Topic: What did you do to your bike today ?

[CBGhia]

Well, it is a hot one here in Texas.  I got the 650 cam in and the new jets are in the carbs.  Need to adjust the valves, put in new plugs and get the carbs back in place.  I'm hoping I can get everything ironed out by next weekend.  Gotta be able to ride the hill country with Godzilla.

[Jerilee]

Got my new handlebars in the mail, opened, ooohhed... then put the tailbox in there with it, taped it up and put it on the porch to wait. 

[Bailgang]

I fired up the fresh engine today and so far it sounds good, still a bit of tuning to do but I'm happy so far but tomorrow will be the big test when I actually take it on the road to see how the trans feels now that I replaced all the trans bearings.

[evanphi]

Put my new LED lights and flasher on today. Front right low light (blue/white wire) when the headlight is on is not lighting up, and it didn't for the incandescent, either (I think). Going to chase this one down...

[Tews19]

Changed out the rear bearings on my K1. Put on Koni rear shocks as well.

[CBGhia]

650 cam in! Valves adjusted, timing set, new plugs, 110 jets, carbs back on, single K&N installed.  Pulls like a beast all the way up to... I have no idea because the 650 cam and tach drive are a different ratio.  But it pulls hard and feels pretty darn good.  I am going to try to ride it to work a few days next week and see how she handles it!   

I will take her on the freeway tomorrow.  Starting to get dark, and I do not have the headlight on it.

[Sparked]

A couple pictures from the my ride the other night.

[PeWe]

Started again!   
It ran very smooth. CX-7 cam advanced ~5-6 degrees compared with before, the cam must been set too late despite my long cam timing session finding the perfect lobe center. It indicated late inlet valve closal when it was running very rough on low rpm's. CX-7 cam can run very nice. It sounds very streetable !

My concern was inlet valve closing.
Less rattling sound. Better cam towers complete with rocker arms and shafts must have done a difference.

One problem though, clutch was stucked. I assembled the engine with new oil soaked plates 1 year ago. Not used, only revving in garage.
Better after rocking bike forward and back with gear in. Could finally start it with 1:st gear in and lever pressed.

Will drive today to ensure it work as it must. Have time for the audit tomorrow.

[evanphi]

Got out to the garage last night to check on that wonky blinker... and now it works? Gremlins...

Also took the primary drive cover off and cleaned out what appeared to be 39 years of crud/goop/oil. Nasty stuff. Had to get my dental picks in there to clean it all out. Got the big chunks anyway! I plan to close off my auto-oiler and use a proper chain lube.

[Bankerdanny]

Something, I did something after 8 months of nothing.

- Spooned a tire on a spare rear rim so that I could roll the bike out of the small garage and into the large one.

- Removed the clutch cover and clutch. Cleaned the oil sticky oil off of the plates, measured to make sure they were all in spec (they were), reoiled the plates, then reinstalled and replaced the cover with a fresh gasket.

- Removed the oil filter cover and installed the spin on conversion that I held onto when I sold the 'Wing. Installed a fresh Bosch filter and added oil (I had drained it last August when I dropped the pan to see the condition of the intake screen and if there was any metal in the pan, the answer was excellent and no).

- Considered setting the valves, but ran out of time. So cleaned up some accumulated crap from my work space and moved the bike back to the small garage to wait for me to do some more work in a couple weeks.

This week I will be ordering a replacement petcock bung to replace the one the PO stupidly cut off so that I won't have to buy another tank. I will however need to pay someone to TIG weld it in for me. It's worth it though because otherwise the tank is in really good shape.

[flybox1]

that spin on needs a pair of nutz 

[Bankerdanny]

It's definitely more conspicuous on the 550 than it was on the 'Wing, where it was partially hidden by the radiator and the cam belt covers.

I'm going to live with it for a bit and see whether the look works for me or if I will go back to the stock setup.

[mcswny]

that spin on needs a pair of nutz 

was thinkin the same thing.

[MCRider]

It's definitely more conspicuous on the 550 than it was on the 'Wing, where it was partially hidden by the radiator and the cam belt covers.

