Oil Leak from Crankcase (Kickstand Side)

A few months ago, I noticed oil accumulating near where the shift linkage attachment sits on the stator case.  It was a very slow leak, barely noticeable 'til I cleaned my bike after a muddy ride.  Days later, the leak got worse and I realized it's coming from the seam on the stator case. I knew a gasket replacement was going to be the way to go.  I ordered the OEM gasket, and bought some sealant remover, gasket sealant from NAPA and picked up some wire brushes and rags at a dollar store spending around $20 for everything.

Stator case opened.

Removing one case is not as simple as it seems.  The oil has to be drained, the kickstand has to be removed as well as parts of the shift linkage and rear brake.  I propped up some 2X4's on the other side to hold the bike up.  Too poor or too lazy to get a proper stand.

When removing the rear brake linkage, make note of where the dot marker is relative to the gap, it has to go back in the exact spot.

Removing all other obstructions, no matter how small, helps out a lot in saving time when complications arise.

The case is held on by a magnet (little shaft on the bottom right) so care has to be taken during removal.  I used a rubber mallet to pry it off gently. 

Using the gasket trace to keep the bolts in order

The bolts that hold the stator case open are of several different lengths, so to keep everything in order, I traced the new gasket on the cardboard it came in, including the bolt holes where I made a cross cut in each.  As I removed each bolt I just stuck it onto the cardboard. 

Milky residue in crankase from water mixing with oil

The importance of not letting a leak like this go by for long is the potential damage it can do.   The problem is that water can get in your system and cause problems.  When oil gets contaminated, it doesn't get to do its job properly which is lubricate engine components, cool them off, reduce friction, etc.  

More residue to clean off.  Note the black rubber looking material the residue is sitting on, that's the old, tough-as-nails gasket which is a troublesome part to remove.

I cleaned out my crankcase with some rags, Qtips, and a second oil change after.

Rust 

Moisture seeped into the stator case and caused the shaft to rust.  I cleaned that off with a wire brush or detailing brush as some would call it. 

Rust cleaned off

The hardest and most tedious part was removing the old gasket.  That thing melted onto the case and was a tough SOB to scrape off. 

I could've used some more aggressive methods but I didn't want to damage the case and I needed a nice even finish to get a good seal.  It took hours off applying gasket remover, waiting, then scraping with a putty knife and wire brush to get all the material off. 

Mating surface area (edges) cleaned

Surface area cleaned and ready for new gasket

Gasket sealant applied minimally

I used a very thin layer of gasket sealant on both sides, nothing fancy, just used my fingers to smooth it over the mating surfaces.  I placed the new gasket on the stator side and then mounted the stator back onto the crankcase.  The gasket isn't a super perfect fit, at the bottom just a slight bit of gasket sticks out once the surfaces are mated.

The repair did the job. No more leak, but I still don't know why the seal failed in the first place, which is why I opted for the gasket sealant.  The only thing I did differently was use Rotella T6 Synthetic 5W40 oil which I started a couple of months before this problem happened.

If you have had the same problem, know why the gasket failed, or if you have tips on how I can save some trouble next time, let me know!  Hope this helps somebody out. 

I recently added the GAK mod so I'll be posting about that soon.

Carburetor Re-Jet and Sync

Now to discuss re-jetting the carbs. This is a touchy topic because there's a lot of differing opinions on carb re-jet.  A change to your exhaust or intake system usually calls for one, but a change that's not too drastic might not need a re-jet, just a sync. I decided to go ahead with the re-jet since I plan on modifying the intake later on anyways.  What a pain in the a$$!!

I referred to 650 CCN&D's Re-Jet How To for instructions on some parts.

You need an army of tools for this one: wrenches, sockets, screwdrivers, allen keys, pliers, and a drill with preferably smaller drill bits. I also had to buy an extractor to get the carb screws out.

This is the first mod that I couldn't finish in a day.  A lot of time was wasted trying to take the carb screws out just by sheer determination and a good pair of vise grips.  Friends, that just isn't enough some times.

