so much gunk

[HaydenH]

Friday afternoon, nock off work early. and spend the next few hours marveling at how the bike ever managed to turn.

I decided to give the chain a complete clean, since I've only had it a month and I like to know that the maintenance is up to scratch.
To be thorough, tried to take off the engine cover too. Wouldn't budge, checked all the bolts were off, applied a bit of pulling and screwdriver levering...

The amount of crap that was inside the cover!   

Was about 10mm thick over the bottom in hard packed sludge. I was using a screw driver to literally scrape it all out. It had built up to the point that it was all this gunk that was holding the cover so firm.
Copious amounts of kerosene as a degreaser later and it's looking a bit better. Unfortunately it got dark so the poor girl is sitting without her cover in the garage.
A bit more scrubbing with the toothbrush in the morning and i might start to be happy with it.
I thought she might be a bit dirty by hadn't even imagined this bad.

I'll get back to actually cleaning the chain tomorrow. and might go the full oil change just to try and make her happy.

[crzydood17]

shes a dirty girl... 

im scared to pull my cover off for fear of what is inside... i know i dont have enough degreaser...

[tucsondog]

Hit up your local bicycle shop and pick up one of their chain cleaner tools.
http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/5/SportsRec/BikesAccessories/PumpsRepairKits/PRD~0736013P/Schwinn%252BChain%252BCare%252BKit.jsp?locale=en
The tool is what you're after, the degreaser and lube can be used on a bicycle or tossed.
It has a little paintbrush-like tip on one end to get into all the cracks and hidey-holes, and the other end can be used to safely clean your chain.
just my 0.02$

[Twism86]

Ive never cleaned under the sprocket cover......     Im scared at this point unless the previous owner did....

[tialloydragon]

When you finally took the cover off, did it give off a sound like pulling your shoe out after stepping in mud?

[rickyny]

Hit up your local bicycle shop and pick up one of their chain cleaner tools.
http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/5/SportsRec/BikesAccessories/PumpsRepairKits/PRD~0736013P/Schwinn%252BChain%252BCare%252BKit.jsp?locale=en
The tool is what you're after, the degreaser and lube can be used on a bicycle or tossed.
It has a little paintbrush-like tip on one end to get into all the cracks and hidey-holes, and the other end can be used to safely clean your chain.
just my 0.02$

I bought the grunge brush from motorcycle superstore.

[XLAR8]

umm my bike is brand new and the sprocket cover would have been as hard as yours to pull off, the reason is because of the clutch rod and assy.

somehow i managed to get a tuft of my hair wrapped around the gear shaft add a little chain lube and a rock and it made for a very weird sound.

[crzydood17]

im not even going to ask how your hair got into the engine... but please... don't do that stuff to your bike...

[HaydenH]

When you finally took the cover off, did it give off a sound like pulling your shoe out after stepping in mud?

lol, yep. 

well, day two. spent another hour cleaning inside the cover, this time with a tooth brush though still a bit of screwdriver scraping). now it's fairly clean, i'll wait a month and do it again probably just to get that last bit of hard stuck gunk out.
Then i attacked the chain. just used a toothbrush, and a lot of elbow grease. i think i went around the chain about 5 times till i was happy with it. Don't think it had ever had a serious clean before, just one layer on another of lube.
And i made the mistake of trying to clean the rear hub too,  couldn't get into it very well though with the chain still on so now it looks kinda ugly in a half clean sorta state. when i next do the engine i think I'll take the whole wheel off and give everything a good going over.

I also decided to change the oil, it was supposedly done at the 12000k service with the PO, about 500 k's ago. The oil came out dirtier than expected though, so I'm glad i changed it all. now i at least know that everything is order in terms of the basics.
so now all that's left for tomorrow is a general bike clean to (hopefully) make everything nice and shiny. and just need to sort out the battery which doesn't seem to be holding it's charge... but i'll take it for a good ride tomorrow and see how we go after that before i con-cine it to the dump. (yep, already tried to trickle charged it up)

And thanks to everyone here at GS, i wouldn't of been brave enough to do all this if it wasn't for all the posts that people have put up over time about how to go about it.

