2003 Kawasaki Ninja 250R - Shimming the Cush Drive

[@Usiris23]

First off, just wanna say you’ve got a good way of delivering information and I like the way you speak. Thanks for the help

[@dasmiley]

My first time working on a rear wheel assembly, figured the play on the hub wasn’t correct. 10 seconds later I find your video, excellent explanation and solution!

[@advinjapan]

Great video, good explanation. One note of caution, if you’re shimming as much as you have here, it would be better to just buy new dampeners as it appears your current dampeners have lost a lot of their cushioning. Without that cushioning all that vibration and force is being directly transferred to your drive train.

[@capitanknightfilms3986]

Awesome tutorial bro! Thanks 4 sharing! Hi From Ecuador! 🇪🇨

[@Toomanydays]

The plastic place mat is a great idea. For me, my wife's credit cards will work better.

[@christurner3442]

Haha, I know that's real.

[@spooningwithyourmoma1769]

😂😂😂😂😂💀..bruh...this is one golden ass comment

[@thenorthshore6472]

Bought a 1990 zx 600 brand new in 1990. Had this issue straight from the factory. Would clunk into every gear. Dealing with the same issue now on a 2001 KLR. Seems to be common with Kawasakis for some reason. Cool fix! I'm going to use cheap plastic mud flap material for my shims. I do have a new cush damper on order but just a matter of time before it sacks out like the stock one did.

[@spelunkerd]

Interesting idea, thoughtful video.

[@williamclark3407]

Great, informative video, thanks.

[@Eve....747]

Personally, I'd use strips of cycle inner tube cut to size... 👍

[@kellydragna7632]

Do you still have this bike? The 2 videos you made of it are great. If you still have it I would appreciate it if you made more videos of working on it. I have a 2007 Kawasaki Ninja 250, therefore I am very interested.

[@AaronAverett]

Thanks man, I'm glad they helped you out! I unfortunately don't still have the bike in question, but I did make at least one more video of it, about the front brake pads and bleeding. Is there something in particular you'd like to see covered?

[@kellydragna7632]

@@AaronAverett Carburetors more than anything else, please! Being here in California we don't have to get motorcycles smog tested, yet. But that may be coming soon! On cars they only go back about 20 years I think. Therefore with motorcycles they will only be going back 20 years also if it comes to that. Therefore, I might lean to riding older bikes, keeping them in good running condition to not have to worry about the smog stuff. In turn, riding older bikes means working on carbs. Therefore, I would really appreciate that. Your videos are the best I have seen on KZbin. I took motorcycle mechanics classes at Los Angeles Trade Tech college and I lean as much about working on bikes from your videos as I did from the classes.

[@AaronAverett]

Hmm, ok. Is there something in particular you needed, or are you just after a general cleaning/adjustment kind of how-to thing?

[@kellydragna7632]

@@AaronAverett Anything and everything, please. The more the better. I would appreciate that. Let me say this, your videos or so good if you have a bike you are working on and making videos I will probably get the same bike and same year just to follow your lead on doing the repairs you make.

[@jimm2031]

You would want a little play because the chain will create heat and transfer it into the cubs drive causing t h e rubber to expand a bit.Replacement rubber is not expensive to replace.

[@AaronAverett]

I think I mentioned this in the video, but after some reading, I started to suspect that replacement rubber parts would likely cause the same excessive play, as that's what others reported with respect to this specific design. The issue seemed to be that they're just made a little undersize, and it's not a problem of them wearing out, but rather just being too small to begin with. Adding the shims gives us control over how much play there is, and I prefer mine to be tight. You're obviously free to just replace yours and leave it loose, if that's how you prefer yours. The chain doensn't produce anywhere near enough heat to take up this much slack through thermal expansion, though. Not even close.

[@DarkIzo]

since your comment is recent ill shime in as well as aaron mentioned, the cush drive forsnt get that hot, and even if, it wont expand at a noticable range. you want null free play on the cush drive, as any freeplay that may be intruduced later on, is meant to be take up by the cush drive rubbers deforming also, while installing the sprocket carrier, in an ideal world it shoulndt just drop in or be easily pushable, you want a strong resistance, to ensure that the rubber and the metal will stay in constant contact to properly dampen the driveline (some mechanics like to use soapy water to push the carrier into the hub)

[@SamuelCaballero1996]

Buen vídeo saludos desde la CDMX

[@alflurin]

Loved the upload but if I may, I would advise the use of gloves when dealing with grease. It may contain lithium or other potentially harmful substances. I know gloves suck and I used to be a machinist and didn't used them either until I got really sick due to being in daily contact with a quite nasty cooling fluid.

[@AaronAverett]

Yeah, in my case, it's more a matter of remembering to put the gloves on than deciding not to wear them. But, duly noted.

[@bufallobiff]

Why don't you just replace the rubber ?

[@AaronAverett]

I think I mentioned this in the video, but anecdotally, it sounded like the rubbers are made a bit small to begin with, meaning that there would be a good chance I'd replace them, and still have excessive lash. This technique allows us much better control over how much lash is left, with the added bonus that it only costs a couple of dollars and doesn't require us to source dealer parts.

