Re-baking my ST1300 (Almost full redoing)

[draser]

I found a bearing broken in the rear wheel.

Yeah, I had that, the cage was gone along with several balls... reading the related forum info, it seems to be a relative common occurrence, that's why I took the flange apart to inspect these particular bearings. Used the forum article for pre-job preparation. Article was useful to me to learn that bearings go in/out relatively easily, don't have to pound a lot.

The rubber boot between the swing arm and the engine did not coupled good at the engine side, it's too big (did that happened to your bike?)

Yes, had a similar issue and fiddled with the boot a while, at the end I worked the swingarm up/down to ensure boot stays put.

 

[leondante]

Yeah, I had that, the cage was gone along with several balls... reading the related forum info, it seems to be a relative common occurrence, that's why I took the flange apart to inspect these particular bearings. Used the forum article for pre-job preparation. Article was useful to me to learn that bearings go in/out relatively easily, don't have to pound a lot.






Yes, had a similar issue and fiddled with the boot a while, at the end I worked the swingarm up/down to ensure boot stays put.

About the bearings, I agree. My press didn't need force at all, really easy to take them out.

I found some not-so-nice rattlings in some other bearings of both wheels. I would say they were at 80% of use. Also they smelled a lot, bad smell, bad grease, passed out for sure. Good thing to change them all, I'll be happy with that, even if it's not really necessary right now. I have heavy fidget spinners now, with funny rattling and every luxury thing.

About the rubber boot, in my situation it was a big gap, like 5 mm half-moon opening. I really don't want dirt to get in there. I really don't understand the reason of the gap, because both parts were fine. . I don't think is a bad thing to close it, so I've done it. Was not about pushing the swing arm or so, simply the thing was not the correct size or was intentionally oversized for a purpose I really ignore.

 

[leondante]

Yesterday and today were great days.

Finally the parts for my MIG/MAG welder arrived so I fixed it and used it. I created the tools for tightening the lock nut of the pivot of the swing arm, and the one for the steering stem lock nut and adjusting nut.

As you can see in the pictures, the tools were explicitly NOT intended to be but a brutal, massive, unified piece of scrappy (or crappy?) steel, just precise enough not to damage the nuts, and cautiously worked out to have well centered the square hole for the torque wrench. The thing worked extremely well. It took like three hour or so to polish and make the teeth of both things, so they fit perfectly in the nuts. The swing arm one should take 108 Nm. That's a pretty good tightening. This kinda mole stuff beared that torque with not a single sign of stress, bending, anything. It was asking for more and MORE. Really happy. Now I have the steering and the swing arm perfectly put on place.

About the steering. Mine had bumps and lumps and was loosey. I suggest to check yours for that if you have many years or kms/miles on it. bearings for some reason don't get broken or deformed, but anyways in the center position usually the thing get a weird bump that dissappears with a rework as simply as opening, cleaning, re-greasing and re-tightening. Mine now is as perfect as new. You have in the workshop manual how to check it. It has to need around 2 kg for moving. Thing really has to be tight to be good. Mine was not as close to that. Now it is.

Today finished that tools, tightened that thing, cleaned the brake disks and screws holes with a thread tap and put them again with their screw glue.

I'm starting brakes tomorrow I think. It will be full opening of brake calipers, cleaning of the tubing and reinstalling everything in place. I think the front fork will go first. Also I'm opening them for checking and changing the oil seals. Thing also had a nice greasy coating. Before dissasembing I'm checking the oil level in them to see if they really lack oil and the amount. If they don't lack oil that would mean that it should be a brakes leak, I think...

 

[leondante]

Today I opened, checked, cleaned and blablabla the fork things. Oil had that fishy smell that tells you that it's already passed out as Tutan Kamon. The bushings were said in the workshop manual that if they had more than 3/4 of the teflon coating off they should be changed. Damn thing had not only the teflon, but the copper and the steel too, almost. So I'm changing that too, and the oil seals. Almost all was full of a kind of greasy coating inside, rotten, weird thing. All was cleaned as hard as I can with gasoline. Hard to take all of that thing without a good agent to dissolve it. And I'm not as rich as paying weird thinner for this purpose.

So, after doing that, I started with the brake calipers, just the rear one for today. And just opening it. I've done this before and I can say that brakes were stout for sure, really dirty and full of crappy crap everywhere grabbing those pistons back. I hope I can get them as new as I did with some many others before. If seals are OK it will be easy. By now the rear one was bad. But fixable, as I see by the moment.

 

[draser]

Today finished that tools, tightened that thing

I used a cheap socket of appropriate size and my grinder to make me the swingarm tool, below. The existing tools I had used for other bikes did not work, of course, due to wrong size.

 

[leondante]

I used a cheap socket of appropriate size and my grinder to make me the swingarm tool, below. The existing tools I had used for other bikes did not work, of course, due to wrong size.

Yeah, I've done that before, but this time I wanted to be able to put a wrench inside to prevent the pivot bolt from turning with the nut. In the other hand I have not cheap sockets at hand and buying them was longer than creating one, as I have to travel. I live far from tool's stores.