what did you wrench on today??

[Paul]

I like it as well, but I am a little unclear on how it works. Your gas/petrol container will have to be inverted for the fuel to flow out. But that means any vent opening on the container top (which will be the bottom in this use) would have to be sealed shut which would create a vacuum above the fuel. No air in = no gas out. Did you not have to make some mods to the container as well?
...

yep erm this is going to be a problem which ever way I looka at it, though a squirell had moded a hole in the corner (hence the cap being spare), but the plan is to take away the hassle of changeing around gas from one to the other and as you rightfully point out theres going to be a promlem but realisticle even if the can is less than half full its only a matter of minutes before it starts to fail, looks like I'll have to drill a second small hole and fit a small metal tube up it

edit..... the mark II... I just need to find my glue gun to fasten it in and see if the glue stands up to petrol

 

[dpep]

edit..... the mark II... I just need to find my glue gun to fasten it in and see if the glue stands up to petrol

Very good. I like the concept of everything being contained in/on the container cap--just put it in a drawer until you need it. Show us a few pics of it in use when you get to that point.
...

 

[Baatfam]

Just got done replacing the starter in the Suburban...16? outside...
My garage is heated, but the truck don't fit....

 

[chedd]

fitted coils on to the 750,then the points assembly plate,but the cam is nowhere to be found!now i know i put everything in the same box (ice cream tub)how come stuff just get's up and go'es missing

 

[Redman]

Just got done replacing the starter in the Suburban...16? outside...
My garage is heated, but the truck don't fit....

................

Hey, Bob,
Cant even get that up on ramps, can you? Or maybe dont have to.

.

 

[chuck hahn]

Just the blessing of having it on a dry surface is a great thing... Then let the heater blow whatever warmth it can muster as your under it wrenching. In that cold, anything is better than nothing!!!

 

[rustybronco]

New years eve 1991 I had to replace a 6.2L injection pump on my 1984 suburban out in the driveway. It was 10? below outside.

Cold, very cold.

 

[mothra]

Today I worked on my baby

Today I worked on my baby

Hey what's up?

Today I finally got a chance to work on my GS. Whoo!!!!. Poor bike was held hostage in the garage for months and finally got some attention. Nice day finally 61 degrees, no HW and I had to pack and move so it was an excuse of a day to finally buckle down and work on it.

I had an oil problem where there was no oil pressure in the engine after changing out clutch springs and swapping some gaskets and filters. I tore into it today and cleaned some gunk out of the oil channel in the clutch side of the cover. I think that was blocked with gunk that dried while it was apart while re-working the clutch springs. Got them apart, and discovered that I needed more clutch parts. They were on back order, so it sat for a while. Anyway re-doing my old work I got pressure back... The light is still on, but where the sensor is is a little oil pressure thingy that I could plug a gauge into and it read the spec, where as it was under speck before and now its reading pressure as you would expect. Now I think that its just a faulty sensor... I rode it towards the mountains until the sun went down this evening and enjoyed every minute of it.

Oh, I also got a Hey is that a GS? Oh the TWIN!!!! I had one of those, man that thing looks great man nice job. So that made my day.

 

[Baatfam]

Hey, Bob,
Cant even get that up on ramps, can you? Or maybe dont have to.

Nope...didn't have to jack it up at all...just slid under and did the work...

 

[Whitedog]

Polished the swing arm on the XL project bike.

 

[dorkburger]

I "wrenched" on my living room ceiling this weekend....50 year old plaster that doesnt hold paint. suckishness

 

[Guest]

No wrenching today, but I'm happy to report that my wrenching over the weekend did the trick

There is no oil weeping from the breather cover or new catch tank after the commute to work and back today. First time since the rebuild I've degreased the engine, taken it for a run, and had no oil weeping from the breather cover. I like it

The one thing I didn't get to wrench on over the weekend was my needles, but I received the shims today finally (just after the weekend, typical) but a close look says there's about a 75% chance I can get the slides out without removing the carbs from the bike. Might tackle that later this week and see how half a notch on the needles goes...

 

[Guest]

More wrenching tonight... I bit the bullet and decided it was time to shim the needles.

With the constant rain at the moment I'm riding even more than normal at low/part throttle which is where it runs the worst with the needles up one notch. So tonight I dropped the needle back to the stock mid position and added a 0.020" shim to raise it only half a notch. See how that goes tomorrow.

The fun thing is on the 450 you can get the slides out without removing the carbs, meaning no messing with the throttle cable

Right slide coming out:

Left slide coming out:

I added the shim in this photo before moving the E clip, but you can sort of make out the shim added between the washer and E clip:

And I discovered that the Alpha Sports parts fiche is incorrect as it shows the washer above the E clip and spacer, which would result in the whole needle assembly being pushed through the spring as the E clip is smaller than the spring's diameter.

