Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Two weeks later...

It's been two weeks since I've been able to ride my GTS. The Bajaj has been chugging along admirably and reliably, getting me wherever I need to go, in spite of burning more oil than it ought to. It needed a workout, so it's a good thing. Anyway, it turns out that the "missing" exhaust stud on my GTS was actually broken off inside the cylinder head, which is much harder to repair. It involves an unbelievable amount of work, just to swap out a $0.50 part - draining the coolant and motor oil, removing the motor from the bike, disconnecting the timing chain, removing the camshaft, removing the cylinder head, very carefully machining out the hardened steel stud without damaging the aluminum cylinder head, then finally installing the new stud. You could think of the machining part like a high stakes game of "Operation". Some people I know have swapped out an entire motor, rather than go through all that.

So, I've been without my GTS for the last two weeks, while I've been figuring out what to do. After talking it over with Rolf, he agreed to do the job for me, as long as I paid him for his time, of course. I got a brand new stud and head gasket Vespa and dropped my bike off at his place last week. He got it all apart by Friday and with the help of our friend and master machinist Gary, the old stud was successfully milled out and a the new one was installed over the weekend. Rolf got everything back together yesterday and tonight I'll finally be able to get to ride my GTS again! Hopefully he was also able to sort out the wonkiness in the rear shocks too, which was causing it to handle oddly... I'll have to ask him about it tonight when I pick it up. In any event, I can't wait to have it back... hopefully these will be the last repairs it will need for a good long time!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Tom,
I stumbled on your pics and blog; pretty cool! Just bought a 'new' GT60 but the dealer did not have the 'Anniversary Box' do you happen to still have yours? If so, I would love to purchase from you to complete my 'package'!
Thx,
Stacey
Galenaonthebay@sbcglobal.net