I was pretty green when it came to motors and stuff. I am a jack of all trades kind of person, and I consider myself pretty handy, but had never torn into a motor other than a lawn mower engine.
However I had to do some work on my KTM motor, I got a guy that knew what he was doing to help me tear it down, TOTALLY, we put all bolts and parts in ziploc bags, and tagged them "clutch cover", "cylinder head" etc.. Anyway, I put the motor all back together, including changing 3 gears in my tranny.. Wasn't that bad. And now I am for sure going to be doing near all the work on my bike. I think people, myself included, are far more intimidated than they need to be. Especially if they are decent around tools.
One thing that I had that I wouldn't have done the rebuild without, was the microfishe's for my bike. Told me where every part, bolt, loctite went. I got the torque specs as well. It was pretty hard to go wrong when taking my time.

 

And that was my first foray that far into an engine, I had very little experience but I'm pretty handy with mechanical things and it's all just nuts and bolts, right? Really it's the unknown like you said. I always figure if I can take it apart, I can put it back together. Main thing is to take your time and follow the fiche and service manual like green242 said. Any time I've made mistakes it's generally because I got into a hurry. But if you always have someone else do it, you'll never learn and will always be dependent on someone else. And most people will find that if they just do it, it's not that hard, it just take a little time.

Also, one must have tool is a torque wrench, probably two, one for the lighter stuff and one for the heavier stuff. But those will save you untold hours and problems with stripped threads.

And green242 - major props for splitting the cases on your engine! That is one that I would probably have 2nd thoughts about. But you are right, just take your time, make sure you have all the docs on the engine, and you can get through it. In doing it yourself, you *know* it's done right. Taking it to a dealer is really a crap shoot and the odds are not in your favor. No one cares more about your bike than you do.

 

Two ideas that I go by:

If you don't try, you won't succeed.

Failure is just an additional step to success.

Ride on
Brewster

 

Look Man, I'm happy for your valves, but let's get something straight right here and now!!! New Parts Rule.

 

Thanks!
And exactly right. Never know what kind of mood you mechanic might be in, or how much of a rush they may be doing the work. I couldn't see them taking more care and time into my motor than me, unless it was a specialist in my particular motor.
I learned ALOT by doing it. And really was amazed at actually how simple everything is. Fun too, I like tinkering.

 

I totally agree with the "do it yourself" idea. I have been an automotive mechanic for almost 20 years and with the exception for some warranty work, I have done everything to my vehicles (which is around 50 cars and trucks) myself with no formal training. All I need is a service manual. I am new to motorcycles but I'm confident once I get a service manual for this bike I'll be able to do anything. I don't trust dealerships at all. I've had so many dealership mechanics working for me over the years that didn't even own a torque wrench and would confess that it wasn't a requirement at the dealer they worked at or that there wasn't time to torque working flat rate. I own 4 torque wrenches that should cover all torques needed on this bike. I'm not saying all bike dealerships are going to be lame but I would worry some that our bike is one of the cheaper models they sell and you may get the least experienced mechanic working on it. DO IT YOURSELF = SAVING $ + PRIDE!!!

 

Would be cool if someone put a valve job DIY together, Im going to perform this on my 09 next winter, i may do a DIY then if none exist.

Cheers

 

^^^ What these guys said

Checking valve clearance is very easy. After you've done it once and know what it's about, you can do it again in 25 mins easy..

And if you have to replace shims, it'll add about 20 mins on to that.. Then 15 more to bolt everything back up..

And like said - knowing that it's done 100% correctly is worth a lot more than money in my book. Dealers mechanics both cars and bikes are usually not that great. Or they just don't give a ____.

 

Its not hard at all, just need patience becuase screwing things up inside could do some damage. Find someone who has done it to walk through it with you, or wait for local maintainence days.

Regardless, $140 is not bad at all, I would probably just pay if I knew it was being done right, but after having my ride f**ked up a few times by the local stealership wrench monkeys, I vowed to do all my own maintenance.

(on that note, I know everyone has stealership horror stories, but I took my KLR into a shop in Calgary for new fork seals. This was 2 days before my trip to Mexico. I picked it up and started riding home, when I would turn (left if I can recall) the clutch would engage a bit and start to slip. Upon further investigation it turned out they put all the cables on the outside of the forks when they re-assembled. This caused the clutch cable to be pulled and engage when I turned left. I was almost home and called them, they a) denied they would do that b) grugingly offered to take a look and when I laced into him about the cables and rounded fork bolts they left me with, he just denied that they would have done that! Needless to say I NEVER took it back and although I fixed the cables myself, I always had a nice reminder when I looked down at my forks tops.)

 

Wow! I would probably be be forced to do all my own work if I were in the states.

My dealer has never, EVER done faulty work on the bike. There's a difference though...both the dealer and his full time wrench are outstanding mechanics.
It only takes one or two issues with faulty maintenance to shut a place down here in Japan.

I'm thankful for that because many times I don't have the time or space to work on the bike. I enjoy doing my own work when I have the chance though. It has to be on my own terms and I refuse to try to jump though hoops or race against time.

I've heard a couple of different people mention 'must have' tools, but among those essential tools I haven't heard 'feeler gauge.' You guys must have really accurate eyeballs