I had a #$%* of a time flushing my cooling system on the 'Wang yesterday, not because it's a difficult task, but because Honda's "Faux Tank" design makes it impossible to remove the radiator cap without first removing the above mentioned panel, which entails removing one fairing pocket, both sidecovers and a couple of little rubber panels around the front forks.
While I had all that crap off, I decided to remove the threaded fork caps to add more fork oil. (When I rebuilt the forks I didn't have a manual so I guessed 200 ml, but it should have been 340 ml) I put the bike up on the stand and took all the weight off the forks, unscrewed the cap, and, 'TWANG!" out shoots the cap, a short spring and a washer. OK, I know that the spring was Honda's cheapo attempt at Progressive springs, it's wound at a different rate than the longer fork spring below it.
Anyway, I cleaned all the bits and poured in another 140 ml of oil, then attempted to compress the spring while trying to turn the socket wrench. Do you reckon I could do it? No fcuking way Jose! Holy fcuking hell, I've seen bullworkers with lighter springs, what the fcuk was Honda thinking??
The wife came out to see if I was OK, so I asked her (well "told" actually, I was in a schidt mood by now) to give me a hand, but she was of no use, which I mistakenly told her, so she stormed off while I continued to curse God for all the terrible things that have happened to me over my life, from my mum dropping me off at Kindergarten when I was four, then she drove off without realising that Kindy was closed for the day, so I had to walk home, to dropping my shiny new CB750F when I hit the back brake too hard to avoid a chick in a Valiant who didn't give way, to seeing the Labour Party steal the last federal election, man, I was seething with sweaty rage!
I decided that God had discretely deserted me and the air was so blue around me I started to feel a bit like a knob, so I took a different tack. I hopped on the old lathe and machined up an adapter that fit inside the cap at one end, and inside the spring at the other, with a flange that separated the two, (or otherwise it'd just fall down the inside of the spring) so the threaded cap didn't slide off the top of the spring, as it had been doing when tried to compress the spring.
By doing this, it also acts as a guide which helped align the threaded cap when I tried again. While better, I was still struggling until I realised that I needed to use my weight, not my arm strength alone. I shoved a piece of thick upholstery foam into my armpit, then put the handle of my "Speed Wrench" into my foamy, sweaty pit, then leaned into the forks, using my (not inconsiderable) weight to compress the spring whilst I turned the handle. Surprisingly, it worked first time!
By this stage, it was 9pm, I was a big sweaty heap, I needed to apologise to the wife (it's my birthday today, so I didn't want to miss out on all of my well deserved presents.....) and get into the shower. It's even hotter today then it was yesterday and I haven't even attempted to remove the second cap yet. I think I'll leave it until next weekend, it's too hot to do much today anyway, and that pisses me off............
