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Can't stand it

Paul Dean

I’m trying to install a centerstand on my Yamaha Seca II. The stand bolts up just fine, but I can’t get the return spring in place. There isn’t a lot of room to work down there, and the spring is pretty stiff. I tried bolting the stand on first and then attaching the spring, and also attaching the spring first and then bolting on the stand. Neither technique worked. Any ideas?

BPetibon Posted on America Online

I’ve never performed this particular installation, hut I have put springs on lots of other sideand centerstands and found several methods to be very effective. Most often, I use pliers designed for installing return springs on automotive drum brakes. These pliers are inexpensive and have a hooked end that grabs the spring securely, with long handles that supply the mechanical advantage necessary to stretch the spring far enough to get it into place.

If there too little room for brake spring pliers to get the job done, try using a cotter-pin removing tool. This is an L-shaped bar with a hook on one end and a short handle at about the mid-point of its longest side. You just

hook the tool on one end of the spring and use both hands to pull the spring into place. I've also had success with clamping a pair of Vise Grips on the loose end of the spring and then sim ply pulling the spring into place. If the spring tension is too great to allow that method to work, try poking a screwdriver through the jaws of the Vise Grips and hooking it behind some convenient part of the frame. Then use the screwdriver as a pry bar to lever the spring into place.

Self-activating brakes

I have a Honda CBR600F3 and recently got the idea to use a 14mm remote-reservoir master cylinder. I was under the impression that there only were 14mm and 5/s-inch master cylinders, not knowing that Honda uses a 1/2-inch bore on the F3. My dad and I got the 14mm unit switched over just fine, but on our second ride, the front brakes got so pumped up that they locked. It was like the brakes were full-on without me even touching the lever. Hence, the bike won’t move. Do you know what caused this to happen?

Jeff Brown Horseshoe, North Carolina

Although I've addressed this same basic problem a few times in the past, this subject has enough serious safety implications to warrant revisiting it from time to time.

During normal brake use, the friction between the brake pads and the rotors heats up the fluid in the calipers and the lower part of the brake lines. The heat makes the fluid expand, and that expansion forces some of the fluid to escape back into the master-cylinder reservoir through a tiny bleed hole between the reservoir and the piston bore, just in front of the piston. But if the piston is unable to return to its fully retracted position, the bleed hole will be blocked, preventing the expanding fluid from escaping into the reservoir. When that occurs, the expansion of the trapped fluid causes the brake pads to push against the rotors, which causes even more heat, which causes even more expansion and so on, until the brakes finally lock up.

I can only guess how your F3 got into this condition. My best estimate is that you either took the master cylinder apart and reassembled it incorrectly, or that you are using a frontbrake lever not designed to work with that particular master cylinder, and that the lever is not allowing the piston to return all the way.

There 's a very important message here: Not all brake-system components are interchangeable.

Oil, schmoil

I’ve heard a lot of talk recently about the need to use special motorcycle oil. I think all this high-priced motorcycle oil is a waste of money. I’ve used Castrol 20w50 for the last five years in my Kawasaki ZX-11, and it’s only $1.50 a quart. The dealer tore into my clutches after 32,000 miles and found no wear at all. I change oil and filter every 3000 miles or three months and never see any evidence of wear in the bottom of the drain pan. So, I tell people to save their money. This country has used regular oil in all our vehicles for over 100 years and now all of a sudden it is not good enough? Bull! Ricardo B. Booker Jr.

Fort Flood, Texas

You are neither the first nor the only motorcyclist to profess such an opinion; hut in doing so, you’ve completely missed the point. No informed person is questioning whether “regular” oil, as you call it, is “good enough ”; the question is whether oil designed specifically for motorcycle engines is any better for that use than oil designed for automobile engines. The oil manufacturers certainly believe that it is. And don’t think that they ’re simply trying to hype their more expensive motorcycle oils; I’ve had oil experts whose companies don’t even make motorcycle lubricants tell me that bike-specific oil is better for the task. I explained some of the reasons for their beliefs in my reply to an inquiry (“The duke of oil ”) in the September, 1998, Service.

By the way: Evidence of wear is not necessarily found in the bottom of the drain pan; it’s found in the oil filter. This is why many top mechanics routinely cut oil filters apart and inspect the element for tell-tale debris.

Grab a little hub, bub

A couple of years ago, I saw a guy at a racetrack using a special tool to hold his bike’s inner clutch hub while he loosened and tightened the big clutchhub nut. The tool looked like a pair of Vise Grips with long extensions on the jaws that hooked into the grooves in the hub. Have you ever seen such a tool, and if so, do you know where I might possibly get one? J.J. Calvin Decatur, Alabama

Yes, and yes. It’s called the Grabbit, and it is manufactured and sold by Joe Bolger Products (28 Summer St., Barre, MA 01005; 800/441-6954). O