Introducing Myself

Started by ChrisV, June 27, 2016, 03:06:52 AM

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Rikugun

Well, regardless of the project, keep posting. I like seeing your avatar. That knobby tire on the Vision is bitchin'.  :)
It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is then to persist in delusion, however satisfying or reassuring.  Carl Sagan

ChrisV

#21
With the Xl frame off to the welders, and assorted parts all in various stages of shipping I decided to give the old Vision a little love.
Time to start cleaning 10+ years of barn dirt and grime off. Get a look at just how good or bad it is.

After seeing pinholtz's mod

Which to my eyes may be one of the most beautiful bikes ever built. I would love to do something along those lines.

So here is what I have after some general cleaning


The Good
It all seems to be there. Nothing major missing, if you count the mismatched front end.

The Ugly
The GPz 550 front end. The lower bearings in the steering head are trash or they never quite fit. The triple clamp has about 1/8 inch of shift in the frame.

Spark plugs are nowhere to be seen. Which surely means a bunch of dirt down the cylinders.

There is orange Silicon gasket maker squeezing out of all the case seams. Never a good sign.

Air filter foam crumbled in my hands

Interesting extra plug added to the bottom of the tank. Humm.. crud drain?

Not really committed yet but its good to have a closer look.
Chris Vogel
Current rides: 1987 TW200, 2004 TW200, 1992 R100GS, 2014 ZUMA 50.
Current Projects: 1982 XZ550, 1986 XL600R, 1980 CB750SS

Rikugun

QuoteThe GPz 550 front end. The lower bearings in the steering head are trash or they never quite fit. The triple clamp has about 1/8 inch of shift in the frame.
I wondered about the GPz vs. XZ bearing fit - see my July 9 comment on page 1.

That filter doesn't look original or it's been modified. I don't think the pleated paper stockers are available new but UNI and K&N still have offerings.

The tank fitting is interesting. It looks to be at the low spot so a drain of sorts maybe? Out of curiosity can you tell how it's attached - tig, mig, gas weld, braze, glue?
It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is then to persist in delusion, however satisfying or reassuring.  Carl Sagan

ChrisV

Quote from: Rikugun on July 17, 2016, 11:39:29 AM
QuoteThe GPz 550 front end. The lower bearings in the steering head are trash or they never quite fit. The triple clamp has about 1/8 inch of shift in the frame.
I wondered about the GPz vs. XZ bearing fit - see my July 9 comment on page 1.

That filter doesn't look original or it's been modified. I don't think the pleated paper stockers are available new but UNI and K&N still have offerings.

The tank fitting is interesting. It looks to be at the low spot so a drain of sorts maybe? Out of curiosity can you tell how it's attached - tig, mig, gas weld, braze, glue?

I think the filter was a Uni style.  The foam layer that held the top and bottom halves together  was the part that disintegrated.  The bottom half was siliconed down to the box.  I'm not to worried about that just yet.  After reading the 83 mods thread I would love to update the carbs with some better sorted more modern down drafts.  That would likely require velocity stacks and some sort of pods.  Tank and space will be the main issue there.

The extra drain plug was brazed in.  I am trying to remember if there was a crossover tube from the right and left side of the tank.  With out one, how much fuel is left on the right side.  I wonder if this was an attempt to add another petcock, or maybe a crossover tube.  My old BMW has petcocks on both sides, give me essentially first reserve and then second reserve.

My biggest concern right now is the motor.  This is a windy, dusty, sandy environment.  if those spark plugs have been out for 10+ years, the cylinders are going to have a ton of sand and silt down them.  At the minimun the heads are going to have to come off.  I would feel better with a complete disassembly and cleaning out of the motor.  I don't really mind that,  but it might mean finding some old scarce parts.  Is there a good source for gasket kits?
Chris Vogel
Current rides: 1987 TW200, 2004 TW200, 1992 R100GS, 2014 ZUMA 50.
Current Projects: 1982 XZ550, 1986 XL600R, 1980 CB750SS

Walt_M.

You might try Cometic, they had them at one time.
Whale oil beef hooked!

Rikugun

I don't think the base gaskets were too expensive but the head gaskets were. Here's some info on the company Walt mentioned for copper head gaskets that are reasonable:
http://ridersofvision.net/rovforum/index.php?topic=14338.0 Thanks to Jimustanguitar for that one.

Regarding the dusty environment the bike was used in - another thing to consider is the fit of the filter in the airbox. This is a good thing for any Visionary to check. I had the air box off of my latest acquisition (Silver Vision) and noticed something troubling. The filter does not fit snug within the box allowing it to shift around and not seal well. From either of the fittings for the air horn you can reach in and easily move it about.

I retrieved a spare box and the same thing. The filters were both beat OEM's with tired sealing foam making them shorter than when new so I thought that was the issue. I tried my newish Uni Filter and the same thing. Interestingly, the Uni Filter has a much thicker band of foam where it seals against the box but the filter assembly is shorter making the overall height identical to the stock part. After a slight mod to the inside of the lid the filter now fits snug.
It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is then to persist in delusion, however satisfying or reassuring.  Carl Sagan

ChrisV

That may be why the previous owner had the filter RTV siliconed down to the bottom half of the box.

