Topic: The Happy-ish Thread. Share your small wins and mixed blessings.

[newday777]

Terry
Your next mission: to ride the High Country. A fact finding tour.
Report back with your findings. Include lots of pictures.

Edit.... OK I know you are headed into winter there, so this is your spring break mission.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, I’m really looking forward to getting the Hindenburg legally on the road, Sptty and I are picking up another engine for the white BMW tomorrow morning after it blew up last Sunday (oops…) and a back wheel with a new Stinko tyre for the Hindenburg before I buy a new Pirelli to match the one on the front.

I’ve ridden through the High Country many times over the years as it was a short cut on the ride from my home town to Sydney or Canberra. Beautiful scenery and magnificent winding roads, with some scary drops into the valleys below if you misjudged a corner. One time back in the 90’s on my BMW K100RT, which was a fantastic ride once I got off the dirt logging roads and back onto the bitumen. It was a 500+ mile ride, from Melbourne up the hume Freeway to Albury then across to Bairnsdale via Omeo to have dinner with my folks before riding back to Melbourne in the dark.

I almost got wiped out by some 4 wheel drivers in the dirt whhen they came around a blind corner on my side of the road, and again when a mob of Kangaroos crossed my path, but was still a great ride. I think the last ride was up to Swifts Creek to pick up a 1935 Triumph 350 engine that fit neatly into one of the side cases of my BMW. The old guy I bought it from had a huge collection of classic British bikes and let me take his Velocette Thruxton 500 for a ride from Swifts Creek to Omeo and back, and I was really impressed at how well that old bike handled.

Sadly Vic Antonov, the owner, passed away a few years ago and I often wonder what happened to his bike collection, he only had one son, but he was killed when he crashed his Harley afew years prior. Anyway, yes, I must go for a ride back up there soon.

[grcamna2]

Thanks guys, I’m really looking forward to getting the Hindenburg legally on the road, Sptty and I are picking up another engine for the white BMW tomorrow morning after it blew up last Sunday (oops…) and a back wheel with a new Stinko tyre for the Hindenburg before I buy a new Pirelli to match the one on the front.

I’ve ridden through the High Country many times over the years as it was a short cut on the ride from my home town to Sydney or Canberra. Beautiful scenery and magnificent winding roads, with some scary drops into the valleys below if you misjudged a corner. One time back in the 90’s on my BMW K100RT, which was a fantastic ride once I got off the dirt logging roads and back onto the bitumen. It was a 500+ mile ride, from Melbourne up the hume Freeway to Albury then across to Bairnsdale via Omeo to have dinner with my folks before riding back to Melbourne in the dark.

I almost got wiped out by some 4 wheel drivers in the dirt whhen they came around a blind corner on my side of the road, and again when a mob of Kangaroos crossed my path, but was still a great ride. I think the last ride was up to Swifts Creek to pick up a 1935 Triumph 350 engine that fit neatly into one of the side cases of my BMW. The old guy I bought it from had a huge collection of classic British bikes and let me take his Velocette Thruxton 500 for a ride from Swifts Creek to Omeo and back, and I was really impressed at how well that old bike handled.

Sadly Vic Antonov, the owner, passed away a few years ago and I often wonder what happened to his bike collection, he only had one son, but he was killed when he crashed his Harley afew years prior. Anyway, yes, I must go for a ride back up there soon.

Terry, Vic Antonov sounds like a very nice individual indeed;I really need to move out of this area and look for some friends in a 'new to me' place. 
I also love to travel 

[Terry in Australia]

Yeah he was a great old guy and a brilliant engineer. He owned a bike shop in Melbourne in the 50’s but got sick of not getting paid so moved everything to Swifts Creek to work as the “Saw Doctor” at the timber mill. He’d bought 2 new Myford Lathes when he owned the shop, and when I went to visit him he’d only just unboxed the second one, so he had a “Roughing lathe”, and a “Finishing lathe”. He had a beautiful collection of road and race bikes, and the 350 engine I bought had been one of his “unpaid” jobs (resleeved with new piston) that he’d brought from Melbourne all those years ago.

