Routine Maintenance

[neoseity]

I went and got new tires and decided to do an oil change as well.

I dumped the oil and took a break and looked at this here message board, "Why I do my own maintenance" about loose valve fastners in the head.
My steering felt loose and since I had to remove the fairing, I figured I'd check the head bolts and valve clearances (oil was still out).

Steering adjustment nut could be turned by hand... I'm pretty sure this is how I bought it new from the stealership (after paying a $1300 "crate" set-up fee, feckers), I always thought the forks were just a little loose... should handle a bit better now and give me a bit more feedback.
Valves and head bolts were fine. I adjusted one valve. I also checked all my chassis fasners and other bolts. If I wreck because of a losse chassis fasner, that's my fault...
Put the head, front end, and fairing back together and put oil in 'er. Put my carb sync tool (which is the mecury in the tube type and is kinda a piece of shiite) and carbs were within 1-2 HGs.

Next time I do this maintenance I will order complete gaskets sets from Ron Ayers ahead of time, my local stealership only had the head gasket and not the plug gaskets or O-rings or signal generator cover gasket. (I cleaned up and reused the old ones this time, should be OK).

Just recovering from a dump of snow here in the hills of Colorado, but I'll probably go try it out tommorow.

Anywho, here's a few pics for your viewing pleasure:






I like my garage and made a video if you want to watch it, but it's 20MBs so I wouldn't feck with it if you don't have the bandwidth to spare:
http://xantari.com/imgs/bikemaintenance.mov

[Zorlock]

my local stealership only had the head gasket and not the plug gaskets or O-rings or signal generator cover gasket. (I cleaned up and reused the old ones this time, should be OK).

 

Yes, as long as nothing was damaged during the disassembly process, you should be alright in using them over again. Just make sure you put the sealer in those "half moon" sections of the gasket.

I also bought a whole new set of gaskets all around ahead of time for when I checked/adjusted my valve clearances at 600 miles. I ended up not needing them since everything was still in good shape after me tear down. So I saved them for next time.

 :sparkplug:

[neoseity]

Yes, as long as nothing was damaged during the disassembly process, you should be alright in using them over again. Just make sure you put the sealer in those "half moon" sections of the gasket.

The repair manual also says to put sealer in the grooves of the cylinder head cover, which I did with Yamabond. Got a little sqeeze out during assembly, but hopefully not too much on the inside...

I wish I had done my 600mile as well. I'm doing this at 3000. I was told by the stealership that it may void my waranty if I didn't have them do the 600 mile. Since they didn't do some other things right, I figured it's better to check even though it's not on the schedule 'til 4000 miles.

[Landry]

It's amazing how many things void the 'Zuk warranty, yet folks had to fight tootrh and nail regarding the piston problems (I'm sure somewhere, someone's still fighting about that one).

I didn't do the 600 either, and was told the same thing.

[Red01]

Funny thing is, most of the stories I've read here and on other boards indicatate the overwhelming majority of dealers do NOT check the valves if you bring it in to them for the 600 mile service anyway.

[txbanditrydr]

My dealer said the valves WON'T need adjusting at 600 miles - that I "would know cuz it will be difficult to start"......   :blahblah:   No mention was made of voiding warranties for doing self maintenance.  I checked the valves myself (with help) and while they were technically in spec it was good to know they are spot on now and will be able to see which ones change at the 7500 mile service.