Yahweh tribute bike

[Guest]

Sorry for your losses Wally, life has a way of doing that at times

But excellent progress on the 450, she looks great!

What do you mean by soft on the rear pedal? You mean it doesn't spring back real easy? I find the drum quite useless compared to the front disk, but if you hit it hard it will still do some good, and I use it a lot trail braking into corners... helps if you get in just that little bit too hot...

 

[rwnielsen]

Loosen the brake rod and rotate the arm 1 tooth clockwise on the spline. Readjust your pedal. The rod should pull the arm towards a 90? not past it.
That will offer better leverage.
Step 2 would be to cut narrow grooves at an angle through the shoes almost all the way to the metal.
All my early bikes had drum brakes. They can be "adjusted" to work remarkably well. Good luck, Nice job on the bike!
Rich

 

[wally]

Pete, it is as if there is no resistance when you press down on pedal, like the spring is too weak. Also, the shoes never kick in to brake.

Thank you for the tips Rich! I will try them out next weekend!

On a side note, the Buell kept me busy with unforeseen breakages, plus I started restoring the small 50s fridge:

Repair sections:

All made using this:

 

[Guest]

What Rich is saying sounds about right to me too, I initially had it out of whack and it was almost impossible to get some good braking force out of it.

Nice work on the fridge!

 

[wally]

Rich, thanx for your advice - it worked a treat and the back brake is now perfect!
Who would have guessed...

Now just sorting out spongy front brake!

I fixed spacing issue for bar end mirror to ensure it doesn't interfere with throttle.
Then filled up tank with fresh fuel, cranked end cranked and saw fuel running out overflows of carbs...

Unhooked fuel lines and it just kept flowing, which means the petcock is now fully shot!

Time to search for a new one.
Then it is carb adjustments and hopefully running this coming summer!

 

[Guest]

I can't remember now Wally but what's the setup with your front brake? If you have the original rubber hose on there then ditch it... get a new braided line! I got mine from Rennsport via eBay, something like $US26 from memory.

Rebuild that master cylinder if you haven't done so also... the genuine parts aren't too expensive so you can do it properly.

 

[wally]

Pete, all rebuilt with braided hose:
http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showpost.php?p=1781876&postcount=63

Master cylinder was faulty, bought new Chinese one, not sure if that is the problem?

Ps - glad to hear your bike is running on 2 cylinders again!

 

[Guest]

Cheers Wally, I'm glad too

With your M/C... is it the same size piston bore as stock or different? I went slightly smaller (12.7 or 12.9mm from memory) and it made an improvement... slightly stronger force but the lever comes a bit closer to the 'bar which gives it a bit more feel.

You can also try another bleed... this time when you're done strap the lever back to the 'bar overnight and see how it feels in the morning, made a huge difference for me.

 

[wally]

Fridge is still in progress, been doing some other furniture projects, but more importantly...

my petcock arrived! Saw postal note in box today, so hopefully installed and running by weekend!
Then fine tuning jets and then roadworthy and registration!

hopefully!

And back to being active on board again!

 

[wally]

Just a quick question regarding my replacement pertcock for the 450 that I received today.

In the picture the vacuum port faces away from the motor.


Can you simply unscrew and rotate it to face forward or is it made to only fit this way around.

May be a silly question, but you never know...

 

[Flyboy]

No You can't Wally, there is tiny air bleed hole that goes from the front body of the tap, through the diaphram into the back cover, and it has to line up.
But it will work fine as it is, as long as it clears everything.

 

[wally]

Thanx! Just wanted to double check. Will hopefully get it fitted before weekend. No time this weekend. Going on adventure run with 3 buddies.

 

[wally]

Installed new petcock, but now there is no spark!

Electric dude installed diodes to indicate when coils are firing. They don't flash...
pulled plugs and earthed it on the frame. Zero spark on any of the plugs...

driving me insane. Just going to take it in to be sorted so I can finally start riding it!

 

[wally]

Think I found culprit for my no spark issue...

check my my year old battery:

On battery tender full time, but check levels!
kicks out full 0,9 Volts!!!

 

[wally]

New battery, cleaned out carbs, cleaned out plugs and she fired up! No fuel leaks!

Now I need to work on getting her idling long enough to start making adjustments.
Loads of popping and backfiring though...

 

[Guest]

Sorry Wally, I've been a bit absent!!

Great news she's firing up ready for tuning!

From memory you have pods yeah? What jets are you running and have you shimmed your needles? My needles are lifted as high as they will go (mine are adjustable), I have 142.5 mains in, and my mixture screws are about 3 turns out from memory...

 

[wally]

Hi Pete, i have been pretty quiet as well. Checking in daily, but not postin much.

Spoke too soon... Saw slight dribble from left hand carb.

Pods and custom exhaust, but carb still stock. Want to get it running first before doing anything else.
Any recommendations for a ballpark start on jets, etc for my setup?


I know it varies, but i am pretty much at coast level (if it makes a difference...)

 

[Guest]

To get her running enough to tune, you'll definitely need to get something different with your carbs... I made the mistake of focusing on the needles first but you really should get the mains done first. Of course if she won't idle well then it's hard to get a good start

Essentially it will depend on how free flowing the exhaust and pods are and if your needles are adjustable.

Best I can tell is the US needles are slightly leaner than the Aus needles and aren't adjustable, not sure about the SA ones.

At a bare mimimum I would go up a mimimum of four sizes on the main jets, set your mixture screws at 3 turns out, and your needles up at least one notch if they're adjustable. If they're not, shim them up... you can get a set from eBay cheap and they're great: http://www.ebay.com/itm/TWIN-Carb-N...ors-/110604954045?hash=item19c091a9bd&vxp=mtr

Just remember that with my carbs I have also enlarged the vacuum port in the slide and shortened the slide spring, so you will definitely end up with different results to me!

Oh, and if shimming the needles doesn't richen them up enough and they're not adjustable, you'll need to take some fiddly measurements and work out a richer needle to purchase.

 

[wally]

Had the bike at local auto electrical shop around corner from me, as it is a bit of a mission to get the bike to the bike electrical dude.

Seems like they pinpointed it to the the ignitor gone bad.
There is apparently signals from signal generators, but nothing from the box further onwards.

will take it to the bike dude to get sorted next week.

 

[Guest]

Bugger Wally! Finding good ignitors for these is a nightmare... my suggestion if he doesn't have an easy solution is to retro-fit the ignition from a later 450 or a GS500. You will need the signal generator, rotor, and ignitor as they're all different and have electronic advance instead of mechanical advance. It should all be bolt on except I imagine the connectors will be different. The advance curve looks close enough it shouldn't cause any issues either. The existing coils should be fine too.