what did you wrench on today??

[Grimly]

Good Save. My sump was bad. 1/8" evil sediment, fragments of wires and copper strands and a 2" washer glued down in the gunge.
There were no shims on the idler gear. Got two from Priory Suzuki in Dublin for pennies. Lost one trying to assemble. It ended up in the casting 'tunnel' behind the bottom of the flywheel/starter clutch. Went fishing with a magnet and found two in there and not sure if I have them all yet

Did your NE gasket set also miss out the camchain tensioner gasket? I didn't expect the tensioner seals, but I thought the gasket would be there, at least.
Today's other frustration was that one of the shims I ordered was marked correctly, but actually under size. Not a calamity, as I was able to do a minor shuffle and ended up with them all towards the slack end of adjustment.
Only shows, you can't take anything at face value - cockups happen in the manufacturing.

 

[dorkburger]

Minor work while waiting for parts. Cleaned and painted my spring that will get swapped onto the Ducati shock when it arrives. Straighten out my mess of a garage a bit.

 

[Grimly]

Finally got the top cover fastened down, the carb on, and stripped out the old clutch. The plates don't seem to be missing any chunks but they're definitely a bit worn compared to the new ones.
Left the new clutch soaking in oil, and spent the evening shopping around tractor oil stockists, as I've decided to rationalise all my oils into one. Over the past few years I've ended up with several types of oil, grabbed when the prices were right, but it's a bit of a pita.
A nice Universal Tractor Oil of 10w40 will do, and buying it in small-ish bulk works out at 3 or 4 Euros / litre. A 200L drum would be even nicer, but overkill.
Tomorrow, fit the clutch and attend to making up a new fuel cock mount. This will just be a 1/4" plate using the original mounting holes and a 1/4" BSP nipple brazed onto it, to allow the fitment of a traditional manual tap.

 

[Grimly]

Clutch in, carb finished off, epoxied the fuel pipe into place and fingers crossed it holds long enough for a test run.
I'll order a 1/4" BSP tap tonight and make my own petcock plate.
Hoping to get the thing running tomorrow, but it still needs the fork legs dropped to replace the cheap and nasty gaiters that I made the mistake of buying in 2015 before I discovered Volvo steering rack gaiters.

 

[fastbysuzuki]

Nothing so radical as others on the thread, just greased the taco and speedometer cable stripped the rear brake pivot greased that did the valve clearances before Xmas along with changing the final and secondary oils needs an oil & filter change it's been laid up over winter so when weather picks up that's the first job I have whats need to hand.

My son gave me a present of Oxford heated grips which I fitted in September last year I mounted the control unit on the handlebar pad via the sticky pad that's prefixed to the unit the strange thing was when I put the bike in the garage and returned to it the control unit had fell off so I pressed it back and went for a ride and it stayed in position, every time I returned and put the bike away the control unit fell of again. Any way not wanting to drill the original pad I picked up a cheap one from eBay and drilled it and screwed the unit to it so beware if you are thinking of mounting the oxford on the pad screw it down.

 

[Burque73]

My wife gave me a new seat for our anniversary so I installed it. No as comfy as the old one but looks lots better. The old one got to where the lid was delaminating from moisture.

Yeah, I gave her roses, dinner and a movie. She gave me a shiny new toilet seat...

 

[Grimly]

We have life!
After discovering the battery was end-of-life and jumping from a car battery on the floor...
Fuel on, prime, key, crank, burst into life first turn.
Then I shut it off quick because the carb was flooding.
But for two glorious seconds it sounded lovely with the collector pipe only. A nice crisp bark of evenly-spaced proper compressions and valves doing their job.
Far too noisy for street use, and would do my head in anyway, so I'll adapt the Hardley silencer.
Tomorrow or Friday, strip the carb and see what the problem is. Daft thing is, I had the carb in my hands just yesterday and gave it a quick once-over, but since it had given no trouble previously, I mistakenly assumed it would be ok.
Never assume nuttin'.

 

[Brendan W]

Did your NE gasket set also miss out the camchain tensioner gasket? I didn't expect the tensioner seals, but I thought the gasket would be there, at least.
Today's other frustration was that one of the shims I ordered was marked correctly, but actually under size. Not a calamity, as I was able to do a minor shuffle and ended up with them all towards the slack end of adjustment.
Only shows, you can't take anything at face value - cockups happen in the manufacturing.

Missed this somehow.
Yes the tensioner gasket was missing. Don't recall any oil seals except the valve stem. Still no sign of leaks on the base or anywhere else for that matter.
Got the tensioner and clutch arm seals from local bearing shop. Had to settle for a 6mm deep clutch seal, the original was 9mm and not available easily anyway.
Today was annual fluids day. Using Lidl 15W40. Got everything done except the forks. Looks like the secondary drive is getting some engine oil in there. Level is too high and colour too brown. Still smells strongly of gear oil. Final drive oil was like new.
I had fitted stainless bleed nipples a few years back and was concerned about corrosion. They are a doddle to work with - easy peasy.

