Lubricating the Center Stand - 2015 Forza 300

[GeorgeSK]

The service manual makes it sound so easy....I expect it is if you do it often.

My stand was not coming up on its own, so I knew it was crapped up. It seemed like a quite doable job, so off I went. I tried the coins in the spring trick:

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It sorta worked, but I still needed a 3# phillips screwdriver at the end.

The bolt is a 12 mm - it came out easily, as did the cotter pin. The shaft, however,was not interested in budging. After a few taps to no avail, I decided to go down cellar and see if I could cobble together some sort of drift pin thing. I found a bit of 5/8" mild steel (a curtain rod offcut). I put it in my wood lathe at ~400 rpm, got out my flat file, and had at it. I formed a locator stub about 10 mm diameter. It took at least 25 minutes. I gave the shaft a spray of silicon lube in hopes that it might soak in while I futzed with drift-making.

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This let me tap out the shaft, and this is how lovely it wasn't:

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Down to the vise and some time with 180, then 320 paper. I got it sort of shiny:

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I next tried to use a buffing wheel with some alumina buffing compound. I really can't do much about the pitting:

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I next went after the stand itself. I took a 3/8" dowel, put a slice in the end, and chucked it into a cordless drill. I added a bit of 180 paper, and let 'er spin.:

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That seemed to be about all I could do. I sprayed the shaft and the inside of the stand with molybdenum dry lube (hoping to prevent further corrosion), then slathered the shaft with water-resistant axle grease. Everything slid together just fine. After a number of attempts, I got the spring back on (a dab of grease on the shaft of the screwdriver proved most helpful).

So what looked to be a 15 minute job turned into about 2 hours. I think I will put this on the maintenance fun schedule at a somewhat more frequent interval. If you don't have to pound out the shaft (and make a tool to do so), it should go pretty quickly.

I hope someone finds this helpful.

[davenowherejones]

Mine was similar if not worse. I ride in a lot of crappy weather on salted roads.

I took the spring off and it was dangerous to get it back on. I accidentally got it back on correctly.

I think repeated spraying with WD40 would have been safer followed by some kind of spray grease.

[E. Foster Salsbury]

I was looking at my centre stand last week when I was doing the oil and filter change and thinking I should take it off, clean off some rust, and paint it. Figured it would take too long and went for a ride instead.

[you you]

Good write up.

After you put the coins in did you then put the stand up?

I haven’t tried it yet but this should untensionthe spring/coins.

[GeorgeSK]

The coins trick was of limited success They did not fully expand the spring to where I could just take it off. I got it off with a small bit of prying, so it did ease spring removal.

I needed more expansion for spring installation. My first try, I lost about half the coins since I had to pull the spring more "open". After that, it was the classic "put the notch of a phillips driver tip over the hook, lever it up, and slide the spring down the shaft". I repeat - a dab of grease on the shaft helped a lot.

I've been thinking about this, and want to make some little hardwood wedges - maybe an 8° angle (nice smooth metal would be better, but I don't have much in the way of metal working tools). I will put the stand down so I have access to the space between the coils, and try a wedge on each side of the spring. If I then close the wedges with a c-clamp, I will be able to force the coils apart more. I'm hoping that four sets of wedges will give me an extended spring that can just be removed and replaced without feats of strength or valor. (Dave - I did launch the little sucker about twenty feet on on of my attempts. If it had chosen to pick my face as its preferred direction, it would not have been pretty.)

More to follow. Maybe. Except riding is more fun than futzing, and there is more than enough broken stuff around here to keep me gainfully busy.

[gn2]

Spring reattachment trick... use a philips screwdriver as a lever.
Cross end on attachment point, hook over shaft of screwdriver and lever it on, spring slides down screwdriver into place.
Pictures in the centre stand how-to thread in PCX section

[davenowherejones]

Well now you tell me. And I have a big philips.

[GeorgeSK]

Right, GN2. In a peered review journal, I would be ripped a new one for not citing the original reference.

"Phillips screwdriver trick" ¹

¹ https://www.hondapcx.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1344

[ghmpm]

Thanks for the write up. I get my Forza next week so not sure of the condition of the center stand but if needed this will help!

[davenowherejones]

Mine is crap again. I need to lube it more often. Or I can just kick it randomly until it goes up.

[dergav]

Did mine on my 2014 Forza about 2 months ago George as I noticed it was sticking and not retracting fully..It looked identical to yours.I think this is something all owners should look to do slightly more often than my 6 years/20,000mls from new. Perhaps every 3/4 years/10,000mls? The bit I found difficult was getting the spring back on but "somewhere" I had read GN post tip and used the greased Philips screwdriver. Still took a few attempts and concern for my fingers before getting back on. But really a simple worthwhile job...and like you probably around 2 hrs taking my time.

[GrahamH]

The stand can soon seize up if not lubricated, say, every year, but a bit of a pain to remove. However, as the pivot shaft is hollow I was able to modify it to accept a grease nipple so lubrication is now really easy.

I took the shaft out, (using the washer trick on the spring), and then made an aluminium plug press fitted into each end of the shaft. One end plain and the other threaded to accept a grease nipple. The plain end was cross drilled to allow the split pin to be refitted. A small hole was drilled through the tube to allow grease to flow through the shaft and up into the stand pivot points. All assembled and it works a treat.

[Brava210]

Took my stand off today, came off quite easy. wire wheeled all the rust off and a few coats of Satin black.

[davenowherejones]

I lubricated my centerstand yesterday. I quirted some penetrating oil all around it. A couple of quick up and downs and I was good to go.