How-to articles and calculators
When working on used vehicles it is almost certain that you will run into a damaged thread situation at some point, especially with threads in aluminum – it doesn’t take a huge amount of force to strip threads in aluminum. The latest issue for me is stripped threads in the drain plug hole in the […]
2 Stroke Through a recent trade, a KTM 125sx was acquired with a huge dent in the exhaust. Dents like this, not usually as bad are very common on these exhaust expansion chambers and while the bike might seem to run ok, a dent this size must be having an adverse affect on performance. Not wanting […]
Replace Gear Change Shaft on a 2001 Kawasaki KX100 On the kids’ KX100 the gear change shaft sheared at the neck and needed to be replaced. I wasn’t sure whether I would need to split the engine cases but as it turns out, the engine doesn’t even need to be removed from the frame. Remove […]
Winter is here and even though I have insulated the garage and have a 35,000 BTU heater in there, it is often way too cold to work out there and there aren’t any urgent jobs for me to do at the moment anyway. So for some entertainment I borrowed my buddy’s Xbox 360 Force Feedback […]
Fuel Level Sender on a 1980 Porsche 924 Turbo Difficulty: SimpleWarning: Fuel is a hazardous chemical, take appropriate precautionsRecommended Tools: Allen key, pliers, multimeter The fuel level sender on the 1980 Porsche 924 Turbo is, as you might expect, located in the gas tank. It is better not to have much fuel in the tank […]
Relays allow the control of a high current circuit using a low current circuit, it is essentially a fancy, remotely operated switch. Using a low current circuit as the control means that the control circuit and associated components do not need to be big and heavy duty to take all the current of the equipment […]
Wheel Repair on a 1992 Suzuki RM125 Difficulty: MediumRecommended Tools: Vice, spoke key, can of lubricant with straw, chalk When I got my bike, the wheels had certainly taken a bit of a beating, the front wheel bearings were shot, both rims were buckled and the front rim also had a hefty ding on one […]
Electrical Troubleshooting on a 1992 Suzuki RM125 Difficulty: Medium, can be tough!Warning: High electric currents can be dangerous, take appropriate precautionsRecommended Tools: Multimeter Dirt bike electrical systems are relatively simple and yet there is a lot of confusion around that can make troubleshooting tough. The 1992 Suzuki RM125 that I bought came with a CDI […]
If you’re looking to change your rims and/or tires, you can use the calculator below to see how the size of your new tires compares to your current set and can give you an idea of whether they might rub and the impact on the speedometer reading. This calculator uses the nominal tire size based […]