(Sigh) . This thread reminds me of the T120RV street tracker project i have sitting in the shop . Been spending all my time upgrading pc and simming (DCS) . You guys are really making me feel guilty for ignoring her !
Welcome to Mudspike @Svsmokey!
The way to look at it is money spent on sims is like an insurance policy for not getting knocked off a bike by a car drivers that don’t look.
Nah . In 40 years of riding , i would have considered it my fault if a car ever touched me . No excuse given the bike’s ability to control what happens .
Thanks for the welcome !
Welcome!
Oh boy, i rode a friends Husqvarna 300 two-stroke once. If you so much as looked at the throttle, you were flat on your back. Insane.
Thank you
Welcome to Mudspike @Svsmokey. Always nice to have a new voice join our little section of the interwebs.
Wheels
Thank you !
Today I had a bit of time (labour day) so I decided to clean the bike to work on it without getting more dirty than necessary.
I searched my shed for some fuel canisters and found a few. 10+5+5 liters. That should be sufficient (the tank has 18 liters).
I also used a bit of Nevr Dull to polish up the Chrome parts, and get rid of the rust on the fork.
Now the next step is to empty the fuel tank. Any hints?
Some people online suggest to actually remove the tank to do that, but I am a bit reluctant to do that to be honest, as I have never done any work on a motorbike and fear I might destroy something.
Do you think just siphoning it out the old fashioned way will work?
Removing the tank is easy, then you can drain it on a bench, it doesn’t drain without a vacuum and if the seal in the tank selector(on - off - Res) would be broken then it would have leaked onto the floor anyway. It’s usually two or three bolts to remove it, disconnect some drain hoses and you should be good to lift it off.
You could also the nut that keeps the main fuel line to the selector cable connected, that ought to drain it well. Dont forget to open up the tank fill door, to allow air in the tank whilst draining.
Old fashioned way works too! A filled up tank might be a bit heavy too so there’s no shame in draining it with one of those oilsump pumps they use for small boats and the like.
Fixed that for you.
Not sure if this would help, but when I am disassembling a bike and don’t have a shop manual, I usually find an online OEM parts dealer and pull up the diagram for the system that I am working on. Example:
https://www.bikebandit.com/oem-parts/2002-honda-interceptor-800-vfr800/o/m151297#sch100978
Thanks!
The thing mainly isn’t documentation though, I found a great site that has basically everything a skilled person needs to do all the work.
The problem is that I am not a skilled person.
It starts with simple things such as a hose being connected to a part. The howto says things like “remove it” or “connect it” but I really don’t know how as I have no experience at all with that kind of stuff. There are weird looking clamps. Do I need tools to open them? And when they are open, can I close them again? Will I need spare clamps in case they break? I have no clue.
And when I open and close all those fittings again, do I need to check their seals? And how?
I have terrible flashbacks back to when I tried to learn about plumbing from my father in law (who probably thinks I am an idiot after that…)
Probably going to wait until my brother can come over, look at it, and show me how it is done (he is skilled in mechanical stuff).
I agree. It’s best to have someone around who knows which end of the wrench to grab
From my experience with fuel lines they are usually clamped with a metal ring that can be losened or tightened with a screw.
Something like this:
I’ve also seen cable ties or no fastening at all.
In case of the first, you losen the scew, move the metal ring out of the way and try to remove the rubber line from the fitting without breaking it. Especially old lines can get stuck and almost appear to be glued. The art is to excert enough force without breaking stuff…
When I started to work on my bikes, the basics were the most difficult stuff and there is some kind of a learning curve. I ruined some threads and screw heads in the past and probably will do so in the future…
To follow up on miRage’s post - the other common hose clamp in the automotive world are these:
You’d commonly find these on coolant hoses in your car - but they come in many sizes. The trick with these is to pinch the “wings” together with pliers, gently slide them up the hose (or off the end if what they connect to allows it to slide over) and pull the hose off the barb. They don’t lock open - you have to keep em open, which is why you move them. They leave a depression in the hose where they were clamped on, which makes it easy to know where to put it back.
Some WD-40 and compressed air can help too with loosening it up.
Heck, WD-40 helps with most things…
If it should move but it doesn’t: WD40.
If it shouldn’t move but it does: Duct Tape.
Take it off. If you have too many little hoses mark them w marker or nail polish. It will be easy peasy lemon squeezy
It should only bei three hoses as far as I understand the tutorial.
One leading to the fuel cutoff valve, one overflow hose, and the ventilation hose.
Note: sorry if I use wrong English terms here. For most parts I have to Google the English names as I just don’t know them. Heck, I don’t know half of the German names!
Your English is fine. So you know not to mix them hoses up. That’s the main thing.