I'm going to live with it for a bit and see whether the look works for me or if I will go back to the stock setup.

Once the pipes are on it will look different, better, IMO.

[ChrisP.]

Learned the hard way that these older bikes have hard to find fuses...

[PeWe]

Learned the hard way that these older bikes have hard to find fuses...

Yes, 25mm glass fuses are no longer that common, 20 and 30 something, but not 25mm.

I have 15A in all 3... just for sure..protect against total wire melt down. All amp eaters have direct voltage from battery and hanging fuses close to  battery. These feed Head light Hi/Lo, ignition and horn via dedicated relays.

I installed the 4:th relay today for the horn that did not work well fed direct from horn switch. It needed 12V direct from battery via relay and fat wires to scream really load. Dual snail horn, the cheap one for $15US including shipping from UK to Sweden.
No more amps via handles, just activate relays and small lamps.

[PeWe]

Drove the bike again!!  First time since fall 1990.
40km's country road in total. Visited a friend where the bike stayed in coma for some years, his hen house/barn.
Ran a little bit too hot.
Probably caused by the choked 4-1 with tight silent baffle to pass the inspection. I advanced the ignition just for sure if it was too late... did not change the temp shown by the oil temp gauge mounted in the oil dipstick from Yamiya... really good thing

I'll know tomorrow after inspection and hopefully passed without problems. I'll change to the loud one allowing bike to breathe, check temp again.

[mcswny]

Drove the bike again!!  First time since fall 1990.
40km's country road in total. Visited a friend where the bike stayed in coma for some years, his hen house/barn.
Ran a little bit too hot.
Probably caused by the choked 4-1 with tight silent baffle to pass the inspection. I advanced the ignition just for sure if it was too late... did not change the temp shown by the oil temp gauge mounted in the oil dipstick from Yamiya... really good thing

I'll know tomorrow after inspection and hopefully passed without problems. I'll change to the loud one allowing bike to breathe, check temp again.

24 years!? Congratulations!

[Carver]

prepping to split the cases (a rod detached from the crank and broke one of the cylinder sleeves, any guesses on the total damage welcome) and found a gift from the PO 

[goldarrow]

That crack for the clutch lifter is so inevitable.  I cracked my k6's yesterday even when I was so careful about it.  My k5 survived doing it the same way...so I don't know what happens in between

[Terry in Australia]

That's a shame about the cracked clutch lifter mate, I've often thought about machining up some billet lifters, but I haven't broken any recently, so never got around to it.

[Terry in Australia]

It's definitely more conspicuous on the 550 than it was on the 'Wing, where it was partially hidden by the radiator and the cam belt covers.

I'm going to live with it for a bit and see whether the look works for me or if I will go back to the stock setup.

I've just installed a spin on filter on my Yamaha FJ1200 Danny, Yamaha were thoughtfull enough to mount the filter behind the crankshaft so it doesn't stick out at all, and the conversion kit (which would probably work on an SOHC4) was cheap, and came with a nice chrome K&N filter.

The downside of Yamaha's design is that you have to drain the oil out of the filter canister before you remove the filter, and you've got no choice but to dump oil all over your lower frame rails and back onto your engine's lower castings in the process, so with the spin on filter, most of those problems should be alleviated. Cheers, Terry.    

[Stev-o]

prepping to split the cases (a rod detached from the crank and broke one of the cylinder sleeves, any guesses on the total damage welcome) and found a gift from the PO 

I have an extra clutch lifter if you need one. They crack when not tightened in proper sequence.

[flybox1]

prepping to split the cases (a rod detached from the crank and broke one of the cylinder sleeves, any guesses on the total damage welcome) and found a gift from the PO 

I have an extra clutch lifter if you need one. They crack when not tightened in proper sequence.

I was nervous about installing mine just this past weekend....but 1/2 turn increments got it on.  It took a while, but it worked.

[edwardmorris]

First try at ultrasonic carb cleaning today, didn't work out perfect but still pretty great.