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The Easter Egg kinda evolved from a brain fart. My intention was to NOT strip the black label, and back when I was planning to pay for the blasting service, I was informed to cover with duct tape anything I didn’t want stripped. I left the duct tape on too long, and the label started to peel off 😡. After carefully peeling the duct tape, and losing some label, I taped it back down with Green painters tape. Queue the brain fart, after priming the frame I forgot to remove, or trim back the tape. Only remembered it while spraying clear, and by then it was too late. Since I prefer my glass half-full, gonna rock this Easter Egg and all its glory. Maybe it’ll help re-sale haha.
My buddy Ratul has challenged me to keep the DR unlisted during 2021, and just enjoy the ride. I see his point, would hate to regret the sale, but if some kijiji bloke wants to pay $6k for a freshly rebuilt DR600, I feel obliged to facilitate….then promptly buy myself another dirt worthy machine for half that.
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Yesterday in The Shop, James brought the FJ over to do some maintenance and a very potent repair.
On the docket were drain & fill the diffs and T-case, replacing all the crush washers with new OEM ones. Trans was planned also, but as an oversight I didn’t have enough Redline MT-90 leftover. All the diff oil that came out was in pretty good condition, free of water and metal!
James also greased the driveline zerks, and installed a brand new OEM rear diff lock actuator. He’s pretty excited to go tackle some more tough tracks within Dufferin County, and I don’t blame him!
All went smoothly until it was time to re-hang the based in skid plate….2-hours later 5 of the 6 bolts were installed haha. Good enough for us.
Typical Shop fashion, no pics today.Today in Brian’s Shop (Lakeside Auto), with help from my colleague Donald, we swapped out Truckee’s leaf springs with a set I got from @Tacoma16. All went well, only two broken M6 bolts which retain the brake hard lines. I need to re-torque all the bolts on Monday when I go into work, and get an alignment. When I got my last alignment done at Orangeville Toyota, the leaf spring was already broken and the techs there compensated for the uneven ride height. Now that the ride height has been restored, truckees steering wheel is off centre. Last thing I want is my new Duratracs getting dickered.
Thanks for the workspace Brian! The hoist was a life saver.
Thanks for the extra hands Donald! Man handling the leafs into place is way easier as a 2-man job.
are you sure you lined up the axle on the leaf springs? I’ve changed leaf packs 3 or 4 times and the only time I had the SW off centre was when I misaligned the axle at the leaf on 1 side.
Very noticeable immediately! I could even visually see which one I messed up. Reinstalled and back to perfect…We double checked everything before the alignment, all sitting pretty. The reason for being off-centre, is that the truck was put into a “bad alignment” last year to compensate for two rear leafs with grossly different spring rates.
I agree that if the two leafs pulled out were similar, then an alignment wouldn’t be needed, or a sign something has gone wrong.
Overall Truckee is in a better state now, tracking straight and riding stiff like a truck again. All I gotta do now is recruit Matt or James to help me put the Leer cap on so I can keep dry, and murder my rearward visibility.LOL. I hated my cap, so I sold it… New truck has a tonneau cover – I like it (on the new truck). No coverage for the old truck bed, as I use it too much!
I understand the hatred of the cap. I thoroughly enjoy uncapping day in the spring. Really my only reasons to keep it revolve around the little ones needing to use the travel potty everytime the trip lasts longer than 55 minutes. I still have the tri-fold cover I got with the truck, but it doesn’t fold worth a damn when it’s cold. Been meaning to sell it for a while, but I know someday I’d kick myself for doing that.
I wasn’t sure if the old girl had been sold or not. I passed the ad details onto a couple buddies and my sister, but no takers. My sister lives downtown Montreal, where finding parking her Golf is a daily struggle. I told her that with steel bumpers she needent worry any longer about being boxed in.
Today in The Shop, Truckee has been capped. Booo. I spent a couple hours this morning sorting out a tote of “winter survival” essentials. I figure the tote, cap, highlight and 1/2 bag of salt add about 300 pounds of traction and de-sporty-ness to Truckee. Just in time for 10-15 cm of accumulation being called for Monday and Tuesday.
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Today in The Shop, my DR600 is getting some refurbishment activity.
Backtrack to a few days ago when I attempted to strip paint off the swingarm while it was still mostly assembled (except for the rear shock I had removed). As I started to strip the stickers and multi-coloured overspray off the swingarm, I discovered that there were too many nooks and crannies for any tool except my sand blaster. Back to today, I started by separating all the linkages, and found that most of the needle bearings were partially seized and half-filled with rust. My wire wheeled bench grinder took care of the steel sleeves, washers, dust caps, and fasteners, while the varsol tank and some soft brushes cleaned the needle bearings. Even without grease, everything moves pretty nicely now.
I then ran everything I could through the sand blasting cabinet, taping off any bearings I didn’t remove to stop them filling with crushed glass. Afterwards I blew it clean with compressed air.
Last task for the day was remasking, painting and clear coating all the pieces of the swing arm linkage, what I hoped to be practically OEM grey. Just like the blue on the frame, it’s come out a little darker than anticipated. Now that it’s dry enough to handle, I’ve only left one large unpainted patch in the linkage bit, but the paint can is empty and $9 is too much for one patch. Here’s to hoping it’s mostly hidden by the assembled bike!!
Tomorrow I’ll grease all the bearings, and reassemble the swingarm while it’s still relatively fresh in my head.Thanks Steve, I’m pretty pleased other than the bare patch haha.
I really like how the chain adjusters turned out. Before I blasted them I couldn’t even read the stamped numbers on them.
Up next will be stripping and doing touch ups on the parts to be painted black. Shifter, kick starter, brake pedal, foot pegs, upper and lower steering stems, and a dozen random brackets. As for the engine and its covers, I’ll prolly just mist a few light coats and do spot treatments. Sounds more fun (less risky) than opening up an engine that currently does NOT leak.
That engine looks pretty clean!
I doubt I’ll be putting that much effort into the 72 SL100 I just bought. First priority will be to get it running and riding…
Yea the motor is pretty clean on the outside, I power washed it back in September before I disassembled everything. Pretty sure I’m just gonna give a dusting of semi-gloss black over it all while it’s still on the floor.
After 2 straight weeks of trying to contact the local Suzuki dealership and ask/shout “WTF WHERE ARE THE EFFIN’ PARTS I ORDERED IN OCTOBER?!? CANCEL IT YOU MOFO’S!!” I was told they were finally ordered them….yesterday. For F’s sake. Without exaggeration, I hand delivered an itemized parts list with OEM part numbers, descriptions and quantities before I went October camping at Ardbeg. Patience has run out. If the order is wrong, I will lose my shit….and throw handfuls of it towards them.
After those parts arrive, I’ll still have to order tires, grips, turn signals, mirrors and a chain from FortNine. And try to find an air filter still.
I had to google search an SL100, and holy smokes it looks only 2/3 size, Like anybody outside of Japan would struggle to fit on it. Haha. Sounds like a fun little project.
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