Remove the rear cowl

[kenm]

Hi,

 

I was considering removing the rear cowl of my 2000 V11S. It looks pretty easy except getting at the 2 rear nuts. How do you get at them? I guess that it wouldn't be too bad if you first removed the rear wheel.

 

So, how do you remove the rear nuts to get the cowling free?

 

Regards,

 

-ken

[stormsedge]

Ken, I'm not sure which rear nuts you are referring to...I've had my cowl disconnected and all but off---do not remember anything I could not reach. Do you mean the rear hugger fender? k

[al_roethlisberger]

Indeed, there are only 6 bolts that hold the rear cowl/carapace on the bike.

 

If this is not your experience, we may have a semantics issue, and be talking about different part

 

 

So to clarify, I am talking about the plastic cowl that covers the rear subframe supporting the seat. This cowl is painted body-color, and is the part that has the script decal "Le Mans", "V11 Sport", "Scura", "Tenni", etc... on both sides.

 

If this is the part to which you are referring, there are 6 easily accessible bolts that hold it on.

 

The first two are up at the front, near the tank, holding the sides of the cowl to the frame. These are large socket/allen chrome bolts.

 

The second two are beside the tool tray, on top of the cowl(under the seat), right before and on either side the rear "hump" of the cowl/carapace. These are two gray socket/allen bolts that are recessed.

 

The final two bolts are located right behind the exhaust hangars(passenger peg brackets) up under the cowl. They are black dome head, allen/socket bolts, again screwed up under the cowl into the seat subframe.

 

Remove these 6 bolts and the cowl can be removed.

 

The "trick" at this point is that the cowl can most easily be removed by sliding the cowl straight back, then once the cowl is clear of the frame parts, lift up and away gently. Also, to get the cowl to slide back, grab the front of the cowl, up where the bolts by the tank are mounted, and gently pull the cowl apart so that the front can slide back without interfering with the subframe bits.

 

On some bikes, you may also have to insert your hand to "unclip" the black cubby hole from its catching on the top edge of the inside of the cubby hole 2002-ish and later bikes have in the hump of the tail piece. I belive earlier bikes have a solid tail cowl that doesn't have this cavity.

 

Well, hope that helps.

 

You should not have to remove anything major to remove this body part, and it should take no more than about 10 minutes once you figure out teh routine.

 

Good luck.

 

al

 

 

 

P.S.

 

The hugger is only held on by 4 bolts into the sides of the swingarm, and this can also be removed in minutes without having to remove any major components.