Last night was the first time I'd ever put a wrench to the MV to service it. I learned a heck of a lot (mostly to have patience) and need some more tools to complete the job.

My plan was to change the coolant by taking off the radiators, change the oil and filter, and put on asbestos pipe wrap while I had the radiators off. Well, I got the oil and filter changed anyway...

The oil drain plug is a 10mm allen head plug. Do yourself a favor and buy a 3/8" drive socket with a 10mm allen wrench on it. I have a set of these and they are indispensible. The oil filter is a royal pain to change, at least with the tool I was using. I bought a wrench that fits on the end and looks like a spanner wrench but with a full circle. The oil pump/cooler and exhaust pipes make it very difficult to swing this wrench much more than 5 degrees or so. I finally learned to bend the handle of the wrench outward about 15 degrees so it would clear the exhaust, and then I could get about 10 degrees of turn on it at a time. I'll take a picture of the wrench. I'm guessing there is an easier way to do this though, possibly a small strap wrench? Anyone else?

Started to take the radiators off when I realized that I don't have a tool that looks remotely useful for dealing with those clamps. Took one off, and confirmed this by spending probably 20 minutes trying to get it back on. Can anyone tell me what special tool to use or what technique to use to deal with these? I didn't seen anything at craftsman.com but I may not have been looking in the right place.

Learned something REALLY cool about the turnsignals/mirrors. They are a little tedious to get off, and also required to remove if you want to remove the upper fairing. Here's the process:

1. Take off all the lower bodywork (required to remove the mirrors completely! trust me on this) 2. Start removing the mirrors by removing the small screw in the signal lens. Remove the lens starting from the screw side using something small and non abrasive to take out the lens. The inboard side has a clip that just slides out. 3. Then remove the small screws on the bottom of the mirror. The mirror slides out. Push from the signal side and you'll see how it has a little track on the bottom that holds it in with the screws. 4. Unplug the wires from the light socket. They are spade type connectors. 5. Remove the 2 5mm bolts that hold the mirrors on to the upper fairing. The 3/8" socket set that you bought to change the oil probably has the 5mm socket as well! Very useful here. 6. Start pulling off the mirrors, noticing that the wires need to pull through the mirror. The hole that they go through is very small and you will no doubt have a little difficulty getting them back through, such are the pains of owning a pretty bike... 7. Remove the 2 5mm bolts in the "corners" of the fairing that hold in the brackets that holds the fairing/mirrors. 8. Lift off the fairing, and this is when you'll be blown away to find out that there are no wires coming from inside the bike to snag you! Amazing. The signal wires make contact with the bike with some fancy looking contacts that you can remove to remove the mirror wires completely. You'll see what I mean if you take it off. Very, very slick.

From here, you'd want to slide the upper fairing back on and put the mirror/fairing brackets back in to hold the upper in place. I'm going to look into getting some teflon washers and nuts to put on the bolts that hold the mirrors on because these bolts seem vital to hold up the upper fairing. Anyone have any suggestions here? Maybe I'll try to find some close up pics of Dwight Mitchell's bike...

If you work on this bike, go slowly and use care. Bring LOTS of patience with you as well. It's do-able, but there are lots of places where you get snagged that you wouldn't on some lesser bike.

Next is to drain the coolant, remove the radiators (after figuring out what special tool I need to deal with those hose clamps), putting on the pipe wrap, and removing the license plate/rear turn signal bracket and I'm ready for the track!

-- Andy Ruhl (quadreverb@yahoo.com), October 20, 2002

Answers

Andy-don't know if you are aware but you can remove the whole upper fairing without touching the mirrors. Remove the two bolts in the corners, and the whole assembly will lift up and forward. The wiring is pinned so there are no wires to disconnect. My MV mechanic showed me this. The first time is a little nerve wracking because you have to pull on it firmly, but now I remove the upper fairing every time I detail my MV. It seems odd that it's so simple to remove an upper fairing, yet I can't figure out how to remove the battery. Any suggestions on that?

-- john milotzky (jmilotzky@wi.rr.com), October 20, 2002.