Thanks for the links.
Chris Vogel
Current rides: 1987 TW200, 2004 TW200, 1992 R100GS, 2014 ZUMA 50.
Current Projects: 1982 XZ550, 1986 XL600R, 1980 CB750SS

Kenny

   Hi Chris ,
    Welcome to the forum , that's quite a project you have .  It looks much better in the last photo's as it looks like it has been washed up. I remember seeing Ron McCoy's Vision at the 25th Reunion in Colorado and it had some sort of a Suzuki front end on it ,can't remember if it had an Anti dive set up or not . He said it worked well. He visits  the site once in a while and may be able to give you some insight.
   Back around 2004 or 5 I had a new Uni Filter installed on the Vision and after a spirited ride out to Coderington the bike would not come back to idle it kept revving at 2500 rpm. I found that the foam near the lower part of the filter had detached it self and was stuck in the throttle plates . I sent this back to Unifilter and explained what had happened and they sent me a new revised style of Unifilter for the bike. Just be aware there are old and new styles.
    Anyhow have fun with it and it is good Therapy !
           Cheers Ken S
     
2 XV 920rh 81
1 Red/White 83
1 Blue/White 83
Bmw R100rs 84
TDM 850  92

Rikugun

#28
The notion of a center axle fork swap was touched upon in my "Silver Vision" thread. I thought it may have been tried but didn't know of any specific examples. It's good to know it has been done and the owner is still alive after altering the stock steering geometry.

Thanks also for the heads-up on Uni filters. I'm running one but the newer installation hopefully means it is the updated design. Something to be on the lookout for when it's serviced.
It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is then to persist in delusion, however satisfying or reassuring.  Carl Sagan

Ron_McCoy

Those forks were from a 1982 katana. I used the katana lower triple clamp and the vision upper triple clamp and angle bored them (fork tubes at a steeper angle than the steering head) to get the same trail as stock at the static sag of the forks with rider aboard. This worked quite well and the improvement in fork lateral stability and lack of flex under hard braking and on rough roads was well worth the effort involved with the modification. There was still the tendency to waggle the forks when taking your hands off the bars and Visionmeister said he felt an instability on turn in when he rode it. The bike now has Kawasaki zr6 forks on it . I built my own triple clamps this time. And cut the trail back to just under 4 inches. This seems a to be a better solution than the stock geometry. I live in an area with an abundance of twisty roads so handling is very important to me. I think any of the CROV guys will verify that my vision works very well. It helps to be a machinist or have the services of one when doing these types of modifications.

Ron_McCoy

By the way, allballsracing.com has a chart that gives bearings for practically any fork swap you can think of. They have the bearings and conversion kits too.

QBS

I was at the 25th anniversary celebration.  Ron McCoy's bike was the most trick and beautiful V I had ever seen.  Absolutely wonderfully done.  Ron is quite the constructor and a really nice guy.  It's good to see that he keeps in touch and still has his V.

ChrisV

Good info. 
The more I stare at this bike the more I think about going down the full on mod rabbit hole. 
To my eyes the motor is a thing of unmatched moto beauty.  The rest of the bike is just OK.  The front a little better, the back end bodywork a little worse. 
As it is right now, I stare at it most every day as I work on the XL.   I think about clean lines and how I could remove clutter and the "heavy looking"  tail. 

For now it is still just stare and think.
Chris Vogel
Current rides: 1987 TW200, 2004 TW200, 1992 R100GS, 2014 ZUMA 50.
Current Projects: 1982 XZ550, 1986 XL600R, 1980 CB750SS

Rikugun

Thanks for the info Ron. I was just reading about raked triple clamps in the Chopper Builders Handbook http://chopperhandbook.com/rake.htm They warn about "negative trail" as used in stretching but I'm guessing you went the other way.

The All Balls fork conversion chart is a good resource. I mentioned it on page one of this thread but didn't supply a link.
http://www.allballsracing.com/index.php/forkconversion
It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is then to persist in delusion, however satisfying or reassuring.  Carl Sagan

Ron_McCoy

Thanks for the compliments Bob.  Hope you and Cathy are doing well.

QBS

#35
You're welcome Ron.  Kathy and I might be in the general NorCal/Pacific Northwest area in year or so.

ChrisV

#36
Baby steps.
Gasket kit took 15 days to arrive from the friendly north. But it is finally here. Started to reassemble the engine and the second ring was jammed. broke it trying to get it free, (dang) Looks like these rings and cylinder is .5 over. Fortunately Honda still has them available.

I think this was not done too long ago. Cylinder still has hone marks.
I think they may have put the wrong banjo bolt in on the oil feed line to the head when this was done, since the top bolt had a much larger oil hole than the lower one. That may be the reason the head was oil starved and broke the camshaft. Honda also had the correct cylinder head bolt replacement for the snapped one.
Unfortunately the eBay cylinder head failed the valve leak test. Both intake and exhaust valves had minor leaks. So Head is off to "FASTHEADS" for a valve job.

Meantime, engine is back together save the cylinder head. Electrical and accessories are back on the frame.

Engine (-minus head) is on the table in the background.
Chris Vogel
Current rides: 1987 TW200, 2004 TW200, 1992 R100GS, 2014 ZUMA 50.
Current Projects: 1982 XZ550, 1986 XL600R, 1980 CB750SS

Rikugun

It's better to re-ring it if you do a valve job so perhaps it was just the universe working out the details.  :)

Remember, every bit of progress gets you closer to my goal - that being your attention then turning to the XZ.  8)
It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is then to persist in delusion, however satisfying or reassuring.  Carl Sagan