Fork Oil Change - RD350YPVS

I wanted to increase the damping on the Gold Valves, the forks on the 350 still dive a lot, to do this you need to remove the fork springs, so an oil change was in order. Fortunately on the 350, there are drain plugs at the bottom of each leg, so with the front stand in place it was an easy job to drain the oil from the fork legs one at a time. You also need to remove the top cap of the forks in order to allow the oil to drain out. The springs are then easy to grab, with a hook, the gold valves themselves sit on top of the damper rods under the springs, so not easy to see let alone remove. I ended up with a bit of stiff electrical wire which I made a loop in the end of that would go over the screw on the top of the gold valve an hence enable them to be pulled out. It took me about 10 minutes to fish them both out, which was definately worth while as pulling the fork legs out would have taken longer.

I used the tuning guide on the Racetech web site here to tune the damping on the gold valves - I went for maximum damping with 7 threads showing on the end of the valve preload screw - probably a bit excessive, but I want to feel the difference and if I have to back off later then I will.

The oil level states 140mm on the racetech site, and I used SAE 15 oil, I made a mistake when filling the legs though as of course with the stand on the fork legs are fully extended and the measurement is done with the Gold Valve installed but the legs fully compressed.... derrr... waste of some oil.

I also noticed that my preload spacers were not exactly equal lengths so I ground off the longer one to make them the same. If I remember correctly I made them on a race weekend on a circuit, so not surprising thinking back!

Oil Leak fixed - perhaps....

You may remember eariler this year, that I was searching for a fluid leak on the RG500, after every race I was getting streams of oil coming through the fairing holes and although it wasn't getting on the tyres, it was getting embarassing having to clean the bike before each "controle technique". Anyway, the bikes been sitting in my new garage with the fairings off, and I noticed it was even dripping on my nice clean concrete floor! My initial throught was gearbox oil, but the leak was covering the front of the engine as well, and couldn't possibley work its way forward like that, then I throught it could be a combination of shit leaking out of the exhausts covering the front and a gearbox leak covering the back, with a smattering of carb blow back.

I couldn't identify where the drips were coming from, so I thought I would start her up and see if the added heat would give me a clue, anyway I couldn't start her up - I think a mixture of old petrol and not enough oomph in my battery eliminator, plus the very cold conditions....

After kicking it over for a while, I gave up decided to get some fresh petrol, and connect a battery, anyway when I came back to the bike after a couple of days, there were fresh drips, and they were definately coming either from the front crankcase (right hand side) bolt or from the rotary disk cover. Libby (sensitive nose) identified the fluid as premix - so we were onto something!

Anyway to make a long story short, there were some loose screws on 3 out of 4 inner disk covers, fortunately they had not loosened to touch the disks, themselves but my current thinking is that they were allowing premix to leak out.

My worry about this hyposthesis are twofold :-
1/. Why didn't my bike lean out and seize if I was leaking oil out, then air must have been getting in?
2/. Why didn't the outer covers, which were all tightly closed hold the oil in?

There was a large quantity of oil behind the only disk cover that seemed not to be leaking so I am fairly confident about my diagnosis, but still a little surprised!
I am in the process of replacing the gaskets and rubber seals plus loctiting the screws in - will update later when I've finished the rest of the winter build.

My 2013 Calender

After negotiation looks like I will be doing :-

- 23/24 March 2013 : Carole               RG500
- 6/7 April 2013 : Le Castellet              RG500/RD350

- 17/19th May :  La Haute Saintonge    RD350

- 1/2nd June : Nogaro                          RD350
- 6/7th July : Spa-Francorchamps         RG500
- 20/21 July : Le Mans                         RG500/RD350
- 3/4 August : Magny-Cours                RG500/RD350
- 7/8 September : Ledenon                  RG500
- 28/29 Septembre : Croix en Ternois  RG500

- 19/20 October : Le Vigeant               RD350

See you soon.

Final Dates 2013

ProClassic

Les dates du Championnat de Vitesse :
- 23 et 24 mars 2013 : Carole
- 6 et 7 avril 2013 : Le Castellet
- 6 et 7 juillet : Spa-Francorchamps
- 20 et 21 juillet : Le Mans
- 3 et 4 août : Magny-Cours
- 7 et 8 septembre : Ledenon
- 28 et 29 septembre : Croix en Ternois

Les dates du championnat d'Endurance :
- 4 et 5 mai : Carole
- 28 et 29 septembre : Croix en Ternois

VMA

Course 1 ==> le Castellet (7/04)
Course 2 ==> Croix en Ternois (28/04)
Course 3 ==> La Haute Saintonge (19/05)
Course 4 ==> Nogaro (2/06)
Course 5 ==> Carole (7/07)
Course 6 ==> Le Mans (21/07)
Course 7 ==> Magny-Cours (4/08)
Course 8 ==> PAU Arnos (15/09)
Course 9 ==> Le Vigeant (20/10

Dates in red are at the same circuit, so I could do those on both bikes, to those three dates I would add Spa, and maybe Nogaro and Le Vigeant - to be discussed with the team (happy wife - happy life).

This weekend I managed to rip a tyre valve off the 350 as I was tightening the flywheel using a bar in the rear wheel, unfortunately I didn't notice the bar was pushing on the valve and not a spoke.... d'errrr

I also failed at starting the RG, as I can't see where my leak is coming from and I wanted to warm things up a bit, I will buy some new petrol and connect a battery to help things a bit. I also bled the rear brake on the 350 which up to that point, was ineffective.

I need to do at least a top end strip of both bikes to ensure things are still ok, plus I want to change the oil in the forks of both, so lots to be done, especially seeing as the first date is late March!!

New lighter flywheel

I decided to get my flywheel on the 350 lightened whilst I was in the UK for Xmas, save on postage (at least one way). Nigel Kemp racing does loads of stuff for the Yam so I entrusted the work to him. Here are the before and after photos :-

It's supposedly should allow the engine to spin up quicker, and certainly will put less stress on the crankshaft at high rpm. My only hope is that process hasn't unbalanced it at all... we'll see. I am sure I will feel the vibration if it is out of bonk.

The RG is dripping oil on the floor of my new garage!! So I am now convinced my leak has to be gearbox oil, and it must be coming from the primary shaft cover - this is where the 2 cranks are brought into one shaft, which even though it is in the crankcases (not gearbox) it sits in gearbox oil. I have cleaned the engine up and I am now waiting to see if i can see where it drips from! Failing that I will start it up and have a good look round, and failing that I will need to use the talc method... don't really fancy that much!