Sprocket Cover Surprise

First topic message reminder :

After work today I pulled off the counter sprocket cover to send up to "Carbon by Gus" and lurking underneath was 26,000km of Shell Advance chain lube, fine sand and dirt reformed into a grease that would make a great cutting compount.
It took a whole can of degreaser and half a litre of kero to clean it up.
I think I'll be pulling the cover a couple of times per year from now on.
I removed and cleaned the chain guard while I was at it.

So if you haven't had a look whip it off and remove the crud. I saved about 1kg

i totally agree with what your saying,and have played with metal long enough to know the right feel,as you do,and do take into consideration fatigue of age as well, but it was from another member here who asked the ? on torque,and they might not be familar with that feel, but all good.

Don't forget to check under the chain guide. Mine had 30000kms of grit and chain lube which had lightly polished the alloy under neath

reddog wrote:Don't forget to check under the chain guide. Mine had 30000kms of grit and chain lube which had lightly polished the alloy under neath

Mine was covered in muck too but I figured most of us would have had that off at some stage to properly clean the swing arm. The cover less likely.

gringo wrote:I would like to do this... do I need a torque wrench to do things back up with?

I was kind of looking through the manual to see what is needed.. but seems like a lot of work.. I am not sure whether I am doing what it say's. Why can't they make the pictures in them bigger?

I purchased a Kinchrome 3/8" drive torque wrench (MTW80F). It covers the entire torque range in the Bandit workshop manual from 7nm to 108nm.

Should be able to get one for under $100 from any tool shop.

I expect getting someone to replace a stripped thread with a helicoil would just about pay for the torque wrench.

O this is a familiar story.

On my previous Bandit I had issues with the speed on the dash disappearing, when travelling faster than 120kph.
If I stopped at lights and moved off again the speed displayed and read as normal again until the little needle went over that magic number, and so on.

Turns out that the speed sensor on the front sprocket cover was coated in about 10,000ks of old chain oil, most of which had turned to a hard thick grease.
After a jolly good clean the the problem continued but only intermittently.

Head was scratched and brain was racked. After chatting with others I replaced the chain and both sprockets. Problem fixed.

Nothing worse than a bike that knows when its parts are rooted. Oddly enough other than a small tight spot in the chain, the chain and sprockets looked ok.

How safe is it to be spraying degreaser around in that area? I personally haven't done that but I did wonder if it was an option.

Ewok1958 wrote:How safe is it to be spraying degreaser around in that area? I personally haven't done that but I did wonder if it was an option.

Well mate the bike itself sprays oil and grease around the area so I can't see degreaser or kero being an issue within reason.

A good point 4WA.

Mine's pretty clean