NEW Metz ME888 Ultra

[atomsplitter]

So today I decided to change the tires on my T-Bird. The rubber on the bike was getting thin and I have no idea how old it is so I bought a set of Metz ME888 Ultras to install. Tom (son-in-law) came over to help since this was our first foray into belt drivedom. I read the manual instructions and to be quite honest it seemed pretty straight forward from the textual material. Being I've been around the block a time or two I recognize that first time evolutions have the same chance for easy success as getting a painless vasectomy performed using a spoon and BBQ tongs. It seemed simple enough, first remove the exhaust cans that I just installed two weeks ago, no problem. Next loosen the axle nut, OK. Then back off the belt tensioner nuts by fisrt loosening the jam nuts, easy peazy. Raise the rear wheel off the lift table, scissor jack to the rescue. Remove the axle nut and drive out the rear axle, piece of cake. Push the wheel forward far enough to remove the belt drive from the pulley, done. Remove the rear wheel from the swingarm and watch the top hat spacers bounce off the lift table, the rear brake bracket fall snapping the pads out of the retaining slots and the drive pulley fall out of the cush drive. Simple. Tom saw the cush drive was loose so pulled it completely out of the hub. Wheel out, new tire in hand we go to the Chop Shop and they dutifully replaced the old rubber with new and balanced the wheel for $50.00.

Installation we were hoping would go as smoothly as removal since we might be able to get the front wheel done today as well. That's a hope, which if one compared a popcorn fart to a hurricane had the same porential of being relevant. First we had to get the top hat spacers installed, easy enough. The left side went into the bearing cover and the right side went into the drive pulley. So we put the cush drive rubber back in and couldn't get the pulley into the cush drive, ? After 20 minutes of trying different techniques, Tom struck on the notion of mounting the drive rubbers onto the drive pulley and then mount the whole thing into the hub. Great idea, made with the best of intentions, what could possibly go wrong? Well when he turned the pulley over to put it into the hub the cush drive would flop out making it impossible to get it all lined up. He finally got both hands involved and was able to finally get the drive pully, cush drive, and wheel hub to play nice. Then it was time to mount the rear caliper over the brake disk. To do that required getting the brake pads seated in the caliper's pad slots. That it didn't snap together like a jigsaw puzzle isn't a surprise, what was a surprise was the stubborness withwhich the pads refused to go into said slots. For about 40 minutes we both tried various iterations of frustration, consternation, and irritation but that didn't get the pads into the slots. Finally Tom pulled the anti-rattle spring out to confirm the pads would actually fit and sure enough, they did. So after some cleaning with WD-40 on the anti-rattle spring he was able to get the pads installed against the spring into the slots and onto the disk. Cool. Then it was simply raise the wheel and insert the axle. Couldn't get it to work. ? After a couple dozen attemps we found the caliper carrier had to be mounted on the swingarm retention bar, oops. That wasn't a problem taking it off, but was a major problem getting the wheel back on. So after finagling the caliper carrier back onto the swingarm, dropping the tophat spacers on both sides a few times and using a bucket worth of epithets, we had the rear wheel in the swingarm. I suggested to Tom to finger tighten the axle nut, and so he did(ish). It was time to adjust belt tension.

I knew where we started, so my intention was to put it back to that point. The belt cover has a window and gaduation marks so I was aware of how much it needed to flex based on the starting point of the project. Initial setting was a smidge too taut, so I backed the tensioner nuts off and the wheel didn't move. After backing the nuts off a half inch and trying everything to get the wheel to slide forward it dawned on me that the axle nut might be more than "finger tight". Sure enough Tom had finger tighetend it to about 50 ft-lbs and as soon as he put the socket on it and backed it off the belt slackened. Nifty. Round two, got the belt where I wanted it and then ran the jam nuts up to the adjuster nuts so they couldn't move. Then I had Tom torque the axle nut to 110 Nm per specs. I then worked the rear brake pedal to get the rear disk brake back in action. Wheel spun freely, brake worked flawlessly and only 4 hours to get a 1 hour job done. Typical. We'll deal with the front later this week (recovery time needed).

 

[Rocky]

Wow, that was a bit of an ordeal but turned out well - eventually - and you learned a lot
Experience is often the best teacher.
Almost everything is hard to do if you haven't done it before. Thanks for the interesting report

 

[Qship]

Re-aligning the wheel so you don't get the dreaded belt chirp is a PITA. Ask me how I know.

 

[BikerBayman]

Great write up - never as easy as it should be ;-)

 

[atomsplitter]

Years ago when I wrote my first book I included a chapter called "Why Me And The Steep End Of The Learning Curve." I would provide it here but the length may be beyond the thread word limit.

 

[Rocky]

I think we get the gist just from the title.

 

[sikatri]

Wow! Fabulous write up. Exiting adventure, glad I was reading it rather than experiencing it.

 

[atomsplitter]

Wow! Fabulous write up. Exiting adventure, glad I was reading it rather than experiencing it.

Wish I could say the same..............

 

[atomsplitter]

Got the front wheel done today after our morning ride. The front axle and pinch bolts were torqued to about 175 and 250 ft-lbs respectively by I assume an irate steroidal gorilla. The specs say 66Nm and 22Nm respectively, someone was trying to strip threads or fuse parts, either way it was wrong. Caliper bolts were over-torqued as well, needing only 50 Nm to meet spec. Wheel out and back in took about an hour. Frustration with mechanical morons and technically challenged idiots, a life long annoyance.

Way easier than the rear wheel.

 

[SparkyMan]

I’ve done the rear wheel of my ‘09 Bonnie fifteen times. It has the same bracket for the caliper as does the T-Bird, and it NOW takes me about 15 minutes to remove or install -wasn’t like that at first!
So, I thought doing the same for the first time on my ‘11 T-Bird Storm would be a snap, but it was a case of same thing but different. Took quite a while getting it reinstalled, but didn’t experience anything with the pulley and Cush drive as you did, atomsplitter. I hope we both have a more pleasant experience next time.

 

[atomsplitter]

I hope we both have a more pleasant experience next time.

HOPE springs eternal, however whenever dealing with an 'infernal contraption' vehicle I find it rarely works out........