Topic: What did you do to your bike today ?

[flybox1]

Going on vacation with the family for a week, so I though i'd see if I could get her started and running before we leave.
(I had the engine out to replace the main and counter shaft gears to fix a lack-of-5th gear)
Battery on charger(its been sitting for a few months)
Mixed one 4oz bottle of ZDDP in 1gal Bel-Ray EXL Mineral 4T 20w50
100oz+/-  was split between the head, oil galley and oil tank.
New L control switch installed.
front signals and wiring done in headlight.
35/35w H4 installed
Fuel on. Key on. Lights and flashers good.  Smell fuel.  Fuel off.  Dripping #2 carb from bowl seam.   

start-up will have to wait for another weekend 

[strynboen]

took the MZ for a spin..

[Buttmask]

Really more of what I've done to my bike over the past month on my 1975 CB750F0

New tires, Avon Roadriders
Sent out my rotors to get drilled, by member Anubis
New SS brake lines from Slingshot
Rebuilt calipers, front and back
Dialed my coils back to dyna 5OHMS, couldnt stand having a dead battery dealing with city traffic every day in combo with a halogen bulb
Brand new OEM kill/start control
Tracked down(crazy hard, I'm really worried I wont be able to find a whole set again) and installed new OEM needles and needle seats, new stock jets, cleaned carbs.
Fresh fork oil, put in 15w instead of ATF, very happy with the results
Adjusted cam chain tensioner
Gave her a bath.

[Cqyqte]

  rode her the first time this year, still too sandy on the road to have fun.  But it's a start!

[Retro Rocket]

Really more of what I've done to my bike over the past month on my 1975 CB750F0

New tires, Avon Roadriders
Sent out my rotors to get drilled, by member Anubis
New SS brake lines from Slingshot
Rebuilt calipers, front and back
Dialed my coils back to dyna 5OHMS, couldnt stand having a dead battery dealing with city traffic every day in combo with a halogen bulb
Brand new OEM kill/start control
Tracked down(crazy hard, I'm really worried I wont be able to find a whole set again) and installed new OEM needles and needle seats, new stock jets, cleaned carbs.
Fresh fork oil, put in 15w instead of ATF, very happy with the results
Adjusted cam chain tensioner
Gave her a bath.

Thats a tidy looking F there mate....

[evanphi]

Got some more things ticked off "the list"...

I made some shims out of gasket material to get adequate compression of my stud pucks. Gasket material is 0.75mm, cut in 1" circles.

with the crop of too-thin head seals we keep seeing, here is a way you can check the ones you got in your gasket kit (or elsewhere, like PartsNmore or CB750Supply, etc.).

First, check the step depth of the head hole. Then, check the thickness of your seal. You need at LEAST .030" compression, .040" is better. The too-thin ones are only about .005" thicker, which won't seal when the head heats up and the hole becomes deeper.

The pics tell the story!




This would have resulted in only 0.010" of compression. Not enough!






Boom! 0.040" thicker than the recess!


Also checked my float heights with clear tube method. I used water indoors. No gas.



Checked them all to the line on the left, which is 3mm below the lip of the bowl.



They all had to come up about 1-2mm, as I had replaced the needle valves with aftermarket parts, and the little spring in the needle is very stiff!


Also did end up making a custom bolt for the rear brake torque arm, as described in my previous post. I used a 1/2" stainless bolt that was 2" long. Went over to have my Father use his fancy-dancy lathe to turn the shaft down to 10mm diameter. Then cut 1.25" worth of M10 threads. PO had enlarged the hole at the end of the torque arm to 10mm. Then I filed down the bolt head to 15mm wide on the skinny sides. Slid it in perfectly! Using a nylon lock nut as well as a lock washer, this bolt won't be going anywhere!

Good start to a 4-day birthday weekend!

[Spanner 1]

Beer and wrenching !

[evanphi]

Beer and wrenching !

Just finished wrenching... now beer and forum-ing!

[eigenvector]

Bled the last of the air from the recently replaced brake line.  Now the brakes actually work - like I can trust them fully in traffic.

Will bleed them again tomorrow just for peace of mind.

Took the ol' gal out on a speed run afterwards, not very stable over 50mph, may need to take a look at the steering head.

Even after sitting in the rain for a week, it started first time with the kickstarter.

[Ace]

Bolted the head and didn't fall into the trap of forgetting to put the orings in at the back of the barrels, didn't drop the cam can and then as the oil rings were about to slide on the sleeve, crap forgot the dowels on the barrels. Got side tracked with kids earlier on and forgot them. Oh well, at least I found them and now torqued the head down in sequence. Back tomorrow to re-torque and button it all up.

