Topic: Time to freshen up the F Model bracket bike

[dragracer]

Dropped my tranny off tonight. Machinist said he'd jump right on it in the morning to touch up a few dogs. Nothing really bad going on but he'll back cut them a bit more for good measure. Hopefully with a few other changes i'll have a working gear box before race day. All go as planned, i'll be testing sunday somewhere.

[LArzFroMArz]

You go Frank!

[dragracer]

You go Frank!

Whats your status Larry??

[Bill/BentON Racing]

A brain transplant might help! I was buying 14 more patients in one shape or another. But one Dragbike. Not picking up  uptil after first of year! Guess where I'm heading now, yep going put some pieces together. Will it go 11's or 10's stay tuned, might have to do major surgery, rods are fine old school Yoshi aluminum. Will measure and post later. Time to put the square peg in the round hole! This ones got a engine name "Bo" as in the 10's Bo! Well better get to work or I'll only have one there! 

[dragracer]

So i didn't make any progress tonight. Got caught up helping a friend. Had to build a motor for his dragbike. Nope, no an SOHC.

Will get on my transmission installation later today. Temp is dropping here and they are even predicting snow. WTH???

[dragracer]

Didn't get down to the machinist until this afternoon to pick up the tranny. Also had to talk to him about a dragbike chassis i dropped off to get the some wheels mounted. Building a car tire dragbike for the wife for the 2015 season.  Took the wife out the eat on the way back. Decided to wait until the morning to get a full days start on my bike. Hoping i can get it all done tomorrow. Need to test at some point next week. Time is not on my side. Got to get on the ball. Bill is working hard and i don't want to disappoint the SOHC crew by not showing up with a reliable bike at the Man Cup.

[Jerry Rxman Griffin aka MuthaF'er]

Bill, we ain't tolerating this slacking are we!!

[dragracer]

Bill, we ain't tolerating this slacking are we!!

Who's slackin?? No dang screwin off around these parts. I've been workin fellas!!

She's ready to go back in. Update tomorrow night!!!! Test and tune wednesday night.

[POPS 911]

FRANK: I got some Virgin KZ motors YOU MIGHT NEED !!!! Will talk to you about them at MAN CUP....... I have to keep J-MODELS for my 10 year project bike.

[Jim F]

good luck Frank and keep us posted................

[dragracer]

FRANK: I got some Virgin KZ motors YOU MIGHT NEED !!!! Will talk to you about them at MAN CUP....... I have to keep J-MODELS for my 10 year project bike.

We'll talk Pops. Always game from KZ parts. Got 3 running, one is about to go back up and building another for the wife. Most of our racers on this end run KZ's also. Someone can use them for parts as no one runs stock motors here. Lol

[dragracer]

It seems I may have a problem I was unaware of until I put my battery charger on the bike yesterday. I check the voltage right before hooking it up and it was down to 9.5 volts. Hmmm, I pulled the battery out to look at the level of the electrolyte and it was fine. Put the charger on and left it overnight. I noticed the fully charged light was on so but I decided to check the voltage to see if it would come down beyond the usable limit. To my disappointment, it quickly dropped below 11 volts and was still declining when I stopped. Obviously I have a bad battery although its less than  a year old with limited use. I normally don't use a battery more than a year in a total loss system. I'm thinking the  battery could have contributed to my most recent shifting issues. When I was doing a check in the pits to see if the bike would shift dry, I had the charger hooked up so the voltage was constant and the battery problem was not obvious. The MSD box will operate below 11 volts before it shuts down which is likely why I never keyed in on the battery problem. Its starting to make sense now as the electric over air solenoid needs 12 volts to operate and with the bike running and firing the coils, its possible to fallen well below 11 volts under load. Since its a total loss system, I charge the battery before each race and then between rounds. While I normally check the voltage with a meter before and after I charge the battery at home, I've gotten slack about checking it between rounds at the track since the full charge light has been coming on the charger. I've been removing the charger and then going to the lanes. Lets me know I really need to go back what I used to do- check voltage all the time. I've got a new AGM battery to go in it so we'll see on Wednesday if this fixes my issue along with the other changes.

Time is not on my side. I've got maintenance to do to 3 other bikes and my trailer before the race. The Honda has taken up too much time already.

[Bill/BentON Racing]

I FEEL your pain!  Me too, all for .020.... Those aluminum rods cost me, either way it's got to have some thicker gaskets, on the way. Why is always like this ? Racing! But I started 2 months ago or more! Just damn!  Bill I think you on the shifting problem. I'll shoot you a pic later of something might help.

