Sunday Ride

[auldy]

Hi All,

well a beautiful sunny day in Sydney today, for winter that is, thought i'd take the Scura for a short blat. Went out along the freeway looked down to check the speed, speedo not working, ah well, broken cable will return home. Get home, mate rings up come over for coffee. Got no speedo but what the hell its only 15 kilometres to his place will make my way over. Get about ten km, changing down through the gears for the lights, thats strange locked in gear, the dreaded transmission spring failure. Limp back home in second gear and put her into the garage. Left front fork also leaking oil, ah well shit happens, as long as it's only in threes. And yes it appears the transmission spring journal is 16mm instead of the recommended 15mm. It's a long weekend here, what the F*#K i'll have a beer.

 

Cheers

Auldy

 

[Martin Barrett]

thats a shame, as you spent all summer on the project. Hope it doesn't take you too long to sort it and that there are plenty of nice days once done.

[Admin Jaap]

It's winter in OZ so you won't be riding anyway with all that snow, hail, rain, ice and salt on the roads... Wintertime is time for a project!

[Guest Vince]

It's winter in OZ so you won't be riding anyway with all that snow, hail, rain, ice and salt on the roads...   Wintertime is time for a project!

54116[/snapback]

22 c and the longest drought in history,there is plenty of riding going on here

[auldy]

Hi All,

Went to my local dealer today, sorry no speedo cables and the inner cable is not serviced seperately. Will probably get an inner cable made up. Transmission spring, sorry none in Australia, will have to order from the factory. I did't bother, just emailed Harpers Moto Guzzi to see if they have any, they were very helpful before. Will pull the forks out and have the seals replaced and new oil.

 

Thank God its winter over here

 

Pass me another beer anyway

 

Cheers

Auldy

[Baldini]

Auldy,

 

Re the seals. I'm on 3rd set in 13K miles. They seem to go quick. Latest set I just put in have an extended lip which is sposed to help. check you get these. (course they may not be any better!)

 

Also I mean to fit an Aprilia style mguard should give stanchions more protection.

 

KB

[not_scooter_Scura!]

Hey Auldy, another Scura in Sydney aye...

 

sorry to hear about your troubles, I am almost in permanent fear of all the stuff that can go wrong (with any bike really), but I gotta say I have a smile each time I ride.

 

I really should check that gearshift boss diameter. (can that be done without pulling much apart?)

 

I'll keep an eye out for ya mate, if you see me ( pic ) yell out

 

n_s_S!

[guzzi323]

Re the seals. I'm on 3rd set in 13K miles. They seem to go quick. Latest set I just put in have an extended lip which is sposed to help. check you get these.

 

I just replaced my seal a week ago for the fourth time at 27K. I guess I should feel lucky I'm getting so many miles out of them.

This time I only replaced the leaking one since I'm going broke buying Ohlins seals and oil. The nice thing is we know our fork internals are nice and clean with these regular oil changes.

 

Baldini, is that extended lip seal an Ohlins part or simply a correctly sized aftermarket seal?

 

Last time the seals went out I ordered up a few extra seals and bottles of oil. Once those are gone I'm going to experiment with aftermarket stuff.

 

Are you using official Ohlins green fork seal grease? I ordered some the last time the seals went hoping it would be the answer to the problem. I may have helped a bit, but it certainly didn't solve the problem.

 

At least they're easy to work on, eh?

 

johnk

[Baldini]

... is that extended lip seal an Ohlins part or simply a correctly sized aftermarket seal.............Are you using official Ohlins green fork seal grease?.....

 

John,

 

The seals are Ohlins parts, supplied as latest spec for the R&T forks. Ohlins shop said the idea of the ext lip is to push any dirt that gets past the scraper/dust cover away from the sealing surfaces...we'll see <_>

 

I'm using the red Ohlins grease. I believe that is spec now rather than green, tho I don't know what the difference is. Anyhow, Ohlins shop supplied for these forks so I assume it's correct.

 

Bike is mostly only out in good weather & I keep it clean, so it ain't that that's causing leaks. I don't wheely it but roads are fairly bumpy sometimes, it's set up fairly stiff & I do use full travel.

 

Shop reckoned Ohlins are sports orientated & run fairly relaxed seals to minimise stiction Most sports bikes simply don't do the miles, so I guess replacement mostly isn't a problem to them.

 

Yeh, keeps the oil fresh!

 

BTW how's your clutch holding up? Did you have it apart?

