502 Refurbishment

A place for all your Diablo Rouge Questions or just a place to shoot the bull about those little Red Devils.
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Go Go Diablo
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502 Refurbishment

Post by Go Go Diablo » Fri Jan 08, 2016 10:38 pm

Hi All,

As most know, I fix and sell a good number of Diablos each year. I really enjoy taking a unit all apart and going through it with some repairs, updates and cleaning up. Many people buy these Diablos and have reliable fun with them. But occasionally, I come across the Diablo owner that is not quite sure what to do with his unit to make it trail ready and reliable. In addition, many dread the thought of pulling their Diablo apart.

I refer to this process as a refurbishment and not a restoration. Mostly, I'm not trying to make the unit look pretty, just going through a process of making it reliable.

This post will chronicle my process of a Diablo 502 refurbishment in hopes that it will take some of the mystery out of what a Diablo needs to be reliable. Along the way, I welcome your comments and questions.

This is a Diablo I've had for a few years. It's been up on the shelf and I can't even tell you where I got it from any more.
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So the process begins..................
Too many Diablos and parts to count.
Yamaha 600 SX

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Barrie2777
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Re: 502 Refurbishment

Post by Barrie2777 » Sat Jan 09, 2016 11:23 am

Is that bumper with the "V" in the center an original part? I've seen quite a few with this detail.

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Re: 502 Refurbishment

Post by Go Go Diablo » Sat Jan 09, 2016 8:07 pm

Yes, I see many Diablos with this dented "in" bumper. That is from pushing Hus Skis out of the bush!

You have a keen eye Barrie!
Too many Diablos and parts to count.
Yamaha 600 SX

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Roy Teske
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Re: 502 Refurbishment

Post by Roy Teske » Sat Jan 09, 2016 8:50 pm

My bumper is still straight, but I always pull the Hus-skis out. Chalk River is Feb. 6th. See you there.
Roy

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Barrie2777
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Re: 502 Refurbishment

Post by Barrie2777 » Sat Jan 09, 2016 9:36 pm

How do explain the "V" pointing forward? I had one like that too.

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Re: 502 Refurbishment

Post by Go Go Diablo » Sat Jan 09, 2016 10:25 pm

Who would plan an event such as Chalk River on Super Bowl Weekend!

And Barrie - that's just about enough out of you..... behave yourself :D

Anyway - on with the refurbishment........

Taking the top end of the Diablo apart is fairly simple:

- Pull the clutch off the motor - get a puller if you need it rather than break it.
- Remove the carb, heat shield and disconnect the wiring to the motor that is under the heat shield. Use your special deep angle 13mm wrench to get at the carb bolts.
- Unhook the exhaust pipe from the cylinder of the motor (13mm socket).
- Remove the handle from the starter cable and get the cable out of the dash. If it sucks into the recoil, no worries as we will pull the recoil apart anyway. Also, if it can pull into the recoil, the cable is too short so it will need replacement.
- Remove the motor mount nuts and loosen up the top motor mounts as you may need to move those to pull the motor.
- Pull the motor out toward the recoil side of the Diablo by picking the top of the motor up and move it away from you enough to get the bottom mount off the bottom motor mounts. Then swing the bottom of the motor toward you and pull the motor.
- Disconnect wires to headlights and unbolt the black hood mount from the chassis (do not remove the hood hinge). Sometimes these Phillips head bolts up in the corner are difficult. If needed, I put the Diablo on it's side and slice through the nuts with a cutting wheel to get them off. Lift the hood and hood mount off in one piece.
- Now you can get the Secondary Clutch off.
- Also remove the brake assembly.
- Pull the clevis pin from the top of the gearbox.
- Remove the handlebars with the wiring harness.
- Remove the gas tank.
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Flip the Diablo over and if possible, set it on a pair of saw horses. It is much easier to work on the bottom side if you have it up in the air. It's worth the time to get it up on a stand and make sure it is stable. Have a drain pan ready to put under the gearbox because if it has oil in it, the oil will start running out. Pop the plug out of the top of the gearbox to drain it.
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Take the bottom apart in this order for the easiest process:

