what did you wrench on today??

[Buffalo Bill]

A garage without tunes is......less enjoyable. The old Motorola stopped playing last night and I figured it was the phono plug that connects the electronic du jour ( cd player, I pod, phone, etc). Turns out it was a bad cord. It got a dusting off anyway...I love the smell of hot tubes cooking dust....

Ooooooh, it glows......

http://

Lovely tubes! Looks like 15 watts?

 

[Jedz123]

The XS... I took it for a spin my backyard to see if in any issues pop up. Non so far. Runs like a champ. Not bad for a barn find! Swapping out the handle bars and extra bits... Going in for a total De-L or De-Special....

 

[dorkburger]

Not that you should do this?. But I haven't run the piano wire in my bike for over 25 yrs with ZERO problems, I was told to remove it by a old GS mechanic, he said they were more a pain than they were worth.
I still don't know there purpose??? I think it had to do with rattling plates or something like that

Interesting....the whole cause of the clutch work this winter was to locate and( hopefully) fix a rattle.
Knowing myself, if I leave it out and the rattle persists it may be a lingering question....
Ill mull it over though....And see how long it takes to get a new one.

 

[dorkburger]

Lovely tubes! Looks like 15 watts?

No idea....I love my tube radois, but this is the last one that works properly. I dont have the knowledge to diagnose or repair them. I have a couple of really cool console ones (Zenith, Motorola) from the 40s, but they both need work on the electronics. The cabinets and grille cloths are still quite nice.

 

[dorkburger]

Well, I did a search of "piano" here. Consensus is that its not necessary....

 

[Macgyver]

With a name like Macgyver you should appreciate the carb "fix" from the previous owner. lol.

Indeed I do Steve!
Unfortunately the bike was filled with "little fixes" like this. Working my way through it fixing everything as time and funding allows.

After I leave work today I am heading over to a buddy's garage to jump on the plug chop bandwagon to confirm what I already intuited is the next major problem, jetting...oh joy.
Especially since his shop is a stone's throw from the local police station. Good thing there are backroads close for the WOT check.

Maybe if I ask nicely I can get a hand from the local LEO's to check the accuracy of my speedo? hahaha

 

[Buffalo Bill]

Changed the rear tire. Took a couple hours of hard work to remember the easy way to do it.
Doh!! Forgot to balance it.

 

[cowboyup3371]

All of the valves are now out of the Jeep but I couldn't get the first valve seal out so I'll need to try it again. Fortunately the springs and valve margins are within specs and at first glance none of the valve stems are bent. I'm going to try and get the block down to the machine shop this week.

 

[dorkburger]

Rear brakes on the car......sweeeet!


Putting the GS together later sans piano wire...

 

[Grimly]

The XS... I took it for a spin my backyard to see if in any issues pop up. Non so far. Runs like a champ. Not bad for a barn find! Swapping out the handle bars and extra bits... Going in for a total De-L or De-Special....

I had a 79 XS750 - the last model before they went 850. It became a total pig to start when the baffles started to rot out, but apart from that (and being an overweight pig) it was fine, with all of the mechanical shortcomings sorted by the factory. In fact, I got so used to it, when I first got a GS850, it was a very familiar feel...

 

[dorkburger]

Sometimes......its just nice to work barefooted. No heavy lifting, etc, so what the heck....
Buttoned it up......

 

[Guest]

No idea....I love my tube radois, but this is the last one that works properly. I dont have the knowledge to diagnose or repair them. I have a couple of really cool console ones (Zenith, Motorola) from the 40s, but they both need work on the electronics. The cabinets and grille cloths are still quite nice.

Keep those old ones! The quality of the (AM) radios in them is far superior to most of what is available today.

In college we used to run ads saying "we'll haul away your old TV/ console radio for free." Most of them only required a few new tubes and some cleaning. The we'd sell them. Most of the components that fail can be replaced. Look for leaky capacitors, as in capacitors that actually leak. If you can solder and work on old GSes, you can figure out how to bring them back to life. Good winter project.

 

[Buffalo Bill]

What he said!
But I'm into small guitar amps.

 

[Grimly]

Keep those old ones! The quality of the (AM) radios in them is far superior to most of what is available today.

In college we used to run ads saying "we'll haul away your old TV/ console radio for free." Most of them only required a few new tubes and some cleaning. The we'd sell them. Most of the components that fail can be replaced. Look for leaky capacitors, as in capacitors that actually leak. If you can solder and work on old GSes, you can figure out how to bring them back to life. Good winter project.

