Post by bluegoatwoods on Sept 12, 2017 18:16:52 GMT -5
I put the bike on the workstand today. To take care of a few small items that needed done before long, but weren't really urgent. But I also needed to look into something that had had me a bit worried.
For a few weeks now I've been getting a noise when applying the front brake. At first I thought it sounded like the speedometer cable, or the brake line, coming in contact with the tire tread. But it didn 't take much looking to see that there was way too much clearance for that.
So I spent a bit of time inspecting the front axle, brake, shocks and so on looking for loose fasteners or parts out of place. Nothing obvious. Wondered if the fender were rattling? I wondered if the brake pads weren't merely chattering a bit when being applied. That would have been okay. But I found myself craving certainty.
Well.......clearly a more thorough inspection is in order here.
(Spoiler: It turned out that my axle had actually worked loose.)
I started out by adjusting my rear brake plus working out, and lubing, a 'stiff' spot in my throttle cable. Pretty ordinary stuff there.
I had also noticed, when the nights got a bit cooler here a few weeks back, that my scooter was a little bit weak on warming up. A little more inclined to stall until warm. Demanding a bit more throttle baby-sitting. That made me wonder if my air/fuel mix was a bit too weak for cooler weather. So I made my first attempt at adjusting that.
I stuck a length of fuel line into the air box. I was going by memory here, but I think Brent's tutorial video on this adjustment had him listening to the air box. Too rich gives a 'gurgling' sound?
The fuel line makes a pretty good stethoscope. I could hear the sound from the airbox while I stood on the other side of the bike and made the adjustment. But I backed that screw out a bit more than I imagined I would without hearing any change in the sound of the engine.
So I left it at that, assuming that I'd richened it at least somewhat, and figured I'd just see if there's any difference in performance
now. I'm not too sure I truly understood that video. I'll have to review it. Perhaps after I post this.
As for the front end......I got torque specs from online GY6 service manuals. Not a single one I can find fits my bike perfectly. Plus the Chinese/English translations aren't all that good. I came across terms like 'front buffer'. I guess that can only be the shock absorber. I hope so because I used the torque spec for that part on my shock.
I torqued that shock absorber to 16 ft/lb. I didn't get a pic, but there's a strut, of sorts, that runs from the brake caliper up to the fork. The manual calls it a 'brake rocker arm'. The bushings appeared to be in good shape. I cleaned and re-greased them and torqued them to 45 in/lbs.
Both of these required more torque to loosen them than those figures I quoted above. So either the factory overtightened them enough for me to feel the difference or I got the wrong torque specs. The torque I put on them felt reasonable for fasteners of that size. Plus I used blue loc-tite. So I feel confident enough.
So then I turned to the axle itself and found that I could back of the nut with just my fingers. The axle was still in place, of course. But having it that loose could surely give space for that wheel to slide left and right. Maybe only a little bit. But surely just a little is enough.
I torqued it to 30 ft/lb. And on a little run around the block followed by a test run up to the local grocery store the bike felt just fine and there was no clattering when applying the front brake. So this is probably fixed.
But I'll be keeping an eye on that axle. That's for sure.
One other thing. I didn't actually do this mod today. But I inspected, to make sure my homespun 'engineering' was holding, and snapped a pic in case anyone else has the same trouble.
This is a nice scooter. Much about it is just right. But it had one terrible design flaw. The battery was mounted in the under-seat bucket. Right below me. This meant that I had to disconnect and remove the battery in order to remove the seat bucket.
Huh?
I certainly wouldn't tolerate a car where I had to disconnect and remove the battery in order to open the hood. What were they thinking?
Icebear!!!! This....will....NOT.....STAND!!!!!
(don't mind me. I'm just hamming it up
I spent a while pondering various fixes until I hit on something that's pretty simple. I merely hung it from the frame back up above the rear wheel.
This seems to be working very well. It's free to swing back and forth as much as needed. There's plenty of clearance. It makes only grazing contact with a few wires. But no strain on anything. Maybe given time it'll wear on the wire insulation. But I can patch that and I don't think it'll happen very soon.
The plastic box that fit over it in the seat bucket does exactly the same thing here. It'll help protect that battery from hitting anything and it'll keep those terminals from shorting out against the frame.
