Cafe Vision maiden Voyage

[Lucky]

I had some cleaning to do today (carport, bike stuff in the house, etc) and started working on the bike about 2pm. 

I had prevoiusly patched (almost) all the holes in the tank, cleaned out the petcock, ended up going with the one that came with, but off the bike.  the mounting surface was corroded enough that it wouldn't hold the oring in place on one side, so i cleaned it out with a wire brush on the dremil, ans filled it with 2 part epoxy putty.  i made a flat gasket out of rubber gasket material, new hex bolts with faucet washer washers & filled it with gas.

oops, missed a hole! quick clean-up with a dremil & patched.

changed the oil again, the 'flush' oil was still in there.

i replaced the fuel line & vacuume lines to the petcock (filter looks new) & she cranked right up.

capped off the missing YICS (Dave has it)

rick sent me a new master cylinder, but it's corroded solid.  the broken off brake handle on the bike has green brake corrosion on it, tha cover screws were wallowed out.

i pulled the cover & the fluid actually looked  better than i expected.. a little jelly not much.

I installed the brake lever off ricks master. a bit banged up but very usable.

the bleeder opened with no fuss & to my complete shock & joy the brake bled easily.  i had no lever before, i can still pull it to the barm but they operate, & the fluid is fresh anyway....

i found a badly bent clutch lever i forgot i had.  i mounted it up & straightened it with an adjustable wrench.
CRACK!  ok, it's cracked, but not much, still usable...

i think i'm riding this thing today....

put air in the weather checked tires.  holding air, that's good...  the rear is a 120.  thought it looked wide because it was low on air....

i really might ride this thing today....

starts under protest with the side stand down.. i'll have to check that relay...

got my gear on, told my wife i was going up & down the street once...

started the bike, half expecting it to die once in gear..

KERCHUNK!!! stall

wtf...?

try it again

KERCHUNK!  bike jerks forward & stalls...

WTF??

Crap! the clutch pack is frozen.. i rocked that sucker for 40 min, was about to give up, wife & kids went in (cold) & all of a sudden SNAP! free it came...

Woo-Hooo! Victory!!!
This was the first problem i ever had with my first Vision, & one of my first posts Waaay back... QBS advised me to rock the bike back & forth, & with luck they would free up.  when they did & i posted back, QBS declaired Victory!

i backed the bike out on to the lawn, started her up, and... she died1

crank, start, die..  crank, start die... now my son, Kenny is the only one watching, & he's laughing..  couldn't believe it, it had been running great all along...

I noticed the new section of fuel line was a bit long & had kinked, shortened it up, problem solved.

i kept the rpms up a bit & rode it cautiously up the street..no problems at all...
turned around & NAILED IT.  (I'm a glutton for punishment  ::) )

i think i could have easily picked up the ft tire...maybe another day...

came back in the driveway & parked her in the shed for the night.

One big concern: the oil is white again.. not as white as before, but white.  i'm going to flush her out again & pray....

I think i've finally decided to name the bikes "Beauty & the Beast".. maybe not....

--Lucky

[Ron_McCoy]

Another one hits the street!  Way to go Lucky!

[Tiger]

 :) well, lets all see yer happy dance ;D :D :D :D :D :D :D... ;) Congrat's man... 8)

                 8).......TIGER....... 8)

[Night Vision]

I hate to say it, but I'm sure everyone's thinking it, two milkshakes in a row is not a good sign :(

maybe throw in a can of waterpump lube? maybe some Valvoline Maxlife oil to swell up the mechanical seal? I'm not sure which of those right case seals keeps the oil and vinegar separate. you haven't mentioned white smoke at all......

or.... maybe she just needs some more use  ;)

[Lucky]

I hate to say it, but I'm sure everyone's thinking it, two milkshakes in a row is not a good sign :(

maybe throw in a can of waterpump lube? maybe some Valvoline Maxlife oil to swell up the mechanical seal? I'm not sure which of those right case seals keeps the oil and vinegar separate. you haven't mentioned white smoke at all......

or.... maybe she just needs some more use  ;)

almost no white smoke.  first start up i expected it from sitting, second startup there was about 5 seconds of white smoke. today there was no smoke, but there were a few drops of warer fom the joint between the rt headpipe & collector...

now bear in mind, Sean mentioned to me something about it being out in the snow, uncovered without carbs...

i'm going to change the oil & filter again. there was NO filter in the bike to begin with, so we'll see if perhaps it was holding water too. i didn't change it this time.

when i got it the rad shroud was off, but the coolant in the rad wasn't low.
the overflow bottle was nearly empty, BUT the rear chrome tube leaks a bit.

the coolant looked great, either becuase there isn't any head gasses getting in, or it was changed.. (note that the fuel filter looks brand new too, it's the same plastic cone/bronze filter most of us use, & it's been on the bike for at least a couple of years.  weird...

i'm going to throw my cooling system pressure tester on it hopefully tomorrow.