I looked at it that way and considered it afterwards, but it occurred to me that the only thing that would hold up the sides and bottom would be a few of the fasteners in the upper rear of the sides. Kind of makes me slightly uncomfortable. I can get the bottom and sides off in less than 5 minutes, so I'll probably keep doing it that way. Not to say what you are saying isn't worthwhile. As a matter of fact, it probably makes sense to remove the upper with the mirrors in place because it would be easier to remove them once the upper is sitting on the bench. I had no idea that there wouldn't be any wires snagging me so I didn't dare try this the first time. Now I know!

One other thing I did last night that was useful. I noticed that the heat shield was pulling up and away in some places. It was actually making contact with the pipe at one point. I stuck it back down with some weatherstripping glue, I sure hope that stuff doesn't burn or something... Seemed to work out fine though. It was pulling up in so many places that I had to use clothes pins to re-form it and get it back into place.

-- Andy Ruhl (quadreverb@yahoo.com), October 20, 2002.

I use a strap wrench from Sears. It works great for the oil filter, though I would prefer to have someway of using a torque wrench. Almost 2 years later, everything seems to work ok doing it this way.

Here's the link to the strap wrench at Sears: http://www.sears.com/sr/product/summary/productsummary.jsp? BV_SessionID=@@@@0576983831.1035230041@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccfcadcghmddjkl cehgcemgdffmdfin.0&vertical=TOOL&bidsite=&pid=00945531000

>The oil drain plug is a 10mm allen head plug. Do yourself a favor >and buy a 3/8" drive socket with a 10mm allen wrench on it. I have a >set of these and they are indispensible. The oil filter is a royal >pain to change, at least with the tool I was using. I bought a >wrench that fits on the end and looks like a spanner wrench but with >a full circle. The oil pump/cooler and exhaust pipes make it very >difficult to swing this wrench much more than 5 degrees or so. I >finally learned to bend the handle of the wrench outward about 15 >degrees so it would clear the exhaust, and then I could get about 10 >degrees of turn on it at a time. I'll take a picture of the wrench. >I'm guessing there is an easier way to do this though, possibly a >small strap wrench? Anyone else?

-- Brad Cowell (bcowell@sbcglobal.net), October 21, 2002.

I went about it a completely different way for my trackday this past weekend.

I removed the mirror assembly complete. remove the 3 allen screws in the control cover plates by the airtubes. undo the wire guide/tie from the fairing bracket. Remove the screws holding the mirror to the bracket. left up on the fairing slitchly and then pull the mounting bracket out. Just slide the wire through the hole and the mirror is off in one piece. the hardest part is that you can't get full rotation when trying to remove the screws.

next you'll want to disable the two "aux" lights that sit between the high and low beam lights. You can't do it by removing the fuse because that fuse also controls your display. the connector for these lights are under the left control cover near the front of the fairing. The low beam can be disabled by removing the fuse, but you can removed the rubber cover about the display and reach around in there and find the connector and just disconnect it. Same for the high beam except its underneath the stearing head.

As for the Plate holder. just remove the CPU and you get access to those screws. undo them disconnect the 3 wires on the right side of the seat and the unit will slide off.

all told about 15 minutes work

-- TP (tpoole@xnet.com), October 21, 2002.

I have some pics of the bike since I took it apart last night. First, 2 pics of the tail without the license plate bracket. It wasn't really simple to slide out the bracket. It was tight, and it rubbed against the inside of the 2 inner pipes a little too much for my tastes. Not exactly ideal, but it came off:

Here's some detail of where the turn signal stalk/fairing brackets bolt down, and you can almost see the 2 contacts where the signals get their power:

I found that this plug on the front left hand side controls the headlights and "park" lights (all behind the front glass). I unplugged this and powered on the bike, and all seemed well. Has anyone else unplugged this one? It's the one that has 4 sideways cylinder looking things:

I also found out that removing the upper without taking off the bottom and the sides is quite un-nerving. It was difficult to pull up, and just felt totally wrong. I don't think I'll do it again. I'm going to take the bottom and sides off before I put the upper back on. I'll try to take some pics of the mirrors too, but my camera doesn't do close up very well (obviously).

-- Andy Ruhl (quadreverb@yahoo.com), October 22, 2002.

Hmm, the pics don't seem to be linking very well. I'll try to make a quickie little page and post it later if I have time.

-- Andy Ruhl (quadreverb@yahoo.com), October 22, 2002.