First order was to get to the carbs.  You can check out the Service Manual link for step by step instructions.  The gas tank, air cleaner, breather, and some wires have to be moved out of the way.

Always a good tip to have the tank nearly empty when removing it. It's heavy!

Carefully removing all hoses and wires snaking around...

Then we come to the tedious part of this project.  Many V-Star owners curse whoever made the choice to put such soft screws that easily strip to hold together, of all things, your carburetor!  Every imaginable way has been found and attempted to get these inconvenient screws out of the way, nothing short of grinding them down, hammering, whatever it took. 

I had completely destroyed the screw heads trying to pry them off with vise grips by the time I took a trip to Lowe's for an extractor.  I settled for a GRABIT extractor thinking it should be okay.  Was I wrong! This thing grabbed the stripped screws easily and I was done in just a few minutes!

The GRABIT Extractor made short work of these

stubborn carb screws

To change out the jets, you need an extremely skinny straight slot screwdriver, nothing complicated on this one.  Screw the old one out, put the new one in, no need to gorilla torque it, just tighten slightly.

The jet should is the one in focus.  After the carb screws are replaced with better ones, 

the jets can be accessed without removing the gas tank, just the carb cover.

This is the part where you hear a lot of carb talk about needles and shimming. 

The needle has grooves on it and they're counted from the more blunt end.  My mod called for shimming it on the 4th groove so that's where I placed the stock clip on my new needle.  Some people use washers and stack it on the blunt end to get the same effect as placing a clip on the groove.

While the carb was opened up, I drilled out the brass plug that covered the PMS screw using the GRABIT again.  This tool is more than worth the money.  A lot of owners have griped about removing this brass plug as well, with some drilling to far and damaging the plastic screw inside.

Removing this brass plug gives you access to the PMS screw.  Mine is backed out
3 1/2 turns.

To get the exact needle shims, PMS screw turns, and right size jets for the pipes you have, checkout 650ccnd.com's Re-Jet Chart. 

Putting everything back together, I used Ziv's Carb Screw Kit which had a handy tool for taking the screws on and off and the right size replacement screws for the ones I demolished.

Vance & Hines Short Shots Exhaust

Hey everyone! It has been a very looooooong while since I posted about my mods so I've got to backtrack a bit and post some old ones that I never did.

I changed out the stock pipes for some Vance & Hines Shortshots. Purely aesthetic mod but the bike does feel better with the new pipes and a carb re-jet.  If you're thinking of doing this one, buying a new exhaust gasket for the rear pipe is important as the old one looked disgusting when I took it out.  This mod didn't require the header pipe to be removed so that gasket won't be changed out.

Old pipes being removed. Fairly simple process, a socket wrench, allen wrench, and box end does the job along with a screwdriver. The support assembly also needed to be switched out with the ones shipped with the new pipes.

And here's all the materials I had to use: New pipes, quitter baffles, exhaust gaskets, and the jet kit for the carb mod later.

The original baffles are the ones on the right.  I've heard the Shortshots with the stock baffles and they are too LOUD for my taste. My ears would be bleeding through a tunnel or underpass. I decided to go with their quitter baffles instead, the ones on the left. Taking the baffles out wasn't difficult, I just used some vise grips to get a hold on the edge and tugged little by little.

The pipes have to be "assembled" out of the box, sounds scary but it's misleading.  These pipes just needed the sleeves to be slid over the actual pipes as shown in the pic. Everything went easily together with a bit of gentle pushing.  The sleeves are held on to the main pipes by 4 hose clamps.

Putting them on the bike was the easiest part, definitely doable alone. The only thing that needed a bit of tweaking was the sleeves, to get that "stacked" look at the tip.

Here's the end result.

Thanks for the messages, pipe mod

I've received a few more questions and messages about the 650 and I'd like to thank everyone who has visited the page so far.  


I never expected an extremely busy year, so I've really let the blog slide down. But soon, I'll be posting more stuff since I did get a chance to do more mods and maintenance upkeep like oil changes and other minor things. I switched to Vance and Hines pipes a few months ago so here's the video of it. I didn't get a chance to record the original pipes so hopefully you take my word on that it sounds a lot louder than stock.


