2007 450 KTM EXC Rejuvenation August 2015

[carlrf]

Daughter
Me
Beth

[carlrf]

Man this is like pulling teeth!





Hmmm, probably as good a it's going to get.



Ridiculous?............Maybe, but as I was standing contemplating same while looking at the bike, I view a fuse holder for the fan I hadn't realized was there.


Well let's just see what's inside.......................

OMG a 5 amp fuse..............BLOWN (or open if you prefer)
I am certainly glad I found this BEFORE I got in the "MUD" !



Also I will know it's there now in the event it opens again for some reason.

[carlrf]

I see this may have had or could have a compression release?
And at the same time in this view I learn where the cylinder air/coolant bleed is. I painted the head yellow to help me remember it's here, in the future.
And yes you are correct, I probably could have found these things in the manual, if I could read!!



All be darned, there's the cylinder coolant drain.



By golly, I think I will just paint it yellow too, what the heck. This is neat stuff mister (and sister)!



It doesn't take much to make me happy! Contrary to what my three X-wives may say.

[Ed M]

Man this is like pulling teeth!

Hmmm, probably as good a it's going to get.

Carl,

I know a guy over in Shawnee KS that does a great job on pipe repair. His name is Darin Hartman (913) Two One Seven - 8218 He has a small business on the side called Heavy D's Exhaust Repair. He used to have a website but now has moved it to FaceBook https://www.facebook.com/HeavyDsExhaustRepair

He can change this:





To this:


Yes I know a 2-stroke pipe isn't the same as a 4-stroke pipe but he does both and has a great reputation for both styles of pipes

[carlrf]

I took off today (Friday) and went to physical therapy appointment at 7:00 AM to try to keep old body moving, then drive through McDonalds for a coffee and a biscuit with egg, cheese and bacon!

Home by 8:30 I guess, put on some music in the garage and tear back into KTM.


I start with checking and cleaning cooling system components.




A little damage to the right bank but it wasn't leaking so I will leave well enough alone, and that is so unlike me!




Clean and flush.............





Cleaned and dried parts ready for reassembly!

[carlrf]

Carl,

I know a guy over in Shawnee KS that does a great job on pipe repair. His name is Darin Hartman (913) Two One Seven - 8218 He has a small business on the side called Heavy D's Exhaust Repair. He used to have a website but now has moved it to FaceBook https://www.facebook.com/HeavyDsExhaustRepair

Wow that's awesome! I will keep his info. There is a pipe on ebay at the moment as well but his pictures are not very good to spend the money on right now. I have put this one back on for now but definitely something for the future!
Thanks!

[carlrf]

I am pretty sure I found the reason the 5 amp fan fuse was blown.
I tried spinning the blade with my finger upon reassembly and could feel it hitting something.
A little digging and I see this. The inside of the shroud has marks where the fan has been hitting.
On the left side of the fan shroud the coolant hose is applying pressure to the side of the shroud pushing it into the path of the rotating fan blade.




I took me a bit to figure out how to prevent this and here is what I finally came up with.
It's a piece of Velcro wrapped around the hose and the frame holding it away from the fan shroud.



Fan works now!



Added a couple of washers to the radiator mounting that were missing or not the right size in my mind, I could have blasted them away with the hose or air pressure somewhere in the process. Yes things happen sometimes.

[carlrf]

I think I will get a backup plug or two and put a fresh one in to boot.

BTW what does "mrgreen" mean anyway? >>>>>>

I thought I would use the tool kit plug wrench to make sure I can get the plug out on the road/trail. Glad I did because the flashing/imperfections in the tools made them very difficult to use (have to turn plug tool with wrench and wrench was tough getting on and off plug tool) until I took a file and wire wheel to them to clean them up. All good now!

[carlrf]

Just some levity to break up the maintenance boredom.

Me ~ 3+ years ago and 25lbs lighter when I was cycling and doing the same kind of anal maintenance on bicycles in my studio bedroom/bike shop.