[scottly]

Sptty and I are picking up another engine for the white BMW tomorrow morning after it blew up last Sunday (oops…)

I thought it was OK after you cleaned the cellophane off of the pick-up screen??

[Terry in Australia]

It was running beautifully, no horrible vibrations or knocking noises, so I took it for a ride. At around 70 MPH it went “Bang” and locked up. I pulled the clutch in and rolled to a halt. It looked OK, until I noticed a tiny hole in the crankshaft cover, with a conrod bolt hanging out. Luckily I’d won $1000 on a poker machine on Saturday night so I did a FB Marketplace search and found a lady selling off a heap of K100 parts including 3 engines so I bought the best one.

Spotty and I are going for a drive tomorrow to collect it, we’ll strip the sump plate and crankshaft cover, oil/water pump assembly off and make sure it’s good to go, paint it, and install it. Should be fun.

[grcamna2]

It was running beautifully, no horrible vibrations or knocking noises, so I took it for a ride. At around 70 MPH it went “Bang” and locked up. I pulled the clutch in and rolled to a halt. It looked OK, until I noticed a tiny hole in the crankshaft cover, with a conrod bolt hanging out. Luckily I’d won $1000 on a poker machine on Saturday night so I did a FB Marketplace search and found a lady selling off a heap of K100 parts including 3 engines so I bought the best one.

Spotty and I are going for a drive tomorrow to collect it, we’ll strip the sump plate and crankshaft cover, oil/water pump assembly off and make sure it’s good to go, paint it, and install it. Should be fun.

Glad to hear you found an engine Terry.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Bill, well when you’re sitting on the side of the freeway for two and a half hours on Mother’s Day waiting for a tow truck you have to find ways to amuse yourself. I checked Facebook marketplace and a lady who lives near Heathcote is selling a pile if bike parts for an old drag racer/hoarder. Apart from all the BMW K100 parts, she has some really cool old Japanese stuff from the 70’s including Suzuki GT750 engines (haven’t seen any CB750 stuff, not that I need it)

Sadly she won’t be around this weekend but she’s left the engine and back wheel near the front gate, and she’s invited me back when she’s home to go through his barn if I need anything else. I’ll keep the original engine to rebuild on another day, but at the moment I just want to get it up and running again. I did a pricing exercise on the premise that I haven’t damaged the block (the little hole that the conrod bolt shot through is a bolt on cover) but prices for new OEM parts is awful ($500 just for a top end gasket kit) so I’ll have to wait, some of my other bikes need some love too, and retirement is only 18 months away.

[grcamna2]

Thanks Bill, well when you’re sitting on the side of the freeway for two and a half hours on Mother’s Day waiting for a tow truck you have to find ways to amuse yourself. I checked Facebook marketplace and a lady who lives near Heathcote is selling a pile if bike parts for an old drag racer/hoarder. Apart from all the BMW K100 parts, she has some really cool old Japanese stuff from the 70’s including Suzuki GT750 engines (haven’t seen any CB750 stuff, not that I need it)

Sadly she won’t be around this weekend but she’s left the engine and back wheel near the front gate, and she’s invited me back when she’s home to go through his barn if I need anything else. I’ll keep the original engine to rebuild on another day, but at the moment I just want to get it up and running again. I did a pricing exercise on the premise that I haven’t damaged the block (the little hole that the conrod bolt shot through is a bolt on cover) but prices for new OEM parts is awful ($500 just for a top end gasket kit) so I’ll have to wait, some of my other bikes need some love too, and retirement is only 18 months away.

Were you far from home when that nice white/blue BMW blew up ?

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Bill, around 20 miles from home. Just got back from collecting the other engine with Spotty, we’ll dig into it tomorrow.

[BenelliSEI]

Terry…… what’s the “triangle” for?

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks John, probably a bracket for the boat anchor chain? Ha ha, I'm guessing he'd made it for picking up and moving K100 engines (he has a few) with an engine crane or something similar.

We had a great drive in the new (to me) Ford, a quick-ish 120 mile drive with stops for a church "Op Shop" where Spotty and I bought some terrible records and a Sammy Davis Jnr CD which Spotty politely suffered through on the way home. We did stop at the bakery for an early lunch, I really miss the Heathcote bakery, I must ride up there and have a pie again soon, maybe on the Hindenburg.

