Hi everybody,
I own a 2011 Downtown 300I, ....put some oil down my throttle cable, ....
First, I agree with:
I wouldnt bother oiling the throttle cables. If they are sticking I doubt its from corosion inside the cable....
My first question is: does the cable operate smoothly? If not the first place to look is binding because the cable is not routed smoothly or has moved or other cables / wires are interfering with it or it was serviced and misrouted. I have put about 75K on motorcycles over the years and 6K on my 2005 Kymco Grand Vista 250 bought used 1 yr ago.
If you have a teflon liner like my bmw had I would only oil it if the cable had become stiff. This can happen when the jacket rubs against the frame and rusts the coiled conduit that the cable travels in. At that point the teflon doesn't matter anymore. However, it took over 35K miles for that to happen on my bmw so I just replaced the cable for $35.
But finally to answer your question: My and others Universal Cable Lube Method - no special tools needed.
1. forget pressure oilers like JC Whitney sells.
2. Unhook the cable from the lever and tape it up so it points to the sky.
3. make or place a small funnel over the cable jacket / liner on the outside. Wrap the end 6 times with electrical tape to prevent leaks. Put 2 ounces of any light clean oil - ex 10w30 etc. And leave it for 3 hours. It will slowly run to the other end. You can work the cable a little to get things started. The only time this failed is on a badly rusted cable that had so much corrosion the oild could make it even after days! It was an old neglected beater motorcycle that looked liike it came from the movie mad max 1.
If the other end of the cable is visible you will see oil and the outside of the cable should be free of oil. This tells you the oil made it.
Your 300i sounds awesome - don't worry about the cable. If by chance you wear it out it is cheap and easy to replace. Disconnect old cable at each end and tape the new cable to the old and use the old cable to pull the new one through - only necessary with a complex cable routing like on my old 1992 bmw k75s.
Enjoy.
PaulC
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