Steve Johnson of f650.com scheduled at tech day at his home. Four other riders showed up and I was one of them. Steve graciously allowed me to stay at his home and suggested I get there the day before so my engine would be cool for checking valves the next morning.
I had great weather for the ride down and arrived at Steve’s around 4:30. Another F650 owner, Michael ???? was there to leave his motorcycle overnight since he also needed to check his valves.
We were outside starting to disassemble the motorcycles by 8:00 the next morning. The F650 valves are a pain because of all you have to remove just to get too them. So much has to be taken off that I was a little nervous since I need to ride the thing home the next morning. All the plastic, the oil reservoir, snorkel, air filter, air box came off. This exposed the fuel injector so I stuffed a clean rag into the hold to keep dirt out while I worked. Then the battery and battery compartment were removed. The coolant reservoir also needed to by pulled out. That got me down close to the top engine cover so after a bracket and the throttle cable came off I could start removing bolts on the cover.
In the process of doing this the oil reservoir, which was hanging to the side, broke loose because the hose was attached to a flimsy outlet molded into the top of the engine cover. The flimsy outlet snapped off. Groan…
Since I was down this far I removed the coils from the spark plugs and installed new iridium spark plugs.
The cover came off, the valve clearances were within spec, so everything had to go back together.
The guys had a great fix for the snapped off outlet and everyone pitched in on this repair. Steve had an old road bicycle tire inner tube with the small tire valve. I removed that from the inner tube and cleaned the rubber off the end so it wouldn’t melt off inside the engine. Michael helped with the cleaning. Mark ran to a bicycle store to get the nuts that screw on the valve. Michael drilled the hole in the engine cover just a little larger, installed the valve, sealed it with black silicone, screwed a couple of the nuts on from the outside, and then cut the valve down to a decent size. The hose was reattached with a clamp and the cover was good to go. I still need to be careful to not let the weight of the oil reservoir hang from the valve since there is not nut holding the valve on the inside and it could be pulled out.
Even the AGM battery went in without too much trouble. I replace the coolant reservoir, oil reservoir, snorkel, airbox, and air filter, but left the plastic off to work on the steering head bearings.
It took Michael and I four hours to do our valves — because of what we figured out Mark and Steve were able to do theirs in about an hour.
While I was working on valve clearances Sergio had started on his steering head bearings and figured out a lot of things. Michael had me put the races for the bearings in the freezer so they would shrink and go in more easily.
The front nose fender came off. The brakes and ABS sensor came off. The front tire was removed and then the clamps for the forks were loosened and removed. The horn had to come off since it’s attached to the bottom bracket on the steering head.
Now I moved to the top side — the handle bars had to be removed and tied out of the way. This exposed the top of the steering head. Michael was able to grab the collar with a large channel locks and remove the top. Once the assembly was out the top race had to be forced out and both bearing removed. Between tools that Sergio and Steve had devised and physical assistance from everyone (I am NOT good with a hammer) all of this was accomplished in a very short time.
The frozen races went in much easier than they had for Sergio. The steering head went back together and into the motorcycle fairly easily. Horn, forks, wheel, brakes, sensor all went back on.
I was just starting to clean up tools and found a part we had forgotten — the plastic bracket on the bottom of the steering head. Fortunately the only thing that had to be removed was the nose fender and the bracket when back in.
I replaced the plastic and started the engine. It ran great.
Wow — what a day. Two major projects — the valves and steering head bearings. And two smaller things — new spark plugs and Steve tightened my chain a little before we were done.
An absolutely great group of guys — very nice people and so much fun all day. And I got to learn so much about my motorcycle and ask so many questions. It was a great weekend.
While Steve, Michael, and I were talking at the end of the day a group of deer wandered down through the yards across the street. It was a nice little surprise at the end of the long day. I don’t have deer wandering around my yard.
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