imported post
imported post
Went down to Sumas,WA to the shipping company that all my goodies are shipped to. It's called "Ship Happens", and for $4 a package they are my US Postal address. This is real handy because some places really jack you on border brokerage, shipping to US.
In fact, it's probably not them, it's those boys in brown that bend you over when you want something shipped to Canuckistan.
Crossing an international border (such as it is) on a Saturday was stupid. Tons of traffic. Is hould have just parked and walked across, the place is only 3 blocks down... Oh well, $4 for my package, and $12 for diesel fuel - lazy ass
.
It was my Flatland Racing Rad guards and my Enduro Engineering Header pipe guard. Not the guard that protects your headpipe from stones, the one that protects your pants from melting to the pipe...
Very excited to install some new parts, I head out into the garage. My bench is a mess, and there are bags and boxes of parts all over. I start a little clean-up and found the grease I bought after reading
Gaspipe's XR650 thread. It was the only Calcium based grease I could find around here without ordering from an industrial supply place.
Coincidentally my grease gun is empty, so instead of filing the tubes of grease on the "Oils, Lubes and Shit" shelf I figure I'd refill the grease gun while I'm at it.
Once that was done (I made one hella mess doin it for some reason), I was itchin to try it out. The old 640 had a zerk fitting down on the linkage, the good 'ol 525EXC has no linkage - so no zerk fitting.
Crap...hmm if I'm gonna try out my new grease, it means dismantling something. Allllllrighty then!! Brand new 525EXC front end coming apart!
When Gassy took his new XR head apart, he found that the bearings were pretty much dry. I was curious to see how liberal the KTM assembly team was with their lube.
Gaspipe's Honda XR650 steering head bearing:
My KTM 525EXC steering head bearing:
Pretty sad. Basically dry as well
I can't say I was too upset, the grease was stickier than bear-shit on a wool blanket. There just wasn't very much of it s'all. The top bearing was packed a little better:
But that didn't matter, they were both getting pulled.
I thought I may as well get a shot of the Timken bearing number on this puppy should I need it in the future.
I didn't have a proper bearing packer, so I put on the latex gloves and got the mess going. I found pressing my grease gun up against the side of the bearing and squeezing in a good shot until it was oozing out everywhere. Then just working it in with my fingers. I used a lot more grease than I had figured, but I was happy with the finished product. Repacked and installed
And the top. The word here is "liberal" application of grease!
Of course I greased the races and glopped on a little extra here and there just as a method for excluding water in the likely event of total submersion or riding in a torrent.
Then I buttoned her all back up. A job well done, time to celebrate with a cold Pale Ale. Ahhhh... That's why they include an a beer opener in the KTM tool kit. You pretty much need that thing for every repair!!
Cleaned up all my grease mess, and that was about it. Time to go back inside and play with kids, chill out and enjoy the rest of my Sunday. It's funny, I was so stoked to get those rad guards installed! But, I guess what I really needed was just to go do something, ANYTHING on my bike since I can't ride right now. I'm excited about this coming week because I still have to install those rad guards yet!
Mind you, I have to finish cleaning off the bench too - and who knows what I'll get sidetracked doing next...
Cheers!
