Step 5:  Close her back up
Unlike "Operation: Iraqi Freedom," we have an exit strategy for this operation!

To ensure that you don't spring any oil leaks from those little half-moons in the headcover gasket, squirt a couple of drops of silicon gasket sealer (either Kawabond or ThreeBond 1211).

Applying silicon gasket sealer.

Smear the sealer it across the entire surface of the half-moon with a Q-tip, leaving a nice fine film.
There's a very good reason to use this stuff sparingly and wipe off any excess:  when the sealer hardens, some of it can break off and get washed away by the hot splashing oil.  It eventually finds its way into the oilpan, where it can clog your oil sump screen over time.  It would take a lot of little pieces to plug up your sump-screen, but since you'll be doing this 16 times over the next 100,000 miles, it's better to be careful. 

The gasket sealer shouldn't be on the upper ridges of the half-moon gaskets, so use the clean-end of the Q-tip to wipe off that excess.  Now you know why Q is right next to W on the keyboard.

Carefully reinstall that headcover and make sure the gasket is correctly placed all the way around the headcover.  Once you get it closed up and running again, it's a good idea to recheck this gasket to make sure no oil is leaking anywhere.

Dip each of the shiny headcover bolts in clean motoroil before threading back into their proper places (You did keep them in order, right?)  Retighten these to 9.8 Nm (87 INCH-pounds).
Good luck getting a bulky torque wrench on that bolt in the center in the back!  You'll probably have to tighten all of the accessible bolts with your torque wrench and then test one with your toolkit wrench to get a feel for how tight that is before going after that center-back bolt.

Now you can slide the vaccuum switch assembly back into place and reinsert that front hose onto the chrome T-joint up at the front.  It's a good idea to double-check all of your hose connections that may have come loose when you pulled it off to the side.  If your bike runs funny after you get it all back together, this is very likely the culprit.

Assembly lube is a good way to prevent stripping bolts or fasteners that thread directly into your frame.
When you consider what a PITA it would be to drill out stripped threads and tap fresh-threads into your precious frame (and the subsequent likelihood of stripping those fresh threads), 5 or 6 bucks for a little pot of this stuff sounds pretty cheap.
Tell the parts guy (or girl) you need some "ass lube" and they'll know exactly what you're talking about.  No lie.

And of course you don't want to forget to put your timing inspection hole and rotor-bolt covers back on.  
Remember what a pain these were to remove without marking?  You really don't have to torque these down, since the o-rings are pretty soft and do a good job of sealing.  If you can resist tightening them excessively, they won't get marked up by the screwdriver the next time you have to remove them.
Once you're done with this step you can return the screwdriver to your neighbor. And if your neighbor has a "Bush-04" sticker on his car, you have my personal sanction to urinate on the handle it before returning it to him. It's really okay! Republicans naturally assume the worst in people, so he was probably expecting this in the first place.

<<Return to Step 4  |  W650 Home  |  HOME  |  to Final Step!>>