clean up your damn tools every time you use them. sounds complicated doesn't it? be amazed how much time and effort it saves. don't overcomplicate things, fix the simple stuff first. then advance onto bigger and better things.
If you over fill your oil you can pull the pump out of a household spray bottle and rig up a little hand pump. Get a tube long enough to reach the oil, if the one that's on there already isn't long enough that is, attach it to the pump and squeeze away.
I have a small white board on the wall of my shop. I use it for short duration notes to self. It fills up with things like; oil changes for truck and MCs, rough diagrams of stuff with assembly patterns I want to remember, etc, etc. Handier than paper. Erase as needed. obt
As above, it was stated to use a white board for notes to self. My contribution is also about notes and records. I keep a maintenance book for each of my bikes(and cars). Just a pocket notepad will do.. Write the bikes model on the front, and include every bit of maintenance that you do, date and mileage, along with notes of imporatance.. ie: That part is nicked/ needs future replacement...etc Eliminates the confusion of what you did, when you did it, and what you did it too. Plus, the new owner ALWAYS gets a jolt when he realizes you took the time to document maintenance..plus it sometimes helps keep it on the 'good' end of the market scale. On the cutout cardboard for bolts, i do that too. I use the gasket in the kit to trace a pattern onto cardboard. Then i use hole-punchers, just like you had in elementary school to punch the holes out for the bolts. Then i take them out of the case, and place them directly into the cardboard cutout, in the respective hole. If this part is to be apart for more than a day, i place $1 store masking tape over each bolt head to keep it in place. Then i bag it in a clear cellophane sandwhich bag, or gallon whatever bag. I use the masking tape to tape the bag shut, and write on it with a black permanent marker.. All plastic bags go into one container, the lid taped shut and written on it it's contents.
Your kidding right? :eek1 doing this takes all the fun outa cleaning the shop,, = reward for shop cleaning is like getting a free pass to tool world. Look Honey New tools..
i had to take the secondary butterflys out of the new ride and they were held in by these tiny (#0) loctited screws. Fuckers would not budge and stripping them was not an option. Enter the $25 heat gun from Home Depot
No heat gun, and a lighter wasn't getting it hot enough, so I solved the loctite problem recently using a dremmel with a cutting wheel. I intended to just cut the damn nut off, but the side effect was the metal got hot enough to break the loctite long before the nut was cut all the way through. Whatever works!
Need to clamp an irregular surface? Use old innertubes to get even pressure. Need to vacuum bag one thing and no vacuum pump? FOODSAVER Use a vacuum cleaner to get most of the air out, then use a foodsaver (with check valve in the line) to do the final pull. Make sure to buy it from somewhere with easy returns REALLY handy for getting epoxy to pull into hairline cracks that you just can't grind open.
I ride oilheads. When I change trans and final drive fluids I lean my GSs over on a big closed cell block I have extra for seat pedestals for white water canoes (mebbee 10-12 inch-thick chunks). Works great. Of course you have to be able to pick the pig back up. But most of us have had practice with that... obt
A lot of you probably already use this one. Aerosol brake cleaner works really well for cleaning greasy parts and grimy small engines. Be careful around the plastics though.
I use a rolling cart like this: 1/4" sockets, extensions, etc are invaluable when working on a bike. Pick set. You'll be surprised how handy they are when you have them around.
I can not believe how much I use mine. I just got them about a year ago and I wonder how I ever did anything in my garage without them.
Maybe we're talking about the same thing, and it's probably been mentioned, but old dental tools work great for getting into hard to reach places etc. obt
great stuff, a few small items from me. 1) use nitrile gloves for working on the bike. No need to clean your hands later 2) save your plastic cottage cheese, or other disposable plastic containers for yourself and tech days. hand them out with sharpies and small paper bags so everyone can stay organized. 3) store your unused RTV in the freezer and it will never harden and force you to cut the ends of the tube to get the remainder out. (make sure to hide it from SWMBO's sight) 4) a spare alternator belt fits nicely under the seat on a 12GS by the tailight 5) when doing complex disassembly, re-attach the screws and bolts to their original mount points after taking a piece off.
Do all your phillips screw heads on your bike look like shit? Try using some of this stuff in the head of the screw it'll let your screwdriver (MAKE SURE YOU USE THE CORRECT SIZE SCREW DRIVER) get more bite on the screw head and not mess up the screw head either. This works good on Body Panel Removal, Carbuerators and things that using an impact driver on don't make sense. Apparently not many know this trick 'cause it seems like every used bike I buy has f'ed up screw heads on it and I need to use Vice Grips or dremel the screw heads for slotted to get them off
You used to be able to buy very expensive very small tubes of stuff for removing tight Phillips head screws without rounding them off.Very good stuff. Then I noticed it was just valve grinding paste......
this may seem a bit off, but my method for keeping bolts organized is this. When you dissassemble whatever it is, lets say a side panel, take the bolt out and lay it on the floor according to where it goes. Take the panel off. Thread the bolts back in some back in their appropriate holes. The benefit of this is twofold. First, you wont lose any hardware. Second, if the piece wont go on right, you know you've forgot a bolt! **** Remember, especialy if your'e doing an oil change, thread them in all teh way so they dont rattle out. I rode around teh blcok to heat up the oil.... and forgot
Make yourself two, maybe three babies. After a couple of years, their tiny hands will be a big asset in the shop. Also, buy EVERYTHING from Walmart. Then take it back immediately when you are done with it. Saves a lot of space. I call it Walrenting.