[ben2go]

When you finally took the cover off, did it give off a sound like pulling your shoe out after stepping in mud?

lol, yep. 

well, day two. spent another hour cleaning inside the cover, this time with a tooth brush though still a bit of screwdriver scraping). now it's fairly clean, i'll wait a month and do it again probably just to get that last bit of hard stuck gunk out.
Then i attacked the chain. just used a toothbrush, and a lot of elbow grease. i think i went around the chain about 5 times till i was happy with it. Don't think it had ever had a serious clean before, just one layer on another of lube.
And i made the mistake of trying to clean the rear hub too,  couldn't get into it very well though with the chain still on so now it looks kinda ugly in a half clean sorta state. when i next do the engine i think I'll take the whole wheel off and give everything a good going over.

I also decided to change the oil, it was supposedly done at the 12000k service with the PO, about 500 k's ago. The oil came out dirtier than expected though, so I'm glad i changed it all. now i at least know that everything is order in terms of the basics.
so now all that's left for tomorrow is a general bike clean to (hopefully) make everything nice and shiny. and just need to sort out the battery which doesn't seem to be holding it's charge... but i'll take it for a good ride tomorrow and see how we go after that before i con-cine it to the dump. (yep, already tried to trickle charged it up)

And thanks to everyone here at GS, i wouldn't of been brave enough to do all this if it wasn't for all the posts that people have put up over time about how to go about it.

I battled battery problems for two years.I kept using the ones that are like the original flooded lead acid batteries.I constantly had to clean battery acid out of the battery box and bottom of my bike.This year I switched a Scorpion AGM.I eliminated the battery vent tube and having to clean acid off my bike.When I get my other three GS's on the road,they are getting them also.

http://www.batterystuff.com/powersports-batteries/sYT10L-A2.html

[rickyny]

ben, how long have you had this new battery?
Is it the same size as the battery in our bikes?
why was your battery leaking acid?
sorry for so many questions, just trying to learn as much as I can 

[HaydenH]

Went for a decent ride today, the battery seems to be holding a charge for at least a short period as it started fine after i came back from lunch, we'll see how we go after work tomorrow.

If it doesn't work though then i'll definitely go a sealed one as suggested.
I've got one in the car (MX5 - they have the battery in the boot, bad place for battery fumes to built up ), they are maintenance free, and the car one has lasted about 4 years now. The car's battery is about twice the size of the GS's though, still only half the size of a normal one though.

I noticed a sort of hissing sound today though when the engine was under load, like its sucking air through a hole somewhere. Is this a normal sort of sound? I'm getting used to the riding part now, so am paying more attention to what the bike is trying to tell me now. Is this something to look in to or was the ridiculous amount of wind just making noises through the bodywork?

[ben2go]

ben, how long have you had this new battery?
Is it the same size as the battery in our bikes?
why was your battery leaking acid?
sorry for so many questions, just trying to learn as much as I can 

I have had the battery for a few months now and it has yet to wavier in the slightest.Even with all my testing and tuning,I haven't had the battery go low on charge.The Scorpion is a direct replacement for our batteries and our bikes is listed in their fitment chart.I never figured out why my other batteries leaked acid.It always came through the vent tube.I could never keep a vent tube on the battery.I checked my charging system a few times but everything was well within spec.So I am at a loss on why my bike had battery issues with stock replacement batteries.Actually the last stock replacement battery I bought was $79 and I wasn't going that route again,even if it cost me double.

[rickyny]

I'm going to buy this battery, one less thing to check before riding.
Thanks.

[gsJack]

I clean out the front sprocket cover when I see what looks like oil dripping out on the toe of boot.  Always turns out to be excess chain lube and I just clean out the inside of the cover with a putty knife.  No need for a fancy cleaning since it starts getting dirty in there again as soon as it's clean.  Yes, I probably use too much PJ-1 chain lube but that's better than too little and I splash thru a lot of chain rusting salt water every winter here in NE Ohio.

My Scorpion sealed battery is a couple months into it's third year now, best bike battery I've had in 27 years and 390k miles of year around riding.  Winter starting is hard on a bike battery.

 

[rickyny]

gsJack do you ride in winter?
How do you deal with snow and ice on the road?
I was thinking about riding in winter, but I'm not sure.

[ben2go]

I'm going to buy this battery, one less thing to check before riding.
Thanks.

You're welcome.