It's looking like a good solution to a very dumb problem.
For a few weeks now I've been getting a noise when applying the front brake. At first I thought it sounded like the speedometer cable, or the brake line, coming in contact with the tire tread. But it didn 't take much looking to see that there was way too much clearance for that.
So I spent a bit of time inspecting the front axle, brake, shocks and so on looking for loose fasteners or parts out of place. Nothing obvious. Wondered if the fender were rattling? I wondered if the brake pads weren't merely chattering a bit when being applied. That would have been okay. But I found myself craving certainty.
Well.......clearly a more thorough inspection is in order here.
(Spoiler: It turned out that my axle had actually worked loose.)
I started out by adjusting my rear brake plus working out, and lubing, a 'stiff' spot in my throttle cable. Pretty ordinary stuff there.
I had also noticed, when the nights got a bit cooler here a few weeks back, that my scooter was a little bit weak on warming up. A little more inclined to stall until warm. Demanding a bit more throttle baby-sitting. That made me wonder if my air/fuel mix was a bit too weak for cooler weather. So I made my first attempt at adjusting that.
I stuck a length of fuel line into the air box. I was going by memory here, but I think Brent's tutorial video on this adjustment had him listening to the air box. Too rich gives a 'gurgling' sound?
The fuel line makes a pretty good stethoscope. I could hear the sound from the airbox while I stood on the other side of the bike and made the adjustment. But I backed that screw out a bit more than I imagined I would without hearing any change in the sound of the engine.
So I left it at that, assuming that I'd richened it at least somewhat, and figured I'd just see if there's any difference in performance
now. I'm not too sure I truly understood that video. I'll have to review it. Perhaps after I post this.
As for the front end......I got torque specs from online GY6 service manuals. Not a single one I can find fits my bike perfectly. Plus the Chinese/English translations aren't all that good. I came across terms like 'front buffer'. I guess that can only be the shock absorber. I hope so because I used the torque spec for that part on my shock.
I torqued that shock absorber to 16 ft/lb. I didn't get a pic, but there's a strut, of sorts, that runs from the brake caliper up to the fork. The manual calls it a 'brake rocker arm'. The bushings appeared to be in good shape. I cleaned and re-greased them and torqued them to 45 in/lbs.
Both of these required more torque to loosen them than those figures I quoted above. So either the factory overtightened them enough for me to feel the difference or I got the wrong torque specs. The torque I put on them felt reasonable for fasteners of that size. Plus I used blue loc-tite. So I feel confident enough.
So then I turned to the axle itself and found that I could back of the nut with just my fingers. The axle was still in place, of course. But having it that loose could surely give space for that wheel to slide left and right. Maybe only a little bit. But surely just a little is enough.
I torqued it to 30 ft/lb. And on a little run around the block followed by a test run up to the local grocery store the bike felt just fine and there was no clattering when applying the front brake. So this is probably fixed.
But I'll be keeping an eye on that axle. That's for sure.
One other thing. I didn't actually do this mod today. But I inspected, to make sure my homespun 'engineering' was holding, and snapped a pic in case anyone else has the same trouble.
This is a nice scooter. Much about it is just right. But it had one terrible design flaw. The battery was mounted in the under-seat bucket. Right below me. This meant that I had to disconnect and remove the battery in order to remove the seat bucket.
Huh?
I certainly wouldn't tolerate a car where I had to disconnect and remove the battery in order to open the hood. What were they thinking?
Icebear!!!! This....will....NOT.....STAND!!!!!
(don't mind me. I'm just hamming it up
I spent a while pondering various fixes until I hit on something that's pretty simple. I merely hung it from the frame back up above the rear wheel.
This seems to be working very well. It's free to swing back and forth as much as needed. There's plenty of clearance. It makes only grazing contact with a few wires. But no strain on anything. Maybe given time it'll wear on the wire insulation. But I can patch that and I don't think it'll happen very soon.
The plastic box that fit over it in the seat bucket does exactly the same thing here. It'll help protect that battery from hitting anything and it'll keep those terminals from shorting out against the frame.
It's looking like a good solution to a very dumb problem.
