Did some stuff today (Update 4-15)

[inanecathode]

So i did a few things to Blackula today, nothing too major:
I thought i heard the starter clutch complaining the other day, so i set out today to fix it, along with a leak along the bottom of the left engine cover. I tried the ole lean-r-over trick on a trashcan with some carpet padding and it seemed to work fine, no oil came out of the left side even though it was full when i pulled up.
Stator looks TOTALLY FRIED so i probably should replace it. Even though its working fine, and they ALL look like that. Maybe i can have a shaman bless the armature, i'm still researching it. Anyway, i digress. Starter clutch, right. So i had the left side of the bike all exploded apart and THEN i realized i would need a puller. So i call up the local handy dandy taxi service (my brother lives near) and had him give me a ride to checkers (is it o'reillies now?) and rented a puller.
I roll up all confident until i realized i had rented a JAW puller, not a HARMONIC BALANCER puller. Well, crap. So i take a sharp punch and try to tighten the bolts from the back side (old school trick works great for broken off drill bit ends down in a hole) and the bolts wouldnt tighten anymore, so i determined they were never actually loose. This isnt too surprising as the bolt ends were all on the same level and where they should be in the bores. So i took the handy dandy 5lb sledge and peened the ever loving shit out of the end of the bolts so they'll never even THINK about coming out on their own until the second coming.
This is the part where i realize i'm almost out of RTV and might not even have enough to seal up the case, turns out i had just barely enough (before you say it, i'm not reusing a crushed paper gasket of questionable age and condition :P). I get it all buttoned up without any problems, and i get the bike stood up to get the oil sitting on the sealed sections to see if it wants to leak. No leaks, so i then put all the pretty pieces back on and hook up the shifter and the clutch cable and go to start it. This is when i find out that when i laid it over, i inadvertantly forced a bunch of oil into the starter (or monkeyed up the starter counter gear which i dont think is possible i didnt even go behind the flywheel) and now the starter turns over very labored and almost not fast enough to start it.
It had sat the whole time with half empty bowls (overflowed some of the gas out of the bowls) so it didnt start and in about 5 revolutions of the engine the starter quit working, so i had to bump start it to get it to take me and it back to where i got the bike from.
So that worked out ok, except for when i was parking i noticed the idle was hanging a bit more than it normally does, and upon leaning down to make sure theres nothing disconnected i poked one of the yikes caps and the 'sniffing' sound it normally makes got significantly louder. So THATS where that noise has been coming from. Then i poked the front cylinder cap (it was pretty cracked as well) and the damn thing just broke clean off. That would explain why it was acting like it had a vacuum leak  :D
I'll probably hunt down one of the many paper weights yikes boxes i have kicking around and see if i can find one thats sealed up ok and plug that into the holes in the heads. I dont have any vacuum caps, but i do have some hose so i might as well hook it up to plug the holes in the heads anyway :)
Only have a few things to do, fork seals, brake pads i think are all that are left. Now if h2o would get back to me about the fork seal clips i left at his house i could get the fork seals done soon  ;) :P

[musicweb]

Sounds like you had a good day.... ::)

It'll all work out....

I got home to find that the clutch perch I ordered was the wrong one, and it was supposedly from the same bike I ordered the clutch lever for!
I guess I'll use my broken one until I can find a matched set.
I got a lever off ebay that was said to fit an '82, but it's not the same as my broken one.

Oh well, it was cheap enough, only $4.....

[akvision]

Inane,
I guess you have your own issues to sort out. :-\

I am hoping you have it together by that May ride. 
Am coming from Alaska to check out my V (in Littleton) with my part harley kid.

My wife is asking, why are we doing this?   "It is a visit to see the grand kids!   But, I am going riding."
I am looking forward to meeting you all.   :)

[inanecathode]

Haha yeah, well if you were around when we had the 25 year ROV meet i had alot more urgent problems to get done. I cant remember exactly, but i think i ended up having to fix like three problems and repaint the tank three days before the meet was supposed to be on. I had the canopy up with some lights and worked well into the night trying to fix problems!

