I’m a little better rested now so I’ll fill in some details.
It’s pointless to not change the oil at the same time. The engine holds much of its resting oil in the same area you’ll be working so don’t change your oil one weekend and do the doo the next weekend. Just drain the oil, do the doo and finish the oil change. Oh, btw put catch pan under the bike while doing this procedure, oil will drip to the floor.
I did not remove the chain drive gear, no point in it. Did remove the gear cover which was the easiest part of the whole job.
When you’re removing the outer cover have a wire coat hanger handy. You’ll need it to suspend the cover so the electrical wires aren’t carrying its weight. I drew a bolt diagram and numbered each bolt so I knew where it went. Actually Miranda numbered them for me, get your own assistant.
Cover is off. The starter gears have thin washers. One of mine actually came off before I had the cover fully removed and it was magnetically attracted to the outer cover, took me a second to realize where it went. Give yourself a large work space with a spread out newspaper and place the parts in a manner that makes sense to you.
The rotor bolt was really torqued down tight, would’ve taken a big leverage bar to budge it. I used the footrest to hold the tool in place. After I realized it was requiring way too much energy to remove the bolt by hand I fired up the compressor and used an impact gun and standard (non impact) 19mm socket. I feared the socket would split but wasn’t going to run to Sears unless I had to so I went for it. It lived and the bolt came out counterclockwise without much fuss.
Using the threaded puller was straightforward. After you’ve removed the main bolt just lube up the end of the puller bolt and thread it into the rotor. Again, monumental force is required to budge the rotor, you’re threading clockwise here, so I went back to the impact – whoosh and it was off.
The rest of the directions at
http://klr6500.tripod.com/doohickey.htm were spot on.
Have a bunch of paper towels ready.
Oh, here’s a tip, that rotor you pulled off with the bolt puller, on the inside where there’s oil and (no doubt) some debris, the inside lip is razor sharp so when you’re cleaning it out with paper towels don’t slice the tip of your finger off and fill it with blood. Mmmmkay? Get it? Good. btw, kids repeat your cuss words, no matter how vile the words are.
A Dremel with a wire brush is good for removing gasket material, this took me a while because my cordless Dremel kept needing a recharge.
Also, watch the alignment dowels. They could fall out and roll under your car. There are two that align the inner cover and two that align the outer cover.
***error edit***When reinstalling the rotor bolt your torque wrench should be capable of 87 foot pounds. Thanks to Eaglemike for pointing this out.
Eaglemike said:
The proper torque for the rotor bolt is 130 ft-lbs for the 1996 and later, 144 ft-lbs for the 2008. Some of the earlier bikes (1987 to 1995 need less, but it's an individual case basis.
BUT when tightening the case bolts you need it set to 6 foot pounds or 72 inch pounds.
I had to use 2 different torque wrenches because neither was able to do such heavy and light work. Work a crisscross pattern when tightening the case bolts.
I used a gasket dressing made by Permatex from the local auto parts shop and spread it very thin over all four mating surfaces.
In retrospect it wasn’t difficult, just be methodical. I could probably do it a second time in less than a couple hours. First time is always an exploration.