All 2st WR primary nut inspect/quick-check....

as you know i got 'porky' home a few days ago. aaand i keep bumping into this nightmare scenario about the "loose primary nut" a couple of us got the short end of. so after a fairly restless night last night i thunk of this.

wiggle yer clutch line down n out a bit. clean around and remove the filler cap. grab a pen light and a long thin STRONG poker thingy. dab 'er into the case and touch the nut. does it move? lean on it some, give it a tink. does it move or sound loose? if not? yer good to go. see if theres a few shaft threads poking out past the nut. yes? good to go some more.

next- grab an air hose. blow off the nut and gear behind it. swab it with a blue shop type PAPER towel around a tooth brush handle, dowel rod et. al., and get it clean. then get some contact cleaner and clean that area only- the flat of the nut facing up and a smidge of the gear behind it, dont go nuts with this stuff. repeat using a clean towel til that small area is dry. you get the idea, use your imagination. no RED SHOP RAGS in or near engines please. be careful.

once it's clean and dry, index mark the flat on the nut and the gear behind it with a sharpie, whatever, etc. let it dry really good then slap the cap back on.

now you can tell if the nut starts to back off in less than a minute. remove the filler cap, turn the motor over slow like and observe your index marks.

here's the deal. if that nut is tight it proly wont come loose. ive been calling around and it seems they either left plant very very loose or they were torqued. no in-between from what i gather. this is a flat machine nut from what i could see, w/o a locker, peen lip etc, so if it's not torqued it'll be very bloody obvious. like if you touch or tink at it with a probe you'll be able to spin it or it'll sound dull and loose.

mine's tight as far as i can tell and i think there's a teensy smidge of thread locker on the shaft threads in one spot, that, or vincenso spilled some marinara sauce on it stuffing his face while building my engine proclaming 'momma mia dats a spicya meata ballla' or some stupid thing instead of paying attn to the job.

good help is so hard to find these days.

barooop!

roost on people....

(pic before referance marks)

back atcha big bro ....mreeep! barooop! weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Thanks for the great heads up and write up.....I'll for sure be doing this beofre I do start my new bike!!!

cool beans and yer welcome man! i have a feeling if one were to mark n check after a few mins then once during a ride or two if it aint moving it aint gona. bummer is if its loose and it aint caught theres little to zero wiggle room and it comes right off so. at least its an easy peak to see it thankfully. fingers crossed yall and twist the loud grip hard....baaarrrooop!

Glad you posted that. Good pic. I found out the sort of hard way back in June or whenever it was that i was hearing that bizarre SCRAPE..and then nothing... So random you could call it s female. Sorry Woodschick, Dirtdame. No offense. Seeing how youre on this forum you must be quite level headed.

its not the clutch nut!

hmm....i dunnow. ya better leme come over and inspect yer hardware, just to be on the safe side.

I don't know about that!

cept the one behind the handle bar maybe??

*

p/s- if you do elect to use air to puff the bulk of the oil off the nut/gear be nice..dont blast it. just short puffs to get the bulk off then swab it etc...there's a crank seal in there somewhere so...again. be careful.

But if you do decide to blast it, put your hand over the exhaust tip and see if you can get it to squeal like a balloon rnd stretched apart as air escapes. Id enjoy watching/hearing that. Oh crikeys I make myself laugh

Anybody know how the waterpump drive works on these things?

I'm wondering if you can just lay the bike on its side and pop the left cover off, so you can get in there to check the torque on that nut.

In lieu of that, I like this method as a quick check!

aint opened it up yet. pretty sure you drain fluids, remove hoses, remove the PV cover and discon that, then whatever bolts hold the case covers on (some run though covers to the case so...) then remove it as one. others ive done like this? when it goes back together the pump/drive need to be meshed before it all makes that last 1/8" or so to seat the cover on the gasket surface. im pretty sure its really straight forward. just be super careful and slow. it should be self explanitory as you go. you can also see quite a bit through that hole with a small swivel mirror. id work it on the side stand or close to verticle leaning to that side in case something unknown gets away from you it dont end up in that twilight zone of gears forks and bearings. tickity-tackity-tink! Oooooh S*-..!!

Did a quick check on mine and "looks" OK.

But i will be cleaning it up and marking it with a pen to see if it moves at all during the break in stage. I'm also gonna just try and move it with a center punch and hammer with just some light taps, I think that'll be a safe way to see if there is any movement.

yup. very light tink 'll do with a long flat drift punch. let it slip down under its own weight between yer fingers or jsut tink it on the horizontal nut flat. when it bounces back up catch it and remember the sound and feel, if its solid youll know it.

in a lot of cases if you tap a torqued bolt with a very small ballpeen hammer it sounds solid- tink! if you tap a loose one, its like a loose spoke, it dont resonate. just make sure the probe is LONG enuf in case it slips it dont go in. there's a lot of goodies in there so be careful.

dont bang on it trying to move the nut

NO HAMMERS PEOPLE.