So this weekend, was THE weekend so thought I'd share some of my musings. On the cards was an oil+filter change, air filter replacement, installation of the Power Commander V module and the full Akrapovik exhaust system. Lower fairing off Hired help (payment terms being beer and BBQ) and rear fairing off So Friday night we completed the oil change (with new filter) and left the fairings off ready for Saturday. Saturday began removing even more stuff (god knows why we didn't devise a better way of organising bolts in the beginning!). Tank is up ready to fit the air filters and PCV Stock air filters removed and waiting for the K&N replacements So with the air filters changed we moved on to fitting the PCV, the aim being to follow the route of the existing loom and neatly cable tie it all together. To give best clearance for this we felt the tank needed to be fully unbolted and lifted while the device was then fed through and connected to the lower injectors and TPS. The upper fairings are also removed by now to give better clearance. Little black boxes queueing up in the rear tail, this was cleaned up and velcro added to secure it down straight (not pictured). Now all that was out of the way we were on to the last piece of the puzzle, the exhaust. Removing the exhaust is always a concern for me when it comes to the bolts on the header, so I usually shy away and let someone else take the chance. This is because if something is seized it can be an actual nightmare. Dowsed in SX90 (No WD40 to hand) we set to work, all of the nuts seemed loose so we set about following the recommended path to removal which started at the rear and worked forwards. The stock exhaust has a valve in the pipe to control back pressure by cables, all of this needed removing and the cables were taken off of the control motor. We got the 'can' off with a single minor casualty (the bolt on the clamp sheered off but since we are not re-using it it's no issue). Exhaust and heatshield are now removed Back to my earlier comments about head bolts, it turned out that whilst all did in fact turn, three of them actually undid from the block side and not the nuts, no problem at least they aren't stuck in. You can see here the bolts should be attached to the block and nuts threaded on to them. All threads were given a covering of copper anti-seize spray before re-fitting. New gaskets were used for all four pipes to avoid any potential leaking issues. We prevailed and the whole exhaust was successfully fitted, this model year does not have an O2 sensor so the exhaust is blanked for this. The only thing we found was that the hanging bracket for the new can needed two additional nuts, on the stock item these are welded to the can. Fortunately a bit of rummaging and we were in business with two shiny nuts. All of the fairings have been put back on and we're pretty confident all the bolts are in their correct homes There was no time for a test ride but we have fired her up before the fairings were replaced and it sounded excellent and leak free. Hopefully I'll get a chance at lunch today to go for the road test and report back! Thanks to the little bro for his help, this would have taken much much longer solo!!
Thanks guys, I tried to add an 'after' picture but it wasn't working. I managed to get her out earlier and it's beautiful (the bike and the weather) so this one's on now Road test went well, bike goes great and exhaust sounds sweet!! I do need to mod the PCV map though, after advice on here, the custom map the previous owner had might be too lean for my bike, so it's apparently better to go back to the stock Akra full system map..which I will (Got it all ready to go) before I go out next.
