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Good to see somebody who wants to DIY (Die) with a CI Engine, with what ever little knowledge I have on CI, i will try to explain. Again im not a expert, am as rookie as you are & still i dont try anything major, just basics i do for myself.

Answers to which I knew is given in bold

1. Is it necessary to replace the gasket/packing from the clutch case each time the oil is changed? I have seen the mechanic doing that and adding to the bill.

This is not required, he is only trying to make money out of it

2. My electricals seem to be at fault; my Osram Nightbreaker got conked out. What could have caused this? Would a relay have helped? And I noticed the speedo dial lights flickering at times. Is the connection being grounded somewhere? How do I find that? The Hella wiring may have left some leads exposed after the heavy showers. I have a digital mutlimeter back at home, not sure how to use it!

Check changing the entire wiring kit, create fuse for your charger / lights, Speedo also would get resolved once your wiring is changed

3. How to know if the bolt I am tightening has been tightened to the correct extent? (I thought) I had seen a mechanic a mechanic using all his might to tighten the crown bolt that fits the rear axel nut when I was learning to fix punctures. When I repeated the exercise, he said I used too much force. I know a torque wrench helps, but does it come with a replaceable head?

Do not try too much, all our motorcycles are enough with normal tight which you can do with regular double end / open end spanners, not required for high force. Yes there is a replaceable head (Check out for posting by aargee about tools for more details)

4. What type of lubricant to use on cables and levers? Can WD40 be found in workshops with the same name, or is there a more specific brand out there?

I use WD40 / Gear oil, not sure if others would be doing the same or advisable, i have been using this for quite some time now

5. What works other than those requiring to open the engine should be better left to the mechanics? I know that CI has relatively simple internals and user can do a lot without involving the mechanic.

I do not touch anything except for tappit adjustment & leave it to the mechanic for anything to do with engines, i tried opening up the carb sometime, but couldnt fix it properly, had to call the mech for solving it

6. Any additional tips I should know of?

I dont see any special advice from myside, possibly some experts can throw light on it, i too can learn from that.

Ramesh, thanks so much for putting down the answers, I was able to do the oil change successfully today! Only thing that went wary was I left the cable that comes out of the stator coil without fitting it into the slot provided for that purpose. Too late, as the clutch case was already filled up by then.

The electric problem seems to be with a wire joint coming out of the electrical tape and getting grounded. I re-did the exposed joint, plus a few more, and also made sure the battery connectors were affixed correctly. I had a scare before I did this, when the bike was switching off in the evening with a slight flicker of headlamp. And this in the middle of traffic, I had to steer away to the side.

Also, I will try finding aargee's post, but do post the link if you have it.

I am thinking of giving the bike to ASS to get the electricals fixed; L-L plus rains seem to have taken their toll and the tapes are coming off all over the place.

So the bike managed to dump its shit on me again yesterday. After intermittently shutting down due to shorting and refusing to start, burning multiple fuses while at it, I pushed it a little distance the day before to reach home, then fetched a mechanic who narrowed down the short to the horn wire. Fine, I said, and paid him well for his services. Yesterday, I went out of city to attend to some work and lo, the bike conks out on the NH. I pushed the bike around 2-3 km before I reached a mechanic willing to look at it. After multiple tries, he got another mechanic who pulled out the electrical mumbo-jumbo from behind the headlight, pulled apart all, then put it right back and re-taped the thick bunch of wires. The bike was going feet up when handle was being turned, he says and hence the fix. But it did work indeed and I was able to get back to the city after that.

The bike goes to ASS tomorrow. Never knew that it suffers from seasonal changes. All tape that insulates the joints have come loose in the rains and looks ugly. These things I better let the mechanics handle.

Where are you based out of??, find a good electrician who can just work on electricals, get the entire wiring replaced with the OE

wiring is too coomplicated (atleast for me) there are just kids at some workshops who just pull the entire wiring out and working

Dont worry too much, just relax and get to a good guy who can work on electricals

Hey Ramesh, gave the bike to ASS finally and got a whopping bill .

The guy worked on the electricals, fixed the problem without getting a new harness. Also fixed the entire rear lights+plate assembly. Apart from that, I hardly saw any work being done and yet the bill came to 2900+300(svc charge). A shame I didn't get the breakup, having a good relation with the head mechanic.

Currently, two problems are there:
1. The bike revs hard when I start it. A quick tap on the throttle wire seems to loosen it inside the light-meters assembly. A bad wire, or just a jam?
2. The clutch lever has become quite hard. Never replaced the cable and bike is now at 15000 km. Any way to check the cable correctly without removing?

On another note, a friend's TB 2nd gen (50 yrs special edition, dual tone) was lying unused for around 8 months. Got a mechanic to give an estimate and he said 5k including new battery and fixing electricals, and took it to his workshop. Now, he opens the RHS case and sees one of the pinions (egg-shaped gears) has worn off to a round profile and says it needs replacing as well, along with lathe work, adding another 4k to the estimate. We are OK till this point, and I was making sure I checked everything that was being worked on so that we don't get cheated. The bike was started up and we notice a tick-tick sound that my friend had problem with earlier was still there. The mechanic says it may be an issue with valve getting worn and said he will open the head. Cost estimate - 3000, 1500 for valves and rest lathe work. Next thing we know, he calls us and calls us urgently to shop, not giving a reason. I am really pissed off by now. He shows the crankshaft is rusted and that the bottom end is damaged due to running the bike with almost no oil, from my friend's flat to his garage, a mere 2km. Now the estimate grows to 5k. At the end, both of us got so pissed off we said just put together the bike and give it back, ruing the decision of not calling the ASS mechanic in the first place. After paying a hefty amount of 18k, the bike is with us. The tik-tik sound still comes, and the 500 km run-in being done to mate the newer and lathed parts. The bike is a drag to drive right now and we are not stressing the engine much.

Some questions that came to mind are:
1. How is it possible there is NO oil left? The bike was standing and may have leaked max 500ml of the 2L, how come it was dry?
2. What exactly is the lathe work that the mechanics mention exorbitant amounts for? How to justify this oneself?
3. What was the base engine that the 2nd gen TB used? Are it's parts really as rare as the mechanic says it would be?
4. Would it be a good idea to retain this bike, or sell it and go for a newer generation C500? I saw an engine lying in the garage which was from a TB owner who replaced it with a CI engine and left his behind.

My friend is broke right now and doesn't want to spend any more. I felt sorry for pushing him to get the bike in running condition. He was already duped once when a guy he knew promised to get the bike fixed in Cuttack (where mechanics are said to be more experienced) and looted 15k out of him. Only recently he came to know the work done would have been a max of 2k and the rest was gobbled up.

Do advice.

Still waiting for the reply for the last one...

My clutch cable finally snapped at the lever, I need help taking out the other end that goes into the gearbox. I opened two covers on the right side, and I can see the block at the end of the wire lodged, but no way to remove it. I tried loosening the clutch adjuster under the cover that says 5-Speed, but still can't see where to remove the block from. Tips would be welcome on how to remove it, and put the new one back.