The good thing is, i know exactly whats wrong and i've got parts to fix every single problem it has right now. I also know how to do all of whats wrong, and roughly how long it will take. I think i'm pretty good.

Theres another ride in may hopefully i'll be able to go to with the RD thats like a 300 mile loop of mountain passes. I havent even started the RD yet this year so theres another project i have to get done quickly!

I am starting a new job on the 15th though, restaurant thing. I'm really suspecting i'll have to work on the weekends so im not sure if i'll actually be able to make it to any of the rides :/
Here's crossing fingers though  :D

[Rick G]

Auto Zone has a set of rubber caps, that are perfect for capping YIKS ports. 2.99  a set . It takes two sets , because there's only one that fits in each set.

[Kid Jedi]

Hey let me know how the shaman thing work out, that would be a hell of a lot cheaper than anything I can whip up in my shop!

[inanecathode]

Auto Zone has a set of rubber caps, that are perfect for capping YIKS ports. 2.99  a set . It takes two sets , because there's only one that fits in each set.

I might just stuff a hose on there with a bolt on it temporarily...

[Kid Jedi]

i did the same thing on my bmw when i lost the charcoal canister to a flight of stairs I rode down. Made it to the bottom, with a grin ear to ear.

[Rick G]

I have two short pieces of hose, with a ball bearing shoved into it , to use when syncing carbs .

[inanecathode]

Ended up, i got some vacuum plugs from checkers. They had a few different sizes in a combo pack, i ended up using 1/4" and 5/16" plugs. After it warmed up real good, the idle hung and climbed up to 4k very consistently. So i got the idle way back down, it took like 3-4 turns to get it there, then the idle stayed where it should and fell down alot faster than it did before.

I swear i couldnt find that leak last season, maybe i should look harder ;)

I'm off to h2o's tomorrow to do fork seals, brake pads, and maybe some mirrors...

[inanecathode]

So i did some more stuff with H₂O yesterday.

The goal was fork seals and brake pads, and mirrors if there was time. The fork seals were surprisingly easy, we left the uppers attached to the bike and used an impact to take the damper rod off. This works perfectly for both taking them off and tightening them again as the impact moves so fast it tightens the bolt without the damper rod spinning even if its unheld. The old seals were some goofy, thick, double lipped double garter sprung type that just started puking like crazy a half a season into them. We replaced them with stock looking vesrah seals.

Brake pads were quite a bit more squirrely. We had the calipers unhooked and ready to go, and i go to try to push the pistons back in so i can put new pads on there and whaddaya know it wont go back in, not one bit. So, we got ambitious and just popped the piston out after filling the brake reservoir (easy way to quickly flush the lines ;)) to find the caliper having a pile of sediment and mung half an inch deep in the piston bore, and the piston itself having the last exposed 1/4" of surface so covered in road grime and corrosion it wouldnt even fit in the bore let alone go past the seals.

So i mounted the piston in a soft vice and buffed (like a shoe) the piston with 600 grit sand paper until it was shiny all the way around, lubed it with brake fluid, and slid it right back in. Added a little c-clamp pressure and it slid all the way back in with no complaints. We repeated this process for the other side, loaded the calipers with pads and mounted them right back on the wheel.

Bleeding went almost scarily easy and quick, no air in the lines whatsoever after we were done. H₂O noticed that the brake handle still was acting funny, like the piston cups were catching in the bore or something. The best way to describe it is 'crispy'. It'd go smoothly then catch until you applied more pressure then it would kind of pop inwards suddenly increasing pressure. We, at the beginning of the day, thought for sure it meant a borked master cylinder until it occurred to us that maybe its just a dry pivot. So we took the handle out, sprayed some lithium grease all over the place, and the pivots, put it back in and whaddaya know, it works just great now. Hard feel (rubber lines lol, you can see them flex and move when you apply the brakes) smooth action, and upon riding very satisfactory braking action all around. Confidence inspiring in fact, i think i can actually stop smoothly now, not herky jerky like it used to.

