Servicing help request - Skorpion Tour

[Linegeist]

Hi Gents,

Just joined the system as I recently picked up a very tatty Skorpion Tour which I've been respraying and nursing back to health (been after one of these for some years).

Before-after2.jpg (65.2 KiB) Viewed 3398 times

Could anybody be so kind as to walk me through an oil change please? Obviously I have no manual (except for the CD job from Grahams - any offers of same could be met with beer tokens ) and my searches on here have yielded results that are - to my tiny mind - slightly confusing. I'm not hugely up to speed with dry sump systems, and I gather you have to bleed the oil delivery system in some way - and where are the drain points ......

And another thing - how simple is it to whip out the rear swing arm> It's rusty as hell and I want to remove it, mig-weld in plates if necessary and repaint it. Is it as simple is unloading the shock and sliding out the through-pin????

All help fawningly appreciated.....

[iceman]

Welcome,i can,t help with the oil change.

I just wanted to say how nice the spray job looks to have come out,what year is your tour ?

[Sue]

I wouldnt mind some info on servicing too. Can do my CBR without a problem. Presume its the same with the Baggi. I'm blonde and it took me long enough to find the dipstick (stand back and wait for roars of laughter ). Any recommendations on which oil to use. Did a couple of searches and still a little confused. (been up too long already today to make sense of much)

[Bill Jurgenson]

not really complicated, jut different than a car or most other motorcycles, too.
It is a dry sump engine which means that the oil is a in a separate oil tank and is pumped to the engine and pumped back to the tank by a two-stage oil pump.
Drive the bike around the block a couple of times to get the oil circulating and warm.
Put the bike on the center stand, take off the seat and unscrew the oil filler cap/dipstick.
putting whatever you intend for a drip pan under the bike, unscrew the drainplug on the left at the bottom of the crankcase. You can also unscrew the oil line next to it, the fitting with the two Allenhead screws. Be careful not to loose the O-ring on the back of that fitting.
Since, as you say, the bike was pretty ratty, you should remove the coarse filterscreen and clean it if necessary. This is in that hefty fitting just bejhind the starter. It is in the continuation of that Line leading to the fitting next to the drain plug.
leavethe bike to drain/drip for a while 10-15 minutes. Clean that screen while you wait if necessary. Normally it is not necessary to clean that screen more than once in a couple of years(if at all), but since you can't know how the bike was treated, do it now for good measure.
Now reassemble the opened fittings and drain plug. Best to use a new copper washer for that plug.
Now remove the oilfilter on the right side of the engine. It is that smallish side cover with the three bolts.
Replace the filter with a new one from your Yamaha dealer or a K&N. It is a standard Yamaha part used in many different models. This is a the XTZ engine but it is also used in the XT. Be sure to note in which direction the filter was installed.
the oil filter is
4X7-13440-90-00 ELEMENT ASSY, OIL CLEANER in the 1995 XT
The Raptor 660 has a different oil filter that does not fit.
Now fill 2 liters of 10W/50 into the tank. Use a good brand name oil and don't use car oil because they can cause problems with the oilbath clutch.
Let it run for maybe 5 minutes, shut down and top up. Theoretically, the system holds 2,7ltrs. Do not put more in. Probably you won't need more than 2,5ltrs.
Do not fill to max, but only to just over minimum. Not all behave the same, but most just get rid of the surplus straightaway and do this as often as you fill up to max.
When checking the oil, always do this after the bike has been running, do it immediately after. You can check a cold bike that has been standing but never top up when it appears to be down. Check again after 10-15minutes. What you can learn by checking after an idle period, is whether the thing is wet sumping.
In the sidecover behind the oilfilter, there is a one-way valve that should keep the oil from flowing back from the tank through the return line. When this valve is defect or the seal around it, then the oil drains from the tank into the crankcase. When this is the case, the tank always appears to be empty when the bike has been standing for a day or two. That is why you can only check the oil level when the bike has been running. If you see that it is wet sumping, you must replace that valve seat. The valve itself is a steel ball with a coil spring which does not need replacement. The part is
93101-14092-00 OIL SEAL (S7-14-25-5.5-1-HS) in the 2004 Raptor
93101-14092-00 OIL SEAL (S7-14-25-5.5-1-HS) in the 1995 XT
you can see that it is the same part.
If you remove the side cover carefully you can use the gasket again. Otherwise best to buy a new one along with the valve seat.
4DW-15462-00-00 GASKET, CRANKCASE COVER 3 1995 XT

The valve seat is just pressed it. You can pry the old one out carefully with a narrow screwdriver. e very careful of the raised edge on the new seat since this is the seal against the crankcase and the part of the seal usually defect.

