How to ruin your 1VJ engine (warning: GRAPHIC)
 

Here's a video clip of this weekend's work on my 1Vj.

It is not for the feint hearted - but very funny. (except for me)


If its ANY consolation: the actual job, was to replace the faulty stator. This job was achieved with aplomb. The work being seen in the video, was completely gratuitous and had no purpose other than to cost me money for a machinist, and yet another week without my bike.


I'm not bitter. I'm in therapy!

:clap::clap::clap::clap:


YouTube - How to Kill an Engine

:rofl:, so much better trashing someone else's bike. Took some strength to snap it. We have all done the same while learning though we do lack your finesse and style. My tools usually fly across the garage.

You do have my sympathy, after 15 years of engineering I still have to think Twice as to which direction to unscrew a bolt. I always have a mental picture in my head of a clock face when I look at the bolt to ensure I do it the right way. Buy a Ratchet with direction arrows on it.

Just completed my pre-trip mechanical training by removing, rebuilding and refitting an engine into an Yamaha XV; in the front garden without spilling a drop of oil.

YouTube - Lesson #3 - Stripping Keep the videos coming :DHope to see you both in Africa.

That's a classic :rofl:

What has really impressed me is the amount of grief that bolt took before it actually sheared......:oops2:

Never mind a painful lesson but well learnt:thumbup1:

:funmeteryes:

Just to make you feel better
 

I decided to take the Mini Cooper out for a run today as the sun was out. Took a bridge slightly too fast and this is the result, one totally cracked through front subframe. The engine's dropped, the wheels are splayed. Oh well.

THanks for the kind words.

We DO have a ratchet with arrows on - but it doesn't do allen keys... do you get a ratchet for them???


PS: EVERYBODY -- I JUST WANT TO BLANKET APOLOGISE FOR THE FOUL LANGUAGE ON THE VIDEO... WE DONT NORMALLY SWEAR THAT MUCH... BUT IT WAS EXTREME CIRCUMSTANCES!

Yes you can buy Hex (Allen) Bits for Ratchets either as a set or buy an Adapter which takes inserts. For travel Inserts with Adapter are best as you can use them with your Ratchet or a Screwdriver handle provided the square drive is the same.
Much easier to use than an Allen Key with a Spanner as leverage.
Good source is UK Suppliers of Britool, Sykes Pickavant, Gedore, Stahlwille, Facom Tools - Workshop Consumables
Look under 'Screwdrivers and Bits' or 'Sockets and Ratchets'
Halfords also sell them individually or as a set.

You seem better prepared than most, met people who have travelled with little or no knowledge of their bikes. Have you done tyre changes yet ???

I had to watch through my fingers, with my hands over my face.

I could say, in a Mr Chumley-Warner voice; "WOMEN, KNOW YOUR PLACE" But that would be very sexist.

Girls, better to find out the difference between clockwise and anticlockwise now, rather than on a piste somewhere. (I do worry for the generation that is growing up with digital watches)

I would recommend buying a good quality torque wrench for doing things back up. It takes some experience to judge how tight is tight, with fine threads in alloy.

Try to get one where the settings you use are in it's mid-range. I have a little 3/8" Norbar.

Have fun

Oh Dear......
Who else was shouting at the video.......

I had it literally Drummed into me many years ago

Lefty Loosey
Rightey Tighty
:smartass:

And always have a coffee sitting nearby..:thumbup1:

Andy

And wear gloves.
And I know it's no consolation but I did the same thing some years ago.
But I haven't done it since and I doubt you will either.

"Lefty loosey...righty tighty..." for taking off bolts or tightening them.
That means...turn to the left(counter-clockwise) to loosen...turn the spanner to the right(clockwise) to tighten

Rarely...very rarely are things reverse threaded...where the above adage is backwards.

HTH

D'oh indeed, but its happened to us all. There is a knack to getting sheared studs out that comes with time....... Luckily this definitely wont be the last bolt that gets snapped so you will get to practice!

Its worth remembering that snapped bolts are just spilled milk - worse case scenario you try and drill them out and the bit snaps, then you need a spark eroder.... still not the end of the world though.

Ah, but lefty loosey, righty tighty is back to front if the bolt's upside-down like it was in this case.

If the worst comes to the worst, pack a small nut and bolt in your tool kit, then just orient that to match the thing you want to loosen/tighten and voila, instant reminder.

Now can anyone weld?

Oh the Shame!!!!
 

oh how I laughed..... after the fact of course :blushing:

Well guys - the most embarrassing part is I taught Mardi the 'lefty loosy, righty tighty' saying!!!!! aaggghhhhh!!! No actually the worst part was thinking, nay - believing that I was following my own advice and turning the bolt the right way...... :oops2:

But hey - a lesson well learned, and you don't learn anything unless you get your hands dirty and make a few mistakes along the way - which is why we're doing all of this now - a long time before we find ourselves stranded with mechanical problems in the middle of the Sahara

One small sweet thing to come out the weekend spent up to my elbows in grease though - Mama XTHeadGirl shared with her daughter the very old and well known 'drag you nails over a bar of soap to keep the grease out' adage..... aaaaahhhhhhh - don't you just love moms?

