What to do on this rainy Saturday. I did still need to change the oil on the Ural, that'll take a little time. After returning from College Coffeehouse this morning, I drained the oil from the engine. As you can see, there is almost no
swarf on the magnet attached to the engine drain plug. And the oil looked to still be in excellent shape with no evidence of moisture in the engine or aluminum flakes. In other words, all seems good within the engine. And this is after running it significantly longer than the normal Ural recommended change interval. I was told by Raceway that I could significantly extend the change interval since I was running full synthetic oil (Amsoil 20w50) and the new spin-on filter which is much larger than the original cartridge filter. The fresh oil is 10w40 full synthetic for the cooler weather. Once it's consistently well below freezing, I'll change it to 5w30.
I had ordered a replacement filter from Amazon based on the filter list posted on Soviet Steeds rather than ordering a replacement filter from Ural. (Free shipping!) It was slightly smaller in diameter than the stock filter but since the timing cover had a large "O" ring sealing surface, it fit and sealed without any issues. After the oil change, I adjusted the idle again since it was running a little slow at stop lights. Again, trivial to do since I had the TwinMax to rebalance the carbs after adjusting the idle speed.
I re-installed the plastic fence post air box since it seemed to do better last year in wet or snowy conditions. But after a test ride, the rig obviously needed to be re-jetted for the additional air flow. Not sure what to change as the rig would sort of fall on it's face at about 4,000 rpm. Rather than mess with it, I put the stock filter housing back after cleaning the filter.
Not much riding around due to the weather. Rain/snow and hovering right around freezing. I ordered some additional studs from Amazon but they are being shipped from China so it may take a while. But the price is right. Around ⅓ or the Aerostitch price. Hopefully, they work out.
Saturday Evening - I had forgotten that I reverted the jetting back to stock before the trip. Maybe tomorrow I'll switch back to the 127.5 main jet and try the plastic airbox again.
One can almost always find something to tinker on with our rigs. With the cooler weather, my idle while the engine is "still warming up" hovers around 840 rpm which feels "low" but I must fight the urge to increase the idle a bit since things seem to stabilize when "warmed up".
ReplyDeleteI just finished the 25K km service myself, found grease remaining on all splines except as usual on the pusher wheel splines and drive hub.....no water crossings that I can recall, and I re-coated at the 20K km service! Starting to wonder if I am "boiling off" the grease by running the rig's FD to long at highway speeds. (60-65mph) even though cleared to do so by the mothership.
Going to start carrying a IR thermometer to see how hot the FD is when I stop for gas.
"One can almost always find something to tinker on..."
DeleteI get accused of that all the time. But, you're right. And I think that's what I like about the Ural and the Beemer airheads. Always something to tinker with. I have some auxiliary tanks for the Beemer that I haven't put in place yet. Since the driveshafts was just replaced in July, I didn't check the for grease in the spline. The sidecar driveshaft spline is easy to grease and I did that after returning. The drive wheel spline still had plenty of grease (when I changed the tire). Valves didn't need adjustment for once.
Have you ever found a maintenance "schedule" for mileage over 30k km? Or do you just keep repeating the 20k to 27.5k tasks?
Wasn't there something about the rear disc brake getting things really warm?
I asked IMWA about that once you get past the 30k km interval, they said just restart from the 5k km service and repeat.
DeleteThe pusher's rotor can get very hot if parking brake isn't adjusted tight, am going to measure temps next long ride and see.
Thanks for the official word on maintenance.
DeleteIs the parking break actually useable? I keep forgetting to adjust the parking brake after adjusting the rear brake.
Prior to the 2014s, the parking brake was decorative, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteWith the advent of the 2014's overly complicated brake caliper, the parking brake is somewhat more functional but if ill-adjusted, can cause issues or not work at all in the other extreme. I know guys who've disabled it entirely. I don't rely on it because adjustments tend to "go away" and not work anymore. I just make sure it doesn't cause the rotor to overheat due to it being too tight when "not engaged".
The parking brake dialog is interesting to me. Why not just leave it in 1st gear? That is what I do with Petunia and if I had a Ural I would disconnect the parking brake. Seems to me like one more thing to go wrong, in a make my life easier kind of way, and not a bash the Ural kind of way.
ReplyDeleteOn a steep hill, first gear doesn't always prevent the rig from rolling and there are times, such as when taking a quick snapshot, I prefer to leave the engine running.
DeleteRichard, your mechanical prowess and desire to tinker continues to amaze me and true to form, you lost me after, "It was time to change the oil." At that point I head to the nearest shop. On that note I've always used synthetic oil in the Star. Good to know that it appears to be an okay idea. I had a 50/50 choice.
ReplyDeletei am impressed how much better the synthetic oil lubricates than regular dino oil. This is evidenced at how few fine metal filings have been captured on the drain plug magnet. And you're right, I like to tinker.
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