[Linegeist]

Welcome,i can,t help with the oil change.

I just wanted to say how nice the spray job looks to have come out,what year is your tour ?

Hi Iceman - Thank you for the compliment. She still needs a good cutting back and a polish yet but she's getting there.

The bike's a 1995 model. She's a had a tough life by the looks of her - and a few butchers have been at her along the way, judging by the rounded-off nuts and the hordes of little bodged repairs. I felt sorry for the bike when I saw her - I could have bought a couple of much nicer examples - but then where's the fun in that?

I'm blonde and it took me long enough to find the dipstick (stand back and wait for roars of laughter ).

Same here Sue!

I'm much more comfortable with Brit bikes so, when I finally got this beastie home, it took me an hour to figure out where the heck to put engine oil. Took a lot of head-scratching before sufficient light dawned to allow me the thought that the seat might come off.

Ah, yes.... the seat release ... that was another senile moment. Who'd have thought of looking there ...

Arcane little beggars aren't they? Another example of "Vorsprung Durch Technik":D

not really complicated, jut different than a car or most other motorcycles, too.

Thanks Bill! You're obviously the fount of knowledge on these bikes ... I've been reading your posts on here for the last week or so, and compiling a knowledge-base book from them. The sound of that big single beneath its fibreglass tank and clip-ons takes me right back to the days of my old Manx Norton and Cafe Racers on the A1!

The info you've written above is superb - Thank you very much. I suspect my cat could do the job with instructions like that!

Russell (Aaa5) also PM'd me yesterday offering me the relevent scans of his manual - what a great place this is.

I'm really grateful blokes. Great stuff! Thank you!!!

Bob

[Linegeist]

Well, Russell came up trumps with the handbook scans this morning and, armed with Bill's instruction sheet the oil change went off perfectly - just as well, the oil was filthy and the filter clogged up with sludge. I'm going to have to strip this engine methinks.........

Thanks again guys - your help's really appreciated.

Und vielen Dank Bill. Der Ölwechsel war einfacher, als ich ursprünglich gedacht hatte! Perfekt!!

[aah5]

I wouldn't go stripping the engine too hastily, run a couple of quick oil changes through it first and then do a oil consumption test ,500klm or so and see if it uses any oil. Will tend to blow a little white smoke at start up so don't get too concerned with that. Mine has always been like that and I use maybe 1litre between 10,000k services.From my experience working on Yamaha singles they seem to thrive on neglect, had an SR500 for 23 years and 300,000+ks ,when I eventualy pulled it down found only 2nd ring on piston(1/2 that worn away) and a hole through the exhaust valve motor was low on compression,used lots of oil but was stiil running.Rebuilt the top end,sold it and bought the MZ.Can't get away from those Yam singles.Dead reliable engine otherwise why would so many other manufactures e.g. Apprillia, use them.

[Linegeist]

Okay Russell - thanks for that. I'm happy to take advice here - I'm a qualified vehicle technician in a previous life (loooong time ago), but I'm a newbie when it comes to Japanese motors. I spent most of my youth ripping apart Norton and Triumph engines.

The engine certainly doesn't smoke and there are no nasty rattles - and she'll tick over quite happily right down low ........ but there IS a strange rustling noise at medium revs. Turning the engine over using the crankshaft nut on the LHS makes a kind've dry slithering sound, which isn't reproduced when I turn the engine backwards. I suspect that the camchain tensioning mechanism is the worse for wear and I rather dread the thought of the camshaft cutting loose miles from home (and at high rpms... ).

On a slightly different note, thanks for the pics of your bike .... now THAT'S a really nice looking machine. I notice your clocks sit in chrome pods while mine are in a black plastic affair. Is this usual and, if not, what have you fitted as replacements?

Thanks again for helping out a sprog.

[aah5]

The noise when turning the engine over is the starter clutch engaging,it is a roller clutch,engages one direction and is free in the other, so I wouldn't be worried about that. Checked my cam chain / tensioner at 80,000k and it hadn't even used half its adjustment.
Makes a slight whirring sound cold when on the point of moving to its next point on the autoadjust detent but goes away after oil pressure comes up. My bike is a 2000 model and came with the chrome instruments(same as Yamaha Virago), yours are an earlier type, were prone to water entry. Friend in the photos has a '51AJS 500, '73Triumph Daytona and the Norton.