Chain Grease And Thick Crud Removal From Swing Arm And Engine Case

Mr Sheen, fancy cloths? What next, rinse in Chanel no5 and dry off with cashmere. Must be the richest group of bikers on the Internet! Get Paul McCartney to give it a rinse and polish.

 

I used to just save socks, old jeans and clothes that had holes and tears in them so no longer fit for purpose, cut them up as rags and splashed the rag in parrafin to then hand spin the rear wheel whilst gripping the chain.

I can offer 2 points of advice. when holding the chain and spinning the wheel, make sure your hand is on the side that takes you away from the rear sprocket and not towards it.

Secondly, don't do this with the engine on and in gear or like my friend stumpy, you'll find out why he was called stumpy and why at the time, we all had a photo of the top of his finger on the floor

 

I still wear those clothes.

 

I ask my Filipino under the stairs to do it....

 

I'd love to have a Fillipino under the stairs.

 

Are you using SDoc100 correctly? You dilute into warm water & pre rince the bike before applying with 1ltr spray bottle (personally). It always takes a good layer off for me each time I use it. Before doing my washing routine & the chain rust or shite gets tidied with this tool.



However I still use a toothbrush-&-parafin to clean up my chain & prep side links for general overview.

 

paraffin is wax. Not a cleaner...

Buy the kids, the wife, yourself some ice cream on a stick. eat it and wash them... They can scrape anything and can damage nothing...
Kerosene
Period, it works wonders, and hurts nothing, Almost as cheap as dirt, and is actually recommended by many chain makers...

Then use the lube of your choice.

Rex

 

Over here paraffin is not a wax, although keros is the Greek for wax:-

From Wikipedia (so it must be right)

Kerosene, also known as paraffin, lamp oil, and coal oil (an obsolete term), is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in the air industry as well as households. Its name derives from Greek: κηρός (keros) meaning wax...

 

I use paraffin frequently, to clean my chain.
The secret to cleaning the crud off is to let whatever you're using do it’s task, don’t squirt the fluid of choice on and then attack the crud, leave it to work for a few minutes.
Can’t stop thinking about squirting my fluid of choice now...

 

to add to all the above, the foil food trays you'd normally throw out make ideal catch trays for all the wash and crap that comes off.

Like Noobie I've got a bag full of rags for stuff like this - all repurposed old clothes.
Tongue depressors, wooden spatulas, mixing sticks, lolly sticks are cheap and plentiful as well.

When I got my GSXR1100, the crap build up was literally kissing the chain!

 

Quote.
Buy the kids, the wife, yourself some ice cream on a stick. eat it and wash them... They can scrape anything and can damage nothing...


So you clean your chain with the freshly washed wife and kids, and sit back eating ice cream! Sheer cruelty!.

 

they have to learn sometime, and while you're at it teach them how to adjust your chain. .. marvel at your work, sit back and eat ice cream

 

We gave you American's one simple word and you even fecked that up

What we call parrafin rex, you call kerosene

 

You sat tomato, I say tamata, let's get the shitty crud off.
I don't want my fanny packed either

 

We call them bum bags because they are a bag that rests on your bum, god knows what you're doing packing a fanny

How are you finding the monster, getting on with it?

 

Thanks I learned something and had a good laugh!

Rex

 

I've always found starting with the most gentle solution first and working up as/when needed. Best method I've found so far on my 1989 RGV250 project (which I'm starting to believe had chain wax built up from the first day it was registered and never cleaned!) is using a toothbrush, old microfibre cloths and GT85 (or WD40, whatever I have most of on the shelf at the time).

It just takes time and attention to detail to work through it all, and cleaning out the toothbrush head with GT85 using the spray straw thing once you realise you're putting more grease back on than you're removing.

If it's bare aluminium, and once fully cleaned of grease, you can go a step further with Race Glaze Alubright and then Jet Laq to protect. I've used this on old engine casings where you get carbon build up and/or white oxidisation and found it gives a factory fresh finish (even on a 1979 BMW R100 engine). Just test it on a small inconspicuous area first.

Sdoc100 is a good regular maintenance wash but I personally find it doesn't quite do the job once the grease starts to build up.

 

An alternative to gunk from screwfix

https://www.screwfix.com/p/no-nonsense-heavy-duty-degreaser-5ltr/88668