[eigenvector]

As luck would have it, my new grips came in the mail today. 

The old foam rubber ones came off fairly easily, the Honda originals slipped on with minimal trouble.  Whole swapout took less than 15 minutes. 

I didn't even need to use glue (gulp!).

[DaveBarbier]

Not my bike, but my friend has a 2002 Harley and I'm nice enough to help him out. He said that his rear lights were working strangely and didn't know why. So we pulled the rear fender and found this:



Apparently PO's F-up all bikes, not just SOHC4s!


---
1978 Honda CB550K

[Bailgang]

Now that I've got my GL1100 roadworthy it's the bike my wife and I choose to ride when we ride 2 up which is cool because I was finally able to pull the ugly his/hers seat off my F2 and put the factory seat back on it.

[socal1200r]

Not my bike, but my friend has a 2002 Harley and I'm nice enough to help him out. He said that his rear lights were working strangely and didn't know why. So we pulled the rear fender and found this:



Apparently PO's F-up all bikes, not just SOHC4s!

When I had my 2005 Sportster 1200R, I found that the wire harness going to the rear tail light and turn signals was run under the fender, so it doesn't surprise me that the harness in the picture looks like that.  Since most HD owners lower their bikes, it was probably months/years of the tire rubbing against the harness, or something like that, and there's the result.

---
1978 Honda CB550K

[Burvis]

Started it for the first time!  I have been building it for almost a year, and today it fired for the first time.  Here's a link to my blog about the bike, a 1971 Honda CB500 - j4ckcampbe11.tumblr.com



So, it's running on 3 out of 4 cylinders - badly.  I have to leave the choke on to run at all, it seems to run best on about half choke, and it won't idle, despite the idle screw being all the way in.

We pulled the #4 plug, checked gap, verified spark, then I checked the float bowl, it's getting gas.

The engine is rebuilt - bored +3mm to 560 cc, new everything, plugs (Ndea7 gapped to .032) points, condenser, etc.  Valve clearances set and checked.  The coils, plug wires and caps are all old but functional.

Any ideas from the hive mind why it doesn't run any better?

[seanbarney41]

...ditched the previous owners shidt pod filters and installed HA Breadbox with fresh UNI foam, runs nice with 4-1 and 120 mains

[DaveBarbier]

Not my bike, but my friend has a 2002 Harley and I'm nice enough to help him out. He said that his rear lights were working strangely and didn't know why. So we pulled the rear fender and found this:



Apparently PO's F-up all bikes, not just SOHC4s!

When I had my 2005 Sportster 1200R, I found that the wire harness going to the rear tail light and turn signals was run under the fender, so it doesn't surprise me that the harness in the picture looks like that.  Since most HD owners lower their bikes, it was probably months/years of the tire rubbing against the harness, or something like that, and there's the result.

Yeah, it seemed like that happened here. But it was also filled with bullet connectors and electrical tape, so that didn't help.


---
1978 Honda CB550K

[PeWe]

I'm now with my CB750 project where I should have been 1 year ago!
Last problem a Dyna ignition wire with intermittent failure, engine cyl ran bad not completely off. This have caused problems most of 2014.

I have had more problems last restore (engine start end of 2013) than all years I have had with the bike before, 79-90 when  I just took it appart and back together again, started on first attempt running fine. (Except for a piston melt down due to lean carbs, maybe together with ignition)

This is the engine tuning related only since end of 2013 until today
- Ign advancer springs too sloppy causing really bad idle when full adv at 1500rpm
- Flowing carb floats (My old VM29). Some pitch black spark plugs due to these 2 first issues.
- New Ultimate coil had weak wire attachment, screws just broke from it with wires, ended up in fried Pamco unit (2-3). No warranty when I bought it over 1 year earlier. Used it 2-3 months winter time mostly not running bike.
- Bought new Dyna-S ignition with 5 ohms coils and Dyna suppressed wires, one of the wires must have been bad from the beginning or almost making carb jetting impossible. Too late for warranty, I might have broken it.
- Carb jetting during 2014 (Mikuni VM29) ended up in new much better carbs 2015, Mikuni TMR32

Upon this broken HD cyl stud, changing cams several times, bad new CycleX valves, new rear brake switch had bad plug insulation that fell off that ended up in short cicuit twice-  bike stopper. Threads in head bad, need helicoil and big-sert when helicoil went bad holding cam.
Problems riveting my new a very tough chain with solid link. Hollow link next time.

Finally runnig almost OK and no oil leak. I had one big last week, it was the front bolt on breather cover on valve cover that was not tightened at all. Oil all over the engine and my left leg. I was close to lift valve cover, cam and cam towers to fix rubber pucks and reseal cam holder stud(s). Happy to not need that. Every removal/assemble of valve cover and cam holders is a major risk getting a stripped thread or 2, 3.