This is the correct assembly from the factory manual:

The commute tomorrow is the test run...

 

[Guest]

More shimming tonight.

Running half a notch up from stock today shows she's a bit more eager to go from about 1/2 throttle up, but around the 1/4 throttle mark there's definitely a flat spot and hesitation, so a bit lean at that point. Given most of the ride home was at that throttle opening, I also noticed she was a bit warming than normal when I got home, so I can't have that!

Anyway, tonight I put the 0.030" shims in which makes it 3/4 of a notch up. Hopefully that sorts out the flat spot without taking too much of the eagerness away from the more open throttle.

I'm half expecting the bogging off idle to come back a little, so to attempt to compensate for that I wound the mixture screws in a quarter of a turn.

See how she goes tomorrow, but if there's still that flat spot then I'll have to go back to one notch up and put up with the bogging off idle.

The real answer is going to be a different needle, so I took some measurements tonight so I can compare with what's available.

 

[8ball]

Finished up my electrical component relocation/tidy-up, today:

Before:

Relocated to the tray I made, and all wired up:

..and the After shot:

 

[Toasty]

Wow that looks great, how long did it take you?

 

[8ball]

I've got a couple hours into making the tray, another few hours laying out the components and sorting out the wiring and maybe an hour or two making new battery neg and starter cables.

Hard to tell total time since I had to do it in stages due to waiting for parts (battery and flasher relay) and that pesky work thing, but maybe 6 to 8 hours total.

 

[Guest]

Mate nice work, very neat! Those Shorai batteries sure are small!

As for me... wonder if anyone could guess what I did tonight?

I'll get final confirmation after the commute tomorrow, but I believe I have been barking up the wrong tree and in my noobishness at carb tuning have completely misinterpreted the symptoms for rich/lean in my case.

I believed that I was experiencing "bogging" just off idle due to a too rich condition, and also that I had "surging" at around 1/4 throttle also due to a too rich condition. I haven't done plug chops to verify this, partly due to it being very difficult to find somewhere safe to do it here without attracting the wrong attention, and partly due to not making time and enjoying riding it too much.

Anyway, my test run yesterday revealed it was just about unrideable just off idle... did not want to accelerate and I really needed to open the throttle to get her going. At around 1/4 throttle she was hesitating and had a big flat spot.

So today after last night's adjustments, it's better, but essentially still the same. Hesitates just off idle and a flat spot at 1/4 throttle. The feeling at 1/4 throttle is almost identical to that when I am about to hit reserve, and that's definitely a not enough fuel situation! (Yes I do have a full tank at the moment).

I now believe that at 1 notch richer than stock, what I thought was bogging is actually a hesitation just off idle, and what I thought was surging at around 1/4 throttle is a flat spot and hesitation. Both of these point to a lean condition.

So, tonight I went the other direction and I am now 1 1/2 notches richer than stock, so I will see how she goes tomorrow.

The jury's still out on whether these needles need to be changed of course, but that'll get interesting because the needles available are actually about 2mm longer than the stock needle, so comparison will be quite difficult.

 

[simonw]

Mate nice work
I am VERY interested in seeing how your Shorai operates over time with the workload..I have a turntech 2.5aH that I am fitting now.
BUT I love your layout, its what I am doing to my project now and I was just figuring out how it all would fit in! Then I found your pic! yee ha..
bout to weld up my underseat box this weekend.. will post pics when it is done..
I love forums!

 

[Guest]

Well... if I didn't know better I'd think someone ducked in the garage and swapped my bike last night... today's commute was quite awesome in comparison to the last couple of days

Still a minor hesitation off idle and still a bit of a stumble holding the same low throttle opening position for a while, but a lot less pops on decel and it is like a different bike all through the throttle range, not that I got to WOT much at all.

I've always been hesitant on U turns and slow speed manoeuvring, and it's been even worse with the hesitation at the throttle opening you really need for that stuff, but I didn't have an issue with that at all today.

So given I was heading in the right direction, I went all the way tonight and it's now as rich as it can go on the stock needle (without shims). If it's still hesitant at all then it will mean I definitely need a new needle type, otherwise if it's ok I reckon I'll let it go at that.

I'm absolutely stoked at how fun it made the commute today and I'm kicking myself very hard for not doing this much much earlier...

The other thing I did tonight was verify my new you-beaut dual USB socket is definitely faulty, so I ripped it off ready to send back. They reckon they can replace it in time for me to have it ready for the 2nd March run. We'll see...