Hi! Last week we took delivery of my parter’s old 695 monster. About 5 years ago she was driven into and the bike went down on its right side. Much damage and bent metal. The bike then spent 5 years in a family friend’s garage awaiting someone with the time/inclination to fix it up. It was winter when it wasn’t crashed so it’s had 5 years of salty road grime sat on it so various parts and engine paint is almost no more. Since delivery, we’ve stripped off the broken parts and ordered new ones. We’ve also done the following: oil, oil filter, fuel filter, air filter, belts, plugs, brake fluid drained but not refilled yet, fuel drained, flange o ring replaced. Tires were new just before crash and really look ok so not planning on replacing as a priority. Chain is a bit rusty but cleaned and lubed looks ok. Not planning on replacing at this point. No noticeable play in bearings but rear wheel was driven into (5-10mph) so slightly worried about integrity of bearings on swing arm. We have a new battery but haven’t hooked it up yet. Conscious that top of engine may be quite dry. Haven’t checked for spark yet so I was contemplating a dribble of oil though the spark plug well and crank it on starter motor without fuel/plugs to get the pistons lined?? Can’t see that would cause any damage?? Q1- What else should we do before trying to start the engine to avoid damage? Q2 - when doing the belts, I had horizontal cylinder at TDC and accidentally rotated the cam pulley for the vertical cylinder one full revolution before rotating it back by hand - will this have caused any damage? Q3 - bike was a write off, does anyone know how to get it re-road legal after being on SORN for so long? Is it just an MOT? If so am I allowed to ride it to my nearest MOT centre or do I need to have it transported? Q4- any other thoughts or advice before riding the bike? Should anything else be replaced? Brake pads looked pretty rusty so new ones ordered. Bike’s on 14,000 miles and probably never had valves checked. What is the interval for this? Q5 - is the sump plug really 42nm?? It’s the wider variant before the 2012 update so could be but seems a lot!! Q6- possibly a wider discussion but service manual advised greasing the rear axle nut and torquing to 83nm. I remember doing this on the 696 but to 145nm!! That seems crazy to me but presumably I should just use some lithium based grease? I have some ‘high performance’ bearing grease which I could use?? Q7 - there’s two quick release fuel line plugs on the tank flange and for the life of me, I can’t get them to go back in. I’ve ordered new ones as it looks like the primary o rings are a bit nackered but before I bugger the new ones, any advice on how to get them connected? Silicone grease?? A thousand thank yous in advance of your help!!
Q1 I think you should be fine with what you have done. Q2 No problem, so long as you didn't force anything. Q3 You can ride it to the MOT station so long as it is booked in. Q7 The o-rings should be viton, if they have been replaced in the past with the wrong ones they could have swollen, a bit of vaseline will help. Cant help with your other questions. Steve
Welcome to the Forum Plasticmorph. We love pictures, they always help. In addition to Steve's answers above. Q1. I'd remove the rocker covers and squirt some engine oil in there on top of the cams and rockers before cranking. To save the starter motor you could put it on an axle stand, in 6th gear, plugs out, and rotate the rear wheel several times (unless you have a crankshaft turning tool). Q4. Brakes - I'd definitely overhaul the brakes before use. Mine sat for several years and look how they ended up Q4 Valves - I'm pretty sure it's 7500 mile intervals recommended. It's probably worth doing as your doing everything else now. Q5. If that's what the (up to date) service manual says go for it. Q6. Ditto
Thanks for the quick and helpful replies! Much appreciated. Here’s a few pics... Note the rusty belt rollers. They spin freely without any grouty sensation so I figured the belts will probably polish them up quickly enough. I’ll keep an eye out. I found what looks like a great app for tensioning belts on belt driven bicycles. It’s called gates carbon drive. It allows you to ping the belts and it freezes on the sound frequency. The 45 degree twist seemed pretty spot on too so seems ok. It’s free so maybe check it out. So I’ve just been out and through impatience hooked up the battery and hit the go button (without fuel). The starter sounds functional and the oil is being drawn up from the sump. Fuel pump makes the right noises too. One weird thing I noticed (and I’ll welcome your thoughts) is that when the engine was turning over, large amounts of water was chugging out the right exhaust?! As per the pic that side doesn’t have a silencer yet. I guess it’s just collected over time but I’m led to believe it was garaged!
