Calling all engine specialists

[BigMark]

Apparently The Bike I got was destined for America, when I walked into the dealers it was the only one they could get for me in Silver (theyr'e the fastest) and his nose had to be turned to the left...

  Is there a difference between the uk and the US versions i can use to verify this rumour. I see some have the eye brows and some have various fairing / screen heights..

[oxnsox]

Lights.
When I bought a left hand drive Tiger to the right hand part of the world, the big issue was lights dipping to left (from high)...  And if you look at the parts logs you find there are 2 different headlight set options. (ie: Right fitting available as Hi/low lens and as Hi lens, same for left... 4 different lens options in total.)
Where I had to buy my way around this yours would have had the correct eyes fitted... just as it would have had one of those old imperial indicators of speed fitted.  Mine was in Km/hr  :lol:

Other differences, and there will be some, I know nothing about.

[HockleyBoy]

Thanks for the thoughts guys! I have a new seal on the way (along with a few other bits) so hopefully a careful install and some gasket maker on the outside will do the trick.

Anyone have experience with removing the spacer behind the sprocket? Mine seems pretty well stuck in place. I will try to take some pictures for a CS seal replacement tutorial to add to the hall of wisdom.

Iain,

Did you get the seal replaced? If so did you take any pics, they would be useful as I need to do the same thing in the next week or teo.

Thanks,

[Iain]

You know, I did not replace the seal yet. My girly is having some major engine trouble, it sounds like I may have spun a rod bearing on my last ride.

The bike has plenty of oil, a fresh K&N air filter, and has been running like a top for 26k miles but 2 weeks ago after a 200 mile ride I was in the city after getting off the freeway and bike started knocking loudly but didn't loose power. I just started the disassembly last night and if all the valves are still in spec (didn't drop a valve seat) than I will be pulling the motor and tearing it down completely to see what went wrong. It has never been more than .5 quart low because I am aware of the leak and I carry spare oil to add at gas stops.

Anyone know of a good 955i engine floating around that someone would let go cheap?

[Iain]

New update on my problem: Broken spark plug electrode in the engine.

The electrode broke off one of my nice $10/per plug NGK iridium units. The motor is about 75% out of the bike now. I will do a compression check and then pull the head to assess the damage.

It's been a while since I was this (un)lucky so I won't complain too much :?

[Sin_Tiger]

Hope it's not too bad when you open her up.

By strange coincidence I just picked up my Vara from service last night, speaking to the mechanic (who is also doing my steamer rebuild - I trust him) he replaced the Iridium plugs with Platinum plugs, he commented that he has had quite a few failures with the Iridium ones. There ssems to be a join in the electrode about 5-6mm from the tip inside the insulator where the two metals are joined. This seems to breakdown, the first sign of something wrong is poor starting and runnning when cold at light throttle which gets better as the engine gets hot. If this is ignored and it gets worse the next thing is the tip falls off.

This was noted on several different makes and engines so it's not a T3 thing.

I realise that's not much help to you now but I suggest not using Iridium plugs again although it might just be a batch issue.

[Iain]

That is good information but oddly enough, it was not the center electrode that broke, it was the ground electrode, the 90degree bend part.

There was no sign other than a slight miss when I got off the freeway at partial throttle, one more stumble on a city street then 1 mile later started the loud knocking.

FYI- The head bolts on these things are TIGHT I broke my Torx bit last night trying to disassemble. At least the bolt head isn't too messed up.