SpyderCruiser
New member
Hello Spyder Friends,
Meg and I are heading to Valcourt this year, as many of you are. And we hope to meet many of you there.
I am the type that is always concerned about what issues with the Spyder can ruin a trip like this. Our Spyder has been flawless and has never let us down, but doo doo happens! nojoke The one flaw I keep coming back to is the windshield arm.
Many of you have had that arm break as many as 2 times, and it would really suck if it were to break on a trip like this. I had purchased the windshield arm from noboot (Ron), just to have in case mine ever broke. Then I started thinking of the interstate speeds we will be traveling at, and the stress on that arm. The thought of Spydering down the road with a windshield on my lap did not appeal to either one of us. And we always ride with it fully up, so mine has been stressed since new. With that thought in mind, we decided to change it yesterday, and have one less thing to worry about.
Ron provides great written instructions with the arm, but has an excellent video here
Followed all the steps in the video and all went well until it came time to remove that little screw from the end of the gear. Being a electronics guy, I have every type and size of screwdriver imaginable. A pozidriv Philips seemed to fit the screw well without slipping. The issue I experienced was that the screw was starting to break apart before loosening.:gaah: No doubt caused by the copious amounts of Loctite BRP uses on all their screws. Could not use heat to free the Loctite, as the plastic gear would melt. Rather then break the head off of the screw, decided to remove the magnet end. We marked the magnet well so after reassembly it would still be in the proper place.
We used a bearing separator from harbor freight, and placed it under the magnet.
We then flipped it over and used 2 screw drivers to pry the old arm and shaft up out of the magnet.
We would up using larger screwdrivers then shown, it initially was really stuck on there. Meg was holding the gear on top as I pried. I expected it to come off slowly, but it let go and moved quickly when free.
You can see from the paint marks, the plastic is engaged rather deeply on the shaft.
Installed the new arm following the steps in the video. Installed the magnet back in the bearing separator like this.
Gently used a rubber mallet tapping the gear and shaft back into the magnet.
Everything went back together well and worked fine. I would recommend using some tef-gel http://www.tefgel.com/contain.php?param=tefgel_infor as I did on the bushings that are in the aluminum windshield frame. The bushings are brass and the frame is aluminum and they were a little tough to get out due to corrosion from dissimilar metals.
Hope this is helpful, Take Care, Louie and Meg :riding:
Meg and I are heading to Valcourt this year, as many of you are. And we hope to meet many of you there.
I am the type that is always concerned about what issues with the Spyder can ruin a trip like this. Our Spyder has been flawless and has never let us down, but doo doo happens! nojoke The one flaw I keep coming back to is the windshield arm.
Many of you have had that arm break as many as 2 times, and it would really suck if it were to break on a trip like this. I had purchased the windshield arm from noboot (Ron), just to have in case mine ever broke. Then I started thinking of the interstate speeds we will be traveling at, and the stress on that arm. The thought of Spydering down the road with a windshield on my lap did not appeal to either one of us. And we always ride with it fully up, so mine has been stressed since new. With that thought in mind, we decided to change it yesterday, and have one less thing to worry about.
Ron provides great written instructions with the arm, but has an excellent video here
Followed all the steps in the video and all went well until it came time to remove that little screw from the end of the gear. Being a electronics guy, I have every type and size of screwdriver imaginable. A pozidriv Philips seemed to fit the screw well without slipping. The issue I experienced was that the screw was starting to break apart before loosening.:gaah: No doubt caused by the copious amounts of Loctite BRP uses on all their screws. Could not use heat to free the Loctite, as the plastic gear would melt. Rather then break the head off of the screw, decided to remove the magnet end. We marked the magnet well so after reassembly it would still be in the proper place.
We used a bearing separator from harbor freight, and placed it under the magnet.
We then flipped it over and used 2 screw drivers to pry the old arm and shaft up out of the magnet.
We would up using larger screwdrivers then shown, it initially was really stuck on there. Meg was holding the gear on top as I pried. I expected it to come off slowly, but it let go and moved quickly when free.
You can see from the paint marks, the plastic is engaged rather deeply on the shaft.
Installed the new arm following the steps in the video. Installed the magnet back in the bearing separator like this.
Gently used a rubber mallet tapping the gear and shaft back into the magnet.
Everything went back together well and worked fine. I would recommend using some tef-gel http://www.tefgel.com/contain.php?param=tefgel_infor as I did on the bushings that are in the aluminum windshield frame. The bushings are brass and the frame is aluminum and they were a little tough to get out due to corrosion from dissimilar metals.
Hope this is helpful, Take Care, Louie and Meg :riding:
