What did you do to your Rocket today?

[Taurobiker]

Today the YSS rear shock has arrived

 

[JRock]

I've had the YSS shocks for 10 years. Much better than stock.

 

[Taurobiker]

I want to dismantle the swingarm and take out the universal joint arm to check and grease the gears, I need a ring spanner and I have made it with a 30 mm cup

 

[tribal]

9 hour bike Work day.

1. Continued deep cleaning the 05 - used a metal brush with Oxi-Clean Degreaser and Cleaner on the engine this round. The finish was so cracked and discolored I didn't
think I had much to lose. I am happy with the results but just cleaning will not correct the color variations - especially on the right side.
2. Pulled rear drive. After 65,000 miles since last inspecting the replaced drive shaft it looks fine. Cleaned and lubed the splines. I probably should do it again in 20K.
3. Refreshed fluid in rear drive after 15K miles. Cleaned and lubed the wheel hub splines.
4. Scrubbed and then buffed the rear wheel with Mothers Aluminum polish. The finish is in bad shape and needs to be stripped and powder coated at some point.
5. Stripped Plasti-Dip and bad paint from belly pan yesterday and redid it today.
6. Ordered 3 triangle Triumph badges from Triumph badges and patches designed by Rocke's Patches. Full range of patches and badges for Triumph motorbikes and upgrade parts to replace the scratched and nicked ones.
7. Tried to cleanup and lube the Rear Brake pistons. Refreshed the rear brake fluid. I need to order the rebuild kit and new brake line if this doesn't fix the poor braking.
8. Polished with 'The Last Coat'.
9. Painted the inside of the muffler exits with Red Very High Temperature paint. I might go looking for Orange VHT - or not..

Engine before shot (15 years old, high mileage,). Note the replaced cover difference from the torsion Assy repair done 65,000 miles earlier.

Engine after shots: (yes, I have an oil hose to replace)

The top right side of the engine really takes a beating with the high heat. The wire brush had no effect in that area.

 

[Taurobiker]

Tribal you have photos of the process of disassembly and revision of the transmission arm? What grease did you use? I ordered the Mobile XHP-222

What is the Last Coat? Is it for polishing the body?

Thank you, mate.

 

[Kojack1970]

Got the new Avon Cobra Chromes mounted on Tuesday and took the day off today to remount the rear wheel. Greased the rear splines before putting on the rear wheel. Also, cleaned up the rear wheel and a light polish. Trying shark hide as a protective coating / oxidation preventative. We'll see. Also pulled the forks, drained the oil and swapped the springs to progressives, finally. Went with the 7.5w fork oil and a 110mm air gap. Can't wait to see what difference that makes. It's all back together, just needs a good wash, detail and some warmer weather.

 

[Kevin frazier]

Today the YSS rear shock has arrived

Upside down cmon man

 

[tribal]

Tribal you have photos of the process of disassembly and revision of the transmission arm? What grease did you use? I ordered the Mobile XHP-222

What is the Last Coat? Is it for polishing the body?

Thank you, mate.

Hello,

No photos this time sorry. See manual starting on page 6.3
Final drive fluid change recommendation is every 20,000 miles. It's a little extra effort to grease the axle splines (this PM item does not show in the original maintenance list!!). I do it every 40K.

Just drain the final drive unit (AKA Bevel Box) (nut is at bottom), then remove the rear tire, then disconnect left shock, then remove the 4 bolts holding the assembly
on. Pull it out slowly - it is heavy. Perhaps have a box under it to lay it on.

Molybdenum Disulphide grease is called for.

I use Amsoil Series 2000 fully-synthetic high performance lithium complex racing grease for the axle and wheel splines.

Install drive assembly tighten all the bevel box nuts to 20 Nm in a criss-cross manner, then to 64 Nm criss-cross.

Install shock!

Install bottom plug - 15NM - do not overtighten!! Fill with fluid until it drips out. My manual calls for Mobilube 1 SHe 75W/90 fUlly synthetic hypoid oil or equivalent.
I have been using SuperTech Synthetic blend SAE 75W-90 Gear Lubricant heavy duty extreme pressure API service GL-5 as that is what was available. 1Qt lasts a long time but I may switch to fully-synthetic when its gone.

Install tire.

Optionally wash and dry and apply TLC (The Last Coat) Welcome to The Last Coat: Get a World-Class Shine in Half the Time!. It is the best man-made polymer wax I've ever used.
It goes on with little product using microfibre cloth, flip it over and buff to a long lasting shine. Use it on everything. I even do my kitchen appliances to keep stuff from sticking.

There are a lot of products this year stating they are spray-on wipe-off ceramics. I tried one this week and it was a LOT harder to buff out than TLC and the shine was about the same. It left spots everywhere and it was a lot of work to get them out.

Professionally applied ceramic coating is expensive but can last years but I'm not sure about these new cheap products.

TLC lasts 3 months with occasional reapplication during washes. You can also use over ceramic coating and you can also use natural wax over TLC to get a deeper shine but carnauba wax lasts as little as 3 days in direct sunshine.

 

[tribal]

So it was a bit nipply this morning working on my new accessory connector in the driveway but I wasn't expecting snow flurries. Then again it's only May...

My goal was to install the new Custom Cruiser Chrome trailer hitch and do some yard work.

How hard could it be with two-step instructions with pictures and only 6 bolts? I figured an hour or two tops. Wrong.

INSTALLATION :
1- Les 2 côtés boulonnent sur les pédales passager.
2- Les barres d'aluminium boulonnent sous l'aile sur le dernier boulon.

Huh? I guess I wasted two years of French in High School.

1- Both sides bolt on rear foot-pegs.
2- Aluminium braces bolt under rear fender on rear bolt.

Issue 1 - I upgraded to chrome braces but they are a different length and holes are off. Hmm, neither of them fit. WTF.
After trying numerous things and scratching my head I finally realized that the braces were sized for an OEM bike which mine ain't.
1" lower shocks plus 245/50 tire = 1.5" lower. I had to drill new holes and cut the braces to fit my setup.

Issue 2 - No room on fender bolt to mount the brace to. No bolts or nuts supplied for that either. Needed to buy M8-1.25 X 40MM bolts, nuts and lock washers.
Issue 3 - Rear pegs wouldn't fold up with default kit. I had to add 3 washers on each side to give clearance.
Issue 4 - With the 245/50 tire the bottom brace bolts looked too close. Redid both sides to improve bolt clearance.
Issue 5 - Way too many bolt and nut combinations. Frustrating to have to keep swapping sockets and spanners.
Issue 6 - Side-mount plate bracket won't fit with hitch. Wanted to throw something at the Covid walkers but fabricated a bracket extension instead.
Issue 7 - Messing with the plate broke my light for good. It was already cracked and held together with zip ties but now I need to buy two small LED lights.
Issue 8 - Fiddling with the fender bolts and hitch bracket broke the left blinker wires. I spent an hour trying to squeeze my hands up under there to strip
the wires but they kept breaking. I will have to pull them all the way out and replace with new wires. OMFG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think it took me 9 hours including a lunch run and stop at Home Depot for bolts but the hitch is now installed.

Any bets that the trailer wiring install will go smoothly?

 

[Taurobiker]

Thank you very much @tribal I will look for the TLC product

I want to disassemble the universal joint arm completely and also check the gears at the junction with the engine, my R3 has 30k kms, the grease I see on the wheel is in good condition maybe I should wait more kilometers to disassemble the whole universal joint arm but now I have disassembled many parts of the bike and I think it's a good time to check it

Thank you very much Tribal for your information