Greetings all,
I'd like to ring in on the subject of Hayne's manual omissions with a
question, followed by a true story that may prevent others from unneccesary
grief with a trick or two I pulled out of somewhere.
My bike is an '80 650-G that served PO for many years, then it sat for
about six years in a barn. I'm doing a slow but Spock- methodical rehab, and
I figured I'd do all the prudent checks to make sure it's right.
One problem that led to it being parked was that the back brake stuck.
You could ride it, but if you used the back brake the pedal wouldn't come
back up. You could pull it back up with your foot or hand, and the brake
wouldn't drag. Not good.
I put it up on the centerstand, and removed the wheel. Simple. Opened
the brakes and the shoes were pretty much worn completely. Okay. Ordered
some more from MAW. A couple of days' wait for the shoes plus the tire on
the way. Got a couple of days to tinker.
Today I took the shocks loose, and proceeded to check the swing arm
bearings for side to side movement as well as smoothness of stroke. What
Haynes leaves out is that if you tie the shocks out of the way with zip
ties, you can get a feel for movement without the swing arm smacking into
the shocks that just kinda dangle in the way. Mine felt nice and smooth up
and down, and side to side, although with the machine on the centerstand on
a tile floor you couldn't really shake too hard. I figured the bearings to
be ok. (wrong)
Leaving that for the moment, with the tire out of the way I had a half a
good look at the brake pedal mechanism. Even disconnected from the brakes,
as well as the return spring the pedal took way more effort to move ten
degrees or so. Not good. Hmmn. Maybe I'll Just Push It Out And Lube It Like
The Haynes Manual Picture.
My Haynes manual has a picture (p.170 in the XJ650 and Xj750 '80-'82) of
a happy rear brake I guess I used to call bell-crank slid out of it's normal
position towards the inside of the bike. The helpfull caption reads "Link
can be displaced inwards to permit greasing" I'll admit that said photo is
vague in which model such ease of access could be for. It would be easy in
deluding yourself to feel that that's all you have to do.
What the manual is leaving out is that in order to get such access (as
well as such a clear and it's easy! photo for your repair manual) you have
to take off the swingarm first.
There's no way around it. So, ok, the book says to Prise the final
driveshaft gaiter off the box and gain access to the drive shaft flange,
etc. and slacken four flange bolts , turning the flange as necessary to gain
access to bolts.
But it's like taking off a u-joint on a rear wheel drive car. Those four
bolts need to be tight because they're passing along all that pushes you
along.
What the book could mention is that in order to break loose those extra
tight bolts....it helps a lot if you put the back wheel back on. Drop the
bike into gear. If, like me, you have the shocks disconnected, the yoke
holding the u-joint will rub on the tube, but not enough to break loose the
bolts. With enough effort, the tire will turn, but it's less effort than you
need to break the bolts free. My solution was a big enough rubber
mallet(under the tire) that kept the tire from rotating. As I broke one
free, i'd find neutral, pick up the tire and rotate it until I had a clear
shot at the next bolt, then back into gear. The rest was easy.
After I got the pivot bolts loose, it fell right out. I will warn you
that the proper tension for these things are in the 70 ft/lbs area. I was
careful removing the grease seals to the swing arm bearings. I thought they
were okay, and the bearings were in good shape, but covered with surface
rust, and what was left of the grease had dried into a nice mud-like grunge.
With the swing arm out of the way, using a five pound dead blow hammer
and many swings, I got the brake pivot crank out. It was covered with this
glue like brown funk, as was the sleeve in the frame it goes through.
Luckily not bent. A little cleaning and some grease, it'll be okay.
Please, fellow travelers, if you're thinking about this kind of
maintenance, I hope I helped.
Matt