Gigi :mchappy:

Err...... oh dear, unlucky with that one.....I liked her confidence though..... gigi will not be working on mine though under any circumstance......... A lesson for those without a torque wrench and work table ...... You guys in London?

uff....
 

I would have hated my self sooo much after that,and I don´t think I would ever ever post a video as evidence of me doing it,my male ego would die in the process.Thumbs up for shareing it with us:thumbup1:

At least now you know what to do next time.Keep up the good spirit!

Never Mind All That!!!
 

NEVER MIND ALL THAT!!!!!

GIGI SHEARING BOLTS OF MY ENGINE CASING.. IS JUST A LITTLE DIVERSION FROM THE REAL MIRACLE:::


JUST TO REMIND YOU:

FIRST I HAD TO FIND THE PROBLEM, SOME WEEKS AGO, OF MY BATTERY NOT CHARGING... THIS EVERNTUALLY TURNED OUT TO BE A FAULTY STATOR.

THEEENNNN..

HAD TO REMOVE THE OLD STATOR (and all the electrical connections and wires etc.)

AFTER INSTALLING THE NEW STATOR -- I SINGLE HANDEDLY DID UP ALL THE WIRING, CONNECTIONS AND ELECTRICALS...

STARTED IT TODAY == AND SHE IS PURRING AWAY LIKE A KITTEN!!!!!!!!!!!!


AND - NO OIL LEAK EITHER!!!!

(I made the gasket with my OWN HANDS!!! )

Your bike, next time!
 

Yeah GIGI... next weekend, we're learning on YOUR bike... I really need to learn how to do a GEARBOX REPLACEMENT... and I know EXACTLY which cogs go where....

:funmeteryes:

xxx

First XT gearbox to have 1 first and 4 reverse:thumbup1:

Kak luck there guys.

if you wont remember which way to undo/redo the bolts, try to think why is it so hard? I dont think there are any reverse threads on an XT are there?
:offtopic:
On a side note I really really admire your website. Your photography is great, but your web design awesome. (the charity one, not the work one)

For me thats something to aspire to be able to create.

Keep going with the bike maintenance, the mechanical side is reasonably easy, but the electrical side is a nightmare.

Cheers G

Rather than use a simple SPANNER why not invest in a quality SOCKET SET? A good quality socket is much less likely to slip and cause damage to the bolt and your hand!

By the way CLOCKWISE does the bolt up and COUNTER-CLOCKWISE undoes the bolt!:oops2:

Seriously, I do hope you managed to get the thing fixed without costing too much?

Onwards & Upwards....

Best to brake the bike now then on the road. Easer to fix at home to.

Wrench on stuff alot and you will shear off bolts, strip threads, cross thread things. On the other hand you will know how to fix all that to. Your skills have already came along way.

Painfull to watch
 

That was painfull to watch, may be there is a lesson here girls, some times us guys have are uses. Skip

I hate to be pedantic but I believe that there is one reverse thread.... in the words of Rolf Harris 'can you tell where it is yet??'

The electrical side shouldn't be too much of a nightmare, get the basics right and a multimeter and you are away!

As for spanners vs. sockets the best you can get are sockets with 6 faces where the faces are convex - this means that they contact the bolt in the middle of the face rather than on the corners - very trick! Also get a socket arm that is not a ratchet so you can hit the back of it - saves hitting the back of a ratchet (have knackered my good one doing this).

For badly seized bolts put some pressure on the arm then tap the socket with a hammer, you should notice a tiny bit of movement each tap - basically a more sensitive and much cheaper impact driver!

A good hammer should always be to hand....

ok guys - do you think you could give me a break now - jeez man! Mardi certainly exacted her revenge by posting the video!! :(
But hey - said XT did start and is purring away beautifully :D so not completly the end of the world....

:offtopic: guys going off on another completely different tangent - anyone know about some live/work warehouse space up for rent in south east London - ideally need to be able to ride the bikes into the space so we can work on them and prepare them (and try not to shear anymore bolts) ..... any ideas greatfully received (sorry - I know this is not the forum - so please email us through the website) - muchos graticius... err you know what I mean :helpsmilie:

See now you two are worrying me, you're just trying to be Ewan & Charley aren't you? Only without the beards of course.

PS, Say the word "Derbi" to Mardi and see what she does.

Compliments
 

You CLEARLY have a lot to learn, when complimenting women: because.. I have'nt slept for days, worrying about... whether that means, our WORK one is kak.

So. I refuse to gracefully accept the compliment, until you clear that up.

TIP: The right answer to this is: "The Work site is BRILLIANT, but the charity one is AWESOME".

