand behind its products like Auto Meter obviously does.

Assuming that the problem with the broken needle is related to excessive vibration, I changed the mounting of the tach to a thin 1/8" strip of foam insulating tape which barely fills the space between the tach and the Graves bracket. I backed up the front and back of the bracket with 1/4" tape to keep the tach from falling out. I zip tied the wires to the bracket to keep the tach from spinning around.

One fix I've been stymied by for a year was a reasonable method to replace the broken fender mount tab on the front fork. Welding would certainly do the trick, but it wasn't worth tearing down the fork or taking the chance of warping it with excessive heat. I had tried various types of hardware store epoxies, but have yet to find one that would last more than a month or two. I came across some Aeropoxy ES6279 by PTM&W Industries in the Aircraft Spruce & Specialty Company catalog a while back and decided to give that a try. The Aeropoxy was "developed specifically for difficult bonding problems involving similar or dissimilar materials. ES6279 provides excellent adhesion to a wide variety of materials such as aluminum, steel, brass, glass, ceramics, and wood ..." $22 for a pint - such a deal.

The fender tab was literally torn off the forks, so there was quite a gap to fill around the edges. The Aeropoxy is pretty thick stuff and filled in nicely. After letting it cure for a couple of days I smacked the tab with a hammer and it held fast. We'll see how it holds up to 150mph on Willow's back straight!

Bob