Big Trev

The SV650S has a Scottoiler fitted, which is bloody handy in that it’s a daily rider, and I’m shocking at remembering to oil chains.

When I bought it, I was given the remains of the refill bottle, which has now run out. So, I thought, hey, I’ll go to my local friendly bike shop and buy some then. After going to a few of my Local Friendly Bike Shops, I was mostly met by blank looks, and had to explain what a Scottoiler was. Not a good start, and none of them actually stock the oil.

The best of the lot in Dandy was Sharptune, who offered to order it in for me - they said they just don’t sell enough of it nowadays to bother stocking it. There is something in my make-up which means I have a somewhat irrational aversion to “ordering stuff in” - if it’s not in stock, I don’t want it.

So I rang around a few more places in the city, and got the same offer to order in.

Which got me to thinking - how “special” is this oil anyways? I can’t see that this thing is that special that only special handcrafted hydrocarbons blessed by Tibetan monks can be used in it. I mean, it’s just dripping oil onto the chain.

So I hit the interwebs to see what they had to say. As they say, opinions are like arseholes…. Here’s a selection:

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=125237

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?p=10208001
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/equipping-bike-whats-best-gear/scottoilers-worth-the-money-27163

This one is probably the most interesting:
http://faq.f650.com/FAQs/ScottoilerClassicFAQ.htm

* According to the Factory Rep I talked to in Redmond last year, the only difference between Scott Oil and Automatic Transmission fluid is that they put in a few additives. But his comment was, the additive package is so limited you can just go ahead and use ATF (Automatic Transmission Fluid). (Dick #420 )
* If you can’t get Scottoil, a good alternative is chainsaw oil for the cutting chain, summer grade. (Werner #547)

There are mentions of using chainbar oil, Auto Transmission Fluid (ATF), motorcycle engine oil, normal car oil, used engine oil (geez, I thought I was a tight-arse!), and even vegetable oil! Since the red Scottoiler stuff looks a lot like ATF, I’m going to start there and see how we go. Possibly not the most scientific method of figuring out what to use, but, meh…

I’ll report back how I go.

Sick of incompetent drivers ruining your road-going experience (at best), or causing you to have near-death experiences (at worst)?  A little-known piece of legislation in Victorian road law, the Incompetent Road User Identification Act 2008, can help you identify those most likely to kill you or piss you off.

The act states that, by law, drivers identified as incompetent, badly skilled or downright dangerous must identify their cars.  This can be done through one of the following approved methods:

- "Baby On Board", "Child/children On Board" signs, stickers or other variations.

- Stickers with the slogan "HSV - I just want one"

- A hat on the rear parcel shelf.  Drivers designated as "Extremely Hazardous Drivers" are compelled to make this a bowling hat.

- A rear spoiler, not less than 25 cms from the boot lid of the car, and not less than 15 cm wider than the widest point of the vehicle. 

- Quantities of soft toys and/or novelties affixed or placed to the dashboard and rear parcel shelf.

- Driving of a large "Sports Utility Vehicle" or "Four Wheel Drive" of German manufacture.  The vehicle MUST NOT show any signs of EVER having been offroad, nor show signs of any intention of being taken offroad. 

- Tissue box placed on the parcel shelf.  "Extremely Hazardous Drivers" must also affix a knitted or woven tissue box cover.

- Shopping list of automotive brand stickers affixed to the sides of the vehicle (eg. aem/tanabe/greddy/typeR/si/mugen), and/or the top of the front or rear windshields.

- Drive a white, one-tonne van

 

Hope this helps, and happy motoring!

Well, I’ve got all the parts now - that’s a story in itself, but I’ll have to tell it later.

Right at the moment, I’ve got it to the point where the heads are on, cams in etc, and ready to put the cam covers on.  But as I’ve already worked later than I was planning to, I’m going to bed.

One sticky thing I’ve found tonight is the cam chain tensioners.  I was aware that they had a tendency to be noisy (as these ones are) but I didn’t realise quite how stupidly they had to be done up!

 The manual (as it often is) was completely useless - "use Special Tool bleh to screw the tensioner in and lock it".  Luckily, I found this site:  http://www.sv650.org/camten/cam%20chain%20tenstioner.htm. This guy gives some good instructions on how to make the "special tool" if you want, and how the thing works.  I ended up just using a small screwdriver to screw the thing in, and hold the screwdriver taut while I did up the mounting bolts.  It almost required the use of a third hand, but I managed to do it.

I have some pics, but they’re in the camera.  Although putting it back together isn’t half as interesting as pulling it apart from a viewers’ perspective.  I can tell you I’m enjoying bolting it together more than pulling it apart though!

Once I’m done, I’m planning on running it in per this guy’s instructions:   http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm Need to get some crappy car oil for the first fill, and a couple more filters.

 

OK, now where was I?  Oh yeah, I’ve fucked the inspection plug (add that to the shopping list).

