Maintenance Weekend on the Bandit

[JSP]

So. Tore her all down Friday night and Saturday afternoon. Taking my sweeeeeet time. What is nice about this bike too, is that the whole fairing just pivots up and out of the way as you can see to give you room. Service manual says to remove it ALL. Screw that. Learned this trick and it is definitely the way to go.

I removed all the PAIR (Same as AIS) stuff and ran the tubes together. (1 tube to 1/2 and 1 tube to 3/4) to block off the front connections. Got a cap for the T and could not find anything for the air box. So I took the tube from the air box, cut it down and stuck a wooden dowel piece into it and put the clamp on it. It is very tight and not going anywhere. A little ghetto, but I kind of like the look. Once I find a proper plug I will do it since its easy to get too.

And this is what my air filter looks like!!! WOW. Glad I am doing this all now.

Also looks like someone drilled some extra holes in the airbox... One on each side.

I am replacing my spark plugs as well. Here are what they looked like when I pulled them out. They look perfect color to me and all even with each other.

My standard spark plug socket did not work, but I had a thin wall 18mm deep well that worked great. But no way to get the plugs out of the wells. Here is the little trick I used that I saw on this forum. Small piece of tube push onto the end of the plug and pull em out!

I did not remove the carbs or the throttle cables. I did remove the brackets that the fairings attach to. Cover seemed to come out just fine.


Here is what she looks like with her top off

A little wear on the cam lobes, but not bad for 30k...


ALL valves were way tight. So glad I decided to just jump into this and not wait Previous owner obviously did no maintenance. Changed the oil and filter as well last week.

No one in town has an air filter so I had to order one. Will be in this next week. I got her almost all buttoned back up, no leaks (Yay!). Had to throw that dirty filter back in to start her up. Runs so much smoother with the new plugs and valves in spec. Starts quicker and idles much better.

Once the new filter is in, that will make a good difference as well seeing how nasty this current one is.

 

[reALIGNed]

Nice work Jay, a couple of tips.........I noticed your motor has the forked rocker arms,..just make sure you use two of the same thickness feeler gauges at the same time, some folks insist on adjusting one tappet screw at a time, this is incorrect, it will give a false adjustment (uneven). And look into the bottom of the air box housing, sometimes a collection of crankcase gas/sludge can settle and ruin a new air filter, so wipe it clean if needed. And one more thing, check out the Suzuki sites for various mods., the previous owner may have done some,...fine,......just make sure they were done correctly.
Next is to retorque the steering stem brgs., flush all the fluids, (brake, coolant, front fork oil, etc). Sorry to ramble on, I'm a maintenance freak, especially when it comes to riding on two wheels.
And don't forget to syncronize your carbs.

 

[JSP]

Nice work Jay, a couple of tips.........I noticed your motor has the forked rocker arms,..just make sure you use two of the same thickness feeler gauges at the same time, some folks insist on adjusting one tappet screw at a time, this is incorrect, it will give a false adjustment (uneven). And look into the bottom of the air box housing, sometimes a collection of crankcase gas/sludge can settle and ruin a new air filter, so wipe it clean if needed. And one more thing, check out the Suzuki sites for various mods., the previous owner may have done some,...fine,......just make sure they were done correctly.
Next is to retorque the steering stem brgs., flush all the fluids, (brake, coolant, front fork oil, etc). Sorry to ramble on, I'm a maintenance freak, especially when it comes to riding on two wheels.
And don't forget to syncronize your carbs.

Great tips! Thank you!

 

[JSP]

Nice work Jay, a couple of tips.........I noticed your motor has the forked rocker arms,..just make sure you use two of the same thickness feeler gauges at the same time, some folks insist on adjusting one tappet screw at a time, this is incorrect, it will give a false adjustment (uneven). And look into the bottom of the air box housing, sometimes a collection of crankcase gas/sludge can settle and ruin a new air filter, so wipe it clean if needed. And one more thing, check out the Suzuki sites for various mods., the previous owner may have done some,...fine,......just make sure they were done correctly.
Next is to retorque the steering stem brgs., flush all the fluids, (brake, coolant, front fork oil, etc). Sorry to ramble on, I'm a maintenance freak, especially when it comes to riding on two wheels.
And don't forget to syncronize your carbs.

One other thing that is nice, there is no radiator/coolant/water pump to worry about. Air/oil cooled. Clutch is hydrolic so it uses DOT4 fluid as well. Pretty simple to drain and refill with fluid. Have a service manual for it and bleeding seems like a breeze. I do need to look at getting the carbs synched.

Spark plugs are perfect color and the carbs have all the ports opened up so it seems to have the correct jetting done to it for the exhaust/open air box.

I wish my air filter would hurry up and get here... I want to ride this beast!!!

 

[reALIGNed]

you can't ride, not until we get rid of our snow we just got, and then temps in the 20's

 

[JSP]

you can't ride, not until we get rid of our snow we just got, and then temps in the 20's

We are in mid to high 40s right now but this weekend and next week will be mid to high 50s.

 

[reALIGNed]

We are in mid to high 40s right now but this weekend and next week will be mid to high 50s.

, when I bought my bike it was late fall here, road it for a month and had to park it.....I miss it sooo much. I only have 1800 miles on it....thats how new it is.

 

[JSP]

, when I bought my bike it was late fall here, road it for a month and had to park it.....I miss it sooo much. I only have 1800 miles on it....thats how new it is.

That would suck bad...


When I wrecked my FZ6R, I was in a sling for a while. But I went out and bought an 09 R6 the next week or so. Had to have them trailer it to my house for me since I could not ride it. Then I got to stare at it in the garage for a while. I touched it a lot... yes I did.

 

[reALIGNed]

That would suck bad...


When I wrecked my FZ6R, I was in a sling for a while. But I went out and bought an 09 R6 the next week or so. Had to have them trailer it to my house for me since I could not ride it. Then I got to stare at it in the garage for a while. I touched it a lot... yes I did.

LOL, you win.........now get back to maintenance.