I don't know where that T-shirt went.....................Beeeeeth!!!

[carlrf]

Shortly after getting the KTM home I swapped out the broken brake lever for a good one Troy gave me with the bike.



I was doing some other stuff with the controls and when I got done there was no front brake. I thought I got air in the hydraulics when taking the master cylinder off the bars or something. I decided I would bleed the brakes when I got closer to putting it on the road.

Well today was the day to bleed the brakes, at least the front one.




All air is gone from the clear hose, ran plenty brake fluid through and........................................

No front brake.

Ok, to eliminate any possible weirdness, I reinstalled the broken brake lever, a little bit of challenge in itself when the spring and another piece come out, unintentionally. Oh well, I needed to "see what's in there anyway" !


Now I have front brake. What's going on here?

I removed the broken lever again and made a closer comparison between the two.
As you may be able to see, the broken lever has an (intentional) bend that allows the push rod to go further into the plunger/piston of the master cylinder providing the needed "stroke" to accomplish adequate braking. Needless to say the broken lever is back on the bike now.
This is a perfect example to illustrate why some say "If it isn't broke, don't fix it". Unfortunately for me most of the time that just doesn't settle well in my stomach, and sometimes I have to pay the consequences.
Now, to get the correct lever ordered might be a challenge.

[carlrf]

When putting the tank back on I couldn't get the original gas line where it wouldn't kink some.
I am not crazy about the way this looks but I am happy with the relaxed position of the new hose and the hose clamps (you can't see them because they are black).
I didn't have any "real" motorcycle fuel hose on hand or I would have used it and it would have looked better.

[carlrf]

Ridiculous!

[troy]

Couple things, Carl.

First, I don't know how those radiators could have gotten beat up. I never rode the bike hard or anything. I don't recall ever hitting anything. Weird.

Second, I think the way you bolted the radiators on is fine--it's what I would have done. The factory mounts are rubber grommet things with a small bolt and small washer that spreads the rubber out to hold them on. The idea is that they can "break off" in a crash rather than break a hole in your radiator. SOMEBODY (couldn't have been me) wrecked that bike so many times that those old grommets were long destroyed and I had it held together with gum and baling wire!

Great work! No. I will not hold your bike.

[carlrf]

Couple things, Carl.

First, I don't know how those radiators could have gotten beat up. I never rode the bike hard or anything. I don't recall ever hitting anything. Weird.

Second, I think the way you bolted the radiators on is fine--it's what I would have done. The factory mounts are rubber grommet things with a small bolt and small washer that spreads the rubber out to hold them on. The idea is that they can "break off" in a crash rather than break a hole in your radiator. SOMEBODY (couldn't have been me) wrecked that bike so many times that those old grommets were long destroyed and I had it held together with gum and baling wire!

Great work! No. I will not hold your bike.

The rubber grommets are still there and functional. I may have them too tight though. I used washers I had on hand and they went around the mounting stud instead on top of the "ledge"? at the bottom of the threads, thus compressing the rubber the thickness of the washers. I will likely shop for a little different washer that will allow more movement.

I think the only things left are checking/replacing brake pads, pulling the wheels "so I know how" and getting all the legal lights working.
Currently my blinkers come on when told to but they don't blink. I have a flasher on order hoping that's he problem.
Also it appears the brake light is on all the time with the tail light. Need to run that down then head to the DMV!!!!!!!!!WhoooHooo!
The thing sounds awesome in the garage!
Was going to put stock muffler on (may still eventually) but didn't want to disrupt any tuning that may have been done. it wasn't fitting real well either and I got tired of messing with it!

[troy]

That muffler (not the stock one) is a very good muffler. Beat up I know. I cleaned it out and repacked it a year or so ago, so it should be good.

[carlrf]

Working on the front brakes a post or two up I was rotating the wheel by hand and felt it was not spinning as free as I would have expected.

