If it looked greasy when you took it apart……. It could use fresh grease.

 

That's the problem, everything's been cleaned to within an inch of its life (including every bolt), and next year I'm gonna have no idea what was greasy or not. Fucked up a little here.

 

The service manual should tell you what needs lubing for reassembly. As a general rule any bolt with a torque spec goes in dry, calipers and master cylinders get reassembled using brake fluid to get the seals and wipers in, axles need a bit of preservative on them to prevent welding the internal spacers on with corrosion (I use fluid film for this, works great) and bearings get grease. Most everything else is dry.


Mark

 

Some great little rules there for me to go by, thank you 👍🏻

 

I’ve maintained a thin film of grease on my axles, so the won’t rust.

 

Clutch and brake lever pivot bolts and power lube the cables
brake pedal and shifter lever pivots --will require footpeg stay removal to do properly
the pins and "hinges" on all the footpegs
throttle cables need power lubing and be a good idea to clean the throttle tube and handlebar and then lube that too

then it is all of the obvious.......
wheel bearings, (and both axles)
swingarm linkage bearings and pivot bearings (requires swingarm removal),
steering head bearings (requires upper and lower triple clamp removal)
brake pad hold pins need cleaning and the slightest lube--clean up those piston pins and calipers while in there and the rear caliper may well have a sliding "sealed" pin that can come out and be cleaned and lubed
I even go so far as to lube the engine mounts so they do not corrode and 'sieze" as the wash often clique who rarely ride but wash often and the winter riders tend to corrode.... I often see them siezed up
the chain
and I am sure there is more

 

I even go so far as to lube the engine mounts so they do not corrode and 'sieze"

What do you use for this application?


Mark

 

Only trust the service manual.

There are many grades of grease and oils. High-temp, viscosity, oil based, graphite... I'm guessing there are about 8 or 10 types of lubricants for one zx6r. Whatever the manual costs, it'll be cheaper than a new part.

 

“What do you do if your girlfriend smokes after sex?”

slow down and use more lubrication

 

Working in the shop the number 1 thing I see people not lubing is the axles. Especially dirt bikes I have had to remove swingarms and use a press to get them out before. And I know it’s work but if your tires last more than a year pull that axle shaft and grease the crap out of it. Especially up north or if you’re doing a lot of pressure washing. Those things will corrode in there solid and are a pain in the ass to remove.

 

On my 2020 Yamaha Tracer GT when I pulled the front brake calipers to mount a new tire noticed there was a lot of corrosion on the bottom bolts but not the top. Thought it strange so cleaned them up and put a light fly of waterproof grease on the non-threaded part. Ordered a set of bolts from ProBolt. Next time I changed the tire the bolts were corroded a bit more. Put new bolts in and haven't checked them. Need to pull one and look at it but doubt there is a n issue. Put 26,000 miles on it in two years and on it's 4th set of tires. Replace tire well before end o life usually astray won't last thru two trips and don't want to change mid trip.

As mentioned earlier any bolt that is torqued should be dry. If it has any oil or grease or even dirt on it the clamping pressure will be different. With a bit of oil on the threads it is very easy to strip a bolt trying to get to specified torque.