Maintenance Update on the WR250R

Well, now that I've had the WR for a couple of weeks, I jumped right in and did some needed maintenance on the Awesome Possum this week. I wanted to change the gearing and install a new drive chain, so I decided to just remove everything from the rear end and get it all cleaned up, re-greased, and adjusted. Here is my maintenance report...read it and weep. Or maybe just skip it and go have yourself a beer.

Here it is up on the bench ready to be tore down...

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And here it is with "pants removed". This is borderline NSFW, people, so keep it clean!

Oh boy oh boy I got to finally use my fancy new Benchtop Pro parts washer for this occasion. I bought the washer back in the spring, but have not really had enough parts to clean in one go or a big enough maintenance job to make it worth setting up. The idea is that it circulates water mixed with microbes that eat all the grease and oil - the same stuff that they used to clean up oil spills in the ocean. You never have to dump this out or worry about the disposing the waste...it cleans itself, and is non-toxic. You just add water and new microbes over time as needed. Hey, if Jay Leno uses one in his garage, how bad can it be? 

Well, in theory this is great. Unfortunately, the hand actuated button on the pump wash hose stopped working, so I was pretty bummed about that. I was still able to use the circulating mix down in the sink drain, but ended up having to do a lot of old school Simple Green with some elbow grease to get everything cleaned up. Oh well. I'll get in touch with the BTP people this week and see what they can do to get this fixed.

Here's a shot of the fancy pants washer...when yer done you just fold it up and stow it away with the cocktail mix still inside.

Here I am starting to tear everything down, which is certainly a great way to really learn your bike inside and out. I took a lot of pics of every step for my own reference and won't bore you to death with those, but will include a few pics to show progress along the way. Here is the Yamalink decoupled from the arm relay...

Here is the swing arm once I got it removed...

I took the opportunity to remove and clean everything that I could while I had easy access under there...like this mess for example.

Removed the old chain slider and compared it to the new one. Here is the top side of both....

Aaaaannnnnddd the bottom side....

A peek at the relay arm pin bearings and seal...

Getting the swing arm bearings cleaned up and ready to repack with new grease...

Relay arm after it's bubble bath...

I also took out the rear wheel bearings, cleaned 'em up, and packed with new grease. Here is the cover being removed. Helps to have a little hook tool like this to grab that cover and pull it out...

After an initial clean and first layer of new waterproof grease....I packed a bunch more in there before I put the cover back on.

Finally, the new 47T sprocket is on - schwing!

And boy howdy, the interesting things that you discover and learn while doing this kind of maintenance. Here's one for you. While switching out the existing 14T front counter sprocket that the PO had put on with the stock 13T, I discovered that the PO had not pinged the lock nut for the front sprocket on the shaft, and it was starting to come off...wasn't even hand tight!

Read on if you like for more detailed maintenance drama, but don't feel bad if you don't!  I wish I had pics for these sections, but the ones I took for these steps turned out too blurry to use. What the hell? Guess I need to learn to use my new smart phone camera a little better.

Give Me A (Rear) Brake!
I hit a big snag with the rear brakes in trying to get the rear wheel back on. When I initially removed the rear wheel, I slipped a carpenter's pencil in between the brake pads to help keep them separated so that they would slip on easier later. Well, when I went to put the rear wheel on, nothing seemed to be lining up right. After some head scratching, I realized that I had mixed up the axle spacers while cleaning them, and had the longer one on the wrong side. Switched those around and the wheel lined up where it should. BUT, somehow along the way a tiny little tab on the bottom spring clip of the rear caliper got bent upward, and was blocking the brake pads from being able to swing far enough forward to slip/spring into their little slots where they live. Took me awhile to figure out that this is what was going on, and I am still not sure how the hell I managed to do that to begin with. Bent the tab back down and presto - the pads slipped into place.

Of course in my infinite wisdom during my difficulties with getting everything to line up and fit with the rear wheel and brake caliper fiasco, the carpenters pencil slipped out and I managed to close the pads too close for the brake disc to slip in. I couldn't get the caliper to push back in, so I then decided to try bleeding the brake a little. Well, that worked but ultimately wasn't really the problem (I didn't know yet that I had the axle spacers on wrong and that the caliper spring tab was bent).