The rear spindle torque is correct as it basically the same swing arm as my ST4, the single sided arms are higher torque. Gobs of water out the exhaust is condensation being blown out, normally it would trickle out when you're riding with the silencers on and you wouldn't know, my ST4 sat for a long time and after first start dribble water from the exhaust joints so I wouldn't worry too much. I think you should at least clean the rusty rollers with emery/steel wool to save the belts a bit of damage. Valve clearance checks should be every 6,000 miles so may have been done 2,000 miles ago but be useful to check them now you have started it for peace of mind. Good luck
I presume those photos were taken when the old belts were still in place and they're not the 'new' belts that went on? I agree with Harry above, get out the 240 grit emery cloth and then some wire wool on the roller surface that touches the belts.
Hey! Thanks, yes that was with the old belts and I’ve since cleaned as much of the mank off the rollers! So update... new fuel unions arrived so tank filled and battery connected. Engine (sort of) started. Sadly, not the horizontal cylinder?! Can’t figure out why. Spark works and I can’t see any reason why the air wouldn’t be getting in. The only other thing I can think of, is that fuel isn’t getting in?? Any thoughts anyone? View attachment 156616 View attachment 156617 View attachment 156618
Thanks! Whipped them out. Just need to figure out why no combustion. I’ve just stripped things back and tried to get the injectors out but they won’t budge. They’ll rotate but not pull out so I’m guessing the o rings have expanded. Plan was to swap them round and see what happens. I’m no expert here so any guidance on what the likely culprits is would be appreciated.
Update, sort of runs on both cylinders now with a lot of choke and cajoling. Can someone have a listen to the noises in this video and tell me what the pop/bang/thud is at the end? It doesn’t sound like it’s coming from the exhaust. Maybe intake?
Not sure I would have risked running the engine after it has been sat for so long. As was suggested I would have turned it over without plugs initially and judging by the state of the belts, changed those too beforehand. The noise in the video sounds not unlike unburnt fuel. Wonder if your inlet valves or injectors are gummed up. I'd flush out the tank and all the lines of old fuel, change the plugs, oil, filters, belts, clean up the rollers and purge the injector lines. It ought to run a lot better after that. Id also be tempted to whip off the throttle bodies and use some carb cleaner on the butterfles as well and all the linkages. If it is only running on choke then that would suggest you have a fuel delivery problem. For a bike that has been sat for so long I am amazed you got it to run at all. Some prep work now may save you from costly damage if you force things into submission.
Thanks, much of what has been suggested has been done. Plugs, belts, oil, filters all round. I’ve drained the old fuel out of the tank and the lines. Couldn’t extract the injectors but tried to clean out the filter end as best as I could. You mentioned purging the fuel lines and the injector lines. Possible stupid question but what’s the difference? Now at a point where it makes that popping sound and after really warming up with some effort it does hold the idle. Very worried about that popping and it’s cause.
I'd make sure the fuel is flowing freely to the injectors and from them into the carb bodies. As Topolino suggests above chances are the injectors and carb bodies are gummed up, remove them, throttle bodies and injectors and make sure they are clean and free of any gummy residue. It might also be worth putting some injector cleaner in the fuel in the tank.
Hi all, thanks for the guidance. I’m not 100% convinced but I think we’re nearly there. I put some redex advanced fuel cleaner in the tank at a slightly more concentrated than normal concentration. Ran engine, sat for a few days and that seemed to make an improvement to the general running. The popping was still present though. Next step was to replace the o2 sensor. Bikey’s covered 14.5k which to me would be premature for a sensor to fail but for some reason when the bike came to us, there was a lot of water sat in the horizontal exhaust header. For all I know it was flooded for 5 years so it was fairly well corroded at the tip. I’ve now run the engine to warm up and (touch wood) it seems to have lost the backfire/sputter. Will give it another run at the weekend and see how things are going. I’ve got a replacement throttle body and injectors on standby so we have the option of changing that out. It’s from a 2006 695 donor and looks like it’s made by a different manufacturer so hopefully all within spec. I’m sure we’ve now spent more than the bike’s worth on this project now!!