[Ace]

I'm now with my CB750 project where I should have been 1 year ago!
Last problem a Dyna ignition wire with intermittent failure, engine cyl ran bad not completely off. This have caused problems most of 2014.

I have had more problems last restore (engine start end of 2013) than all years I have had with the bike before, 79-90 when  I just took it appart and back togehter again, started on first attempt running fine. (Except for a piston melt down due to lean carbs, maybe together with ignition)

This is the engine tuning related only since end of 2013 until today
- Ign advancer springs too sloppy causing really bad idle when full adv at 1500rpm
- Flowing carb floats (My old VM29). Some pitch black spark plugs due to these 2 first issues.
- New Ultimate coil had weak wire attachment, screws just broke from it with wires, ended up in fried Pamco unit (2-3). No warranty when I bought it over 1 year earlier. Used it 2-3 months winter time mostly not running bike.
- Bought new Dyna-S ignition with 5 ohms coils and Dyna suppressed wires, one of the wires must have been bad from the beginning or almost making carb jetting impossible. Too late for warranty, I might have broken it.
- Carb jetting during 2014 (Mikuni VM29) ended up in new much better carbs 2015, Mikuni TMR32

Upon this broken HD cyl stud, changing cams several times, bad new CycleX valves, new rear brake switch had bad plug insulation that fell off that ended up in short cicuit twice-  bike stopper. Threads in head bad, need helicoil and big-sert when helicoil went bad holding cam.
Problems riveting my new a very tough chain with solid link. Hollow link next time.

Finally runnig almost OK and no oil leak. I had one big last week, it was the front bolt on breather cover on valve cover that was not tightened at all. Oil all over the engine and my left leg. I was close to lift valve cover, cam and cam towers to fix rubber pucks and reseal cam holder stud(s). Happy to not need that. Every removal/assemble of valve cover and cam holders is a major risk getting a stripped thread or 2, 3.

Gee wiz PeWe, a run of things not going your way. Finished up 1am this morning putting the engine in the bike and connecting things. Still have the air box, pipes to go and then I'll run it and sync it. I've had the problem of poor valve guide seals, oil getting past rings and fuel in the air box. I think that maybe from too rich idle mixture?? Haven't looked into that one yet. Good luck with your ride.

[MoMo]

After I got back from the Ephrata Breakfast I had to take the battery out of the Pacific Coast(better known as the golf cart).  What a PITA!    Had to remove half the right side of the bike just to get at the battery.  All the following had to come off


just to reveal this

[canonball]

replaced a fuel line that was leaking, new headlight installed, new battery is charging at the moment and then that will go in, I've also got a new chain and sprockets waiting to go on as well. Getting a late start on prepping the bike for the great weather we're starting to get around here.

[Ace]

Put fuel in the carbys, hit the started and away she went after a rebuild. Sounded better than before. Ran for 15 mins about 2000 rpm. Later on warmed it back up and sync'd the carbs. All back together again. Knocking back a cold one now and pleased with my efforts. No leaks yet 

[PeWe]

Ace: Nice that your bike is OK too after the rebuild.
I had bad combination of errors. Not tuned carbs with unknown need of jets and interrmittent ignition wire at the same time. If carbs were known to be OK, I should have replaced the wires much earlier.

Bike is running better and better. Now rather smooth idle, nice handling cruising around without jerky throttle responce when starting from standing still.
Did 2 test runs today with different main jets, both in the right direction going leaner. Changed them again one step smaller, I'll test them tomorrow.

[Ace]

Ace: Nice that your bike is OK too after the rebuild.
I had bad combination of errors. Not tuned carbs with unknown need of jets and interrmittent ignition wire at the same time. If carbs were known to be OK, I should have replaced the wires much earlier.

Bike is running better and better. Now rather smooth idle, nice handling cruising around without jerky throttle responce when starting from standing still.
Did 2 test runs today with different main jets, both in the right direction going leaner. Changed them again one step smaller, I'll test them tomorrow.

I had my bike tuned by an engine builder/racer many years ago who knew his stuff. Since then, I haven't had to change the jetting. I've done the emulsion tube mod as suggested by Hondaman and that's it. Sometimes it pays for someone else to do it if you can find someone who you trust that has all the right gear and knows their stuff.

[Tintop]

Changed the bars for a Renthal super bike set. Should save my back somewhat. Got lucky and all the custom short cables made for the flat bars work OK.  Ordered a Yosh copy 4-1 for it.  The police are doing db checks, and it wouldn't have passed with the 4-4 mega's.