Topic: Worst Advice You got from Manual or Tech Article

[754]

First one,
I read somewhere that a woodscrew wood screwed in between tach drive shaft and seal, will pull the seal right out! Well it did and fuggered the shaft in the process..lots of fun.. pulling an engine to fix that one!!..live and learn..

Next,
I built a chopper and wired it using a Clymer manual. as I was using K2 parts , I used that one. Well there was a mistake on the regulator or rectifier wires..didja know, that if the battery does not know if it is full it keeps charging and charging??

 Well it does!!

 And did you know if your coils get real hot, there is white goo that runs out of them?? Stock ones and Andrews!!.. Well they both do...the wierdest thing..

 Eventually I noticed that the other diagrams were different..

[Sam Green Racing]

In the UK, we have a monthly magazine called Motorcycle Mechanics. The mag had a questions and answers page, where you could ask the experts to solve your problems.

A guy writes in and says, "I have bought a Honda C92 and the right hand exhaust pipe gets much hotter than the left"
The experts reply was,  "It would seem to be running weaker (leaner) on the right hand side, this is down to an air leak in the manifold or the right hand carb is set incorrect, check that both main jets are the same size, they should be 98s"

Need I say,....the C92 only has one carb.

Sam.

[05c50]

Clymer manual for GL1000 (Goldwing) shows carb jets in wrong holes. It's been reprinted many times since the seventies and the mistake has never been corrected.
  Don't always trust everything you read.


.....Paul

[Jonesy]

The Haynes manual for the CB750 says to use 10W-30 oil in the front forks. Although later in the manual it has the breakdown of the later fork design, then never mentions that the newer design uses ATF instead. We wondered why the ride felt so harsh after changing the fork oil...

[Johnie]

Had just brought my KO home and was going to adjust the clutch.  The OEM owners manual that came with the bike says on page 58, "turn the clutch adjusting screw in the 'counterclockwise' direction until a slight resistance is felt."  So I did that and it was really messed up.  Could not figure out what was wrong.  So I got out my big green Honda service manual and read this "turn the clutch adjusting screw in the 'clockwise' direction until a slight resistance is felt. 
Big difference in "counterclockwise" and "clockwise".  Once I saw the error in the owners manual and did it right everything was AOK.

[bryanj]

Haynes Triumph T120 manual says when re-building gearbox:-

Fit the high gear sleeve then fit the cam plate---CANT BE DONE plate has to go in first!

[Kickhorse]

Not actually advice, but when rebuilding a Kaw triple engine a couple years ago, I was assembling clutch based on a drawing from parts manual.  There is an o-ring and collar that were in wrong positions and that's how I assembled it.  For months, it kept burning tranny oil thru the exhaust.  I must have taken it apart 6 times, removing clutch, replacing o-ring each time, waiting on ebay for nos collars a few times, using new gaskets each time, draining tranny oil each time...

It wasn't until someone on a triples forum pointed out that the drawing was wrong that I realized what was wrong.  Good thing, cause my wife thought I was going crazy cussing all night in the garage.