I doubt - you will be able to hacksaw the allen key stub off to be honest? Should be harder than the hacksaw blade? If it isnt then get yourself a better one. Would recommend using an actual spanner rather than an adjustable on the stub, will hold the stub better, less risk of slippage & Several Short Words. :wink: You can link spanners together to get more leverage in a tight space if only a spanner will fit? Use two combination spanners (ring at one end, open ended other) Fit the ring end of one spanner on the nut (lefthand of the pic), then link the ring end of the other one onto the open end as shown, use this to move the first spanner round? (Pic shown after decat-ing my car with a large masonary drill :biggrin: )
Sorted! Got an old 8mm Allen key and a good hacksaw and managed to cut it to fit. It did take a while and doubt the blade will be much use again but, hey-ho! Now, the head is removed, I’ll get the rockers sorted and she’ll go back together with new belt pulley bearings—all were fucked—and new belts too. Bloody thing! Still, despite the issues with the pulley, I only had to drill out one stud, which on a 10 year old bike is not bad. Cheers for the all the advice, A
BTW, for anyone who does their own maintenance, I found that all four pulley bearings were fucked. However they are standard SKF items that I was able to get from a local bearing supplier. My bike is on 44k miles.
Now why doesn't that surprise me? Well, actually, it does....for any bearing of reasonable name and quality, especially SKF, I really don't understand why there is failure under 50,000 miles......and many failures well below half that mileage..... ....I have had loads of bikes and done thousands of miles, but I don't recall having to replace bearings with the same frequency as we seem to have to do these days. AL
Indeed, I called into the mechanic today to leave in the other head and the inlet rockers I had acquired. He showed me the old inlet rockers and they were well fecked. Worn through a good half mm each, which, on less than 50k miles, I was very surprised at. Still, I have now gotten through almost all the weaknesses of this particular bike, failing big ends, dodgy electrics, wearing rockers etc. So, if the fucking doesn’t give me a good 10k miles with nothing but routine maintenance it shall be this: Followed by a swift application of this: And a lament for the youth of today and their arsonist ways! A
Given it is Italian as well, the only bearing that gave me a problem on my Guzzi, was the shaft drive UJ bearing turning in the swingarm housing....soon cured that. But apart from some Magnetti Marelli electrics trouble which in the end turned out to be the coils, nothing else was really a problem with the running side of things... Paint, yes, it was sh*te. But car wise, my Nissan 200SX was driven hard and did well over 165,000 miles....the only thing that needed replacing other than normal stuff (zorst, brake pads etc) were six hydraulic tappets at around 95,000 and the fuel pump not long after that..... Have to say that at the 165,000 mile mark, the rust had well set in, so I sold it........somehow wish I hadn't. AL
It can be a weird one, yes. I had a VFR800 that was the single most unreliable bike I've ever had. But I have a 20 year old Kawasaki sports bike that still makes about the same power it did on day one and is used as a track bike, hard. I am quite attached to the 4s now, so I'll battle one, but on sheer economics of a daily transport, I would have been shot of it years ago.
I think you've been unfortunate with your ST4s Ascalon. Mine now has 48.5K on it and the original pulley bearings are still running smoothly. The clearances have always been checked at every winter service, 6,000 to 7000 miles and adjusted when necessary and the belts changed every 2nd year. Every time I check the clearances I also remove the cams to check for rocker wear. All servicing has been done by myself and by the book. I had to replace one opening rocker at 6K and apart from the gearchange return spring at about 25K that has been the only failure.
My SS had a seized pulley bearing on one side of the tensioner - put a polish mark on the belt but the belt was still perfectly usable? (I changed it regardless..) Bearings are something that wears out, a consumable the same as pads & tyres, suck it up! Have had worse happen! :wink:
Probably the biggest contributing factor to premature bearing failure in this case is the belt tension being too tight?
Yeah, I have heard similar stories. The guy I bought it from has a mate in Oz who has done well over 100k on an ST4! My gear lever spring is weak too and very sensitive to chain tension.
Sorry for refloting such an ancient thread but I am in the exacti situacion of replacing all the bearings from the pulleys and I am stuck with the vertical idler one because the frame makes impossible his way out How did you manage to get it out? Thanks
