Triumphrat

deweybrian · 04-04-2005

With Spring finally here in Central NY, I've gotten my Sprint out of the shed and back on the road. I 'm looking in my Haynes Manual and see many Maint items I need to look into. My biggest concerns are carb tune up / air cleaner replacement and the valve adjustment. I'm going to tackle those two first then move on to the front end. Anyway, my question is how big a challenge is the valve check / adjustment, and do the carbs come off easy or is that going to be a pain also ?? I'm somewhat new to turning my own wrenches (on a bike anyway) but I don't have a local dealer anymore and I'd like to try to do as much as I can myself. Any input would be appreciated!

<<Brian>> :???:

deweybrian · 04-04-2005

With Spring finally here in Central NY, I've gotten my Sprint out of the shed and back on the road. I 'm looking in my Haynes Manual and see many Maint items I need to look into. My biggest concerns are carb tune up / air cleaner replacement and the valve adjustment. I'm going to tackle those two first then move on to the front end. Anyway, my question is how big a challenge is the valve check / adjustment, and do the carbs come off easy or is that going to be a pain also ?? I'm somewhat new to turning my own wrenches (on a bike anyway) but I don't have a local dealer anymore and I'd like to try to do as much as I can myself. Any input would be appreciated!

<<Brian>> :???:

pendraig · 04-04-2005

I took my '96 Sprint to the dealer for its 24,000 mile check-up and then wished that I hadn't. The bill was right around 700 bucks. If you have a better job than I, you might want to go to the dealer. It's a lot of work, but then 700 bucks will buy you a lot of hot-dogs, Coke, gas, and beer.
Adjusting the valves and replacing the airbox is a bit of a pain in the gluteus maximimus, though. A large part of your pains will be in simply getting the fairing, tank, etc. off. If you have a digital camera, take a couple of shots of the fuel lines, etc. once you get the rear of the tanks elevated, and before you start pulling hoses etc. off of the petcock, so that you don't misroute something in such a way that it kinks, or whatever when you get it back together.
You'll need the special shop tool (around $75) to adjust any valves that need adjusting. When the tool is in place on your engine, it will be possible to rotate the engine in such a way that the cam lobe will come in contact with the service tool. DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN. It will break the tool, and possibly damage your engine.
You'll need to remove the carbs to get the airbox off. When you sit looking at the job, it will look like maybe there's a way to get the airbox out of there while the carbs are still on the engine. PUT THIS IDEA OUT OF YOUR HEAD! It's already been tried! It won't work! Do what the manual says even though it will be a fiddly pain in the butt.
If you use mercury tubes to balance the carbs, do NOT blip the throttle while the balancing equipment is attached to your bike. My friend, Ray, did this and, although it does not seem to have damaged the engine, it sucked all of the mercury in and either vapourised it , or just sent it flying out the tailpipe.
When you change the fork-oil, the book gives you no specs on how much oil to put in. Instead, there is (an expensive) factory tool that allows you to withdraw oil from the forkleg so that there is a given amount of volume not filled with oil.
As soon as you get a look at the contraption, you will instantly see how one can be fabricated from an old plastic ruler, some crazy-glue, and a hypodermic syringe, for around 2 dollars. :-D Good luck, Bill

