bluevolt

Well, well. Finally I managed to get rid of the license plate in the front. For all these days, I thought it kinda looked ok. But I saw Startrek's bike with a windscreen number sticker and sans the metal plate and the mount, and I immediately started disliking the front number plate on my bike since his Ninja looked so cool without it! So this morning, I went out and got my windscreen sticker - and after I came back home, I rolled up my sleeves, took a printout of some pages from the service manual (relevant to fairing removal), and went to my parking carrying my arsenal of spanners, hex wrenches, screwdrivers and the like.

Now I must tell you this - removing the front license plate is a royal pain in the a**. It is not difficult since you would know what to do, but it is tedious and a time consuming process. There are a few things you would need to accomplish this rather onerous task.
1) Tools: 10mm socket T-Spanner, 3, 4 and 5 mm HEX wrenches (allen keys), very small screwdriver, regular size S shaped screwdriver, and a flat screwdriver, medium size.
2) Service manual: Not absolutely necessary, but saves you the surprises and second guessing. I downloaded one online and took printouts of the relevant pages pertaining to lower and upper fairing removal. I improvised on the process a bit and it worked well for me.

Tools and service manual:



This is a rather long process, so I'll break it into steps.

Step #1, pictures below: Remove the side covers. This is easy and needs one S shaped screwdriver to unfasten them.Once the bolt is out, pull the cover at the points where the rubber grommets are, and it will come out.



Step #2, pictures below: Take off the side fairings. Start with the left one first since this one sits below the right one where they meet at the bottom. When putting back, follow the same order. Left first and then the right.

Each side fairing has two bolts with rubber washers on the top, just below the handlebar, and then two identical rubber washer bolts in the front where the lower fairing meets the upper fairing (which contains the headlight assembly). Then there are two bigger hex bolts in the midsection, just below where your knee would be and then near the side stand. The last one is hidden inside the fairing and is attached to the black inner fairing. This bolt is without a washer.

Apart from the screws, there are two plastic rivets on each side which attached the colored lower fairing to the black inner fairing. They look like small, black buttons. To remove them, use a 3mm alley key and press in the center applying medium pressure. The center portion will slide inwards and the it will unlock them. When putting them back afterwards, do just the opposite. Pull the center portion outwards and then simply insert them in the hole and press with your thumb to lock. And at the bottom of the fairings, where the right and left sides are joined, there are three bigger rivets (picture below) which are common to both the fairings. While the first one is visible (this is just below where the front fender ends), the other two can only be accessed if you bend over and peep below the bike. To disengage them, insert a flat screwdriver and pull the center portion outwards. This will unlock them.

Once all the screws and rivets are removed, lift the fairing slightly upwards and push backwards and outwards to take it out. But at this point, only take it out slightly since the indicators are still connected. While holding the loose fairing with one hand, get a small screwdriver (4-5 mm wide flat head) and use that to disengage the connector. You have to insert the screwdriver into the small hole in the connector and that will push the plastic snapper outwards, hence releasing the lock. Then take out the fairing and keep it safely on the side. If you have a cloth on the ground, that will prevent scratches.

Repeat process for the right lower fairing.

Bottom rivets:


Side rivets( small black circles on the inside):


Turn signals to be disconnected:


Left fairing removed!


Right fairing removed too!


Fairings propped up against the wall: Be gentle while doing this, otherwise you will see chipped paint.


Read the manual to avoid any surprises or unseen bolts or rivets:


Step #3: Remove the windscreen.

Once both the fairings are removed, start removing the windscreen. While this step is not absolutely necessary, I recommend it because you might end up scratching it later when you are removing the front number plate. There are four bolts which attach the screen to the upper fairing, so simply unscrew them and slide the windscreen upwards. Just remember that there are two different screws sizes here - the two on the top have shorter threads, while the ones below are longer. Important to remember when you are fixing it back.





Step #4: Remove the upper fairing containing the headlight assembly and unscrew the bolts below the mirror mounts.

This is relatively easy. There are four hex bolts which connect the upper fairing to the dash, along with two small plastic snap rivets inside. Before getting to the bolts, first disconnect the headlights and one more electrical connector(in white) by reaching inside. Disconnecting the headlight assembly is just about pulling the electrical plug from the two flat pins on the lights (with your hand). Just remember which connector is meant for which light - there are two different colors of wires, so thats easy. If you fix it wrong, you will get high beam by default and low beam when you flick the lights switch upwards!





Now remove the black rivets, unscrew all the bolts and then gently pull the fairing out. It still has the headlights in them, so it will be slightly heavy - don't drop it! I was working alone, so it was bit difficult to get the bolts out without propping it on something soft, so I first kept it my Royal Enfield seat with a cloth below it, but when I could not budge the bolts, I took the whole assembly to my room, put it on my bed and then used a 10mm socket T-spanner to undo the bolts. From there, it is easy. Just unscrew the bolts, take out the mirrors, remove the plate and then put the mirrors back again. There are rubber vibration dampeners below the mirror mounts, so make sure there are in their place when you put the mirrors in place. (thanks JD666!)







Step #5: Retrace your steps, put it all back together again.

While it is pretty much walking backwards from here on, there are a few things to be kept in mind. The first and foremost is that check all electricals when putting back the upper and the side fairings. After all, you don't want to put everything back together and then find out that your lights or indicators are not working. So at each step which involves reconnecting electrical contacts, start the bike and check whether everything's working that way they should.





The Windscreen sits in a gap between the upper fairing the the dash, so don't fully tighten the upper fairing to the dash until you have got the screen back in. Leave some slack in the bolts, and then tighten it after the windscreen is inserted and securely fastened. The other thing is to check, and recheck the tension for all the bolts. You really don't want to be littering the roads with Ninja parts, do you?



There are MANY screws and rivets, so it helps to be organized. I made four envelopes, two for left and right fairing bolts and rivets, a third one for the upper fairing bolts and rivets and the last one for the windscreen bolts and side cover screws.

And lastly, tools have to kept on the ground if you don't have a tool tray. Anything kept on the bike might fall down and scratch bodywork or worse fall on your toe and injure you. I learnt that many years ago the hard way.





The finished product - time and effort well spent today. Even the kids in my apartment like the new look!

Aryan

DIY Approved.

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