Topic: Shop stories!

[754]

Here is a pic from my old shop after I got back from Sturgis in 82..
 And a shot from before we left...

[grcamna2]

That your shop 754 ?

[754]

The old shop, first one.. Been in three since.. Maybe #4. Coming up..

[grcamna2]

That second picture is nice w/ a good sign too. 

[David B]

Well I now have a shop story to contribute.

This guy spends a bunch of time this past winter going through his 750 to address a few minor issues and give it a thorough cleaning and and polish.  Pulls the oil pan, replaces the oil stopper & o-rings on the oil pump, cleans the oil screen and oil pan, goes through the carbs and clutch.  He removes, cleans and polishes the dynamo cover, shift cover, clutch cover, etc as well.  New gaskets all around, etc, etc.  Since the pipes are off, gives them a good cleaning and polish.

The bike's now back together with new oil.  Kicks the bike over a few times with the starter and the kill switch set to "off" before starting it to get the oil flowing before starting and to verify that the oil pump is working.  The oil light goes out when it's turning over so all's well.  Adds some fuel and hits the starter with no result.  Bike turns over fine but refuses to start.  Pulls a plug, sees it's wet so there's fuel.  Grounds a plug to the engine and hits the starter -no spark. 

He spends the next hour checking for why there's no spark- coils, loose wires, etc.  He goes to far as to take the clean and polished shifter cover off to check to see if one of the wires coming out of the dynamo got pulled loose during reassembly.  Oil all over the nice cleaned bits, etc...  No luck, everything looks fine.  Everything back together again.

He decides to give up for the night and sleep on it.  Maybe it'll come to him tomorrow.  If not, it's off to the local mechanic who's worked on them since they were new.  He wheels the bike over into the corner and hooks the battery to the charger for the night. 

The knucklehead looks down and sees the kill switch is still in the "off" position.  Moves the switch to on, turns the key back on, hits the starter and it fires right up.  I'm the knucklehead and that was my Saturday night.     

[dave500]

ha!your man enough to admit it aswell!we share the same first name and surname initial by the way.

[grcamna2]

Hey (lol) DB,don't feel bad.
I looked for my ign. key for quite a while w/ all the energy you could imagine a few months ago until I finally gave in and looked up  and asked "where is it"? I had to get burnt on doing 'my' best until I got worn down enough to relax and step back away from it  . It sure helps when you walk away from it sometimes... I like when I can do that w/ troublemaking A#*holes,don't you ?   

[Powderman]

The starter will still work when the kill switch is off?

[dave500]

yep they'll spin.

[HondaMan]

Well I now have a shop story to contribute.

This guy spends a bunch of time this past winter going through his 750 to address a few minor issues and give it a thorough cleaning and and polish.  Pulls the oil pan, replaces the oil stopper & o-rings on the oil pump, cleans the oil screen and oil pan, goes through the carbs and clutch.  He removes, cleans and polishes the dynamo cover, shift cover, clutch cover, etc as well.  New gaskets all around, etc, etc.  Since the pipes are off, gives them a good cleaning and polish.

The bike's now back together with new oil.  Kicks the bike over a few times with the starter and the kill switch set to "off" before starting it to get the oil flowing before starting and to verify that the oil pump is working.  The oil light goes out when it's turning over so all's well.  Adds some fuel and hits the starter with no result.  Bike turns over fine but refuses to start.  Pulls a plug, sees it's wet so there's fuel.  Grounds a plug to the engine and hits the starter -no spark. 

He spends the next hour checking for why there's no spark- coils, loose wires, etc.  He goes to far as to take the clean and polished shifter cover off to check to see if one of the wires coming out of the dynamo got pulled loose during reassembly.  Oil all over the nice cleaned bits, etc...  No luck, everything looks fine.  Everything back together again.

He decides to give up for the night and sleep on it.  Maybe it'll come to him tomorrow.  If not, it's off to the local mechanic who's worked on them since they were new.  He wheels the bike over into the corner and hooks the battery to the charger for the night. 

The knucklehead looks down and sees the kill switch is still in the "off" position.  Moves the switch to on, turns the key back on, hits the starter and it fires right up.  I'm the knucklehead and that was my Saturday night.     

Maybe this will make your head feel less 'knuckley'...

