Yay, Success!

[cywelchjr]

Finally successful with my FD swap. Had most of the stuff ready some time ago, but seeing as I knew the issue that caused me to make the change was a bad left rear bearing, I didn't want to make the change till I had both bearings and was ready to change them. So, I got the bearings a while ago, and finally to around to doing the work today.

So, I changed out the bearings, both right and left, and then pulled the FD and the driveshaft. Had some trouble getting the prepped one back in, but with the help of tinman's advice I got it all back together.

Got it all together and took it for a short ride (in the rain) and was pretty impressed with the difference. Not sure yet if I like it, but I'm NOT going through this again to reverse the process, but I'd really have to not like it to do that (so far I think I like it though).

I will say, I can see 3phase's point about the gearing, it's really NOT going to be a canyon carver, but as I'm not really into that kind of riding, the only group I ride with is pretty heavy on cruisers I don't expect that to be a problem.

I guess it's mod time, having done the SOFA mod just last week, and the FD swap this week.

Fork brace next?

[natemoen]

So what did you ever decide then about the difference in your tire size before you did the FD swap? I thought you were considering now swapping fd's cause of your tire change?

[cywelchjr]

Well, with the seal on my FD having been damaged by the bad left bearing was either find the seal and replace it, or swap the FD's. I decided to do the swap, and see what I think of it. If it turns out to be too much of a problem for me, I'll get a new seal and fix my original FD and put it back in. So we'll see, and I'll make a decision about it down the road a bit. There are some roads I tend to ride just for recreation when I have a short time, so I may well take that route and see how it does. If it does well, then I think I can be happy with it.

[natemoen]

Sounds good!

[tinman905]

Nice work, you should like the change the final drive gives you. With the 17 " wheel there is a more noticable change in the rpm's and fuel mileage. I myself didn't think the rpm's were much better just 500rpms less at the same MPH . The fuel mileage wasn't that much better but anything more is better. I had the seal go on mine and went back to the 1100 final drive. Glad everything worked out for you!

[motoman]

A fork brace without question.............wouldn't even consider that a farkle..... a necessity.

[cywelchjr]

Well, went out for a 40 mile test ride today (not too bad considering it was in the mid 40's). It wasn't too bad in the twisty sections, but the route it took isn't really all that twisty. I did find that I gotta be up to 55 to run 5th gear, and about 45 is the minimum for 4th. (this is based on keep 3k as the minimum sustained RPM).

Got onto the freeway for a short section on the way back, and found that 4k is 71 MPH. Ran good and smooth, and I got back and nothing was leaking .

All in all, I think this is gonna be good. We'll see how the unit holds up over time.

[DGXSER]

I have always shifted by ear and feel, instead of the tach, but I do find myself in 4th gear at 40 MPH or so. These beast have so much low end torque I don;t mind running 2500 and going uphill.

Lots of folks have 10-20k on this mod and no signs of any trouble, so I do not think you will find that to be any problem.

[Poprock]

I live in very hilly steep country with extremely twisty roads. Running a 850 FD. The taller gearing was a concern...till I tried it. Works fine. I got 37 mpg carrying a 220 lb buddy on a very twisty ride. No prob for the bike. The limited amount of freeway driving I've done since the swap convinces me it's sweet on a slab run, and no problem otherwise.

[cywelchjr]

I live in very hilly steep country with extremely twisty roads. Running a 850 FD. The taller gearing was a concern...till I tried it. Works fine. I got 37 mpg carrying a 220 lb buddy on a very twisty ride. No prob for the bike. The limited amount of freeway driving I've done since the swap convinces me it's sweet on a slab run, and no problem otherwise.

Yeah, the issue is that a special with the stock rear tire and a standard with the stock rear tire have significantly different gearing to start with. A standard is significantly higher geared to start with, and with the correct rear tire was pretty close to a special with the 850 or 750 FD to begin with. That said, so far it's not too bad, 1st gear is a bit tall, and I find I spend most of my time no higher than 4th gear (getting into 5th off the freeway generally is not an option unless I'm significantly speeding).

So far I think I'm happy with it, but I won't be getting into the real twisties till this summer, so I'll find out for sure then, I know that some roads I've ridden on in the past wanted 1st before, so it's gonna be interesting to see if it still handles them.

[3Phase]

Cy, I've been beating the snot out of the 750 FD I put on my '80G for about 30K miles now, trying to break it. So far it's holding up fine and the u-joint and yoke are still in prime shape with no wear that I've been able to find. I used the Honda 60 moly paste on the yoke/driveshaft splines and I re-grease them too when I change the tire and grease the FD coupler.

I've changed the FD gear oil twice now. The oil was clean and I haven't found any metal bits so it looks like I set the gears correctly when I put it together. The gears are a little too tall for some roads and low-speed riding takes some fancy clutch work but the FD itself hasn't caused a lick of trouble.

Hammer it!

[cywelchjr]

Cy, I've been beating the snot out of the 750 FD I put on my '80G for about 30K miles now, trying to break it. So far it's holding up fine and the u-joint and yoke are still in prime shape with no wear that I've been able to find. I used the Honda 60 moly paste on the yoke/driveshaft splines and I re-grease them too when I change the tire and grease the FD coupler.

I've changed the FD gear oil twice now. The oil was clean and I haven't found any metal bits so it looks like I set the gears correctly when I put it together. The gears are a little too tall for some roads and low-speed riding takes some fancy clutch work but the FD itself hasn't caused a lick of trouble.

Hammer it!

Yeah, I'm gonna hammer it. I'm finding that I'm noticing the difference in 1st gear less and less, but I still notice the top end difference, what with having to run in 3rd and 4th most of the time now instead of 4th and 5th. I didn't bother adding grease to the front splines when I did it, because the swing arm tube was so full of grease from being done the way the manual says pretty religiously (both by the PO and by me before I found out that method was worthless).

What I found with that grease fitting is the grease goes forward rather than backwards (which is why the fitting in the FD doesn't get any of it).

I don't know about needing to grease that front fitting though, as I've worked with other with a similar setup that didn't get any lube and didn't seem to wear out, and there doesn't seem to be any real movement in that joint like the lower one gets.

I'll let you know what I think of it for the twistier stuff when it warms up enough to get up into the mountains where the really tight turns are.