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Project '98 Suzuki Across

Discussion in 'Your 250cc Projects' started by Laceysnr, Aug 8, 2019.

  1. Cbuzz

    Cbuzz Well-Known Member Dirty Wheel Club

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    What area u in? May be able to have a squiz if your local over a beer, second set of eyes in never hurt. I must have rebuilt my across carbs at least 1000 times :lolsign:
     
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  2. Laceysnr

    Laceysnr Active Member

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    That's the thing though, I can't drop it down! The screw's wound out, mixture screws are in stock position (won't start if I wind them in any further), and it's revving like a nutter.
     
  3. Laceysnr

    Laceysnr Active Member

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    I'm in Mordialloc (Melbourne SE). She's pefectly ridable even though it's out of whack so can travel.

    Put new brake pads on last night, gonna take her out this evening to bed them in a bit. Front brake lever already feels a tonne better though, they old ones were more worn than I thought.
     
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  4. Frankster

    Frankster Grey Pride...Adventure before Dementia Staff Member Premium Member Ride and Events Crew

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    Did you try and lower the idle as @my67xr suggested? I'm away until November, otherwise I'd offer to have a look (I'm in Oakleigh when in Melbourne).
     
  5. Laceysnr

    Laceysnr Active Member

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    I can't! The adjustment is all the way out! I'll keep on tinkering and if I get nowhere might chase you up when you're here.
     
  6. Frankster

    Frankster Grey Pride...Adventure before Dementia Staff Member Premium Member Ride and Events Crew

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    No probs. I'll keep an eye on this thread.
     
  7. Laceysnr

    Laceysnr Active Member

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    Well, I kept on dicking around with it and worked out the idle adjustment screw wasn't fully backed out after all, the damned thing was looping up and not rotating. Yanked it as I turned and managed to get that last little bit of adjustment out of it, which dropped the revs down while hot to where they should be. Once I did that this morning I got the carbtune back on there and managed to get them in sync at last.

    Current issues:

    * Minor hesitations still over 11k rpm
    * Very minor fork oil leak on the LHS

    Never done anything with forks but seems like the first step would be to just check for any grit etc. caught in the seal.
     
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  8. GreyImport

    GreyImport Administrator Staff Member The Chief Contributing Member

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  9. Laceysnr

    Laceysnr Active Member

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    Awesome, thanks! Will grab one and see how I go.

    Rode to a mate's place on Thursday morning and found out the hard way that my second-stage fuel light isn't working. The light works as they both light up after turning the engine off, so it must be either the sensor or a bad connection somewhere. Luckily I was only a couple of k's away from my mate so he brought some fuel for me. Crazy handy being able to carry a laptop around without needing a bag :D
     
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  10. Jethalter

    Jethalter Well-Known Member

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    The seal fixes to me are just a cheap excuse not to do them properly. Seals are cheap and oil is cheap and it transforms it. Not to mention do you know how much oil you've lost to get them equal. Dirt bikes esp with usd forks i can understand.

    For the sake of literally 2 hours of your life, just put new seals and oil in. Its easy as.
     
    Last edited: Oct 18, 2019
  11. Laceysnr

    Laceysnr Active Member

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    I'll do some reading/watching - like I said, never touched forks before and will have to find a way to get the bike up in the air too. When I took the back of the bike apart I got the frame on top of the axle stands I use for my car, but not sure if I can do that with everything in place.

    Are seals pretty generic based on the fork diameter?
     
  12. Jethalter

    Jethalter Well-Known Member

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  13. GreyImport

    GreyImport Administrator Staff Member The Chief Contributing Member

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    Easy as ? ... yea right ... go read up on doing USD forks on a ZXR


    And dont presume everyone has the skill to do more intricate jobs on bikes .... or the 'tools to do it' ... especially SSTs

    Sure the 'seal fixes' are a temporary thing , but sure beats oil pissing out all over everything until it can be done properly
     
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  14. Jethalter

    Jethalter Well-Known Member

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    I just did a set of usd forks, wasn't much different to regular forks. if anything actually easier.

    The special tool you can buy a universal one if need be, its a cone on the end of a rod, or you can use a nut on a long bit of all thread provided its the right size nut.

    There really isn't much too them. And we talking about across forks here, the hardest bit is literally getting the bolt from underneath without the internal spinning hence a sst makes it easier.
     
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  15. Jethalter

    Jethalter Well-Known Member

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    71774568_135818101043580_2455724843719458816_o.jpg

    Here is an example, fork oil old on the left, new on the right, from 6 year old forks. Left fork had 350ml, Right fork had 280ml, Both are meant to have 380ml.

    There are plenty of capable people to do them, there are always others willing to help if people ask for it.
     
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  16. Laceysnr

    Laceysnr Active Member

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    Given that you've done Across ones before @Jethalter I may well be asking you :)
     
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  17. Laceysnr

    Laceysnr Active Member

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    Welp, I finally decided to get stuck into the forks after ordering some new seals just before Christmas. Watched a few videos to get an idea of what was to come, and of course checked out the service manual too. All in all it wasn't a bad job, but it took a while being my first time to learn a few lessons.

    First off I did my best to remove as much of the corrosion on the stanchions as I could. I polished the buggers for ages with a heap of aluminium foil and a fair amount of Silvo. They've still got some marks, and you can still feel them, but they're far smoother than they were before and I don't think they're going to cut up the new seals.

    Before shot of the one that was pissing oil everywhere:
    before.jpg

    And then after about half an hour and many pieces of foil:

    after.jpg

    I'll probably revisit them again later on but wanted to get it back on the road and really don't want to fork (pun intended) out for re-chroming right now.

    The only other crappy bit, which was to be expected, was getting the damper bolts out of the bottom - sure enough after enough torque was applied the damper just started spinning in the leg and there was no way I was going to shift that bolt by hand. In the end it took a combination of things: first, heat from a heat gun, second an impact driver I borrowed from a mate fitted with a hex-key socket I got from Bunnings, and finally pressure. Putting the spring, spacer and end cap back on wasn't enough to stop the damper spinning, but by putting the fork upside down and compressing it while I pulled the trigger did the trick for both legs. The old oil was clearly 20+ years old and super nasty, now she's back together with new seals and nice fresh oil (and enough oil! one leg was 100ml down). Rode her to work today and not only did she feel much more planted, but was diving far less under braking and there was no sign of fork oil on the tubes when I arrived. Result!

    The oil that was in them was very nasty, clearly 22 years old, and now it's back on the road and not
     
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  18. Murdo

    Murdo The Good Doctor Staff Member Contributing Member Ride and Events Crew

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    Nice work. Sometimes a piece of rod with ground end or old bolt welded to it and put down the inside will hold the damper rod to undo the damper bolt.
    No matter how much you polish the chrome the seals will still leak again after a while as those little chips and rust craters will still damage the seals. Even dried insects will damage the seal lips with enough up and down movement. If you plan to keep the bike and do some Km's on it then start saving for a re-chrome.
     
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