I have an old ex-Royal Navy receiver that weighs nearly the same as the GS. Made in 1958, iirc, and has around 24 valves in it. It was working fine at last plug-in, but that was over a decade ago, and I'm not really sure it will power up without some attention. What brought this to mind was mention of the AM coverage, as when they weren't being used for comms, the spare sets of this type were commonly used onboard to provide ship-board listening to local radio stations as they cruised around the Med or wherever, the RF and audio circuitry of these being top-notch, in their day.

 

[Guest]

Those old ones weren't just "top-notch, in their day." They are top-notch in any day. They were built before FM and before TV. AM radio was a Really Big Deal until it was supplanted by newer technologies. AM fidelity, with good transmitters and receivers is just as good as FM. And AM is not limited by line-of-sight as FM is. The US has several dozen "clear channel" AM radio stations, ones licensed decades ago. They broadcast at 50,000 watts. WHO in Des Moines (for non-Yankees, Des Moines, Iowa is roughly in the center of the country) has as its call line, "Border to border and coast to coast". With good atmospheric conditions, you can receive its signal (and that of other clear channel stations) anywhere inside the continental US. So, in the old days, with a great AM radio and antenna your programming options increased greatly. This was before broadcasting conglomerate bought up most of the radio and TV stations and homogenized the programming. There were real differences.

So engineers worked hard to make really good radios, and they succeeded. The old ones, when in good repair, are far superior to today's radio.

35 years ago I build a kit tuner from Dynaco, their AF-6. One of its selling points was its AM section tried to be really good. MacIntosh, I believe, had what was the modern standard for good AM. I still have the AF-6, and want to get it properly aligned again. But Albuquerque has very little that I want to listen to.

 

[gordinho80]

While my bike was running pretty decently since having the carbs rebuilt and rejetted this past winter... I had noticed it bogging a little at higher RPMs. Someone mentioned it possibly needing more air, so I tested running it without a filter and it ran a million times better. This lead me to investigate why it was needing so much air. I opened the DynoJet package and saw that the tech had installed the biggest main jets the kit came with, DJ170s. I decided to finally try my hand at some basic carb work myself and took the rail off. Took off the bowls and replaced the jets with the DJ118s from the kit. Set the mixture screws out to 2.5 turns and put it all back together. What a difference! Its like a whole new bike! Now I just need to get a full sync. Going to be visiting a buddy of mine soon who has the gauges.

 

[Buffalo Bill]

Cut up a tire and bagged it for the trash

Cut up a tire and bagged it for the trash

I never seem to remember to recycle my old tires, and I had 3 of them after changing the rear on my 1100G. So I decided to try and cut one into quarters, bag it and dump it in my garbage.
Worked, but it took some special technique. A saws-all don't work because you can't hold the tire still for the blade to cut, it just vibrates with the blade, and the bead has steel wires in it so that is the toughest part.
This is how I did it: first cut the bead through by hand with a fine tooth hacksaw using WD40 to lube the blade. Then I cut the rest of the carcass by hand with a bow saw. A saws-all would work IF you can hold the tire firmly enough, lube with WD40 because the spray is convenient. Cut it into 4 quarters, then nest each section into the other so you have a nice compact stack, bag it and can it.

 

[earlfor]

After putting new clutch disks in the B12 a week ago, I've put a few miles on the bike and the new clutch (Vesrah) feel is not as good as the old stock one. I pulled the clutch back apart and reinstalled the old disks which are much better and more progressive. Going to have to order Suzuki factory linings I guess and do the job a third time. LOL

 

[Grimly]

I never seem to remember to recycle my old tires, and I had 3 of them after changing the rear on my 1100G. So I decided to try and cut one into quarters, bag it and dump it in my garbage.
Worked, but it took some special technique. A saws-all don't work because you can't hold the tire still for the blade to cut, it just vibrates with the blade, and the bead has steel wires in it so that is the toughest part.
This is how I did it: first cut the bead through by hand with a fine tooth hacksaw using WD40 to lube the blade. Then I cut the rest of the carcass by hand with a bow saw. A saws-all would work IF you can hold the tire firmly enough, lube with WD40 because the spray is convenient. Cut it into 4 quarters, then nest each section into the other so you have a nice compact stack, bag it and can it.

I cut a 14" tyre into halves to make trailer mudguards (I know, pure hillbilly engineering, but it works and cost nothing), and found the beads cut fine with a 9" angle grinder (with cutting blade), then a Sawzall equivalent held tight against the carcase would slice the rubber nicely.

 

[BADJACKSON]

Did my 1st oil change (on this bike) & put the old ugly seat back on. Went for another short test ride.