So............Off it comes! I want to get a good look at the brake pads anyway, make sure I have the needed tools in the tail bag to achieve wheel removal on the road or trail and understand the procedure for wheel removal.





Well first thing I find out is I do not have the needed tools for wheel removal. I will need to source an adequate box wrench as the large nut to be removed is aluminum and easily damaged by a spanner.
Got one headed this way, BTW.

Wrench is 27mm x 17mm


Of course the axle and nut have been cleaned and anti-seized!



Front brakes are good enough for now I think. I'm not even going to take them any further apart. Yet.



On initial inspection I find the brake side wheel spacer very difficult to spin by hand.



The opposite side spins easy enough and pops out with a couple of taps on a copper pipe drift.




Next comes the brake side, a bit tougher to get out.


With the spacer out I try to spin the bearing and check for smooth spinning.
Nada, bearing is very hard to turn and ROUGH when it does.



Time to go a little further and remove the seal and bearing.




The bearing removal requires more serious business!
The copper pipe drift isn't going to make it, even with the 3lb mallet! I don't actually know if it's three pounds but thought it sounded cool.



Takes a few whacks and a bit of working back and forth.



Viola!


Looking through the box of stuff Troy gave me with the bike I find a full set of bearings and seals .......................
......................for the rear wheel! Darn the luck.



Ordered bearings, seals and new spacers (spacers are the surface the seal rides on) as the spacers have deep enough grooves to defeat the purpose of the seal.

Allballs #25-1402 and #11-1087


[

To be continued.......................

[carlrf]

Got the parts and finally had an opportunity to work on it tonight.




Looking for tool big enough to drive the bearings in with the outside race. Don't want to put any pressure or hammering on the inside race as that would damage the bearing, but you know that already.

However my largest Harbor Freight socket is just one size too small.



Thinking for few minutes and decided to dissect one of the old bearings and use the outer race to drive the new bearings in.



But how am I gong to prevent the old outer race from seating and being impossible to get back out afterwards?
I cut a slot in it with the dremel so it would not get wedged in.




[imghttp://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m122/carlrf1/KTM/IMG-20150909-01332_zpssuj7g7wp.jpg][/img]



That big hammer was a little more than I needed, so....


And the old race/driver pops right out to do the other side.

[troy]

Slick use of the old bearing! I've used this trick: put new bearings in freezer a few hours before the job. Using a torch, lightly heat the wheel. Slide in pretty easy. I use this to get the old ones out, too. Just heating the outside helps it expand a little and the bearings come out easier. I have a soft, blunt brass punch I use.

[carlrf]

The socket worked ok for the seals.



I suppose the seal should be flush with the edge of the hub but trying to get it parallel I drove it down to land on the outer race of the bearing. Checking contact points between the seal and the spacer it looks like I am still good.



The spacers fit very snug in the inner bearing race and the old ones didn't come out so easy, so I anti-seized the part the goes in the bearing race and put some grease on the seal surface. Most of it gets pushed off when inserting though.





After quick wipe it's time to move to the other side.



Oh, Don't forget the inner spacer Carl!



This side went just like the first one.

When bearing and spacer shopping I found waterproof kits that had O-rings between the inside of the spacer and the axle. I opted just to seal it with some heavy grease.





Decided to clean and anti-seize the pinch bolts and clean the bores the axle is secured in.

[carlrf]

I get to use my new 27 x17 axle wrench!
Wheel installation looks fairly straight forward.
Insert axle.
Snug up the left axle nut drawing together the inner bearing races, and inner spacer with the force applied by the shoulder on the axle. Sound like I know what I'm doing.



Tighten the left side pinch bolts.


Make sure the right fork stanchion? is in a neutral position (that puppy has very little lateral movement, a good thing!) and tighten the pinch bolts.

Give er a spin to check for any unexpected resistance or other anomalies. Looks ok to me.