One fine June day in 1971 I took my 750K1 to the carwash. It had been out in the rain on a long trip for 3 days, looked sad, so I really put it to it, washed everything, and real close. Then I let it dry for about an hour while I shined it up, too, just in case water got into things it shouldn't. Ready to ride, hop on, hit the starter, no start. Turns over, no start. Kick over, no start. Run-Off switch is set to Run, so check the points wres and under the cover: nope, no water there, wires are OK at the junction. Odd. Take off the gas tank, starting to get dark out. Follow the wires all through, all is good. Thinking now of taking off the headlight to see if a wire came loose inside the bucket? My hand happens to brush past the Run-Off switch when I walk past the end of the handlebar, and I hear the tiniest little, ...'click'.

What was that?

Touch the starter, fires right up, even without the tank on it.

Then I notice: the Run-Off switch's detent is too wide, and the pressure of the spray had pushed it past the edge where it still passed power to the coils.


...Honda fixed that in the K2, BTW...

[754]

I always wiggle the killswitch, after I check that it is on... Just habit..

[dave500]

yeah me to,you gotta settle it in square!

[grumpy]

OK, how about a stuff we used to do in the winter when there was nothing do do story...

take a spoke and cut it about an inch below the threads.
get some matches and scrape the sulfur compound of the tips
get another spoke and thread on a nipple about 1.5 turns so only 2-3 threads are engaged
pack the sulfur into the open end of the nipple
carefully thread on the short spoke so the only first half of the first thread is engaged
aim it at the wall, a box, an old tire, out the back door, etc.
heat the nipple with a lighter or torch...

 

[754]

We just did this,

[01Thomas]

Mike (oldfart), what a great story - and well written too!

I have never been a really skilled rider.  I do alright, but in the few times I could have been badly hurt street-riding, it was less skill and more God that kept me in one piece.  Of that I am certain.  Nonetheless, as a career motorcycle tech I naturally had some testosterone-charged thinking about my abilities.  I tended to view myself as pretty capable street-wise, especially since I worked and lived in So Cal and was steeped in its performance street-riding culture, even to working at metro L.A. motorcycle shops, one of them backing up to infamous Mullholland Drive and none

SNIP

With that moment rehearsed so many times, the race was a blur.  I owned that corner.  I remember being certain I would collide with him as we challenged the same space.  But I really didn't care.  I almost laughed as the next thing I knew, I was halfway to the onramp and he was several car lengths behind.  Once on the freeway I let him pass me as I slowed to a legal, sane pace, waving him off.  Just another day "doing" my corner.  Been a very long time since I have done anything like that, though I remember it, and that corner, like it was yesterday.

[01Thomas]

This happend to meet oo when I had just bought my K1, back in 1983. It caught me once and thereafter I used this to my advantage.
Go to a party, lots of chicks standing around the bike and someone asks "whose isw it it?"
I say "It's mine."
They say, "No way, you're to skinny to handle sych a big bike". (I was 22 years old, just out of the army and weighed about 60 kg/125 Lb?
I say "No seriously. Look, I have the key"
And then "it has a kickstarter. Bet you can't kick start theis bike. You must use the electric start all the time"
I say "No, I can kick it into life. Look, I'll show you" And I proceed to kickstart it within one or two kicks.
Then I switch it off with the killswitch and I say "I bet you can't kick start it?"
And some guy says "sure I can"
So I switch the killswitch to On again, but just so, and the guy kicks it ten times without even a sound.
Then I show him how it's done (after secretively pushing the killswitch microscopically into position).

Usually I got a couple of drinks out of the excercise :-)

Maybe this will make your head feel less 'knuckley'...

One fine June day in 1971 I took my 750K1 to the carwash. It had been out in the rain on a long trip for 3 days, looked sad, so I really put it to it, washed everything, and real close. Then I let it dry for about an hour while I shined it up, too, just in case water got into things it shouldn't. Ready to ride, hop on, hit the starter, no start. Turns over, no start. Kick over, no start. Run-Off switch is set to Run, SNIP
What was that?

Touch the starter, fires right up, even without the tank on it.

Then I notice: the Run-Off switch's detent is too wide, and the pressure of the spray had pushed it past the edge where it still passed power to the coils.

...Honda fixed that in the K2, BTW...

