what did you wrench on today??

[oldgrumpy]

what i stuffed around ,,,with,,,,

what i stuffed around ,,,with,,,,

On sunday afternoon,,,, i went out to the garage,,,,i put off going outside as it was COLD and bucketing down rain,,,, all my water tanks were over flowing,,, so in the garage ,,, i un-did the socket head cap screwsand removed all of the boots ,,,no.1 inlet boot has a crack near the out side cap screw,,, where i have patched it up with black silicon,,, and no. 2 showed a little bit of carbon where it showed it had been loose.... anyway today ,,,,monday,,, i,ll clean the surfaces where the boots go on and clamp them on ,,,,i will make sure the are tight ... then during the week i,ll stip the carbys and clean them before putting them back on regards oldgrumpy

 

[Steel Toed Tank]

I have pretty much all the regular spring stuff done on my bike.
I have the old tire that was on it when I bought it.
I figured I could take the worn tire off and throw the old on for now and it's be fine for wizzing around a little bit.
So I went ahead and got insurance on my bike, it was only $20.

Today I managed to get the worn tire off and after wrestling around trying to get the old tire on and seated, I discovered (and remembered) that when I took it off originally, I had let the air out of by stabbing it with my knife.

Needless to say, I did a decent amount of non productive work today, lol.

 

[Montanaman]

I did a bonehead thing tonight -

I'm working on my little kawi - since it sat out in the weather for years, snow, leaves, etc., it needs all kinds of TLC -

I'm at the rear wheel tonight - I had to break the chain due to rust, I disassembled the back wheel, and I got the new bearing in the hub, then I put the two new outer wheel bearings on - and then I notice the spacer bar, you know the one that goes inside the wheel, still laying on the lift top -

I start tapping out one of the bearings, my bar slips, bearing steel side shield is FUBARED -


DAMN - now to order a new bearing, to replace the new one -

 

[Guest]

We have a '73 atc 70 - first year. Generations of kids in the family beat the wheels off it in Grandpas yard, literally down to tubes. There is one occasion that I know of that the oil plug came out and the engine stopped, It was found and oil replaced and still ran like a sewing machine.

I set the non-running atc aside for awhile when it lost spark. My teen aged son couldn't leave it alone and after locating a coil (difficult for '73 and '74) he found the spark again, and related rotten fuel lines and crap.

Today he turned to me unsuccessful to get fuel the bowl, I figured it to be the petcock and showed him something he missed. Tweak here and there and were tearing up the grass again. As was the youngest boy, the only person that doesn't look Shriner Bike stupid riding it.

It was nice that the independent teenager turned to me for support. Nicer yet that the little bike influences his mechanical mind. dratv.com helps a lot also.

 

[Steel Toed Tank]

I love the three wheelers, big big fan.

Today my bike fired up for the first time this year.

I had the carbs back together and got the air boxes all sorted out, rigged my self up an IV bag style fuel source to dial in the mixture screws and set the idle.

It really didn't want to start at first, but I spritzed some gas into the air box and away it went!

After that it started real easy, every time.

Going to be about a week until I can get a tire, and by then the temps should be slightly warmer than right now.

 

[Sandy]

Tonight I got all the gasket surfaces prepped and should be picking up my cylinders on Wednesday. Pulled the oil pan and cleaned the screen just because and also sanded some spots on frame that could use a touch up while it's easy to access. Hopefully be warm enough by mid week to paint the frame and cylinders so I can get it back together on the weekend.

 

[Guest]

Started the pin stripping.

 

[chuck hahn]

Picked up a 77 Kawasaki KZ650B1 yesterday, which is gonna be the auction bike at Austin Moto fest 2014. Myself, Frank Z. and our many coconspiritors will be doing a frame up reconditioning of her.

I intend on starting a thread Thursday evening in the OTHER PROJECTS section with pics of the starting point and will follow up with progress pictures as the project progresses....stay tuned as this is gonna be a considerable undertaking.

 

[Guest]

Got a little careless with the bleeder hose when I bleeded my front caliper after replacing it, the hose disconnected from the bleeder valve and brake fluid got on the front fork paint, the caliper needed painting anyway, and this was clearly evident after giving the bike a bath.
So I decided to paint the fork and the anti-dive mechanism. I used Dupli color semi gloas black, and VHT aluminum.

Then prep for the anti-dive mechanism.

Plus a few scratches on the engine case from pulling the carbs.

It didn't take all that long, and I had tons of Wal-Mart bags to use to protect from overspray, as well as some aluminum foil, and a little painters tape. And that basically how I do it.

 

[Guest]

Help

Help

Sure could use some pics and a bit of a how to as I am thinking about doing mine as well.

Mike

Started the pin stripping.

 

[Guest]

Sure could use some pics and a bit of a how to as I am thinking about doing mine as well.

Mike

Pinstriping 101.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vNqe8RMW1U

 

[Tim Tom]

I spent about an hour fiddling with the bike today after work to finish up some odds n ends. Started off by replacing the tach cable that snapped on my Saturday ride, and made damn sure to lube it well. Judging by the state of the old cable it seems I should lube more often. I got about a year out of that one, but it should have been much more.

