Our first fight

Well, I'm pretty seriously behind on my motorcycle maintenance. Three major setbacks today. First, when I was taking out the drain plugs the small one on the head of the engine sheared. The idiot who put it in must have either really cranked it in there, or cross threaded the bolt. That's like rule #1 of auto maintenance. Whenever you do the oil change, be REALLY careful with the drain plugs so that you can get them out next time. Not changing the oil for 2 years probably didn't help either. Problem #2 was the stupid suspension. Draining a fork is easy, getting the stupid cap back on the top... not so easy. Maybe there's some sort of tool for it, but I couldn't find one. Basically you have to fight like a 200 lb spring for about 2 inches, then somehow screw the cap in keeping the pressure on. It took like 2 hours of trying, but I finally got that one. The last problem was on the final drive gear box (where the shafts from the engine run the rear wheel). I got the oil out (a bit of a pain cuz it's REALLY thick) and managed to find a 10 cc syringe to put new stuff in. Then I take out my trusty torque wrench, go to tighten the drain plug to 20 lb (there's no spec for it, but the oil drain is 25-29 so I figured it'd be good). But yeah, it was a bit of a weak bolt, and it sheared too. So tomorrow, I get to do the other fork (I've got a system for that now so it shouldn't be too bad). The tough part will be getting those drain plugs out though. I've got a fancy little tool for it, but I've never used one before, so I'm a little nervous. Power tools, drill bits, and motorcycles seems like a dangerous combination.

Anyway, my thumbs hurt from squashing the shocks, so no more typing tonight.