Vance and Hines Shortshots



I'll be posting pics of how this mod went along in a few days. 

Contacting Me

If you need to contact me and ask about the mods I've done or need some more clarification, you can e-mail me at rina1504@gmail.com or go to the www.vtwinmama.com forum and post in the message boards. It's an awesome site with other friendly riders offering advice on riding, maintenance, modifications, and just plain talking. Safe riding ;-)

Until February

I won't be able to do any mods on my bike for a few weeks due to moving so I'm just riding for the meantime.

Scootworks Phat Risers II

Barely flat footing the 650 can also mean barely reaching the handlebar. I notice I run out of arm room whenever I try to do some sharp or low speed turns. This is where the risers come into play. There were so many to choose from, I had a headache surfing through the web finding ones I liked. However, they all came in chrome. Barely any came in black that had the pullback I wanted, so I went with Scootworks Phat Risers II for a 2" increase in height and a 3" increase in pullback over the stock ones. The II's require the cables to be re-routed, the I's don't. I'm not sure if the III's will even fir the 650 but those would require new cables if they do.

Stock Risers


The instructions were straight forward, nothing confusing about them. I didn't follow the recommended tips though because I didn't have a bike jack to lift the front end. You have to do this to take pressure off the front end when removing the top triple tree. This would be the fasted way to re-route the cables. I was curious if I could do it a different way, without disconnecting any cables except the throttle. Well I did, and it was time consuming as hell and had me removing the throttle, brake, and headlight assemblies.


This post will be less detailed on each of the steps I took because it's just too long. I needed to use all my hands and I just wanted it done before the rain got heavy so less pics on this. Also, this one is not to be taken alone by anyone with only a very basic understanding of mechanics. It's possible, but I hope at this point you have an understanding of the proper ways to remove/start bolts, preventing stripped bolts, using a torque wrench, the proper way to evenly tighten bolts on an assembly, etc.



In whatever way you're going to approach changing out your stock risers with a required cable re-route, cutting off all the plastic ties holding the cables before anything else makes life so much easier.

Before taking off the risers, I covered the gas tank with a towel, took the headlamp mounting bolts off and covered the headlamp with an old shirt. I also removed the mirrors to make the handlebar lighter. With a screwdriver, I removed the two screws holding the throttle assembly together and removed the grip from the handlebar. Using a 5 mm allen key, I removed the brake assembly but left the brake lever attached. With 10" bolt cutters, I snipped of parts of the wiring bracket mounted underneath the top triple tree holding the brake, clutch, and throttle cables in place. I didn't need them with the new risers as the cables will lose their slack. I put the two assemblies through the triple trees. I had to push the headlamp away a bit for both pass through.



You can disconnect the throttle from either end, at the lever or at the crankcase. I did it at the crankcase, I didn't want to mess with the handle since I had already adjusted it a few times when I installed the Clevver. Disconnecting it from the crankcase, I just took the adjusting nuts off and slid the throttle cable out of the metal holder.

Comparison


After all that, then I removed the stock risers and let the handlebar rest on the gas tank. I installed it according to directions on the package and then put the handlebar on. I tightened it just enough to hold it in place and I connected everything back to the handlebar. I routed the throttle cable behind the triple trees and connected it back to the crankcase. Sounds simple, but since I was working alone, I had to keep re-positioning things so they wouldn't fall or scratch anything which was very time-consuming.



The 3" pullback helps out a lot. I can now bend my elbows and with the handlebar sitting higher, it takes a lot of stress of my shoulders. This is important for me because an old work accident a couple of years ago now makes my left shoulder muscles cramp at particular positions. It's not painful, just feels odd and nagging. I guess if you're cutting the 5'0 height like I am, the II's are the way to go. Someone taller than that can probably manage with the I's and no cable re-routing.

Before and After pics to show the difference:

Stock:


Scootworks Phat Risers II