I think about this every day… wait, doesn’t it feel like I just got here?
A day goes by in a flash.
When I was in my twenties or thirties, time felt longer.
I’ve gotten older, but my concentration has gone up and time feels shorter now.
Watch out for remnants of this gasket—there’s probably iron metal in there.
Have you ever had a piece travel down the cam chain tunnel and get caught on the crank gear?
Taking a shortcut meant I had to remove the cam and the H-plate and fish it out…
Shortcuts always bite you, so the old saying “more haste, less speed” really is true.
Thinking about it now.
This is only the second time in my life.
The front head cover bolt won’t come out.
If you turn the head cover bolts gently, gently,
you might hear “oh? snap!” and think “no way, really?”
*The front one especially is pretty rusty.
When I first loosened it, I got “hmm?” so I sprayed it with penetrating oil and left it.
Loosening and tightening maybe 200 times? It took about 20 minutes to get one bolt out. Compared to snapping it or stripping the threads, that’s quick.
There’s a bit of galling on this one (the bolt on the right in the photo), so we’ll replace it.
*We have used ones in stock, so we’ll paint and reuse it.
Small things can make a big difference in how young it looks.
If you add restoration elements to maintenance, the condition and appearance will always improve.
The spark plug is pretty corroded. The body is oxidized, so we’ll replace it.
The cam had a little bit of scuffing. For 80,000 kilometers, I’d say it’s in pretty good condition.
Since it seems to be used for quite a bit of long-distance touring, maintaining stable oil pressure while riding keeps the cam in good shape.
City riding with repeated stop-and-go is really the hardest on it. &
The inside of the engine was clean too.
The cam chain tension is fine.
Spin it around and check the overall condition to see if there’s excessive one-sided stretch.
Chains don’t stretch uniformly all over,
so you can check the chain tension by the play in forward and reverse rotation.
We’ll clean up the pulser cover bolts too.
One location gets a gasket. We always use a copper gasket here instead of the OEM one.
*A request:
Please don’t apply liquid sealant to this type of head cover gasket.
Even if you do, honestly the benefit in preventing leaks is minimal.
Leaks = the gasket is worn out (setting aside other factors).
The gasket has a retainer too, so unless you put the head cover on really roughly, it shouldn’t come off. Let’s keep it simple and clean for the next service too.
The head cover paint is peeling, but I think it looks pretty sharp now.
Hmm, is it better to have something that’s rewarding to work on, or something simple?
It’s a tough call, but a clean finish should be better…
The oil-cooled maintenance is complete. It’s nice to have parts in stock.
