keeperlit

Actually I was speaking to the guy in the bike shop today and he said the top end rattling noise that I thought was the valve clearances was more likely the timing chain tensioner. Hmmmm.... The noise is like a light rattling sound which only happens when I accelerate - what do you reckon??

Thanks for the help guys! I managed to get the forks apart after I found the allen key bolts. Of course as soon as I got the bolts free I could feel the damper rod turning inside the lower fork. I missed your great advice above unfortunately (must get forum email notifications enabled...) but I was able to wedge a bar down into the shocks to stop the damper rod from turning round and then I used the chrome uppers like slide hammers to pull out the fork seals (after the circlips were out of course!). All came apart and I was able to clean it all up and replace the fork seals. The forks are now happily sitting back on the bike again :-) Now, when I got the forks back on the bike I noticed the front calipers were minging! I cleaned them up and freed up the sticky pots. I ran a load of new brake fluid through and discovered there was no pressure on the lever! After some quick googling I just about managed to get the air out of the system by bleeding with the forks turned both ways - I could see the air bubbles appearing in the resevoir as I was pumping the brakes. So, the next steps are to 1) adjust valve clearances and 2) replace fork/head bearings. I've got the tank off already, cleaned it out and stuck the plastic inlet pipe back onto the primary/reserve fuel selector. Thanks MRR for the advice about the head bearing - whilst I've got the bike in pieces I might as well change the bearing as long as it's not too dear a part to replace. Is the puller to get the old top bearing out of the tube? Glad you had a nice trip over here BlackHat! Coming over for the North West this year?? ;-) KP

Hi all! I've just joined as I'm attempting to fix up my 1990 XJ600 (with 38k). I bought it a few years ago as a commuter bike, but it needs some TLC to get it working right again. I'll be needing to sort out the fork seals, valve clearances and possibly the head bearing (I hope not!). Also, it's always had gremlins with the battery charging circuit so I need to sort that out. So far I've fixed up some electrical connections and removed the forks from the bike. I'm looking forward to some help from the forum guys here to help me though! I'm an Engineer living and working in Belfast, Northern Ireland. happy 2012 to you all!! Keith