[dragracer]

I feel letting that lead acid battery sit uncharged for those long months didn't help much. Just a bad freakin battery perhaps. I'll used the agm battery for now since I had it new in the box already. I'll be buying a lipo battery for next season if the tranny problem is solved this time.

Don't want to beat you up on this Bill, but I put several posts up to que you in on the issues of installing a new top end.  Especially with the shortness of time to the event. New builds can be time consuming and sometimes frustrating. Personally, I would have fly cut the valve pockets to get the clearance I need versus pulling the pistons in the hole. You're giving up all the gained by taking compression away from the bigger bore in relation to the 836 kit. I'm sure whoever you got the pistons from could tell you about the thickness of the dome. You're taking away a lot of compression by dropping the pistons in the hole just to get piston to valve clearance. But hey, what the hell do I know, I'm not a real mechanic after all. Just a  back yard, shade tree , wannabe offering an opinion based on experience.

 Not bashing, just want you to consider cutting those pockets a little deeper.

[joe p]

I agree 100% with you dragracer. but I'm just a shade tree too.

[scottly]

So what do you HAVE to do before the test on Wednesday, Frank? Install the electronic kill?

[dragracer]

So what do you HAVE to do before the test on Wednesday, Frank? Install the electronic kill?

Scottly, i'm going to try it without installing the kill as i have thoughts that the lack of sufficient voltage may have been one of my many problems with the current system. The kill installation is a fairly straight forward deal. If this doesn't work "as is", the electronic kill will go on thursday night in preparation for testing friday night or saturday.  I'm going to beat this daggone horse into submission one way or the other.

[Bill/BentON Racing]

Amen brother! Hey WHAT do I know? I can write it all on the back of a business card!  The horse will be ridden! One way or another, I will be there! Hey, Frank, the stoves hot! Haha! Lol. Bill

[POPS 911]

BATTERY-BATTERY-BATTERY : Over the years when some racer said hey "POPS" my bike has a problem = my first tool to use was a volt meter,  Had one [ volt meter ] on my ZIR bar bike that I looked at after every kick start ........ no electric start to draw down the 13.3 volts.

[bwaller]

Frank, I've used 8 cell lithion Ion batteries for four years. The difference in my case is they only power the ignition so 8 cells will give me nearly 45 minutes run time, plenty for any race I'm in. The beauty is they give full power until the very end then go flat quickly. They charge quickly too though and hold that charge indefinitely.

I'm not sure what extra power you need and if 8 cells is enough...likely. I think they're the cats ass!

[dragracer]

BATTERY-BATTERY-BATTERY : Over the years when some racer said hey "POPS" my bike has a problem = my first tool to use was a volt meter,  Had one [ volt meter ] on my ZIR bar bike that I looked at after every kick start ........ no electric start to draw down the 13.3 volts.

Hahahah Pops, you sound like me. At least the way I used to sound when others had problems getting their bikes to run. I'm normally anal about checking voltage but for some reason didn't look at what was going on with this bike. Mainly because the bike was running okay- only 1/8th mile passes. Again, not saying my true problem with it not shifting is voltage related, but its a likely source. For all I know the battery may have taken a crap after the last time I ran it and was not an issue before parking it in the shop for repairs. Regardless, I know its a problem now.

Bwaller, i'll be adding a Ballistic battery for next season. The AGM battery was sitting on the work bench so i'll use it for the remainder of this year. I have 2 lipo's in my KZ with onboard start and they work great with total loss systems.

[dragracer]

Alright guys, i've been making some progress towards getting to test and tune wednesday night. Got it on the frame, and everything bolted on. The oil is in but the new  battery i had will not fit my battery box- its just a tad to big. So... wasn't able to start it up tonight. Will go get one in the morning and put it on a charge til the afternoon. I'll try to cut away from work at least an hour early so i can fire up and check for leaks. If all is well, i'll load it up in the trailer and head to the dragstrip for a few passes. Will see if i can get someone to video the runs and post up when i get home.

Wish me luck fellas. 

[Jim F]

GO Frank and be safe.........................you guys are making me tired

see everyone at the races

Jim

[dragracer]

Not going to make test and tune tonight. Getting a later start than I wanted and feeling a bit crappy. Going to rest for a while then go in the shop and start it up so I can check for leaks and go over a few other things. I may try Carolina Dragway tomorrow night. Got a few friends testing there also. And want to help out the guy who's engine I built last Friday night to be sure he can get down the track as well. All else fail, I've still got Friday, Saturday and Sunday along with Wednesday of next week. Will see if Bill is testing in Commerce this Friday and may consider riding down that way to test with him.

[Jerry Rxman Griffin aka MuthaF'er]

Sounds real positive.

At least SOMEONE has their's together.

I'm in ATL but can't help out Bill until first of the week.