My GSX1400 Restoration

[Del]

Here is another option - I commute (or did) on my bike and being based in Scotland we experience our fair sharer of rain - Ive not got he patience of oor Barmy so I opted for the lazy fookers way to go and had my wheels powder coated in a shadow chrome

not its not as shiney as a proper polished alloy but sooooo much less hassle

[SA14]

That doesn't look half bad! Got any close up views?

[T250]

Very nice looking 14 Del 

[Del]

That doesn't look half bad! Got any close up views?

Ill get some more tomorrow but this is what I have

[grog]

Del, stunner bike. Really nice.

[SA14]

Small update: I made some brake mistakes which I'm going to correct today.

1) I used loctite on my caliper mounting bolts, caliper body bolts as well as my brake pad pins [bad - use anti-seize instead]
2) I lightly greased my brake pad retaining pins with normal general purpose grease. [very bad - NEVER GP Grease - use anti-seize instead]
3) I torqued the pad retaining pins to factory specs [bad-ish - hand tighten to "quite tight" is plenty]

I was watching a few of Delboys videos again last night (see videos below) where he pointed out why to never use any grease anywhere near the brakes. When it melts in high temp as those experienced by the braking system in normal (let alone extreme) brake usage the grease will melt and run. Not good when the grease is literally sitting over the pads and discs. Now, I didn't slather it on or anything like that but I did put a light smear on the pins to help the pads glide easier across them. It seemed like a sensible common sense thing to do. Wrong. I can;t risk even one drop of grease to drop down onto my pads or disc obviously so I'll be wiping them down with brake cleaner and applying a light smear of antisieze instead.

He also mentions to never use loctite on any brake components as the heat cycle may cause them to seize - especially on the pad pins. I applied loctite 243 blue to all my caliper body and caliper mounting bolts so now I fear them seizing into the aluminium. It might not happen but I don't want it to ever happen. My thinking was it's a safety system so I don't want the bolts to come loose so I loctited them in. Now I feel that was a (possibly big) mistake. I did mention I was going to do that and no one corrected me so I figure this is all on you guys...[lol just kidding relax]. I write way too much stuff (as was recently pointed out to me) so it's no wonder no one picked it up.

In his stuck pad retaining pin video he mentions that sometimes these pins seize because people use loctite (or equivalent) to glue them in place and also to never tighten pad retaining pins too tight. Now, obviously it's never wise to tighten anything "too much" I figured that factory torque was ok so I might do that again but this time I'm going use anti-seize instead of loctite because he mentions that even factory torque settings might be too much. In the video he says "good luck removing them" after saying some people torque them up. He said with moderate hand tightening they will never come off but I remember reading somewhere here that someone mentioned they always loctite them because some have been known to come loose which startled me into using loctite.

So I'm going to remove every bolt one at a time, wire brush all the white loctite residue off the bolts, chase the threads with a tap, apply anti-seize and re-torque everything back up. I'm pretty sure (though can't specifically remember) loctiting the caliper body bolts too so is it ok to re-work (undo, clean, tap, antiseize, re-install and re-torque) them one at a time on the bike?

Also I'd like to get some copper slip but not sure it's available in Adelaide or Australia (specifically). What are you guys all using for anti-seize? Is the grey (graphite) stuff ok or should I specifically try and source a copper based product like Molytec Copatec? My local tool supplier only has the 500g brush on version of this which should last about a billion years. Slight overkill but $40. Repco sell this Penrite "Copper Eze" for $14 (on special). Supercheap sell this Herschell Copper Anti-Seize Grease for just $9. I'm guessing any of these will do the trick?

Here are the Delboy videos which opened my eyes to my mistakes.

Fast forward to minute 16:15 where he starts to talk about copperslip and tightening of the pins but I found the whole video excellent.

Fast Forward to minute 15:00 where he talks about not tightening the pad retaining pin too much but I found this brake cleaning video excellent watch all the way through also.

And finally this video where he compares thread lock to antiseize. The flame test really drove this message home to me about copper based anti-seize.

[steve porter]

Personally I wouldn`t worry about the 243 as it`s just a thread lock, not super strong, but if you are worried just crack the bolts and redo them up as once dry it won`t re bond anything

[KiwiCol]

Coppercote is a brand name for Copper anti seize and Nickel Anti seize for stainless & hot things. Both come in a tube that's about the size of a toothpaste tube & will last a home handyman for years each.  Repco or SCA would sell them, as would any tool shop.

[Big Phil]

[/quote]

Here is another option - I commute (or did) on my bike and being based in Scotland we experience our fair sharer of rain - Ive not got he patience of oor Barmy so I opted for the lazy fookers way to go and had my wheels powder coated in a shadow chrome

not its not as shiney as a proper polished alloy but sooooo much less hassle


Hi Del,
           They look awesome as does the bike. Can you recall what the approximate cost was to have the wheels powder coated?

[Del]

/quote]

Here is another option - I commute (or did) on my bike and being based in Scotland we experience our fair sharer of rain - Ive not got he patience of oor Barmy so I opted for the lazy fookers way to go and had my wheels powder coated in a shadow chrome

not its not as shiney as a proper polished alloy but sooooo much less hassle

Hi Del,
           They look awesome as does the bike. Can you recall what the approximate cost was to have the wheels powder coated?

Hi @Big Phil  the powdercoating wasn't that expensive mate think I paid about £50.00

[Big Phil]

Seriously that very cheap.

[SA14]

Seriously that very cheap.

I was just thinking that. I bet you could easily add a zero to that price in Australia.

[SA14]

Painted the radiator shield engine black. Too much chrome for me and it was removing focus from the engine. I think it looks much better being "in the background" now. Also fitted the LED globe that arrived today. Can't wait to see it at night. Looks very rectangular against my shed door.

[grog]

SA, quite like cooler guard black, i wont do mine but yeah, looks good. Get some of your ceramic on it, easier to clean bugs off. Will wait for your opinion on globe. My park globe is old skool globe, looks so yellow now. Will search for a led for it. First led i fitted hardly lasted, hence went back to old. Was told today it didnt last as it was JayCar globe, no good. Thinking a nice bright led will fill reflector with nice 6K glow. Yours is as mine was, no park light. I drilled reflector and fitted rubber globe holder, just as backup if H4 blows.

[SA14]

Yeah, I'd like a park globe. The rear has parker (I know because I left them on one night) so why not the front too?

I need to bake this paint on so I'll go out for a ride tonight (nice warm balmy night in Adelaide tonight) to get it nice and hot and will assess the light. Still haven't adjusted it as per manual but I'll pull over and do some side of the road adjustments with my trust leatherman wave. Strangely enough I got a part payment yesterday for a headlight restoration in two LED globes for my commodore so I'm all about LED now. Hope I like it. I kind of like the warm glow of an old school light but gotta see where I'm going. We've been killing a motorcycle ride almost every day for the last few weeks. It's crazyland out there lately but I'm sure a lot of it is rider fault. Smashing into avoidable things, into the back of cars, on the wrong side of the road, straight ahead at T-Junctions...etc. Makes me shake my head.