Anyway, Issue No1 was fork seals- last but one time out a fork seal started leaking.
I'd done the usual run-around with a sealmate but it didn’t cure it this time so time for a new set of seals- it’s overdue a fork oil change anyway as it hasn’t had one for probably 8-10 years so I can’t complain.
Issue No2 was a fuel tank/tap issue- on the last couple of outings I’ve had it die once or twice when the fuel tap is on the non-reserve position even with loads of fuel in the tank, it's always come alive again by switching onto reserve so not a biggie but something's obviously not right so that needed investigating too.
And the other thing is to fix or replace the speedo- it's been inoperative for over a year now, I've checked connections etc ( most of the wiring behind the headlight is pretty bad, it's got very brittle in it's old age and there are a fair few of (my) quick and dirty bodged up connections with chocolate blocks etc so it's an obvious place to look) , but nothing obvious there and suspect it may just be the wheel sensor as the display itself still works.
I’ve got a brand new boxed cheapo chinese universal type speedo in the garage that includes a (different thread size and 3-wire instead of 2) sensor, so if the problem is the sensor, I’m going to see is I can use that, as that’ll save me the £50 or so a KTM one costs, or I might see if I can fit the whole display as well , we'll see.
So first up the fuel tank/tap problem- I slipped that tank off and the tap out and it was immediately obvious-
The copper tube has absoloutely rotted away, I guess that’s at least in part due to ethanol based fueI- it did get very corroded a few years back when it was standing for a year, I managed to bring it back back it's obviously taken it's toll.
I gave it a blow through to clear the debris and for the moment have just crimped the end of the tube over and put it back. It means I’ll have to use reserve position all the time, but I will look to get a new tap at some point so that I have main and reserve, but it’ll do for the moment.
Next up is the fork seals.
This is where off-roaders like this are great, as there is no unnecesary tat on there and it’s literally a 5 minute job to drop the forks out and get them on the bench ( not forgetting to crack the top caps first while they are still in the yokes of course).
The WP USDs come apart easily, with no special tools needed which is a nice change from those horrible old 1970s/80s RWU forks with the annoying methods of securing the damper rod to the lower leg- no broom handles needed or other such such hassles here, it’s literally top cap off, remove the spring and associated gubbins, remove the circlip above the seal, and the lower leg can effectively be used a slide-hammer to knock the old seal out.
I started with the leg that had the popped seal first and as you can see from the above pic the colour , and quantity of ol in the legs was very different, not particauly surprising I guess as one was leaking heavily, and obviously pulling crap in too
This side was quite a nice colour considering how many years its been in there
Once its disassembled and cleaned, in the words of Mr Haynes, “reassembly is a reversal of removal", except you really do need a seal driver of the right size (48mm in this instance) to do it properly - mines the two-part black thing in the below pic, someone knocked it up on a 3D printer for me, although I will admit in the past I have used the old seal as a seal driver and cut it off with a Dremel afterwards.
Once the seal is in and the damper rod reassembled, it’s then time to add the new fork oil- the KTM rivet counters will tell you that you need Motrex 4w , I didn’t have that but did have Motul 5w on the shelf so that’s what has gone in.
Rather than adding a specific quantity, the supposed correct way is to set the level , ensuring of course that you’ve fully bled it by working the damper rod up and down until there is no more gugling or air bubbles- in a clean installation, I can’t really see why adding a specific quantity as per the olden days is technically inferior, but mI have a fork oil height tool , so I did it the recommended way with that and set it the fork oil height to 120mm from the top, which equates to somewhere between 400 & 500 ml per leg in these forks.
When that’s done, then it’s simply a matter of putting the spring back in , ensuring of course that you don’t forget the thrust washers, and then screwing the top cap back onto the damper rod, before nipping the cap back down onto the fork leg and then you’re done.
That was as far as I got yesterday before other things intervened, but both legs are back together and ready to go back in, it’s peeing down outside this morning so plan for today after my cornflakes is to sort the speedo ( and maybe even get that tail-tidy on the 890 too....
)- More to follow
( I know it was only 16 miles as it was the first time in a good few years that I'd I had a working speedo.... ) which meant that the new speedo, or anything else for that matter, didn’t get much of a work-out on that day as a result.
) but I’m pleased to report that the old girl has been tip-top since, and the new speedo has been working well, albeit it’s made things a bit fiddly with gloved hands when out, for reasons I’ll explain in a minute.