[@Ray-xx5np]

Noticed you used no grease on the axle when reinstalling it, no blue LocTite on the sprocket securing nuts and no blue LocTite on the brake caliper bolts when installing them. Curious why you didnt do those things?

[@AaronAverett]

Short version is that neither was called for there. The axle really only needs to be greasy enough to not rust, which mine was, and per the service manual, no threadlocking agent is required for the caliper fasteners. Just proper torque. You can totally re-grease your axle if you feel the need, but I would avoid using loctite anywhere the service manual doesn't call for it.

[@Ray-xx5np]

@@AaronAverett Thank you for the reply... thats why I asked, because the manual for my bike does specify cleaning and re-greasing the axle if it is removed (for the reason you mentioned... so that it doesnt rust and become difficult to remove if that becomes necessary). It specifies blue LocTite when reinstalling the brake caliper bolts as well. As you said, dont second guess the service manual (Im always amazed at riders that do that... thinking they can "out-smart" the engineers that designed a bike by bypassing something, or manipulating some component beyond its rating to gain a quarter of a horsepower :-) Anyway, be safe and ride safe, my friend.

[@chriscs9080]

@@Ray-xx5np Blue loctite should be used in critical components like wheel nuts .. In other hands if the wheel nut comes loose I am pretty sure if you ride long enough you will notice it immediately . Personally I don't use any loctite , I just make sure the threads are completely clean using brake cleaner and torque them down to the specified torque .I would use Blue loctite on threads that are not in good shape .

[@christurner3442]

Man If I had a quarter every Time I heard there word "shim". Lol jk very nice video! How many shims could a shim, shim? if a shim could shim a shim.

[@angiefav1847]

Great job loved it l changed cush rubbers and l have the same problem again l think due to the fact l have a side car attached to my bike so l will try your idea. This could solve my problem. rubbers are not broken just compressed a little giving me excessive play packing them with shims might workthanks.

[@christurner3442]

Well explained, bravo! Did anybody else feel like there reading one those dirty stories from penthouse? 🤔🙏🦴🎉🎉🎉🙅🛌 Or am I just excited my wife be home today haven't seen her in 3 months.. #missingher #luVuJess #my💯

[@christurner3442]

Sometimes rubbers break 🤣📢🥰🍄🤬

[@miker.5495]

Hi great video. Though, the shim material you used may not be the best choice. There is no telling how that plastic will wear and withstand heat over time. Better options would be a chopped up inner tube, a sheet of rubber gasket material, or even a sheet of cork.

[@AaronAverett]

Thanks for chiming in! I could maybe see this being an issue on a bigger, heavier bike, but I think you could probably use almost anything on the Ninja 250. I don't have that bike anymore, but I don't think the wheel hub ever really gets hot unless you're really overusing the rear brake. I used the plastic placemat stuff (polypropylene, I think - same as milk jugs) because it was easy to insert into the gap, and thin enough that I could stack the layers and get the exact thickness I wanted. I like the inner tube idea. You could maybe even vulcanize it to the existing cushions with tire cement so it's all one piece.

[@miker.5495]

@@AaronAverett you're probably right. Oh I wasn't referring to heat from friction; atmospheric heat. I'm in Phoenix, which is a frying pan. The sun eats and warps everything here. Sure you could vulcanize the inner tube with the cush pads, but mine aren't and they haven't moved in 6k miles. I'm riding a 1985 FJ1100, which is really torque heavy.

[@ryanliberty2384]

Why wouldn't you just replace the dampers?

[@AaronAverett]

I think I talked about this in the video. Basically, they're made undersized, or by virtue of all being new-old-stock, they're all dried out and undersized now. As a result, even brand new ones don't seem to fix the excessive play for folks who try that. Also, my technique gives us the opportunity to adjust how much lash there is. I prefer pretty much zero, but I can imagine some riders preferring to keep a little bit, for the sake of stronger feedback from the wheel.

[@quesreal2552]

How long did the shims last?

[@AaronAverett]

They were still in there, with no perceptible difference in play, when I sold the bike a year or so later. The plastic shims are a harder material that the rubber cush drive things, so it's more likely to be the rubber part that gets worn, but as I mentioned in the video, the whole point of doing this was to address the problem of the rubber parts being undersized from the factory.

[@quesreal2552]

Thank you for making the video in the first place and appreciate you responding back. I have a 2011 BMW f800r with just over 62,000 miles and it's cush Drive gives almost a full cm of wiggle room. I'm going to find something to shim it up with and let's see what happens.

[@adomaslesys]

What matterial shim ?

[@AaronAverett]

I think I talked about it in the video, but it's HDPE plastic. It's the same material that milk jugs and oil bottles are made of. I used a place mat that happened to be made of HDPE because it was easier to cut into the shape I needed.

[@1solarpanel792]

You look like Nicolas cage

[@AaronAverett]

Nicholas Cage is an incredibly good looking man.

[@filipemendon]

After covid

[@richardbrown7056]

the rubbers are shot ,they have shrunk and are disintegrating , dont be a tight arse buy new ones

[@AaronAverett]

This is apparently a common issue, where the real problem is that the rubbers are a hair too small from the factory. I encountered enough accounts of folks having this problem with new parts that I concluded this was a better option. You are, of course, free to replace them, if you prefer.