K100RS Saturday 18 May 2024 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Speaking of the Hindenburg, which is running marvelously after I spent Thursday wiring in a proper electric fuel pump harness that I bought from Ebay. Much better than my first attempt with just a switch and a fuse, this one has much heavier wiring, a relay and a weather proof fuse, and I wired it into the ignition switch, rather than a toggle switch like last time. I also bought a back wheel from the engine seller, with an almost brand new Stinko 712 tyre. Removing the back wheel on a K100 is probably the easiest I have ever done on a bike, remove 4 bolts and take the wheel off, simple.

K100RS Saturday 18 May 2024 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Only problem I encountered were the "cones" that help locate the wheel bolts. 2 came out with their bolts, but the other two wouldn't, so I had to think laterally. I have a great wheel bearing removal tool, but the closest size was 12mm and the holes were probably 13mm, so I found a roll of aluminium flashing, cut off a strip, wrapped it around the puller and jammed it in, then forced the "wedge" into the slot and bashed it out with a hammer. Both came out pretty easily.

K100RS Saturday 18 May 2024 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

K100RS Saturday 18 May 2024 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

K100RS Saturday 18 May 2024 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

K100RS Saturday 18 May 2024 7 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Anyway, once that was sorted, the "new" wheel and tyre assembly went on, and I took it for a short ride to make sure the wheel wasn't gonna fall off, plus I just wanted to take it for a ride....

K100RS Saturday 18 May 2024 8 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

By this time it was getting late, so I packed up for the day, checked all the "vitals" under the hood of the Ford, and came inside for dinner. Tomorrow Spotty and I will have a good look at the engine I bought, which we've lifted up onto his heavy duty engine bench.

K100RS Saturday 18 May 2024 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr   

[grcamna2]

Glad you were able to remove that cone Terry;use plenty of anti-seize.
The engine looks good;hope it's 'a runner' and able to get you many more miles.

[PeWe]

Terry, you will inspect the oil pan and pump strainer?
Old engines (can) have lots of debris and oil sludge.
Some oils seem prone to create sludge faster than others.

[Kelly E]

It looks like your "new tire" was made in the 16th week of 2010. Not exactly new.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, yes Per, we’re going to remove the cam cover, oil pan and crankshaft cover and clean and inspect everything. There’s no oil/water pump on it so I’ll use the one I just rebuilt. I’m hoping that it’s all good, but if not, a better candidate for a rebuild core. Fcuk Kelly, I read it the other way and thought it was the 10th month of 2016? Oh well, off to the tyre shop on payday for a new one!

[grcamna2]

Thanks guys, yes Per, we’re going to remove the cam cover, oil pan and crankshaft cover and clean and inspect everything. There’s no oil/water pump on it so I’ll use the one I just rebuilt. I’m hoping that it’s all good, but if not, a better candidate for a rebuild core. Fcuk Kelly, I read it the other way and thought it was the 10th month of 2016? Oh well, off to the tyre shop on payday for a new one!

The tire looks like it needs a good,smoky burn-out before you have it changed;melt that sucker 

[RAFster122s]

So
the k100 that was the rare version did the self destruct?  Sorry to read that but glad you found a replacement.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, smoky burnouts are not something I do on any bikes nowadays Bill, and the thought of doing one on a shaft drive BMW just makes me wonder how expensive it would be if the tailshaft gave up the ghost mid-burnout? I think I'll just take the wheel and tyre to the next swap meet and sell it instead. Yes David, it was the K100RS SE ("Special Edition") that blew up sadly, although it may be rebuildable, I really don't want to take the crankshaft cover off, and find out.......

