They started as easy jobs for a Saturday

New tyres, oil change and fit heated grips to the Transalp.

1. After I replaced the front tyre it slowy deflated. Removed new tyre to
find a small hole in the tube - not a pinch but positioned as if a tiny
thorn had gone in. Patched it - it's still inflated but to feel safe I'll
have to get a new tube next week.

2. Can't get a proper oil filter wrench on the filter because of the
position of the stand - used a pliers type to get the old one off but had to
guess the torque when tightening. 7ftlb so not much so I used the wrench
head without a lever. Couldn't torque up the drain bolt because there's not
enough room to get a torque wrench in there either - it's a Norbar
motorcycle wrench. Practised with the wrench drive held in a vice and
'remembered' what it felt like when using a socket bar to tighten the plug.
What do Honda use?

3. To remove the tank to get the wires running neatly the book tells me to
remove the fairing - no chance, I managed to get a decent line but had to
zip the cable to a couple of the water pipes. I dread ever having to take
the fairing off - I'll sell the thing before it gets old enough to require a
proper strip down.

John

 

Same as me. Traditional unit known as the grunt. Half a grunt is plenty for
a sump plug.

 

Oil filters get tightened by hand and sump plugs get a bit more. Works
for me.

 

<nods, slightly amazed that anybody could conceive of torqueing an oil
filter>

Sump plugs are just a nip, FFS. Any more than enough force to seal the
washer or squeeze the taper and perdition is looking you right between
the eyes.

 

I was just about to mention that torque figures are always quoted for
dry threads, then remembered which threads we're taking about

My old man, dog rest 'im, hammered bolt torque and stress into me at an
early age. You can always nip up a loose and drippy one, but it's you
that'll be drippy if you shear one off.

 

If I can't torque them up then I do it by judgement: Ok so far. I
*think* I tend to err on the light side (I could easily check, I
suppose, with a bolt that's accessible to a torque wrench.

Converse to your approach, I do have this theory, however, that if you
strip the thread then at least you know about it then and there and,
on Guzzis at least, the sump's already empty and not hard to remove -
you have to remove it on many Guzzis in order to change the oil filter
in any case. However, if the bolt's too loose and falls out on the
motorway, or on a hoon on twisty roads....

 

My to-do list for Saturday:

A4130
A4074
B4015
A329
B4011
A41
A413
A422
A428

Mission accomplished. A good time had by all.