 

[Redman]

............
............ ........... ........... ....... She gave me a shiny new toilet seat...

Indicative of where your relationship is going.....?

Or does this show that she knows what you enjoy....?

?

(Joking, you know. Somebody has to.)

 

[Grimly]

Missed this somehow.
Yes the tensioner gasket was missing. Don't recall any oil seals except the valve stem. Still no sign of leaks on the base or anywhere else for that matter.
Got the tensioner and clutch arm seals from local bearing shop. Had to settle for a 6mm deep clutch seal, the original was 9mm and not available easily anyway.
Today was annual fluids day. Using Lidl 15W40. Got everything done except the forks. Looks like the secondary drive is getting some engine oil in there. Level is too high and colour too brown. Still smells strongly of gear oil. Final drive oil was like new.
I had fitted stainless bleed nipples a few years back and was concerned about corrosion. They are a doddle to work with - easy peasy.

Yes, it seems that the omission of the tensioner gasket is common in other gasket kits for some reason.
No matter, I ordered some from Holland but during the wait for them I was itching to get it running and away it went like a good'un.
It's got a film of Hylomar doing duty as a tensioner gasket for now. I'll rebuild a spare tensioner for a swap-over at the first oil change.
It's Lidl 15w40 in there for running-in purposes and I'll drop that in a couple of hundred miles.
The local farmers' store are stocking North Sea Lubricants which have quite a good range of stuff available - no specific bike oils but some pretty good diesel and car lubes. Now the leaks are fixed, I'll be putting some 5w40 in it for the winter at least and possibly all year around.
Other minor hurdles popped up - like the ignitor decided it didn't like 12volts any more and went on strike, several dodgy joints in the LT and trigger connections and also a wire with an internal break in the original Piranha harness. All sorted now and running well. Of course, the battery was tired and decided it didn't want to play any more and the car jump battery gave up too.
Yet another Motobatt is currently on its way from the UK to my door from Mad4bikes on ebarg.
I don't want to keep starting it up in the workshop as it might possibly risk glazing the bores, so I'll be leaving it alone until it's ready to go out and get properly run-in.

Regarding engine oil where it shouldn't be - my '79 was letting engine oil into the transfer case, but since I knew that several bevel drive boxes in my past were ok with exactly that, I didn't worry about it and just made sure regular oil changes included the transfer case too. It went on for about 100K like that without any trouble.

 

[1978GS750E]

Got a big box of parts for the GS1000 in today. Rebuilt the front master cylinder, front caliper, rear master cylinder, rear caliper, put on new brake lines and bled both systems. It stops! Got a new AGM battery to put in in the morning and then going to start on the "go" part, have to replace some carb O-rings (Thanks Robert Barr), intake boot O-rings, and other misc. parts along with cleaning up some wiring issues. Hope to have it on the road in a couple of weeks! Now if the weather would just cooperate!

 

[cowboyup3371]

First coolant change on the Bandit today and I'm still not done; need to add the new coolant probably tomorrow night as I have other things I need to finish tonight first. I wish the service manual was written a little more comprehensive as it's not as simple as remove the water pump outlet hose to drain it. No. The outlet hose is routed behind the inlet hose and nowhere near easy to pull off. Ultimately figured out there is a bracket over both hoses that if you pull away lets you get better access to the hose. Either way, I learned alot more about the bike today, should be able to get quicker about it in the future, and some critical maintenance is about done.

 

[Guest]

Reinstalled my starter motor with a new o-ring. I removed the motor last fall, but both of the mounting bolts were corroded and snapped off when I tried to remove them, making what should've been a quick and easy job into a PITA job. I didn't own any cobalt bits, and the bits I did have wouldn't touch the broken bolts, so decided to pack the bike away for the winter and deal with it in the spring. Last week I bought some good cobalt bits (Irwin) and a cheap close-quarter drill from Princess Auto (like Harbour Freight for my American friends). Those bits went through the broken bolts like butter. I then re-tapped the holes, installed new hex-head screws (with some anti-seize) and all is well. Bring on spring!

Cheers!
K

 

[Grimly]

Molested a perfectly innocent Hardly muffler with a slitting disc...

 

[Grimly]

Giving me a result like this...

 

[Rich82GS750TZ]

I know to most of you guys, all this stuff is just regular maintenance. To me, if was my first time for everything but changing the oil. I'm learning a lot from everyone here on the forum.

