My bike’s a bit rusty after spending winter sat out untouched and unloved under a cover. Such as the shaft of the front sprocket below, as well as the edges of some of the painted bits.
Most of the YouTube videos seem to be about cleaning chrome (which is a whole other problem, what with it being scratched beyond repair), so are there any tips to help clean things up before I put everything back together?
a little bit of wet and dry on the end to clean up the rust; it what id do. you could use a bit of touch up paint to protected it and hope the chain fling gives it a bit more protection
for the edges of painted bits; its a little tricker; depending on how visible they are really.
For the metal (unpainted) - WD40/kerosene and a nylon scrubbing brush. Failing that a brass wire brush. And then some graphite grease with a brush once it’s all clean.
He’s changed the chain and sprockets, that’s why he’s putting it back together. I wouldn’t worry about the rust on the drive shaft but if you must a wire brush is your best friend. A smear of grease to any bare steel parts during assemble wouldn’t do any harm, whether it does any good is another question. Regular chain maintenance, inspection, adjustment and lubrication should take care of the rest of the chain and sprocket needs.
At last spence
The output shaft will get covered in crud in no time
It only has surface rust because the bike has been laid up for a while
I use a brass wire brush on small things like that
Cheers all for the tips, will give some of them a go. With the wheel off (for reasons Pat mentions) I though it a good idea to clean it up the harder to reach places best I can before putting it all back together. I have come to the opinion it will not have much resale value now anyway, but I still want to keep it working well even if not looking pretty.
I am already soaking the nuts and bolts in a jar of cola anyway, so will try brushing things down with that or kerosene.
The drive shaft does not look quite so bad after getting the sprocket off, now it appears weathered rather than abandoned. The gear shifter is turning orange the further in too though. Will take a picture of the painted bits when I am done with the main parts, which will probably be tomorrow now as it started raining just as a I went down to work on it.
Indeed, that is where I bought mine. Although that size is far more than I need, and I have nowhere suitable to store it. Would gladly have paid Halfords the same price for it rebranded as chain cleaner in a 1L bottle. Too busy selling affordable helmets though.
So I polished my shaft the best I could, it seems better now. Just a shame I could not finish it off, as I lost one of the master link o-rings. It could not have gone far, but on wet uneven concrete I just could not see it. It was a clip type link anyway, so ordered a rivet one as a replacement.
Anyway, this is what the rust looks like on a painted surface. The other side is not quite so bad.
Good job on the shaft Michael, you only get that attention to detail when you do it yourself. Give it a smear of grease before you put it back together.
What you do with the corroded painted surfaces will depend on your expectations of the resulting finish. I need to tend to similar areas of corrosion on the painted parts of The 250. The most urgent needs being are the centre stand and swinging arm which suffer from road spray from the rear tyre. Other parts on my to do list include the front forks when I next replace the fork oil and , the pillion foot rest brackets etc.
Since The 250 is now over 10 years old and I have no illusions of grandeur on what a 10 year old mo’cycle should look like, the plan is to deal with the corroded areas with wire brush, emery paper and wet n dry to remove most of, if not all, of the corrosion before applying a coat of Hammerite direct to rust metal paint. I just need to get a round tuit.
Thanks NT, my stands could do with being cleaned off too but first just want to be back on the road. Then the other bits, mainly for protection, so will look into getting some of that paint.
Got my new link now so should hopefully finish everything off tomorrow, then just still need to get around to contacting the tyre man to become [happily] road worthy. Any particular flavour of grease for the shaft?
Thanks for all the help so far, two hopefully final questions.
First, slightly off topic, does this link look sufficiently riveted? I cannot tell if it has stretched at all, but with the tool instructions saying it should only between hundredths and thousandths of an inch I am not sure how noticeable it could be anyway. Kind-of wished I had just used the clip link instead, I know how to tell when that is on!
And any tips for the scratches in the heat shield? I went over them at the weekend with some fine wire wool then a rub down in ACF50, as I did last year, but they already have fresh rust in them. But at £100 for a replacement it does not seem worth it just for a pretty piece of metal, which I am quite certain it will only end up in a similar condition somehow.