New stem bearings, new chain, oil change, 5 hours including lunch!.

[Furbird]

Man, I am wore out now. I switched out to the All Balls tapered bearings, changed the oil, and put a new chain on the bike today. That steering stem bearing job is one of those things that I think all of us dread doing, but it really isn't that bad. I figured I'd be a little different, and I did mine with all the plastics still on and it was pretty easy. The most difficult part of teardown was removing the bracket that holds up the brake lines and the factory horn. Usually it wouldn't be that bad, but I have that Stebel Nautilus in the way, so it made it marginally a PITA. The only other issue I had was the nut that holds the top triple tree on. I don't know who at Honda had the bright idea of putting that thing on with an impact wrench, but I had a 5 foot cheater pipe and I still almost stripped it out on removal. It was WAY over 76 foot pounds!

After those things, everything else was a breeze. I followed the manual and the writeup on here by Pete in PA and it made life pretty simple. I actually did it with no special tools at all. I followed Pete's knock the race off with the dust seal trick and that worked great. To install the new bearing, I actually used the jack handle for my floor jack. I took the steering stem nut off with the old screwdriver and hammer trick, and tightened it back up by using the old "feeler" gauge (in other words, what felt right to me from lock to lock). I got the races out using an old jack handle from one of those 9.99 Autozone trolley jacks. Yes, I have a lot of jack handles laying around! Anyway, it's all back together, feels good with the suspension unloaded and loaded, and all without tipping the bike over! So thanks to all of you who have done this and offered your tips, and a special thanks to Pete for the use what you got in your garage tips.

Miraculously, Advance Auto Parts was open today, so I was able to go score the trusty Purolator Pure One PL14612 filter (they didn't have the PL14610 in stock, dammit). No plastics off for that one either.

Let me tell you something about my chain. Everybody and his brother uses rivet chains, so back at around 20k when my DID finally got to popping, I replaced it with a Tsubaki with a *shudder* clip-type master link. 22k miles later, after numerous wheelies, stoppies, dragstrip passes, nitrous runs, rainstorms, and a couple of 100 and somethinty somethin' bursts of speed, and the chain was finally ready to be replaced. Yes folks, the Tsubaki Sigma with a clip master link actually lasted that long with no issues and no lost clip after all that time. As a matter of fact, I actually had to chisel the clip off of the master link because it was on so tightly. What is so great (and so time consuming) about the Tsubaki chain is that the clip master links have a side plate that actually has to be pressed on, it's not just a slide it together, clip it on, and hope it holds. So even once I chiseled the clip off, I still had to lay the chain on the ground and drive a screwdriver between the plate and the links to get it apart. So the clip does not take the stress of holding the chain together, the side plate does, just like a rivet-type master link. The Tsubaki Sigma is also the only clip-type link chain that I've found that is rated for a Bird or a Busa, and for all of you who just aren't sure, they also offer a rivet-style master link option. It's also about $30 cheaper than the DID.

[blackhawkxx]

Was this your day Off? Sounds like you worked harder than at work.

[Furbird]

Yep, off on the 4th. And you're right, that was way more work than at work. I work on commission, and right now we are dead, which is why I'm typing this at work right now!