What Have You Done To Your Tdm Today?

[steve27bha]

Finished the major service and buttoned it all up.

 

Q. How do spark plugs get to be different colours on opposite sides of the nose? Here's mine one side and then flipped round; both much the same.

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I decided to put in a new battery - there had been the occasional sign of distress. I've read the warnings of difficulty removing it from a 900, but mine had a gaffa tape handle added so "no problem" methinks. Wrong! The tape tore - old age? Now what? - it's in real tight. Luckily I switched on my brain just in time to not bolt a strip of metal to the posts as a handle! My zip tie stock produced a type with an eye for screwing to a wall, and M6 bolts secured one to each battery post. Pulled out a dream. Getting the new one in was a fight tho', even with the sides lubricated with vaseline and the tray eased with a screwdriver..

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I only needed to change two exhaust shims, and one of those swapped into the other so I needed to buy just one. I knew what was already in there from the previous shim work. My tip for the gap measurement is to use imperial Go / No go gauges. The gaps are as good as 7 thou and 10 thou both +/- 1 thou so can quickly be checked. If out of spec then go in with the metric gauges for the accurate measure to calculate the shim - I used JBX's calculator spreadsheet. My Go/Nogo gauges are by Sykes-Pickavant No. 016300 The blades are made to imperial from 0.004/0.006" up to 0.025/0.027" with metric values shown. 22 blades in the set but I've put the smallest 10 in a separate holder for ease of use. When I bought them I could not find equivalent metric gauges, even in France.

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Just need some dry weather for a test ride - rain and snow forecast for up here!