One more time, let me thank everyone who has contributed to this post - especially Rickster and Painman. I hope any non-mechanics get this far in the post to read this, 'cause this is written especially for you. I did the thottle spring release this AM, and am a much happier camper. As you can see in the ID block I have an '07 AE. What you can't see is that I am 63 years old, and never road a motorcycle until I was 60. In fact, my first bike was my 60th birthday present to myself. While I am not w/o a brain, I have generally stayed away from taking large mechanical things apart to fix them, like cars and motorcycles. Not because I didn't want to necessarily, it just wasn't part of my "growing up" experience. At the young age of 63 I realize I missed out on a lot - especially the art of motorcycle mechanics. Anyway, all this is simply my way of saying that if I could do this - anyone can. I do, however, wish to add a few notes based on my experience with this mod.
1) First and foremost - I downloaded Ricksters 1K post w/pics, and saved it as a PDF file on my computer. I also printed out the instructions. My original intent was to have the computer in the garage with me so I could see the excellent pics Rick provides in color, but this ended up to not be necessary.
2) The basic tool kit that comes with the bike has a 4mm hex driver, which works for the first step in the process, but not a 6mm which you need for the gas tank screws.
3) Also, please note that you will need a torque wrench when you put everything back together. Best to get one before starting. I had to purchase a metric hex head set for by socket drive set, torque wrench, "loktight", and hemostats (which I ended up not using) - see below. You will also need a metric driver set (mine was a 3/8" driver but 1/2" would also work fine).
4) Follow Ricksters steps just as he has them laid out.
5) I found that I needed two lengths of wood to hold up the gas tank. One relatively short one to get it started, but enough to enable me to get to the electic release points. And then a longer one that enabled me to work fairly freely under the tank to get the rest of the stuff out. Like Rick, I also used a bungee to help hold up the tank. This proved especially helpful as I was putting things back together.
6) For me the hardest thing was just finding the spring and tang. While Rick's pics are exact it's not the same as looking at the real thing. Once I located it (by moving the throttle a bit) my first reaction was, "OK, now how do I get to it?" Oh, yes, I highly recommend having a flashlight at this point.
7) For me, I just couldn't see how I was going to get my hemostat in there, but I was also at a disadvantage in that the hemostats that I got at the hardware store were too big for the job. If I did this again I might try getting them at a medical supply store. But, in the end I didn't need them.
8) I had some needle-nose pliars, and so maneuvered flash light and pliars to get to the spring. BTW, I found that each time I stepped away from the bike to get something else, I had to reaquire the location of the spring.
9) I couldn't really see what the pliars were doing once I got them in the vacinity because it was just too tight down there, so I went by feel. It felt like I had the spring, I moved the pliars, and heard a "sspprrrinnggg" sound. But it didn't feel like the pliars had let go of anything. Now my question was, "Did the spring unwind because I pushed the pliars against it, and thus pushed it off the tang or did the spring simply just pop off the pliars without going anywhere?"
10) I did not want to presume that the spring had unwound because I really didn't want to put everything back together, and then find out that I had to go back in there. Not that it was difficult - just a pita. So I grabbed a screwdriver. This tool worked ok for someone else on this post, and now that I had a much better idea of where the spring and tang were I figured this would go easily. I was bit nervous about the potential of unwinding the spring 2 turns instead of one, but not overly so having read all the other inputs to this process from other folks. Got the screwdriver head in the right spot, and "sspprrrinnngg" - the exact same sound. Now I was just about positive that I had unwound it twice.
11) So the next trick was to put everything back together and go for ride. The only issue going back was the plastic rivet holding the back of the heat shield down. This was a pain to get back in, and it never satisfactorily did so. I satisfied myself that the T-bar was going in and the gas tank would come down - all of which should hold the heat shield in place w/o any problems.
12) Everything went smoothly on the "rebuild".
To end - if you have gotten this far in the post, and the throttle spring is an issue for you - do this now. Don't wait. It took me a bit more that 30 minutes - probably 45 from start to finish - but remember what I said on my intro above. I took my time to get the right length of wood, re-reading Rick's post (I had a hard copy), etc. I was just relieved that it didn't take me 2 hours, and I didn't muck something up so badly that I couldn't even get it back on the road. The ride proved the point of all of this. What a relief! I still want to do the G2 throttle mod, and for ergos I will raise the handle bars. But, these are not as critical now, they can come later.
No, I haven't become a crazed, self-rightous mechanic, but I certainly feel good about taking this on. Again, thank you one and all for all the information, support, etc. What a great group to be a part of! BTW 110 did not hurt at all.
