Winter Maintenance - Part 3

 

Part 3

Friday, 8th August.  The replacement hose was received this morning, and the metal 90* bend that had been a problem was now smaller, and after lunch, I performed a "dry" test fit and confirmed that the new hose no longer fouled the fork leg.  

That was the good news, because the bad news was that I found that the replacement brake line was the incorrect length.  

It was 10 cm shorter than the original kit brake line and the OEM brake line.

click on image to enlarge


Bugger.

So, it was back on the phone to the Distributor.  Now, my first inclination was to "scream & shout" but that rarely achieves much, so I calmly thanked Mark* for the quick shipping, before explaining the new problem.

Needless to say, Mark* was surprised and confused.  Truth be known, I am not sure he believed what I was telling him.  

So much so that he opened two similar kits they had in stock and found that both those kits had brake lines of the wrong length.  Seems that quality control in the manufacturing process may require attention.

To his credit, Mark* offered to make a custom brake line, based on the measurements and photos I had sent him. 

Bravo, muchas gracias.  

As it was now Friday afternoon, and as Monday was a Public Holiday, the 2nd replacement brake line would not be shipped until late Tuesday next week. 

I think I mentioned earlier that the Distributor is located in a different State, so it was "fingers crossed" that I would receive the 2nd replacement hose by Friday next week.

Bugger. 

To complicate things, I had already taken the original brake lines off the bike.  This was not an issue, but the ABS pump, which remained on the bike, would have no brake-line pressure when the ECU performed its initial system check, and this would result in the ECU potentially throwing an error code.

Error codes are not a big problem as I can clear them with an OBD2 dongle, but they were something I wanted to avoid.

Besides, I was not sure if the ABS pump would "pulse" on power-up and squirt corrosive brake fluid everywhere.

The net result was that I decided to do no further work on the bike until the 2nd replacement brake line arrived.

Bugger.

Thursday, 14 August, dawned bright and sunny, and at 09:00 am, Australia Post delivered the 2nd replacement brake line, and miracle of miracles, it was the correct length and it had the correct 90* bend, so it was off to the garage for a few hours' work.

First up was fitting all the new hoses (no problems), then a refill and bleeding of the brake lines (no problems).

Then I fitted a new air filter and re-fitted the air box to the throttle bodies (no problems), before finally, an engine start to see if the ECU was happy, which it was.

With all the major work behind me, the next work item was to drain and refill the engine oil & oil filter, followed by fitting the front and rear wheels with their new tyres, and adjusting the drive-chain tension.

click on image to enlarge


I still have to re-fit all the external Tupperware, followed by a couple of local "shake down" test-rides to make sure I have not overlooked anything important.

click on image to enlarge


I have a few family-related matters to attend to in late August, but I should be ready to resume my Grand Tour in early September and make that all-important sprint to the Finish Line.  

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