Yesterday Spotty and I stripped all the ancillaries off the "new" engine, then removed the cam cover:

K100 engine clean 19 May 2024 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Crankshaft cover:

K100 engine clean 19 May 2024 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

and dropped the sump pan:

K100 engine clean 19 May 2024 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

All looked good, no metal or gunge in the pan, no movement in the big ends or main bearings, so I'm happy that it's a good one. We turned the engine over and there were no horrible noises. We didn't go as far as removing the head, because a top end gasket set is $500 (AUD) but all the valves opened and closed, so I'm calling it good. We removed the oil filter and oil pickup tube and flushed it out, but only old oil came out, once again, no foreign bodies (well, being German I suppose it is foreign, but you know what I mean.) I gave the inside of the engine a cursory wipe out, and didn't find any crap.

K100 engine clean 19 May 2024 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

That was the interesting part of the day (which was wet, cold and generally miserable) the rest we spent vacuuming, brushing, degreasing and cleaning everything in preparation for painting, as it's the standard silver (bare aluminium) engine and needs to be painted a nice glossy black, like the SE's. Still more scrubbing to do next weekend, but after around 6 hours out in the cold, we'd both had enough for the day, so we coated the engine in some fancy foaming degreaser that Spotty had, and hopefully it'll soak into the very pores of the engine and bring it back up like it's been vapor blasted. That's defininitely not gonna happen, but it's a nice thought.

We did drop the spark plugs and various engine bolts in the tiny Amazon ultrasonic cleaner, and I'm constantly impressed with what a great job it does. Anyhoo, more later.    

[PeWe]

Look good, Terry!
A little bit too good

[grcamna2]

Thanks guys, smoky burnouts are not something I do on any bikes nowadays Bill, and the thought of doing one on a shaft drive BMW just makes me wonder how expensive it would be if the tailshaft gave up the ghost mid-burnout? I think I'll just take the wheel and tyre to the next swap meet and sell it instead. Yes David, it was the K100RS SE ("Special Edition") that blew up sadly, although it may be rebuildable, I really don't want to take the crankshaft cover off, and find out.......

Yesterday Spotty and I stripped all the ancillaries off the "new" engine, then removed the cam cover:

K100 engine clean 19 May 2024 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Crankshaft cover:

K100 engine clean 19 May 2024 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

and dropped the sump pan:

K100 engine clean 19 May 2024 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

All looked good, no metal or gunge in the pan, no movement in the big ends or main bearings, so I'm happy that it's a good one. We turned the engine over and there were no horrible noises. We didn't go as far as removing the head, because a top end gasket set is $500 (AUD) but all the valves opened and closed, so I'm calling it good. We removed the oil filter and oil pickup tube and flushed it out, but only old oil came out, once again, no foreign bodies (well, being German I suppose it is foreign, but you know what I mean.) I gave the inside of the engine a cursory wipe out, and didn't find any crap.

K100 engine clean 19 May 2024 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

That was the interesting part of the day (which was wet, cold and generally miserable) the rest we spent vacuuming, brushing, degreasing and cleaning everything in preparation for painting, as it's the standard silver (bare aluminium) engine and needs to be painted a nice glossy black, like the SE's. Still more scrubbing to do next weekend, but after around 6 hours out in the cold, we'd both had enough for the day, so we coated the engine in some fancy foaming degreaser that Spotty had, and hopefully it'll soak into the very pores of the engine and bring it back up like it's been vapor blasted. That's defininitely not gonna happen, but it's a nice thought.

We did drop the spark plugs and various engine bolts in the tiny Amazon ultrasonic cleaner, and I'm constantly impressed with what a great job it does. Anyhoo, more later.

Looks great Terry,a good engine;you chose well. 

The big engine Kawasaki you built looks to be put together with drag strip  engine components;put a little bleach down,it'll ease the friction.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, I'm happy that it looks so good internally, just need to make it look as nice externally, and it'll be good to go.

[BenelliSEI]

Sold my K8 today. It’s been parked since a complete resto (+10 years). Went to a fellow that looked at several for 1/2 the price of mine and decided he wanted one 3x as nice as the rest! He appreciates it and will be riding it regularly. Great!

[RAFster122s]

Congratulations John

[grcamna2]

Sold my K8 today. It’s been parked since a complete resto (+10 years). Went to a fellow that looked at several for 1/2 the price of mine and decided he wanted one 3x as nice as the rest! He appreciates it and will be riding it regularly. Great!

Seems like a good experience 'all around' John