Just got back from a test ride after all of this winter maintenance:
Removed 1 broken exhaust bolt, fixed two buggered holes.(1st time)
Rebuilt forks w/new seals, polished lowers.(1st time)
Rebuilt caliper, new piston, seals, boots.(1st time)
Rebuilt MC, including new piston/cup set, new sight glass.(1st time)
New Venhill SS brake line.(1st time)
Valve adjustment (1st time)
Oil Change
Even took the time to remove the TSCC circle badges and mildly polish all the engine covers. Will get new badges eventually.
Happy to report, the test drive went awesome. After testing the new front brake on my street for a bit, I took off down the road for some fresh gas. After putting new gas in the tank, headed home. I know I need to take it easy on the new front brake pads, but the bike just sounded so good after getting warm and drinking some fresh fuel. I opened up the throttle. WOW. My speedo went to 85 quicker than ever. Checked everything out when I got home, and as far as I can tell, nothing's leaking. YAY! COME ON SPRING!

 

[Guest]

Last three days I did a number of repair items that have been on the "to-do" list for a while, finally getting around to them.
1. Replaced and lubed clutch cable.
2. Synced carbs and adjusted idle (cleaned them and re-installed last week)
3. Installed Braided SS brake lines front and rear (Earls), Replaced front master cylinder (think the return port is clogged on the original unit, will take it apart and inspect)
4. Replaced crappy sportbike style rear turn indicators back to stock, repaired botched wiring from PO installing said turn signals.
5. Tach cable seal replacement

Need to get an oil change done and swap new tires on before riding season starts.

 

[GSXR7ED]

I know to most of you guys, all this stuff is just regular maintenance. To me, if was my first time for everything but changing the oil. I'm learning a lot from everyone here on the forum.

Just got back from a test ride after all of this winter maintenance:
Removed 1 broken exhaust bolt, fixed two buggered holes.(1st time)
Rebuilt forks w/new seals, polished lowers.(1st time)
Rebuilt caliper, new piston, seals, boots.(1st time)
Rebuilt MC, including new piston/cup set, new sight glass.(1st time)
New Venhill SS brake line.(1st time)
Valve adjustment (1st time)
Oil Change
Even took the time to remove the TSCC circle badges and mildly polish all the engine covers. Will get new badges eventually.
Happy to report, the test drive went awesome. After testing the new front brake on my street for a bit, I took off down the road for some fresh gas. After putting new gas in the tank, headed home. I know I need to take it easy on the new front brake pads, but the bike just sounded so good after getting warm and drinking some fresh fuel. I opened up the throttle. WOW. My speedo went to 85 quicker than ever. Checked everything out when I got home, and as far as I can tell, nothing's leaking. YAY! COME ON SPRING!

Fantastic Reporting Sir!


Ed

 

[Guest]

Tonight I painted my emblems flat black to match my side covers accent color. Really like the fire engine red and flat black combo, much better than maroon and flaking chrome.

 

[Dogma]

Vemco Mark VII

Vemco Mark VII

[Let's hope the Google Photos links don't have any stupid problems. Editing... What a pain. Here's a link to the album... Ugh, why does Google suck so hard at this. I made a Flickr account, because Google, whose storage I pay for, can't do this.]

I finally got around to digging into my Vemco Mark VII drafing machine. I bought it mostly because I wanted it, but I actually found use for it several weeks ago laying out some small sheet metal parts I wanted to bend. That was fabulous, but the action was kinda chunky. I thought maybe the rollers had developed flat spots, or the grease in the bearings had turned to varnish. It turns out, the tracks and rollers collect random chunks of schmoo. A little brass brush action cleaned everything right up. It's silky smooth now. What a joy it is to work on a device that was designed to be serviced. The manual even describes how to disassemble it. (Downloaded from the Wayback Machine.)





I was taught drafting on the board in high school, just before it became mainly obsolete. The T-square and triangle are fine until you know better. Later in that year I got to use the school's elbow-type drafting machine, and that's the difference between a Suzuki and a Schwinn. I was aware of the V-track machines but I never had a chance to try one. I'm not sure this isn't the first one I've ever actually seen. I spotted this on eBay and nabbed it for cheap. Fortunately, it survived the seller's packaging (a couple wraps of newspaper). The extra benefit of the V-track machines is that you can lock either axis for drawing really long lines. Up to 4' horizontally, and I have room for about 28" of the 36" it can do vertically.

It came with a single 18" scale, a Vemco P-2 in full and half scale sixteenths. I scoured the 'Net and found some metric scales. NOT easy. I found a 300 mm Rumold (German?) in full and half scale mm, and a 450 mm Mutoh (Japanese) in full scale mm and full scale inches in 50ths. Strange combination. The machine also arrived with the Model 3 (Civil Engineer's) protractor head. This thing has a Vernier scale good for 1 arc minute. But it doesn't have the 15? indexing I remembered from school. So I tracked down the Model 4 "Versagraphic" Protractor head shown in the pics.

I think I understand now how some people feel about their cameras or guitars. Well made equipment is just a beautiful thing.

I could do without the wood-grain Vinyl veneer.