Finally got my bike working! (the dirt bike that is). Bloody frustrating job, and I was almost ready to pack it in last night... Drain the oil, and go to remove the clutch cover. hmm, brake lever and master brake cylinder are in the way. OK, remove them... oh wait, part of the coolant system's also in the way. Alright, drain coolant as well, go to remove that... nup, can't get to one of the bolts because the exhaust pipe's in the way. Alright, go to remove that... nup, fuel tanks in the way. Ok, so remove fuel tank, then exhaust pipe, then coolant pipe... OK, now the hoses for the 2 stroke oil pump's in the way. Remove those, and clamp the hoses so the 2 stroke oil doesn't leak everywhere. Loose half a litre of the stuff during the process regardless. Finally take the clutch cover off, take the clutch basket apart and pull out the old clutch plates. I take a moment to admire the mirror smooth surface of the clutch plates (which should be rough as sandpaper - did a real good job on them, I did), and then replaced them with new ones and put it all back together: Clutch case on 2 stroke oil hoses in Bleed the oil pump (loosing yet more oil in the process). coolant pipe on. exhaust on. Fuel tank on. brake lever on. Refill bike with coolant. Go to put the oil drain bolt back in so I can fill with oil... tighten it up... and SNAP. Bolt snaps off in the crank case. fck fck fckity fck. Trip to bunnings to buy necessary tools to drill the bolt out. Drain coolant. fuel tank off exhaust pipe off coolant pipe off brake lever off oil hoses out clutch cover off drill out bolt (actually quite easy once I could get to the bolt) clutch cover on oil hoses in bleed the oil system again brake lever on coolant pipe on refill bike with coolant exhaust on fuel tank on put oil-drain bolt in. fill with oil Start up bike to test it... but something's wrong. the clutch lever won't budge and the clutch is permanently disengaged - the bike might as well have been turned off for all the power that was getting to the rear wheel. I also notice that coolant is leaking from the coolant pipe - it appears that I broke the o-ring when I reassembled it. fck fck fckity fck. Trip to autobahn to buy an o-ring. Trip to joe's motorcycles to ask what problem with clutch might be. They offer no advice except "you must've put something back wrong." Well, no sh!t. I go to the servo to buy more oil and more coolant, then return to the bike... Drain coolant Drain oil fuel tank off exhaust pipe off coolant pipe off brake lever off oil hoses out clutch cover off Take the clutch apart. Find out that I haven't properly aligned the clutch basket with it's cover. Fix the problem and put it back together. Replace the broken o-ring. clutch cover on - this time testing clutch before re-assembling everything to make sure it has movement. It moves properly, and feels right. sooo... oil hoses in bleed oil system brake lever on coolant pipe on refill bike with coolant exhaust on fuel tank on put oil-drain bolt in fill with oil Start bike to test. Clutch movement feels normal. Disengage clutch, click it into 1st gear, slowly let clutch out... and out... and out... and... and fck! it doesn't engage. fck FCKITY FCKITY fck! I stand around for a bit, thinking that I'm obviously not going to make a mechanic. I've got no idea wtf's wrong and there's no fcking way I'm gonna take it apart a fourth time. I go upstairs and get a beer. I sit and watch the motoGP and drink a few more beers. Somewhere in the middle of an epic battle between valentino rossi and loris capirossi, an idea comes to me. After the race I go back down to the bike, and check the tension on the clutch cable. Too tight. I retention the clutch cable, start the bike up and slip it into first. SUCCESS! The fcken clutch finally engaged and power was getting to the rear wheel. Man it felt good to ride it to work this morning. No more riding the pink princess bike... or at least for a while, anyway.
I can’t even remember how many times **** like that has happened. I have found the best thing is to just walk away to cool off a bit.