We ended up finishing up with light still left, so we decided to mount the new cbr1000 mirrors (they fit perfectly, they're cheap, they look good, they work well, and you can get them brand new on ebay for less than 40 bucks). Turns out the stock hardware doesnt fit the screw recesses in the mirror, so we hit ace hardware and picked up some ludicrously (1.25 a piece) expensive stainless socket head 1.00 pitch metric screws that fit just perfectly in the recesses, and fit the threads perfect on the bike. 45 seconds with the allen key and i had brand new rad looking mirrors mounted up!

Nothing exploded, fell off, or burst into flames on the 60 mile ride home on the interstate at moderately high speeds, so i think we did ok!

I'm trying to think of things to fix now that the major problems are corrected. I can think of things that would be nice like nice new sticky rear brake shoes, but there's plenty meat left on them and i cant be bothered to remove the rear tire on there either...

Hmmmmmm....

[Brian Moffet]

H₂O noticed that the brake handle still was acting funny, like the piston cups were catching in the bore or something. The best way to describe it is 'crispy'. It'd go smoothly then catch until you applied more pressure then it would kind of pop inwards suddenly increasing pressure.

Check to see if the brake lever has corrosion (even slight) where the handle rubs against the inside near the pivot point. If you get a little bit of corrosion in there, sand it down until smooth, I used 0000 steel wool and it worked great.  Any moisture and you run the risk of the aluminum oxidizing.

Brian

[Kid Jedi]

Check to see if the brake lever has corrosion (even slight) where the handle rubs against the inside near the pivot point. If you get a little bit of corrosion in there, sand it down until smooth, I used 0000 steel wool and it worked great.  Any moisture and you run the risk of the aluminum oxidizing.

Brian

The surface of aluminium metal is covered with a thin layer of oxide that helps protect the metal from attack by air. So, normally, aulumium metal does not react with air. If the oxide layer is damaged, the aluminium metal is exposed to attack. Aluminium will burn in oxygen with a brilliant white flame to form the trioxide alumnium(III) oxide, Al2O3.

4Al(s) + 3O2(l) → 2Al2O3(s)

-Copied from web elements (http://www.webelements.com/aluminium/chemistry.html)

The oxide layer forms so fast that no reaction can take place.

[Brian Moffet]

I would be talking about more than the usual thin coating...  I apologize that wouldn't have been obvious to you.

Brian

[inanecathode]

Well i guess... well thats good information if i ever try lighting my brake lever on fire  ::)
When us vision folk talk about corrosion we're not talking about a light natural patina ;)

[Kid Jedi]

Whoops. Well this is me over thinking another problem!

Side Note:
Well if you look at the formula you will notice that the oxygen is in the liquid state. It is possible to keep the oxide layer form forming if the aluminum is cold enough. make a small small heat exchanger and run n2 through it and collect the condensation off the outside, being liquid oxygen, and go to town. the aluminum damn near explodes.  :D

ahh fun times in chemistry.

[Brian Moffet]

Well i guess... well thats good information if i ever try lighting my brake lever on fire  ::)
When us vision folk talk about corrosion we're not talking about a light natural patina ;)

http://nonferrous.keytometals.com/Articles/Article14.htm

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f441/aluminum-corrosion-42647.html

http://www.corrosionclinic.com/types_of_corrosion/aluminium_exfoliation_corrosion.htm

That was a simple web search that took me 20 seconds.  When I took my brake lever off, with exactly the same problem as you described, it was corroded with the white corrosion. 

Obviously you're too knowledgeable for me to provide any information to you, so I'll stop trying to be helpful.  If you need me to be more blunt about you, let me know, I'll be glad to pull out the thesaurus.

[inanecathode]

I'm was saying that to kid jedi, not you brian :P

[Brian Moffet]

I'm was saying that to kid jedi, not you brian :P

I'm sorry then, Inane.  Kid Jedi, see my links about aluminum corrosion. 

Brian

[Kid Jedi]

wow that conversation makes alot more sense now! Thanks for the links Brian.

on a somewhat unrelated note: I hope my genuine curiosity is never confused with cynicism. :)