--Lucky

[Night Vision]

my pipes have dripped before too...

I took Jason's advice and drilled holes in the bottoms. I thought my pipes were "dry"... but was amazed the first time I started it up, after the holes were drilled, and saw the spit on the garage floor. 

you might want to consider drilling them if the bike was left out.... anyone that wants to keep their pipes from rusting inside-out may want to also.

[Lucky]

I probably will, but i'd rather ditch those bastardized boat anchors in favor for some lightweight Macs...

i'm still amazed at the weight difference between my hybred 83  the Cafe Vision...

[h2olawyer]

Sounds mostly like a success!   ;D  Hope the crankcase milkshake ends, though.  Sounds a lot like the things I did to get Tractor on the road.  Not a ton of time & the tank freshly lined when I got it.  Glad to hear another one could be road ready soon.  Continued good fortune to you, Lucky!  After the disasterous trip to pick it up, it had better go well from here on out!!!!

H₂O

[Tiger]

...i'm going to throw my cooling system pressure tester on it hopefully tomorrow.
Lucky

:) That will give you some idea what you may be up against... :-\ Let us know the result Lucky.

                                     8).......TIGER....... 8)

[Lucky]

I pumped it up to 15-17 psi (my tester is 20 + years old) & it held pressure pretty well.  it's dropping veeeerry slowly, but all 4 of the chrome tube connections are weeping.

i'd say if there is any internal leak, it aint a big one.  i think it may just take a couple of flushes, i just haven't had a lot of time to do it, & like i said, i think it's less milky than the first time...  i'll keep you updated on this in the thread in the General section.

--Lucky

[mdskinner731]

sounds like the problem i have with my vision... milky white oil... let me kno what u think is wrong w/ yours. i think mines a mixture of it sitting and, has water in the engine and/or, the water pump seals are shot...
good luck lucky..

[kwells]

mdskinner...
once u determine that your oil is milky white...don't run it anymore without first putting new oil in to test if it was just some water that leaked into the old oil as it sat or if your engine is dumping coolant into your crankcase. 
I've had this happen to 2 of my cars...one was a blown headgasket, the other was a leaking lower intake manifold gasket....

Since often these bikes do tend to run hot my suspicion would be a head gasket.  I have not dealt with the mechanical water pump seal so that may be something to rule out.

[mdskinner731]

iv changed the oil prolly 4 times.. every time it turns out mikly~white.. the bike dont seem to run hot the temp gauge stays around the middle normal opereting temp.. no white smoke emmiting from exhaust pipe at all except the first time i ever fired it up.. which i think is expected a lil bit..its sat for years out side un-covered.

[kwells]

continued white smoke would only tell you that coolant is leaking into the cylinder itself.  Perhaps the water pump would be suspect if you cannot detect the coolant coming out of the exhaust (ah that sweet smell).

[Tiffanator]

Ok, so that's what like... 15-20 Visions that have gotten up and running since I got mine and yet it still sits. Geez... you guys are making me feel bad. I need to step it up and get mine cranked. I guess maybe I'm kinda scared to get to the point where it cranks cause I don't even want to know what else is going to go wrong. Are flames shooting out of the carb bad? Yeah... had those, once I dipped the carbs a second time they stopped though.
Good job Lucky... you guys are my heros. You take this beat up nothing of a bike and in a matter of less than two weeks its riding up and down the street... I'm going on 8 months or more into mine and I STILL have a leaky gas tank and no sputter.
I can't help with trouble shooting, can only say YOU ROCK!
Tiff.

[Night Vision]

I resesitated a dead V in less than a half hour once  ::) but only because it was a melted R&R cable  ;D . we should all be that lucky once in our lives...

you may want to hook up a pony tank for now, get past the leaky tank thing, and start sorting the rest out.

[Kenny]

  To get water/antifreeze leaking into the engine oil you will need a bad waterpump seal a bad oil seal and a plugged drain hole.(cavity drain). If you have bad Waterpump seal the fluid will leak out the drain hole.
   You are more likely to have a bad head gasket either way its not good news. :)
                          Cheers Ken S. 

[kwells]

a compression test will reveal that

[mdskinner731]

this winter im gonna do the compression test b4 the tear down process.. ill "redo" the whole bike as good as i can; send out the stuff i cant and put it back together hopfully by spring..

[Lucky]

weird thing, my compression tester won't thread in...

i really don't think i'm missing an adapter, but maybe..  i know i've used this same tester on my first Vision...

i changed the oil & ran it a couple of mins, & it turned milky again, but not as white.  i'm hoping, since i can't test the compression (yet) that it might just need several flushes..