In today’s what has been going on post I decided to talk about a positive (that started with a negative) about motorcycle work.
About a week and a half ago my wife came in from the garage and told me my motorcycle had a puddle of oil under it. I thought, WHAT? So, out I went and sure enough there was oil. I touched it and then smelled it and realized it wasn’t motor oil (thank the Lord) but it was gear oil. It was at the front end of my drive shaft that I had just recently replaced (remember those postings?). I checked my final drive and sure enough it was nearly empty. I was pretty sure I had lost the oil seal in the final drive, and that oil was traveling up the swing arm along the drive shaft and coming out at the front end there (the only place it can get out really). So, I filled it up, and road it to school the next day. After school sure enough I was down oil again. I filled it again and road home and then took that all apart (again). I managed to get it all part in about an hour, and that included figuring out how to jack the bike up since my motorcycle jack currently has a VW engine sitting on it. I am not sure if that is good or bad. It means I am getting a lot more familiar tearing that back end part.
I found a youtube on how to repair it, but it involved a large vise and vise-grip pliers on the gears to pull it all apart, or I could try and buy the official Kawasaki tools to hold everything in place (very expensive). Then I decided to call my local Kawasaki Dealership (Kelly’s Kawasaki in Mesa), and asked them what it would cost to have them do the work if I came in with just the final drive. They said it was a one hour job and they would tear the entire thing apart and replace all the parts that wear out in it in that timeframe. I thought, I dong that!” So it went down there and I got it back today. It has been rebuilt and therefore should have YEARS of use again without issue. I think this was a much better solution than just replacing the oil seal like I was going to do.
This time I got it all back together and back on the ground in less than an hour! Again, not sure if that is good or bad. But I am back to having that working (I think I haven’t actually had time to ride it yet, but I am assuming all is good), and now I can try and get my VW engine back into my car and all back together since I can now move my motorcycle out of the way to get to the VW engine that was currently trapped by a motorcycle with no rear tire and girl scout cookie.