 

Take care, KB

[auldy]

Hi Guys,

if anyone out there has replaced their Ohlins fork seals themselves can you give me an idea how difficult this is or if any special tools are required, I have a manual on CD Rom. I've had standard forks apart many years ago, but never any upside down style forks. I'm a mechanic by trade and if isn't too involved I will do it myself, as I was going to pull the forks out and get a suspension shop to replace the seals.

 

As for the shift lever spring repair, it is pretty straight foreward (not scooter Scura) if you are mechanically inclined. If you want some info or photos, drop me a line, its still in pieces, I'm getting a spring from Harpers in the States.

 

Cheers

Auldy

 

[Baldini]

...anyone out there has replaced their Ohlins fork seals themselves can you give me an idea how difficult this is or if any special tools are required...

 

It isn't difficult.

 

Back off preload. Unscrew fork tops from legs. There is a special tool to undo fork tops (expensive - about £50), but you can make something up to do the job. I bought the tool as I figured on keeping the bike so I'd be doing the job a few times (....& how right i was!).

 

Remove preload tube. You need a tool to hold down tube against spring pressure whilst accessing nut securing top nut assy to piston rod. A washer same OD as the preload tube with ID to accept piston rod & a slot cut in it to width of rod (looks like a letter C) works fine.

 

Pump forks to evacuate all old oil, & to expel all air when filling. VERY CAREFUL NOT TO LOSE SMALL BRASS VALVE ASSY that sits in thin damper tube & tends to shoot out the top as oil builds up in tube... .

 

I used large flat screwdriver to knock off scrapers/dustcaps (pushfit). Remove wire retaining circlip. I used screwdriver to lever out seals, getting a purchase on the inner seal face & levering against a piece of ally plate laid across the housing. CAREFUL NOT TO DAMAGE SEALING SURFACE OF LEG.

 

Don't forget to insert washer before drifting in new seal.

 

Do you have Ohlins R&T43 manual? Think it's at find R&T forks. There's info, spec & parts diagrams. If you can't find it let us know & I'll dig around or email you copies.

 

KB

[guzzi323]

There is a special tool to undo fork tops (expensive - about £50), but you can make something up to do the job. I bought the tool as I figured on keeping the bike so I'd be doing the job a few times (....& how right i was!).

 

54247[/snapback]

 

I don't remember how much I paid, but I found the Ohlins cap tool in an Aprillia service tools catalog at my local Aprillia shop. I think it was around $45.00 USD though I don't remember all that clearly and I know I got a 'beer buddy of the parts guy' discount.

 

About my clutch, I now believe that something was wrong on assembly when I replaced it the first time. I think it wasn't completely engaging when the lever was released. There must have been something hanging up, I don't know what it was but I believe it was my doing.

As a separate issue though, I measured the slave cylinder actuation after replacing the clutch and found that the slave cylinder doesn't appear to have enough travel to allow the clutch plate to wear completely. I don't remember the numbers right now but once the friction plate has worn to something like a third of it's useable thickness, the slave cylinder has 'bottomed out'. I made a spacer out of thin aluminum stock (something like .020' or .030" thickness) and spaced it off the back of the tranny. I don't remember how many miles were on it at that point, but it's been a number of months and everything seems OK.

If this doesn't make any sense, email me. I fear we have digressed a wee bit from the oroginal post.

 

Oh, yeah, one more thing. I thought the pdf I downloaded from Ohlins said to use the green grease on the seals and the red grease on somthing else inside the forks (maybe cartidge internals??) If I have time later I'll check it out and get back to you.

 

johnk

[auldy]

Hi All,

firstly thanks everyone for their tips on front fork strip down procedures. I took the left side off today and stripped it down without any major dramas at all.

 

For those who may be interested the dust seal and oil seal that came out were both NGK Brand seals, which are usually a common brand seal. NGK Part numbers are BR5567E for the dust seal and BR5566E for the oil seal if any body is interested in tracking them down, bearing in mind that they are out of the Scura model with 43mm Ohlins forks.

 

I am going to visit some local bearing and seal factorys this week and see if the have the equivalent NGK seals, i'm sure they will be a dammed site cheaper that the local dealer or suspension shop.

 

Next question, whats the preference out there on grade of fork oil ?

 

Cheers

Auldy

[tikkanen]

Hi, my fellow Scuristis,

 

I've been lurking on this post as I have Scura myself. So far I've covered 12K on it and, thank God, there's been no evidence of leaking oil from my Öhlins.

 

Thanks to you all for posting - I've copied everything to my personal mechanical file on my PC so I don't have to spend half an hour searching for the thread later on.

 

Cheers and happy riding to you all

 

Søren