Evening all. Due to various reasons I won't bore you with, my RR7 has sat in the garage, unloved and unused, for 6 months. I'm now getting it ready for a summer of fun (hopefully!) There are a few things I've uncovered that I'm unsure how to deal with... hoping some learned members can lend me their wisdom. 1) Startup - having not started for 6 months, what should I do before the first fire-up? Battery is charged. I have fresh oil/filter sat in the garage. 2) Last spring I flushed the cooling system, and re-filled with "Mocool". Whilst this is a pale "wee" colour, the fluid in my expansion tank has a distinct orange tinge to it! Cause for concern? 3) Had an MOT advisory of very slight play in the head bearing, and with the front on a headstand, I can feel very very slight play when I rock the shocks back and forth. My Haynes manual says that I should be able to knock the front wheel off centre, and it'll fall under it's own weight until the steering hits the stops. I've removed the damper, freed off all cables best I can, even greased the pin of the headstand... but there is no way the steering is going to move under it's own weight. Turning lock to lock is smooth and consistent, but no way free enough to simply turn under it's own weight. I was hoping to simply tighten/torque the head to cure the play, but this lack of free movement makes me wonder if I need to replace the bearings. Any thoughts? Is the Haynes manual being optimistic that the steering will "fall" to one side under it's own weight? Any thoughts, gratefully appreciated!
With my RR6, I always turned the engine over with the kill switch off to get oil pressure round the engine before starting. Steering head bearings are easy enough to open up, check and regrease. Get the bike on a stand. I can't recall the steering just flopping to one side.
Steering Can you feel a notchyness to the steering in the centre position? If so, new head bearings will be required.
No notchyness, totally smooth. Have since removed the top yoke, examined the top bearings (all fine, nice amount of grease) then tried to re-tighten the bearing cap... don't have the right tool so cannot use my torque wrench, but ended up having to use a lot of force with a c spanner tighten enough to eliminate the play Having done so, steering was totally smooth and really free. I then re-fitted the top yoke, and torqued up the head nut as per spec, and that left the steering really, really tight! I don't get this, as the bearing cap is effectively locked by the locking washer and nut, so torqueing the top yoke / head nut shouldn't have any effect. Oh well... at least the weather's gone crap so I'm not missing the bike... for now...
