ADB's Tech Editor Mat Boyd drops in to share with us some technical tricks of the trade to use in your mechanical work this month.
ELECTRICAL PROBLEMS?
TROUBLE:
Electrical faults can be time consuming to find. Quite often you can have plugs and wires disconnected everywhere testing things like clutch switches and kill switches.
TRICK:
To bridge out any switches like clutch or stand switches you can use a paper clip pushed into the terminals of the plugs to close the circuit.
DIFFICULTY: 1
TIME: 1 minute
COST: $0
TOOLS: Paper Clip
AXLE SWITCH
TROUBLE:
The side stand generally fits into the left hand side of the rear axle on most bikes. Many of these bikes have a solid axle nut on the right hand side or the stand doesn’t fit into the axle on the right hand side at all and the stand can only be fitted on the left.
TRICK:
This isn’t really a problem unless your sump plug is on the right hand side of the bike. You can take your axle out and switch it around so the stand will be on the right hand side and the bike will lean towards the sump plug making it easier to drain the oil on the side stand.
DIFFICULTY: 2
TIME: 2 minutes
COST: $0
TOOLS: Axle nut spanner
CHAIN GUIDE REMOVAL
TROUBLE:
If you are riding in the mud then mud can build up behind your front sprocket cover and bind up the front sprocket.
TRICK:
In this instance it is common to remove the front sprocket cover to allow the mud to get away but as the sprocket guard bolts into the clutch slave cylinder you will need to fit a shorter bolt into the slave cylinder. Do not try to fit the long bolt back in and do not run the bike without a bolt in the top of the slave cylinder.
DIFFICULTY: 1
TIME: 1 minute
COST: $0
TOOLS: Shorter bolt
REVERSE CHAIN BLOCKS
TROUBLE:
If you have ever looked at KTM chain adjuster blocks you would have noticed they are flat on one end and have an extended lug on the other. This all serves a purpose.
TRICK:
This is so when the chain is adjusted to be towards the end of its adjustment you don’t have to turn the adjuster bolts all the way out. You can flip the adjuster blocks over and then only have to turn the adjuster bolts a small amount to adjust the chain correctly.
DIFFICULTY: 1
TIME: 5 minutes
COST: $0
TOOLS: Spanners