After I FINALLY got all this sorted and got everything back together, I then discovered that I could not for the life of me get all the air bled out of the rear break line and master cylinder. Squishy squishy! On my old vintage Hondas I could bleed them by hand, using a simple hose from the bleed insert down to a mason jar with some fluid inside. But behold! Ye needs a proper MityVac brake bleed kit or equivalent to do this right! Well, I went and got myself one and indeed it did do most of the job, but the pedal still feels a wee more mushy than I would like, so I will keep trying. The rear brake does work, and I can even lock it up to slide, I just think it needs to be a bit more solid when I push it down than it is right now.

A complaint: During all this madness, I found myself annoyed at the fact that you cannot get even a short screw driver onto the rear master cylinder lid to get it off...you have to either remove the rear foot peg mount, or have a small ratchet that will fit under the foot peg bracket. Even if you have that, by the time you loosen the screws and lift up on the lid, there is not really enough room to get the damn lid off with the master cylinder boot underneath! I ended up breaking one of the two rear foot peg bracket allen bolts trying to take it off because is was seized, but it would have been nice to not have to remove it in the first place. The lid to the rear master cylinder should be much more simple to get to. Just say'n.

Working on the Chain Gang
I started to put on the clip-style master link for my new 520 chain, but decided that they were too flimsy and a bit difficult to install, so I opted to wait and ordered a rivet style master link instead. Finally got the chain together after wrestling with my new Motion Pro chain tool a bit, and figured out how to flare those hollow tip rivet style master links. I think she's on right without any kinks and with a loose enough tension, but I will keep a close eye on chain slider wear and anything that doesn't seem right.

AirboxWhen I got this bike, I knew the PO had messed with the airbox because he included the airbox door and hinge bolts in a baggie along with some other odds and ends. I went under the seat and side cover to investigate. Turns out all he did in the air department was to completely remove the airbox side door, nothing else. Flapper was still fully intact and operable. Since I have stock everything on this bike (exhaust, no programmer, etc.) I decided to take it back closer to real stock - I reinstalled the airbox side door (after inspecting the filter), but did decide to put a screw in the flapper door to keep it open. I don't see any reason to rip out all that flapper hardware at this point.

Speedo Healer
PO told me that he had put a "speedo thingy" under the seat but never got it to work, and had no documentation for it. I took the left side cover off and sure enough it was there. Through some investigation online, I found out that it is a Speedo DRD connected inline above the battery, and I located the instructions on how it all should work. After I test how my bike is running speed-wise indicated vs. GPS with the new gearing and the D606 tires, I might give that DRD unit a try and see if I can get it to work. For now, I just left it in place but it does not seem to be activated.

USB
Lastly, I added my 3D Powersports USB connector that I took off of my Honda CRF. I connected the fused hot lead to the switched brown wire that runs to the tail light, and the ground straight to the negative post on the battery. I found a little hiding place for the weatherproof USB connection up front on the left side of the fork head. just in front of the tank. Now I've got a switched weatherproof USB connection up front for my smartphone navigation.

Got all this done and took her for a spin around the neighborhood surface streets and a quick jaunt on the local highway. Three things I noticed right away. 1. The bike was much quieter with the airbox door re-installed, but did not seem to perform any different power-wise. 2. With the newly installed 13/47 gearing, the bike now crawls a bit slower without stalling but winds out a lot sooner on the highway at the top end. At 60 mph it sounded to me like it was screaming, whereas before I could hit over 70 before it started to sound like that. 3. Probably because of the new gearing, I stalled the bike several times - not while crawling, but while shifting up and down + accel/decel in the 2nd-3rd gear range. I didn't stall the bike at all with the 14/43 gearing...so this will probably just take some getting used to.

Ok - I think that gets me caught up for the moment. Really all I have left to do out of all this is to coax out what tiny little bit of air is left in the rear break system, and we'll be golden! For anyone who has tortured themselves by reading all the way through this post, I am certainly happy to hear any feedback that you might have! Cheers