[krusty]

I have a shop story that goes back to the mid 60s. My 'shop' was a bank. When new trainees started, a few of the older blokes would play practical jokes on them which I think was the norm in almost any business.
One day we told a young noob that we were fresh out of Verbal Agreement forms and would he go down the street to rival bank and get some. The staff at the other bank were aware of this sort of thing and sent him back with a fistful of blank paper.
Another time a trainee was told to go down to the other bank and ask to borrow their General Ledger, which was probably the most important ledger book in a bank (This was in the days before computers and transactions were recorded in books).
So of he went. A short time later he came back with the other banks General Ledger! We were gob smacked. We asked him how it came about that they had given him this document. Turns out that a mate of his  had just started work at the other bank so he asked his mate for the General Ledger.  His mate, not knowing any better gave it to him.

[grcamna2]

I have a shop story that goes back to the mid 60s. My 'shop' was a bank. When new trainees started, a few of the older blokes would play practical jokes on them which I think was the norm in almost any business.
One day we told a young noob that we were fresh out of Verbal Agreement forms and would he go down the street to rival bank and get some. The staff at the other bank were aware of this sort of thing and sent him back with a fistful of blank paper.
Another time a trainee was told to go down to the other bank and ask to borrow their General Ledger, which was probably the most important ledger book in a bank (This was in the days before computers and transactions were recorded in books).
So of he went. A short time later he came back with the other banks General Ledger! We were gob smacked. We asked him how it came about that they had given him this document. Turns out that a mate of his  had just started work at the other bank so he asked his mate for the General Ledger.  His mate, not knowing any better gave it to him.

lol  Oh My !    Did the General Ledger find it's way back to it's 'home' bank before long..? 

[HondaMan]

I have a shop story that goes back to the mid 60s. My 'shop' was a bank. When new trainees started, a few of the older blokes would play practical jokes on them which I think was the norm in almost any business.
One day we told a young noob that we were fresh out of Verbal Agreement forms and would he go down the street to rival bank and get some. The staff at the other bank were aware of this sort of thing and sent him back with a fistful of blank paper.
Another time a trainee was told to go down to the other bank and ask to borrow their General Ledger, which was probably the most important ledger book in a bank (This was in the days before computers and transactions were recorded in books).
So of he went. A short time later he came back with the other banks General Ledger! We were gob smacked. We asked him how it came about that they had given him this document. Turns out that a mate of his  had just started work at the other bank so he asked his mate for the General Ledger.  His mate, not knowing any better gave it to him.

Holy cow!
That's too good not to pass on...

[dave500]

you forgot to transfer two million dollars into my account!

[krusty]

Yes HM, they did get their ledger back.
Sorry Dave, we only had pounds then.

[DH]

This one I heard just  today, not meant to hijack...
It seems that some of the new hybrid/electric cars coming out take a special type
of refrigerant oil ( the name escapes me)that must be used any time it's necessary to add oil to the system.
Supposedly, standard PAG and ESTER oils, IF used in these new electric vehicles'
a/c systems, have the ability to somehow build/absorb/conduct (?) an electrical charge, maybe from an electrically driven compressor, and emit
a shock of up to 80 amps to anyone working on a system in such condition.              Crazy stuff.....

[grcamna2]

Rubber gloves and rubber sole shoe...  

[70CB750]

This one I heard just  today, not meant to hijack...
It seems that some of the new hybrid/electric cars coming out take a special type
of refrigerant oil ( the name escapes me)that must be used any time it's necessary to add oil to the system.
Supposedly, standard PAG and ESTER oils, IF used in these new electric vehicles'
a/c systems, have the ability to somehow build/absorb/conduct (?) an electrical charge, maybe from an electrically driven compressor, and emit
a shock of up to 80 amps to anyone working on a system in such condition.              Crazy stuff.....

Once I helped jump start a Prius, the guy got himself a sandwich at gas station and sat in the car listening to radio for 20 minutes and that killed the battery apparently.  It took us a while just to find where to connect jumper cables, the manual is very specific about it to make sure you don't fry anything.  Quite the view, 1986 redneck looking jeep jump starting this technology miracle 

[rtbmrgl]

I was painting bikes at Westside Honda in Cheney, Washington back in the early 80's.  A very progressive, and very professional shop run by a bunch of 20-somethings.  We had a customer bring in his "custom painted" Goldwing to be serviced, and after he came to pick it up, he went ballistic about a scuff in the paint on the gas tank.  It was there when he brought it in, and we mentioned it to each other when he did, but he swore up and down that it had to've happened while being serviced.  I took it in back, color sanded the panel and polished it to a point that was so far beyond what the rest of the bike looked like, that he ended up paying me another $150 to do the rest of it so it would match..

Nice!