YAMAHA YX600 RADIAN

Diary of Work

After picking the bike up and getting it home I changed the oil and filter and gave it a good clean and polish. The drain plug was stuck so I had to remove the exhaust downpipes to get better access. I gave it all a good polish whilst it was off.

The rear tyre was right on the limit and the front was worn and mildly perished so I decided to change them for a pair of Bridgestone BT45 battleaxes which have improved the handling no end! Whilst the front wheel was out I changed the bearings as they were goosed. Ian was showing off his new customised open face lid.

After doing the front tyre and bearings I noticed the headstock bearings were a little rough. I ordered a new set along with fork seals and brake pads and thought I might as well do the lot. I started by stripping the front of the bike down, removing the bars, headlight and controls including the wiring trying to make note of how it all went back together. Then I jacked the front wheel off the ground using a bit of wood against the right side of the engine so the bike was sitting on the rear wheel, the side stand and the jack. The forks popped out easy after removing the wheel and the 6 clamp bolts. With the forks out I could really feel how bad the head bearings were! look at the video below to see now bad the centre indent was.

The yoke bearing clamp nut came off with a C spanner to reveal the original (I'm guessing) ball bearings. ERGH. The bearing on the yoke was easy to remove, I did this by clamping the stem in a vice and knocking it off with a chisel whilst being careful not to damage either the stem or the seal behind the bearing shell. (Note there is a rag in the jaws of the vice to save damage) The shells in the head were even easier to remove by passing a long bit of bar through one end and using it as a drift to knock them out, working around the shells to keep them square. Finally before reassembly I used this opportunity to clean the threads out on the yokes and give them a general scrub up.

Here you can see the new taper roller bearings VS the old ball bearings. These fitted on easily using a socket to drift the outer shells into the headstock and some tube to drift the bottom race onto the yoke. The top race was fitted after the now coated with grease pivot is pushed up into the headstock. Then the clean top cover and nut was fitted. Before refitting I cleaned the nut up with a file as it looked like it was undone with a chisel or punch in the past and then stoned down the side that fits against the bearing cover to make sure it provides and even pressure. I tightened up the bearings until they just start to drag then give the top and bottom of the yoke pivot and good firm bash with the copper mallet (note the seals are now in place so no copper can get into the bearings and bugger them) This makes sure the bearings are seating and will stop them going slack when I ride it for the first time. Then a final adjustment of the preload and I loosely fitted the top yoke in readiness for the forks.

With the headstock done I moved onto the forks. One of the forks had a fair bit of pitting and after struggling to find a new set I decided to try and patch these up for now. I smoothed off the corrosion with some fine wet and dry paper, cleaned it up with some brake cleaner to remove the brake dust and finally applied some small blobs of CA glue. Once dry I smoothed these back off with yet more wet and dry and you can no longer feel them. Hopefully they will do the job and not rape the fork seals.

The forks are simple and very easy to rebuild. I removed the cap followed by the spring and then drained the skank old oil out. A couple of socket extensions were used to drop a bolt into the depths of the fork to hold the damper rod still whilst I undid the bottom retaining nut and then popped the assembly out onto the bench. The fork seal was removed by first popping off the dust seal then the locking ring and then using the stantion as a slide hammer to drift it out along with the top bush. It all popped back together nice and easy using a bit of old big end shell from the triumph to push the top bush back in and a bit of pipe (ends wrapped in tape to stop it scratching the chrome) as a slide hammer to pop the new seal in. The lock washer followed, then a quick packing of grease and finally the dust cover. The grease helps stop any water getting under the dust seal and building up skag and rotting the stantion.

The forks were then popped back into the yokes and the front end reassembled. I need to rewire the headlight as I really dont like the solid connectors in there but that will have to wait until my new order of proper connectors comes in.

Finally before giving in for the night I cleaned the front callipers up checking all of the pistons moved freely (they did) and then fitting new sintered cermet pads that should work a bit better than the groggy old ones and produce less dust. I pushed the pistons back in using two bits of flat plate and two g-clamps one on each side of the calliper. and then holding it in to push the other side out whilst checking for freeness and cleaning them whilst exposed.

After not using the bike for a week due to bad weather and being too busy I decided it was time to remove the other exhaust baffle which was just holding in. A screwdriver, mallet and pair of mole grips sorted that out as it was pretty much rotten anyway. Eager to hear if it sounded any better now I went to start and it after a loud pop all the electrics went dead. Bollocks. First port of call the fuse box. All fuses intact but the wiring was a right mess. Although the battery voltage seemed ok I whacked it on charge whilst I rewired the fuse box with four neat little sealed blade holders tie wrapped together. All in the correct order and amperage as the Haynes wiring diagram suggests so all that is left is to write on each one what they are which I will do when I can find a tipex pen that works! After that I changed the fork oil back to SAE10 as the 20 seemed a bit too rough and I was getting wobble at speed on uneven terrain. I also changed the brake fluid which took all of 5 minutes if that. Resulting in nice clear fluid in the system and skanky brown fluid in the bleed tub. Also the brakes feel MUCH better now. I Just need to sort out some nice exhausts and rewire some of the stuff in the headlight which is botched with chocolate blocks and Halfords crimps ergh.