That should settle things.

Pictures please...
 

Please do tell.. you know you want to!

Yes. This is true - I am quietly confident about the electrics now. HOWEVER -- it took me HOURS to figure out WHICH SETTING on the DAMN MULTIMETER to use...

WHY IS IT SO COMPLICATED??? WHY are there TWO holes for the POSITIVE lead?

On second thoughts - PLEASE don't answer that... cos my head will explode.




I have been trying for some time, to figure out WHAT YOU MEAN... 6 faces?? Convex???

HOW DO YOU REMOVE ALLEN KEYS WITH THAT???


HAVE YOU GOT PICTURES??

PS: Why does a clever bloke like you, live in Sheffield and deliver things?



A simple SPANNER? Gigi used a hex key (ALLEN KEY) - because.. the bolt had a hex head... A SOCKET would not have worked??

I'm confused.

We HAVE a very lovely, shiny socket set, that came in a BLUE BOX to match our BLUE TOOLBAG...BUT, they DONT WORK ON ALLENKEYS... just bolts with FLAT bits ontop.



WHY CANT TOOLS COME WITH THEIR NAME ON THEM?? There seems to be all sorts of other COMPLETELY USELESS information printed on it: "DROP FORGED" "CHROME VANADIUM"... Who needs to know that? What IS that anyway?

______________________________________________

FOUND IT!!!

Does anyone on the PLANET pay £900 for a set of ratchets????

UK Suppliers of Britool, Sykes Pickavant, Gedore, Stahlwille, Facom Tools - Workshop Consumables

And I thought us GIRLS are high maintenance!!!

Because I left my office job to ride round on a bike, there are no jobs for bike couriers in Sheffield so the only way I get paid to ride around is delivering pizza, plus my company is trying to sell IT system development to the government. Blood out of a stone...... Sheffield is cheap

I don't have the fancy spanners to take pictures of I'm afraid, too pricey for me! they are for bolt heads only though rather than allen....

diffrent account.
 

Ah.... That kind money comes from a totaly diffrent account,a hidden stash for tools that the girls don´t get to know about:innocent:

Such a new bike, surprises me you had a bad stator.

Not new.
 

Hey Patrick!

Our little darlings are 16 years old - 30,000 miles on the clocks... don't think Yamaha even know they still exist!

(We wanted older bikes to keep it as simple and "bush mechanic" proof as possible!)

Yes - the stator was tested - it only put out 2 thirds of what it should - and only intermittently.

When I took it out, it looked like the connections were soldered by a two year old. and the varnish/insulation was pitted and poor - it wasn't a happy stator.

Good luck with all of it and keep us posted.

LOLOLOLOLOL!!

Patrick, you are out of practice...!!

No-one blames you, and you dont have to apologise - its hard to keep up with the XT Girls... !!:D


We DID do an Africa trip on new(er) XTs... but... that was just a WARM-UP trip... for the REAL THING...

These new XTs are now sitting in Cape Town. Basking in the sunshine - waiting for anyone to ride them. (fancy a trip?)

You can look on them, as the equivalent of a 'beach house', which we only use for holidays - and lend out to others for fun.



In LONDON, we have our REAL bikes which we are prepping for the REAL TRIP.. which is a LONDON to CAPE TOWN trip... the LONG HAUL...

Here is a picture. To remind you.

http://www.d-z.co.uk/africa/images/xts-in-london.jpg

I hope you have good breakdown cover - the thought of you two doing roadside repairs' frankly scares me!!!:eek3::eek3::eek3:

Good luck all the same:thumbup1:

(PM me if you need any engine bits)

Tom:tongue_smilie:

Would ANY rider here ride past two stranded women without stopping, getting out the cape and y-fronts and fixing all their problems? I would stop in the UK let alone in Africa and generally the poorer somehwere gets the more people help each other out - breaking down in the arse end of the middle of nowhere wouldn't be a problem.

Plus from what I have seen the girls have been pretty good at making mistakes (lol), and we learn from our mistakes very well indeed. The best advice I could give anyone is to get your big trip bikes in advance, get old ones and fix them up, that way you know more when you need to, by the time they I would bet money on them being some of the most experienced and knowledgable overlanders out there. Don't forget that a lot of people in the last few years have decided that all they need to guarantee a trouble-free trip is a brand new GSA with a load of touratech bike porn bolted on!

Gorgeous bikes, they look lovely, ....... btw , what top box plate is that on the one behind? Is it a Givi, what model no is it.... I havent got the cash for ally panniers yet.....

Givi Rack?
 

Er.. is a Givi, but dunno what model... but you can buy it / swap it for a kidney or something else useful! :thumbup1:

PM is in your box love! You wouldn't want one of my kidneys, do have a USB charging bluetooth GPS receiver that is 50 odd-channel that I am not using......very good, Holux 541.

Holox BT-541 Bluetooth GPS Review - xda-developers