Oh no...what have I done!

[ProfApop]

New forum member but long time Bandit owner.

Bought my 96' Bandit 600ST (faired) in spring of 98' with only 600 miles on it for $4200 OTD. I promptly bought a Haynes manual and I drilled the plugs to readjusted fuel/air.  Until 05' that was about the only thing I really did except change oil/filter every 1500-2000 miles with Mobil 1 synth. In 05' I had a left fork leak and rebuilt with progressive springs and did a valve clearance. With my job I've only put about 11K on the machine!

This spring I had/have a right fork leak so time to do them over again (hopefully I do a better job this time). So I sit down to order the parts and start thinking (that is where my problem begins!) I should redo the valve clearances, I thought to myself, as I used needle nose pliers to hold the nuts last time and may not have tightened them well enough in 05'...better go get a wrench this time. Plus the bike has had a very slow throttle response.....let me look into that.... blah, blah, blah 

So now my bike is in a million pieces in my garage, awaiting parts. This is now my list of things I'm doing (one thing led to another...obviously)

1. Rebuild forks
2. Valve clearance
3. Complete carburetor break down and rebuild (I then bought a Factory Pro jet kit!)
4. Hmmm...guess I will need to synch carbs...bought a Carbtune synchronizer
5. K&N air filter to replace my Uni air filter
6. New chain & Front & rear spockets (chain had rust...but probably could have just been cleaned and been ok)
7. Gee with the Jet Kit I ought to get a slip-on (bought a Holeshot 17" slip-on)
8. Gee I better get a 5 degree timing advancer from Holeshot too
9. waiting for parts I decided to lub the choke and throttle cables

While cleaning carbs there was a bunch of brownish-red stuff in the bowls. Drained my tank yesterday and yep some rust in the Tank. Tomorrow I will order some POR-15 cycle tank repair kit (rather than Kreem)

10. Seal my gas tank 

I should have thought about working on my bike in March rather than late April. Oh well, she will be sweet when I get her back together....assuming I put her together right...lol.

[Red01]

  to the Alley!  Get that bike back on the road!   

[Ronin]

Wow, talk about a multi-tasker!   

[ProfApop]

Haven't done much but take the bike apart. I did put on the rear sprocket....I have no idea what the nuts were torqued to but it sure wasn't to spec...took a lot of work and I stripped a nut doing it. Luckily the local shop had a used nut and bolt for a replacement.

My Factory Pro kit came in on Monday so I've put the carb back together based on FP specs and will tune it once the bike is finally running again. I have the valve clearances set and have been waiting almost two weeks for bikebandit.com to send me new gaskets....coming in tomorrow (Thursday). Forks are still on the bike...and that was the main problem...lol.

I did have a number of spots of small rust on left side of the swingarm. This past weekend I put some CLR on the spots and sanded them down, wrapped the bike in plastic, tapped over the swingarm label and chain buffer, and bagged up the chain. I spot primed the sanded down rust areas and then spay painted the left portion of the swing arm upto the chain buffer with what looks to be a 99% color match! Looks pretty darn good if you ask me. Then followed up with a lacquer clear coat. Well, it should last the season. During the winter I may remove the swingarm and get it powdercoated.

Tomorrows UPS should bring me the K&N filter and all the parts to rebuild the forks, complete the sprocket installation (washers, etc) and gaskets for the valve job. Perhaps Friday I will get the slip-on and advancer from Holeshot. I'm hoping the POR-15 comes Friday so I have the weekend to seal the tank but I'm thinking more like it will arrive next week.

The two real main jobs left are the forks (a days work) and seal the tank (a day + 4 days to cure). Not including the carb tuning...but I need the bike running for that...lol.

For someone who has very little mechanic experience I feel pretty confident about what I'm doing....perhaps it is all an illusion...hahaha!

[BANDIT#999]

As far as having the bike running, some guys fab up a small clean container with a nipple that a fuel line can be hooked up to. Then connect it to the carbs with a long enough piece of fuel line. Suspend it over the bike so that it'll feed by gravity and away you go. Give you something to do while the sealer is curing, like you won't be busy enough with the other stuff you're doing  

[GETFURIOUS]

I THINK THAT YOU ARE "SUPERMAN"

WELCOME..........

[ProfApop]

2, 3, 5, 6 (rear only), 8, 9, 10 all done. Sealed the tank this past Sat...man that is a long job. Have a fan blowing into it to cure. Sunday I got the forks torn down and found out I needed one additional part. So I have that on order and should be here Thursday or Friday. 

When I ordered the new part at the local shop the guy told me that had I brought in the forks, they would have done all the labor to tear them down and rebuild for $30 labor each + parts! Holy cr@p.......I spent 4 hours yesterday trying to get the darn allen bolt out the bottom of the fork + $9 for two different sized dowels to hold the bushing 

Oh well....I'll just chock it up to fun and it's my bike so I should do the work.

[ProfApop]

Done everything but synch the carbs. But it is raining today so not out riding 

Well guess I can put some gas in the tank and see if she actually starts up...lol

[ProfApop]

Stopped raining and the sun came out. And I went riding!!!!!

Oh baby, she is like a new bike. Love the extra power and the pipe sounds sweet!

Initially it took forever to get the bike started and then I took it about 300 feet and she bogged down at 2-3000 rpm. Rode back to the house and she stalled 200 feet away and I couldn't get her started...was disappointed to say the least and had to push her home.

I then changed the needle position. Factory Pro instructions said to start out with clip on 2nd position with 2 washer/shims on top and then adjust from there. They also provide real world examples from other users from their database. Most of them had no shims and the clip on position #3. So I took the tank off and adjusted needle to #3 with no shims.....

Starter her up and .....OH YEAH!!!!! She runs like a champ with strong low and middle throttle up to 7-8000 rpms. Don't really go too much above that but on the few occasions I did on my ride she still pulled nice and strong.

The Holeshot pipe is sweet and has a really nice sound (great difference between the stock and the Holeshot). I bought the 17" satin black with the street core and it's beautiful. At cruise speed it is not super loud. But when you hit the throttle you can hear a beautiful deep throaty sound as you push the bike up in speed.

Took me a month of tinkering, waiting for parts, and tinkering some more but it was well worth it. It was a really fun project! I'd do it all over again if I had too....just not right now please! All that is left is to synch the carbs, ride some more, and clean up the mess I created in my garage!

[Red01]

Sweet!