The DR800 is coming together slowly. Spent a few hours today putting it back together. Today was about putting the oil cooler back in after straightening the fins and a repaint using Taubmans White Knight Engine Enamel. Straightening the fins will allow air to flow through the radiator and cool better. A good black paint job using a thin film of paint that is designed for the higher temparatures will allow better heat transfer to the air flowing through the fins. Its important to keep the oil in its best operating temparature on all machines but a more difficult task on air/oil cooled machines as they have no supplementary cooling water/liquid cooling systems to help.
I also spent a few hours on the wiring loom, no pictures as yet as I realise that the last hour was spent soldering several wirings on the wrong side of the frame. In some ways a good things as I get more chance to practice the soldering and its great to know that I can now stop, check, recognize a mistake and fix it before doing something silly like setting the bike on fire.
These two pictures are the oil cooler before repair.
The last two are the cooler after repair. Its not perfect but much better. Replacements are not available but the late model Suzuki DR650 oil cooler is similar and should fit if ever needed. Another popular ghetto modification is adding a small 12 volt fan connected to either a manual switch or a thermostate switch set to somewhere between 85 and 95 degress centigrade. Something to think for the future.
I also spent a few hours on the wiring loom, no pictures as yet as I realise that the last hour was spent soldering several wirings on the wrong side of the frame. In some ways a good things as I get more chance to practice the soldering and its great to know that I can now stop, check, recognize a mistake and fix it before doing something silly like setting the bike on fire.
These two pictures are the oil cooler before repair.