pendraig · 04-04-2005

I took my '96 Sprint to the dealer for its 24,000 mile check-up and then wished that I hadn't. The bill was right around 700 bucks. If you have a better job than I, you might want to go to the dealer. It's a lot of work, but then 700 bucks will buy you a lot of hot-dogs, Coke, gas, and beer.
Adjusting the valves and replacing the airbox is a bit of a pain in the gluteus maximimus, though. A large part of your pains will be in simply getting the fairing, tank, etc. off. If you have a digital camera, take a couple of shots of the fuel lines, etc. once you get the rear of the tanks elevated, and before you start pulling hoses etc. off of the petcock, so that you don't misroute something in such a way that it kinks, or whatever when you get it back together.
You'll need the special shop tool (around $75) to adjust any valves that need adjusting. When the tool is in place on your engine, it will be possible to rotate the engine in such a way that the cam lobe will come in contact with the service tool. DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN. It will break the tool, and possibly damage your engine.
You'll need to remove the carbs to get the airbox off. When you sit looking at the job, it will look like maybe there's a way to get the airbox out of there while the carbs are still on the engine. PUT THIS IDEA OUT OF YOUR HEAD! It's already been tried! It won't work! Do what the manual says even though it will be a fiddly pain in the butt.
If you use mercury tubes to balance the carbs, do NOT blip the throttle while the balancing equipment is attached to your bike. My friend, Ray, did this and, although it does not seem to have damaged the engine, it sucked all of the mercury in and either vapourised it , or just sent it flying out the tailpipe.
When you change the fork-oil, the book gives you no specs on how much oil to put in. Instead, there is (an expensive) factory tool that allows you to withdraw oil from the forkleg so that there is a given amount of volume not filled with oil.
As soon as you get a look at the contraption, you will instantly see how one can be fabricated from an old plastic ruler, some crazy-glue, and a hypodermic syringe, for around 2 dollars. :-D Good luck, Bill

j98sprint · 04-05-2005

I would encourage you to try the air cleaner service if.......

-You have good tools and know how to use them.
-Can read and understand the manual.
-You can work methodically and neatly.

If your Sprint is anything like mine, all the plastic will have to come off. It's not as scarry as it looks. Just carefully unplug anything that needs unplugging and remove the fasteners. The side panels come off first. Then the tank comes off, just go slow, don't force anything and note how everything goes.

There are probably some people out there who can remove the carb bank and the valve cover with the front fairing in place. I've done it but have found that with the fairing off those two procedures are a LOT easier. You have to remove the mirrors first. You'll need 1/4" drive, 10mm socket on a 6" extention w/ratchet. Turn signals next, they cleanly unplug from the harness. Just remove the allen screws from the black plastic fillers on each side of the dash. The dash and the plastic fillers stay in place when the fairing is removed in one piece. The fillers will then fall out and they are set in place first when it's time for reassembly.

Now that all the plastic and the tank is off the bike follow the instructions in the book for air cleaner and carb removal. Now's a good time to get a K&N air cleaner. They're around $45 but it's the last one you'll have to buy. It gets cleaned and oiled every other year, good for a million miles, no lie.

Here's a couple tips. Remove the throttle cable at the twist grip and leave it connected to the carb bank when you remove the carb bank, save you a lot of trouble. When the carb bank is out, if it hasn't been done, pop off the EPA plugs and reset the mixture screws to three turns out.

If any questions come up along the way, I'll be glad to help. Get a good start on this and while you've got everything apart we'll talk about the valve clearance check and carb sync when you're ready.

I'm more than happy to help, more guys should work on their bikes. They're really pretty simple. Good luck.

j98sprint

bajajoaquin · 04-05-2005

Is the factory tool necessary to do the valve adjustment? I thought they were screw adjusters.

deweybrian · 04-05-2005

Thank you all for the great input. I've had all the plastic off my Sprint, so that's not a problem. I will try the filter replacement and we'll see how it goes. I'm sure after doing the carbs, I'll be ready for the valves!

<<brian>> :-D

seumas · 04-05-2005

Bajajoaquin, they're not screw adjusters. The valves have shims and you have to change the shims to change the clearances.

pendraig · 04-06-2005

deweybrian; Go ahead and dismount / change filter / remount the carbs, but then do your valve adjustment before you adjust the carb settings or attempt to balance them. When tuning an engine, do valve-train adjustments first, ignition adjustments second, fuel system last. Make sure that engine has not run for at least 12 hrs (24 is better) prior to adjusting the valves, as engine must be completely cold, lest you get false clearance measurements.
Happy wrenching; :hammer: pendraig

pendraig · 04-07-2005

Hi, again;
I was just cruising around through this website and found instructions for building your own valve adjustment tool.
Just check out the "downloads".
Cheers; Bill