Next victim thing was to get the cam covers off, which given my recent history with fasteners, was mercifully painless:

The valves and camchains looked better than anything out of a motor with 100,000k’s has any right to.  Apparently there was a "top-end" rebuild done about 50,000k’s ago, but it’s a credit to the previous owner as to how well it was looked after.

With the head off, the valves:

 

 

 

And pistons:

 

 

Looking good so far?

Pulled the cylinders out next.  Still hadn’t found anything to describe it’s new-found smoking habit.

 

Until (open the full pics for the detail):

 

 

This is the manual page which apparently wasn’t read:

 

 

OK, my adventure continues.  In my last installment, I’d got the motor pretty much stripped down. 

Firstly, I took all the engine mount bolts out except the bottom/back one (down near the swingarm).  I tilted the motor forward, by jamming a wooden hammer handle in between the frame and block to lever it down past that (stupid) tensioner thing.  Then I got a jack underneath it to support it, and removed the rear bolt and eased it away in a similar matter.  Then the motor came out and I calmly placed it on the ground….

… nah, didn’t think you’d buy that.  What really happened is I got the motor half out, and realised that the weight of the motor was being supported by the generator wiring which I’d neglected to remove:

 

A call was made to my friendly assistant, who came out and supported the motor while I removed wire clips and ties to extract this cable and then remove the motor from the bike:

 

Up onto the bench we go, and start pulling it down:

 

 

 

 

 

One thing which excited me greatly was attempting to remove the inspection plug from the generator cover.  This is about a one-inch threaded alloy plug, screwed into an alloy cover, with a 10mm hex key which can allegedly be used to undo it.  In practice, the hex key just stripped out the socket, like so:

 

So out came Mr Drill, followed closely by Mr Screwdriver (aided and abetted by Mr Hammer):

 

 

I’m getting through this very slowly, so I’ll save this as Part 1.

 

 

First, a little background.  I bought this ‘99 SV650S off a mate.  It has about 99,000 k’s on it, so it’s done some work.  I was expecting in the not too distant future to have to look at giving the motor some work - the rest of the bike is pretty much OK (body is good, has had a rear shock conversion done and the front forks revalved).

This past week, when riding to work I gave it a bit of stick and looked in the rear-view mirror to see a James Bond-style smokescreen coming out the back.  I don’t think it’s a broken ring, more likely worn rings or valve seals.  Anyway, I’ve decided to pull the motor out and give it a freshen-up.

Friday night and Saturday:

Last night I got most of the "bits" off the motor (exhaust, carbies, airbox etc).  Today has consisted of getting the motor out.

Have had some issues with the "engine mounting thrust adjuster".  This of course requires a "special tool", because figuring out how to make a fastener for this that only required an "unspecial tool" was a bit too much for Suzuki.  What this thing does is put tension across the frame, and there is a threaded bolt thing with a lock nut.  Not having the "special tool" on hand, I have had a bash at it (literally), and then made an attempt at fashioning a tool using a socket and the judicious use of an angle grinder.

That still didn’t work, so I’m left with this.  The inside:

Looks OK, doesn’t it? 

Here’s what’s left of the "main bit":

 

Click to view the full horror.

So far, that’s the extent of broken stuff.  Which is good for me - one breakage in about 10 hours is well below my normal average.

Here’s some other pics:

 

This here is the little tray I’m using to put fasteners/small stuff into.  I’m even labelling where they came from.  Good huh?  Worked beautifully until I knocked the bluddy thing over and messed it all up.

 

 

Gettin’ nekkid.

 

Airbox off, carbies.

 

 

Really nekkid.  Not much left…

 

Now I’m going to clean up the disaster area, get the motor onto the bench and start poking around.

 

*drool* 

 

OK.  So I’ve given up for the moment doing anything fancy with connecting to the Exchange server.  I tend to receive email on my PDA anyway, more so than on the PC, and OWA is sort of functional on Firefox.

So far, I’ve been using this PC more than I have been for a while (ie, when I had Windows on it!).  It’s been an interesting experience, as I’ve gone from having used Windows for longer than I care to remember and knowing it pretty much inside out, to now having to "think" about how I do even the most basic stuff (ie. installing software etc).

I’m a GUI junkie at heart, so I haven’t been getting into the terminal much, but that suits me for the moment.  

Today I’ve setup Azureus, and I’m starting to d/l a couple of TV shows ad stuff.  I’d recently moved from uTorrent to Azureus, which was fortuitous since I don’t think uTorrent seems to be available for *nix.

On the topic of installing software, I must say it’s a bit of a trip how software gets installed on Ubuntu, and I’ve got to say I like it!  I’ve been using Synaptic Package Manager (the GUI again!), and it’s odd to be able to go in and search for software, and then get a menu of piles of different stuff back.   

 In other news, I had a test ride of a new Triumph Sprint ST today.  I wanted one before I rode it, now I REALLY want one.  Will have to figure out how to increase my disposable income massively - I don’t need both these kidneys do I?