While I was up front with the lube I did the throttle, clutch, and choke cables too and it made a noticeable difference in the controls.

Next I jumped up and down a whole lot on the bike and adjusted the rear damping on my shocks up by one position. We will have to see how it affects the bikes handling, but now the front and back move the same amount when jumping on it so that's an improvement. Right?

Finally I turned the fuel air mixture screw a bit so that the bike idles better and doesn't stumble or stall in low RPMs.

Tomorrow I'm planning on going to a great big empty parking lot and working on my skills a bit. After all that is the best thing you can improve on a bike... The nut connecting the seat to the handlebars.

 

[Guest]

Gracias!

Gracias!

Thanks a bunches. Is that even a word?

Pinstriping 101.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vNqe8RMW1U

 

[Guest]

Thanks a bunches. Is that even a word?

Your Welcome!
There's "bunches" http://www.thefreedictionary.com/bunches
of that stuff on You Tube. Just go to You Tube and type in "pinstriping" and all kinds of stuff will pop up, all you got to do is pick and choose. In fact you can find tutorials on most anything as I'm sure you already know.

 

[Guest]

I spent about an hour fiddling with the bike today after work to finish up some odds n ends. Started off by replacing the tach cable that snapped on my Saturday ride, and made damn sure to lube it well. Judging by the state of the old cable it seems I should lube more often. I got about a year out of that one, but it should have been much more.

While I was up front with the lube I did the throttle, clutch, and choke cables too and it made a noticeable difference in the controls.

Next I jumped up and down a whole lot on the bike and adjusted the rear damping on my shocks up by one position. We will have to see how it affects the bikes handling, but now the front and back move the same amount when jumping on it so that's an improvement. Right?

Finally I turned the fuel air mixture screw a bit so that the bike idles better and doesn't stumble or stall in low RPMs.

Tomorrow I'm planning on going to a great big empty parking lot and working on my skills a bit. After all that is the best thing you can improve on a bike... The nut connecting the seat to the handlebars.

Good stuff Tim, I've been thinking of playing with my pre-load lately as after riding that awesome Katana with Ohlins on it I feel my suspension with the Ikons is far too soft... even though it's miles better than the stock setup... I intend to try some PVC spacers in the top of the forks as well as adjusting the shocks... not that it'll get anywhere near having well adjusted Ohlins on it of course!

And with the aim of improving throttle response, I took a drill to my slides last night:



Not sure if I'll get a chance to test ride until the commute to work tomorrow though as it's a public holiday here today...

 

[earlfor]

Valve adjustment time again on the Bandit.

 

[Tim Tom]

Good stuff Tim, I've been thinking of playing with my pre-load lately as after riding that awesome Katana with Ohlins on it I feel my suspension with the Ikons is far too soft... even though it's miles better than the stock setup... I intend to try some PVC spacers in the top of the forks as well as adjusting the shocks... not that it'll get anywhere near having well adjusted Ohlins on it of course!

Cheers Pete. I got the chance to test out how the suspension felt with the damping adjusted today. I put it up to 2 instead of 1 where they have been for the past 12k+ miles. At low speeds it made no difference really, however at highway speeds going over a bump in a fast sweeper really upset the bike. The back end felt like it jumped all over the place and pogo'ed a bit. After a thorough evaluation I put them back down to 1 and it is much more comfortable at faster speeds. Since I do a fair share of highway, I figured it's worth it to not have to worry about initiating a tank slapper.

Perhaps I'll try adjusting the preload just to see what sort of difference it makes. After all that's how you learn!

 

[Guest]

Good stuff Tim... pretty sure my Ikons are pre-load adjustable only so I'm keen to give it a go.

I need to figure out the front fork spring diameter first to make sure I have suitable PVC pipe around, then I can give it a go.

Really need to finalise my jetting first though, trying to only change one thing at a time so I can focus on what (if any) that one change has made.

 

[tomo]

I took the Bandit 1200 out last year before the bad weather set in, it rained a bit and I washed the bike when I got back. A few days later had to move her out the garage to get to my welder, noticed the front fork sliders were blooming like crazy. Think the council had been out salting the roads and that had got into a stone chip or two and under the laquer. I was well cheesed off, had the bike 4 years and till then had kept it mint. So now I`m going to have to sand em down and re-paint. Not too sure what to use though as they do take some hammer from stone chips. Ideally I should strip the forks and get the sliders powder coated, but finance wise thats out the question. Think for now I`ll have to paint them in-situ. Can anyone suggest what would be best paint wise ?.

 

[Guest]

Good stuff Tim... pretty sure my Ikons are pre-load adjustable only so I'm keen to give it a go.

I need to figure out the front fork spring diameter first to make sure I have suitable PVC pipe around, then I can give it a go.

Really need to finalise my jetting first though, trying to only change one thing at a time so I can focus on what (if any) that one change has made.

Well whaddya know... just re-read the adjustment instructions and my Ikon shocks have four damping positions and three pre-load positions... now I have even more to play with