RE: [ST] It's the little things...

["Masiak, Richard" <Richard_Masiak@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

You forgot to mention to disconnect the battery.  When I did mine, I had to sit on the bike and apply brake myself.  SO I used a longer lever arm (floor jack handle).  As I broke the nut's torque the lever arm (which is metal) touched the alternator (somewhere) thus creating a circuit from alternator through wrench to the counter shaft and SPARK with a HOLYSH*T what was that! and a blown main fuse to boot.

Who would a thunk it?  The only time I disconnect the battery is when I pull the tank.

-----Original Message-----
From: st-triumphnet.com-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:st-triumphnet.com-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of
thfwsf@xxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2005 4:00 PM
To: st-triumphnet.com@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ST] It's the little things...


Steve, what great timing.  
 
I just changed my sprockets and chain last night.  Though I have to admit, it wasn't near as adventorous as yours!!
 
Though I did have to buy two new tools over the past.  A new 36mm socket and a motion pro chain tool.
 
Other related notes:
 
A dremel works great to grind/cut off the chain rivits.
 
A can of beer in the hand is a great companion to a wrench in the other.
 
Weight of a 6 1/2 year old son, with ST in first gear, is just enought to allow one to remove the front sprocket nut.
 
What the H E double L were they thinking when they put the bottom screw of the front sprocket cover directly behind the shift linkage - what a b!tch to get it out.
 
A chain off of the ST is approximately the lenght of the wheelbase of the bike.
 
Cleaning the gunk/gorp/crap/whatever that stuff is off of the surfaces that the chain runs near is one nasty dirty job.
 
When you clean up the gunk/grop/crap/whatever that stuff is off of the floor of the shop, so a good job. left over cleaning material not properly cleaned up is slick as snot.  It can cause a nice little ooops, follows by a few choice four letter words.
 
Test drives at 10pm at night should be conducted with a clean helmet visor.
 
Wife may call you a grease monkey and marvel at how one's hands can change color when working with the surfaces near the chain - reminder to self wear gloves or something next time.
 
Weight of wife, standing on brake lever to obtain the right torque for reinstallation of socket is just enough to retorque the front sprocket nut.  Note to self, do not comment about how she is perfectly weighted to assist you....
 
Touching top of follically challenged head results in nice big black smudge on top of head.
 
Drink another beer and relax.
 
I enjoyed your tale Steve, thanks!
 
Tom
'01 Sprint ST.
 
 
 
*****

Message: 2
Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2005 03:43:17 -0500
From: "Steven Kohlscheen" <trumpst@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [ST] It's the little things...
To: ST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Message-ID: <BAY109-F32454B04ED638E20637836A6BD0@xxxxxxx>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed

It's the little things in life that seem to make me happy.

Last was the chain and sprockets.  I should mention that I didn't start this 
whole project until after watching the World Superbike races.  Which ended 
at 5:00pm.  It was about the time I laid out the new chain I realized I 
didn't have a grinding implement to quickly take off the old chain.  DRAT!  
So off I go to Wal-Mart.  Surely they will have something cheap I can use 
with my existing drill.  Yeah, yeah, I should just buy a hand held grinder, 
but I didn't wanna that night.  Well they've got grinders, they've got 
replacement grinding disks, but no arbor to mount them on in a drill.  So 
much for the evil empire.  Next stop, the local McParts store, or it's 
proper name Parts America.  But what's this?  They close at 8:00pm.  It's 
only 9:00pm damnit!  Er, well alright.  Across the street to Advanced 
Automotive.  They¡¦re open till midnight, score!  They sort of have 
something for the job.  5 stone bits, of various geodesic designs, none of 
them a flat disk.  But they'll fit in a drill!  Might as well give them a 
try.  Believe it or not, they did the job.  And without getting completely 
destroying in the process.  After cutting the chain I realized I hadn't 
taken loose any of the fasteners holding the sprockets on.  DO'AH!  
Fortunately the link I just took out fit back well enough to allow the 
proper leverage to remove the 132 Nm, 36mm nut on the engine sprocket. Thank 
you Parts America for having that socket on the shelf early in the day.  Now 
is the time I point out I'm doing this operation alone.  So, bike in gear, 
on it's centerstand.  Me sitting on the bike properly, and standing on the 
rear brake pedal, while lifting up on the breaker bar to loosen the nut.  I 
warn you, this particular method may bring new words into your vocabulary, 
lol  There were no small children around, so I won out over the torque 
rating.  Everything went back together surprisingly easy, for 11:00 pm.  I 
only did 2 laps of my subdivision listening to the new chain for proper 
adjustment, trying the new throttle cables, and starting the bedding in 
process on the new rotors.  Not too much to handle at that time of night, 
heh

Well the whole thing is a success, and I'm rather enjoying the fruits of my 
labor.  I may run this bike another 3 years and 50k+ miles.

Steven "Dirty Dawg" Kohlscheen
_______________________________________________
Triumph Sprint ST/RS mailing list
Send list posts to ST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Change your list options at www.Triumphnet.com
_______________________________________________
Triumph Sprint ST/RS mailing list
Send list posts to ST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Change your list options at www.Triumphnet.com