adventures in deferred dirt bike maintenance

It seems mechanical things don't simply continue working forever if you forget or neglect to maintain them on a somewhat regular basis. Hence my WR250R's current needs list has gotten to the point where I need to not go riding even though it's 65 and sunny in the Golden Heart City of Fairbanks, AK for the first time since August. Banishment to the garage for me!

But first a quick ride... if I can escape my driveway (this was about 2 weeks ago)

Success! Still runs!

But... the battery is very, very weak. Why? It turns out that even on a charger they don't like sitting at -20 for most of the winter. Who knew? A quick trip to the local battery shop and all is well.

OK, time to get busy. It's been a while since I've looked at the suspension...

Hmm... looks like everything but the swingarm pivot wants to come out. One broken home made puller, one broken brass punch, and two weeks of pounding later... screw it, it still moves smoothly. I'll cut the bastard out next winter.

After another ride... decide that maybe it's time to pay better attention to the moving, oil filled bits of the suspension too. Forks are leaking again, so after 20,000+ miles since they're last rebuild I'm going to replace the fork seals and fluid. And I'm going to try to see of I can make a WR450F shock fit.

At least the wheels are in good shape. Tires are about done though... so they'll get replaced in a couple weeks.

But first... I think I'll put it back together and go for a ride this weekend.

No wait, let's do a few more things. Like repack the FMF Powercore4 muffler that's been ignored for the last 20,000+ miles and 2-3 years. That's supposed to be repacked "every 20 hours". Oops...

The new packing material is a nice, fluffy, semi woven mat of fiberglass. The used material is a stringy rats nest mess of loose, burnt, awfulness. Oh, and 3 of the 5 screws holding it together were seized and needed to be ground or cut out.

Also noticed the nice alloy GYTR axle blocks were no longer square on the end holding the axle bolt... nor were they a tight fit on the axle itself. Bling to the trash pile!

Tonight, back together to ride. Next weekend, I'll tackle the front end rebuild...

Sorry, I can't get my head around the C-119 and the two DC-4s.

In reply to Appleseed:

That's the aircraft grave/salvage yard at the Fairbanks airport. The bush companies still use them for flying to the remote villages, and those are the source for spare parts.

Back together for a ride out to the future homestead...

Consturction starts when the ground dries! BTW, don't have your rear shock set on full soft or you'll think it's blown. No idea how long it's been set that way, nor why I would ever set it at full soft.

Homestead?!? Congratulations dude! We have never met, but I have certainly enjoyed all the ride reports on RR-AX/GRM/ADVRider. I guess Alaska is your kind of place...Will there be a Discovery channel show about your homestead shortly? ;-)

Your ride reports have encouraged me to get my own motorcycle license and started riding in the last couple years. Still no long trips, but have certainly enjoyed learning and exploring the world on two wheels.

I just have to say that your bike is really badass looking.

Nice. Please post a build thread for your homestead. It would be fun to see what you have planned and how it comes together. I Love the WRR too. Great bike!

No, I won't be on Discovery any time soon (though I did see the crew of HGTV's "Living Alaska" at the Silver Gulch Brewery on my sales call there on Thursday), but we did decide to buy a new house. I did about half of the drawing, going off the builder's first design:

http://sixstarhome.com/dawsonhouse/index.html

Only difference from the rendering is the area under the stairs will be where the laundry is, and there will be a half bath under the stairs on the first floor too. We're picking a lot this weekend for sure, now that they're resurveyed, and the builder starts as soon as the ground is dry and we get the final blueprints back.

The best part, for me, is I get to build my own shop.

Time to rebuild the forks. It's been about 20,000 miles since the last rebuild, the seals are weeping on every ride, and I've tried cleaning them several times. To start, you need a motorcycle:

and the new parts:

Time to go all Lt Dan on it (take the fork leg off).

Pop the cap off, pull the spring out and check the length (exactly to OE spec, and thankfully the OE spring is right for my weight).

The retaining clip is a bit grimy... and unfortunately not including in the seal kit. Next time, I'll replace it. I'm assuming it's the original, meaning 43,000+ miles old.

Hmm... things are looking a bit worn at the bushing and seal area.

But the innards of the fork look like new. The fork oil wasn't too dirty, but after doing both forks the levels were definitely different between the two due to the leaks.

Here's whats getting removed and replaced...

and what you get for parts from the kit

Lots of wear on the old parts

Went with the good stuff, Redline Lightweight "5w" fork oil, needed three bottles.

What was left over after filling both forks and setting the oil level at the factory setting (105mm)

I've put the forks back to their stock compression and rebound settings, haven't gone for a ride yet... time to get off the internet!

Back at it. Delving in to my charging system... all I know for sure is my battery is not charging.

Battery voltage coming straight off the tender is 13.0x volts.

Main fuse tested good. Good to know where it and my other fuses are, never had to mess with them before.

Measured the impedance across the stator plug per the service manual. All circuits are about even, showing 0.5 ohms, the spec is .16-.25...

Plugged the regular/rectifier back in, and turned the bike on. Voltage dropped to 12.5V at idle, raised to 13.4V at 5000ish rpm. After turning it off, the battery was down to 12.5V. Spec is 14V @5000rpm

I'm thinking it's time for a new stator at least... Should I be replacing the R/R too?

Any test for the RR? A stator replacement is a good thought but why replace a RR if its not broken.

I dunno if there is one of those situation where if you replace one you replace the other though.

The test for the Reg/Rec is put the multimeter leads across the battery and measure the voltage at 5000rpm. Should be 14V, I was getting 13.4-.5. But if the RR isn't getting enough juice, should it still hit 14v?

One crispy fried stator, coming up!

I should probably do some cleaning while I have the skid plate off...

Busted vs new to me from eBay

Tomorrow's fun includes gasket scraping and hopefully reassembly.

great to see this bike is going to be running for a long time.

Poor girl has her guts spilled out...

Finished swapping the stator tonight, and I'm getting a full 14.2V at at the battery!

It was also time to change the front brake pads and brake fluid at both ends. Happy to report the little 250 that could is back up and running (and stopping) as good as ever.

Hoping for a good ride tomorrow with the Trail's End BMW guys