But I like it, and like the protection it will provide to the oil cooler and filter. Installation took about an hour and a half, and would have been a bit easier if I had a centerstand.
But I don’t, so thanks to the suggestions on Stromtroopers, I now have a Toyota Land Cruiser centerstand:
I braced the front wheel against a spare axle under the cruiser, and ran straps to the front bumper and roll cage,
compressing the front end a bit. Worked like a champ! I’m kinda surprised how secure the bike was like that.
The first step is to remove the exhaust support bolt on the right side by the brake lever with a 12mm socket. Easy peasy:
Next, remove the two 12mm sidestand bolts. These are a bit more challenging, but with a big enough breaker bar, nothing is permanent.
Make sure to support the sidestand after you remove it, so you don’t damage the wires on it. Use a 17mm socket on these:
The rear mounting bracket for the skidplate is installed next. Use the holes from the exhaust support and sidestand bolts. The new exhaust bolt takes a 13mm socket,
and the sidestand bolts take a 19mm. The instructions give torque settings for these three bolts, but I’ll let you use whatever is stated
in your instruction sheets...things change. Besides, I don’t have a torque wrench...
Next up are the mounting clamps on the engine guards. These use little aluminum bolts, so be careful not to cross thread them. There’s four baby bolts per clamp...use
a 4mm hex wrench to tighten them. The clamps are in three pieces: two tabs, and a cover plate of sorts that goes across the top of the clamp and joins the two tabbed pieces.
The clamps should be approx six inches apart, but you can keep them a little loose till we actually mount the skid plate.
Grab the skidplate, and install the rubber grommets in the two front slots and two at the back. Insert the bushings in the
grommets...the front ones go in from the front, and the rear ones from the top.
Time to mount the plate. Loosely attach the front of the plate with the 8x50 bolts, washers, and nut. Finger tight is good
enough for now, we’ll tighten them down after the rear of the plate is bolted up.
Install the rear 8x30 bolts from the bottom to the captive nuts on the rear mounting plate. Just for a little extra, I added lock washers to the rear,
and used red Loctite on them. I’m thinking they aren’t going to loosen very easily. Sorry, forgot to take a picture of this step!
Go back to the front bolts and tighten them down with a 13mm socket, and 13mm open end wrench. If all goes well, your plate will look like this:
Congratulations! You’ve definitely earned the beverage of your choice. Today, mine was a Left Hand Jackman's American Pale Ale.
Tasty, and there's a motorcycle on the label! I’ll check all the mounts on my plate occasionally over the next few hundred miles.
Here’s the final result of the last couple of day’s work:
Just for fun, I built up a storage tube after I was finished. I’ll write yet another installation thread on this later.
