Playing with me rear end

Between the hours of 7pm and 9pm on most evenings, in our house its a cycle of Emmerdale, Corry, and sometimes Emmerdale/Corry again. Hence a good time to retire to the garage and fiddle.

Fiddling with the back end of the BMW GS showed a little bit of play at the rear wheel. On the GS this can be either the bevel output bearing or simply play in the paralever pivot bearings.  You check which it is by putting the rear brake on, and then feeling for play with the brake applied - if it still moves, it's the paralever bearings - if no play, it'll be the bevel bearing.
This time its the paralever pivot bearings, which can be adjusted simply enough.

Off with the back wheel - you adjust the inner pivot. Its mate on the outside is a fixed pivot and not adjustable.

This is the first time I've tweaked these, so they'll probably still have the original Loctite on them meaning you're best applying a bit of heat to soften the Loctite before attempting to loosen the locknut and the adjusting pin. You need a 30mm socket to slacken the locknut and a good quality 12mm allen key for the pin. I bought a cut out socket and allen driver some time ago to do this job, more pertinent for tightening up to ensure the pin doesn't move when torqueing the lock nut back up.

Not strictly necessary but only about £10 - Laser Tools 4740.

Paint stripper Hot air gun to heat up locknut & pin. Move the rubber boot out of the way just in case. Direct heat at the pin not the casing.

This is the locknut and adjustable pinion. The other side is non-adjustable and has no locknut. Its fastened to a high torque and uses high strength loctite. The nut needs to be heated to around 120c in order to soften the loctite. I got it up to about 95c, tried it and it loosened off fine.

Flash git has got a non contact surface thermometer. (seen them in Maplins for about £18 some time ago. Used mine for trying to balance central heating radiators)

Breaker bar and 30mm socket to undo the locknut

Pivot pin, no marks - cleaned off all the old loctite before putting back

Off comes the locknut and out comes the pin. The pin was a little stiff coming out due to the loctite, but another blast for a minute or two with the hot air gun to soften a bit more. (its a hot air paint stripper in its day job). All the old Loctite got cleaned off on the pin thread and the internal thread with a little scraper pick and a bit of acetone. You can get general purpose acetone from high street chemists in little 50ml bottles for about £1.50 or off ebay in larger volumes if the missus objects to you nicking her nail varnish remover.

Pivot pin wound back in by hand as far as you can then torque it up.

Pivot pin back in and wound in by hand until you feel the preload point as it just bottoms out. By then its getting too tight to turn without a lot of effort. On with the torque wrench and I've tightened to 12Nm. I'm not bothering with loctite again as it'll be easier in future to adjust without the palaver of heating up and winding the pin out to clean it etc etc. - its got a f*****g tight locknut on it after all. You can also then do the adjustment without taking the rear wheel off by working through the spokes with an extension bar. Also, no more Loctite means no more application of heat to soften it, which also means no more risk of the grease in the needle bearings heating up and dropping out.

Locknut next, and this is tightened up to 160Nm  - important that the pivot pin doesn't move and tighten further when you do this, hence the special socket to hold the pin with the 12mm allen key whilst you tighten the locknut. Easier with a third pair of hands for this bit. I had to wait for the advert break during the second episode of Corry at 8:45ish for my third hand. I also put a witness mark on the pin at 12 o'clock position to double check it didn't move.


30mm socket with cutaway and 12mm allen key held by 10mm spanner to stop pin moving as the locknut is tightened.

Refit the rubber boot, back on with the backwheel and jobs done.

Something I've always done is put a mark on the part of each rear wheel nut facing the centre as a quick check that they're not loosening off - never had one loosen but still do it anyway!

Collection dwindling

Getting rid of a bike..........good grief what's the matter with him?

I've had an MZ TS125 cluttering up the shed for years. I got it in 1991 - swapped with a mate for a knackered Honda CG125 and it was my 'going to work on winter hack'. Change of job and a move down south couple of years later made it redundant but I kept hold of it for some reason.

Anyhow it's being donated to my mate Willy who will do something with it constructively.

Chips

Wonder what's in here

Open it up, and we'll just swap out that eprom for one I've found in the toolbox left over and never fitted when  i bought the GS seven years ago

Might as well give it a go.

Across, up, down, home

Five Round Britain places to find today made all the more interesting as I'm doing it old school with map and paper. Sat nav no good as its still got Lux/Germany/ Belgium maps on it from last trip. I forgot to put the uk maps back on it!!!

I found my way east to the sea, past Torness nuclear power station (its painted all white and virtually on the A1) and follow the coast to North Berwick. Sea is like a mill pond, Bass rock looking spectacular but plenty of day trippers to make it quite busy.

They've got a pretty bad bird fouling problem on that rock

 

 Onto Dalkeith and I get confused again around the new roads and roadworks ( happened before last time I was here) Anyhow, landmark located and on to Peebles and Glentress down the A6094/701. Good to be back on relatively quite scenic roads again and Selkirk next. Bike has developed a bit of a misfire on acceleration and is feeling a bit lumpy.

 

A duff spark plug would you believe.

I carry a spare coil stick so I change the left hand one. Little bit of improvement but I'm suspecting its a spark plug. Carry spare plugs as well so change the LH and all is well again. Put the original coil stick back in to confirm and still ok. Thats the cheap fix then - £4 plug instead of a £65 coil stick. Cant be arsed to mess about anymore and crack on for home again down the A68. Rest of trip is eminently forgettable as it involves the A1.

Just under 700 miles for the trip, and a bit more of the borders discovered.

Ghost town

A walk into Jedburgh for a few beers. Initial impression is 'where is everybody'?

Into the Belter Bar and I'm disturbing the barman at his crossword but he's pleased to see me anyhow. Even he was asking why the town was quiet. Anyhow, supp up and have a wander. Come across The Canon, and there's a few regulars in so a bit more lively and it states to fill up. All talk about the World Cup and who's got an Italian flag for Saturday and who knows how to swear in Italian. Seriously, someone offers to bring in Italian phrase book so they could be honarary Italians for the night!!

The Canon

Last time we were in Jedburgh we stumbled across the Railway Tavern. What a gem, its still there, an old style boozer no bigger than your average sitting room, vinyl & formica with a cathode ray TV. Should have a preservation order on it. Couple in there and I'm done for the night.

Border Raid

Couple of days in the Scottish borders on Round Britain duty!! There's worse ways to spend a few days . Was originally planning a few days in Wales but the weather forecast looked better up north. One of the best ways to travel to Scotland is up the A68 and over Carter Bar. Today the roads were empty so a good time was had. Just outside Toft Hill there's the A68 cafe and its a lunchtime stop to fill up on steak pie & mash. Great home cooking and now added to the list of "stops of choice". 

I'd missed alot of the A1 coming up as I turned off just after York and came along via Thirsk, Northallerton and Darlington. Then towards Barnard Castle and some RBR stuff, then cross country to West Auckland and the A68 to Jedburgh where I'm stopping tonight.

Commando MOT pass

Norton passes mot with no problems. Now to do battle with the DVLA about change to Historic Vehicle for £0 road tax