Servicing an SP2

Where all the workshop knowledge lives together.
Post Reply
tony.mon
Posts: 15943
Joined: Wed Jul 25, 2007 10:46 pm
Location: Norf Kent

Servicing an SP2

Post by tony.mon »

There are quite a few differences between working on a 2 as opposed to a Firestorm.
Everything seems more cramped; harder to get to and more....fiddly.

Removing the fuel tank takes a fair bit longer.
Just getting to the rear pivot bolt is awkward enough!
There is a plate projecting downwards under the battery which prevents you from being able to get a spanner or socket on both ends at the same time- it might be easier if the seat and tail surround plastic is removed, but there's a limit as to how much stripping down you can do for such a simple task as removing the fuel tank.
Because the tank contains the fuel pump, high pressure fuel flows from the tank to the throttle bodies, and the pipe running from tank to the front of the throttle bodies is connected via a union at each end.
Undoing that is hard to reach at the rear (tank) end, but when I tried to undo the front end I found that you have to remove the throttle cables at the throttle bodies in order to remove the banjo from its mounting.
It's a shame, because if the feed line was not "captured" behind the throttle cables you could just lift off the tank and, leaving the long hose connected, and stand the tank on a table or bench alongside the bike. You can't run the engine with it stood alongside, though, as there is a low-pressure return hose which would be too short. It would only take a temporary longer hose to be fitted to make that work, though, if it wasn't for the throttle cables!

Compared to a Storm, the front cam cover is simpler to get to.
On a Storm you need to resite (loosen and lower) the oil cooler to allow the cam cover to be removed.
On the 2 you need to drain some coolant to allow the top interconnecting pipe between the roads to be moved so that the cam cover can be removed, after the plastic shield plate (held on by two m10 bolts and two cap heads) has been removed. But the process doesn't take long.
And you can do that without removing the tank.

But removing the rear cam cover means that the tank has to come off first.... a bit of a faff.

So on the Storm you can get to the rear head after five minutes but the front takes lots more time.
With a 2 getting to the front is fairly straightforward but as taking the tank off is such a pain it takes longer to get to the rear one.

There are definitely some advantages.
The lower side panels come off separately, so you can, for instance, just remove the lower RH side to access the clutch.
The clutch cover has its own circular cover- it's not part of the larger clutch cover casting- so you don't have to drain coolant and remove the water pump to get to the clutch. And the gaskets are O rings on the circular cover, so they can be reused. The main casing cover has no gasket, just sealant, so you can't get caught out on a Sunday with no gasket.

To access the fork preload on a 2 with a socket, you need to remove the upper fairing brace- it's a nice shiny bar but gets in the way.
That means removing mirrors.
But on the 2 the nut is captive in the brace, so you don't need to try to get the nut start under the fairing while holding a mirror. And the nuts won't fall off/get rusty/look mismatched! (although I always swapped them on the Storm for stainless dome nuts, which look much tidier in your field of view when riding).

Plugs are easy enough to get to (front) but tank needs pivoting up to get to the rear one. Simple enough. The Storm plug spanner that comes with the std toolkit doesn't fit a 2, but a slim socket does- I had one in a 1/2" drive set that was fine.

So that's my feedback from the first full service I've carried out, including valve clearance checks.
I should have had a look at the downloaded manual to see if I've missed a trick or two, but I've obviously filed it "somewhere safe"....

I fitted the Sigma slipper clutch while I was there, but I'll keep that to a separate post.
Last edited by tony.mon on Wed Apr 12, 2017 12:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
It's not falling off, it's an upgrade opportunity.
User avatar
alanfjones1411
Posts: 2789
Joined: Thu May 21, 2015 3:33 pm
Location: watford

Re: Servicing an SP2

Post by alanfjones1411 »

I used to have a ZZR 1100 to even change the plugs you had to start by taking the grab rail off,followed by the seat and then rear plastics to get to the bolts that held the tank on if i remember right.
SO WHEN DOES THIS OLD ENOUGH TO KNOW BETTER KICK IN
User avatar
podman
Posts: 597
Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2016 4:04 pm

Re: Servicing an SP2

Post by podman »

Hondas are just a PITA to work on full stop IMHO , especially compared to Suzuki's anyway, couldnt believe what a faff changing the plugs was on the ladys CBR600...and fitting my friends CBR1000 Fireblade tail tidy was even more incredible a job for a small but of plastic.
Post Reply