what did you wrench on today??

[Guest]

Reminder - Athena gaskets SUCK

It was head gasket time on Saturday... the 450 has been weeping from there for a while and I was intending to replace it next service, however last weekend on our big ride it nearly let go altogether and I had a brief loss of compression in the left cylinder

I've re-torqued the head nuts on a few different occasions but it didn't help.

Everything looked pretty good when I tore it down, although there is some white caked on powdery stuff on the right exhaust valve which I'm 99% positive is ethanol related. Shell have stuff up there 98 octane about three different times and put ethanol in it and I've been in a couple of situations where that was the only fuel available, and I'm pretty sure I got some the way the bike ran on it a few times.











It may not show up terribly well in the photos, but you could definitely see where the head was wet with oil at the front and particularly the left side.

I expected the gasket itself to be brittle and falling apart but it still looked ok, just doesn't do a good job of keeping the oil in... and again I could see where the surfaces were wet with oil when they shouldn't have been:



Got out my new genuine gasket (still kicking myself for not doing this in the first place), cleaned all the gasket surfaces up and cleaned off some of the carbon (not a lot built up) and got it all back together with everything torqued up properly.



I also checked compression in both cylinders with the new gasket (150 yay) and re-sync'd the carbs as well.

Took it for a short test ride yesterday and while it wasn't far, I did get the rev's up as much as I could and so far all is oil tight.

Oh, incidentally, the motor has less than 28,000km's on it since the rebuild, so no way should a head gasket have gone in such a short period of time!

[wymple]

I shimmed the valves on my 850. That compressing wrench you are suppose to use can go straight to the trash. What a stupid pain in the ass system! I used the zip tie method after fighting thru 2 valves, and that is as easy as it gets. I was very impressed at how fast it went. I got 5 of the valves to .006, 1 valve is at .0055 and 2 are at .0065. I like it, all in good spec.

[Brendan W]

Finally got down to visiting the starter clutch. With the occasional clacking noise I was dreading what I might find but apart from the fact that PO didn't seem to believe in gaskets everything seems good. Gear goes one way and feels right the way it locks, stator is shiny and coppery, R/R looks new ( three yellow a red and a black if anyone could guess what I have), voltage is steady at 14.2 - 14.3 from 1500 to 5000 rpm.
Battery drops from 12.7 to 11.8V with the key and lights on so maybe it's tired.
Since I got the trickle charger the incidence and severity of the clacking has reduced considerably.

[gustovh]

Finished this today, links to it's construction if interested.

V

http://s176.photobucket.com/user/gustovh/library/?view=recent&page=2

http://s176.photobucket.com/user/gustovh/library/?view=recent&page=1

[rustybronco]

V, The pictures in your bucket don't do your metalworking justice. That is some fine workmanship. I'd love to see the complete process as you're doing it. Have you ever done any hammer welding?

[GreatDane]

Wow...nice helmet (hope that's the correct terminology). All I worked on today is the mower deck. Replaced all the bearings in the spindles, got everything back together and mowed the lawn. Deck is not level...now got to work on that!

[rustybronco]

Cranking on Stan's bike since Sunday.

Rehung the exhaust system Sunday. Spent about an hour yesterday cleaning up, un-crimping, shortening and re-crimping the plug wires to make them fit like they should.

Fought with the air box tonight. Ended up having to heat the plastic housing with a propane torch, prying outward then letting it cool so that the inner two boots would stay on the carbs and not slide off because the center of the air box was dished inward. Fed the oil cooler lines between the air box boots and reconnected them up to the adapter.



Someday's you're the pidgeon... fecken mice!
Now I get to repair the air filter.

[gustovh]

V, The pictures in your bucket don't do your metalworking justice. That is some fine workmanship. I'd love to see the complete process as you're doing it. Have you ever done any hammer welding?

No all my work is cold, I only heat it to around 500 deg after everything is finished go give it color. Takes a forge to heat weld.'

Changed the blades on my riding mower, and washed Suzie Q

V

[wymple]

Brake pads on the 850, shortened the centerstand.

[Gorminrider]

Finished this today, links to it's construction if interested.

V

http://s176.photobucket.com/user/gustovh/library/?view=recent&page=2

http://s176.photobucket.com/user/gustovh/library/?view=recent&page=1

wow. An Armourer! very cool!

Now, how long will it take to get the DOT sticker for it!

[gustovh]

A couple centuries.

V

[Guest]

I forgot to mention I did the next step last night in the process of elimination to try and resolve my intermittent single cylinder issue.

I have some connectors inline in attempt to leave it in a position I could still put the stock ignition back in, and I wondered if there was some dodgy connection in there somewhere, so I've bypassed them all just for the left cylinder and ran a wire straight from the left Dyna module to the left coil to eliminate them.

I made it all the way to work and back on two cylinders today, every other morning this week has had one cyilnder for at least part of the way, although it did run on two all the way home yesterday.

I'm not convinced I've fixed it, but I won't know for a while I reckon... I hate intermittent issues!

[Grimly]

Preparatory to wrenching - was passing through a small industrial area, looking for something else (bulk vinegar) and espied a stainless steel kitchen fitter's shop. On impulse, nipped in to see if he had any 8mm SS allthread for exhaust studs. He had, too.
About half the price I could have got it for mail order and that's not including postage. Most helpful fella, said to ask him for any SS needs in future, big or small. Was quite interested in what I was doing.
Also, picked up some Timken bearings for the steering head - again, a bit of a saving locally compared to mail order for the same quality. Agricultural suppliers are great stockists to have on your doorstep - they've got a lot of useful stuff.

[Trax]

Oh sweet, ok so i'll cover the last couple of weeks.

had one of those well if i have to do that then i might as well do this, and this, and this...


while i had that out i pulled out the o-ring kit, and rebuilt my carbs..
went and replaced all the screws in the carbs with black allens, and the choke with stainless button head screws.

Checked all my valve clearances nice to know all of them are good.

pulled the Carb Holders off (I really really wish antiseize had been used, i actually bent one of those damn screws pulling it off) thankfully i had the new bolts.

Starter went out on me a couple of weeks ago. tore it down replaced the brush basket and reglued one of the magnets.
unfortunately the clutch cover screws are already screwed from the previous owner and i need new impact bits so thats the trip tomorrow.

(Think i screwed up when i removed the starter its free spinning and not engaging the engine.)

so been busy Thanks to everyone who's helped me out.

[rustybronco]

Gone in 3600 seconds...

Yesterday I removed the cow catcher and the highway pegs off the GK per the owners request . Gave a few taps to the dent in its front fender while I had the fender removed. Ran a tap in one of the fender mounting bolt holes because some hack buggered it up more than likely when they mounted the cow catcher. Changed oil in it and the 850 as well. Today I removed the cycle sound, mirrors and windshield from the fairing in order to make a new windscreen and install a radio in the GK which wasn't there when Stan bought it.

Ripping lumber in a few minutes so I can make a temporary paint booth and get started on the Skunks tin's. Supposed to rain all week so I should get a chance to clean the '850 as it's now on the lift table.

GK sans extree chrome and back on the ground...