- Loosen the tracks. Remove the pins from the tracks. Do this by breaking off one end and pulling it through the lacer. Do not reuse the pins.
- Remove the tracks by pulling the bottoms closest to underside of chassis toward the Idler Sprockets and pulling the top side of the tracks toward the gearbox. They should just fit under the drive sprockets without having to turn the gearbox to get the tracks off.
- Loosen the bolts on the bumper. Unbolt the 3 bumper bracket bolts from the chassis.
- Remove the 8 Phillips head screws that hold the steel nose piece on behind the bumper. Instead of trying to use a Phillips head screw driver, just use a vice grips on the screw heads.
- You should be able to pull the bumper, brackets and nose tin all off in one piece.
- Pull the gearbox out.
- Unbolt the Idler Sprocket springs from the frame (4 bolts each side) and remove the assembly.
- Remove the bogie station pins and remove the bogie stations.
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It takes about 1-1/2 hours to take your Diablo apart. You now have your Diablo stripped down into components that we will explain each piece through this post.

First thing, inspect the muffler and look for cracks or breaks in the in the chassis. Fix anything unusual.
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Too many Diablos and parts to count.
Yamaha 600 SX

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Barrie2777
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Re: 502 Refurbishment

Post by Barrie2777 » Sun Jan 10, 2016 8:57 am

In a refurbishing project you would probably leave the bumper with those details but if a restoration was the plan would the aluminum bumper straighten without breaking?

Parry
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Re: 502 Refurbishment

Post by Parry » Sun Jan 10, 2016 7:36 pm

Hello everyone,
I would like to add a small comment that I should say. Recently I made a 2100km trip to Bruce's place during New Year's and I'm very glad I made it. Bruce helped me work on the bogie assemblies and gearbox for Diablo 500. Along with taking the time to explain the clutch, engine and carburator to me. I sure learned alot of things about my Diablo. Bruce definitely knows Diablos he is one great guy to talk with and answer questions !!

So I'd like to say "thank you very much Bruce for all your help and your time."

Parry

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Re: 502 Refurbishment

Post by Go Go Diablo » Sun Jan 10, 2016 10:07 pm

Thank you for the kind words Parry. I had fun that day and it's always exciting to meet a new Diablo owner. Good luck on your 500 project and keep us posted.

Barrie - You bring up a good question, so let's jump right to the topic of the bumper.

The 502 models all came with an aluminum bumper. It's no wonder you often see them bent up as they are very malleable and easy to manipulate. One of my fondest memories as a kid was driving dad's 503 through my cousins back yard and running right over their 4x4 cloth line pole. That put a good dent in that bumper too, but the 503's bumper is chrome steel and that is much harder to straighten.

So often I see 502 bumpers bent. If you run into something toward the side, they can also get bowed in the front. Often times if you just loosen up the front four bumper bolts, the bumper will spring back and you have a straight bumper again. The bumper brackets are very durable and it takes a heck of a hit to bend them.

The bumper on this 502 is a little more bent than a simple loosening of the bolts can fix. But some simple moves in a press or a bench vise and they straighten out very easily. I have never had one break.
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If you are good with sanding and polishing, I've seen people take these aluminum bumpers and clean them up so well and polish them that they look like chrome.

After about 5 minutes, this one is ready to push the next yellow sled out of it's path when it's going about 30 MPH down the trail!
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Too many Diablos and parts to count.
Yamaha 600 SX

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Re: 502 Refurbishment

Post by Go Go Diablo » Tue Jan 12, 2016 10:30 pm

If you go through the work of taking your gearcase out, you sure might as well take it apart. You just never know what is going on in there and a good cleaning and resealing at a minimum is a good thing. I'm not going to go into great detail about the gearbox as that is a good topic for a future tutorial, but here are some of the highlights.

You have to get the sprockets off. Some can be pulled right off and some are pretty darn tight. Actually, the tighter the better when going back together. In the case where the sprockets are tight, it is important that you press against the backside of the sprocket hub and not the metal rim steel. If you push or pull on the rim steel, the metal will get bent and you will have a very difficult time getting is true and straight again. Also, it ruins your opportunity to turn them in for cores in the case you need new sprockets.

I use a bearing retainer backwards against the sprocket hub and a simple press:
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Press off the bearing blocks:
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Now you can pull your gearbox apart, clean it up and remove the old gasket. The upper shaft can be pressed out in either direction if those bearings are bad also. If you remove the upper shaft, then to re-install it, you start by putting the external side bearing in the aluminum gearcase and press the other bearing onto the input shaft. Then press the shaft with the bearing on it into the gearcase.
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Too many Diablos and parts to count.
Yamaha 600 SX

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