what did you wrench on today??

[ddaniels]

WD also makes an electric contact cleaner spray

Thanks, good to know.

[Buffalo Bill]

I like your 1000G model;what brand fairing does it have ?

A Ducati 900ss from www.airtech-streamlining.com

[tomo]

Last few months I have been re-building "Betsy", my 78 CX500. Been in bits in the shed for over ten years. Came around to fitting the clutch cable, which I know was in the garage someplace, kept seeing it and one of the things that kick started the rebuild. But could I find it ?, searched the garage several times, also the sheds, not a trace of it. So, bought a new one as I just want to get the old girl fired up and running again. New cable arrived in the post, so went out and fitted it. Stood back to look at the bike and there was the old cable hanging up on the wall. How the hell did I miss it ?!!. Must be old age !

[Rich82GS750TZ]

Last few months….. !

Lately, that seems to be the only sure fire way for me to find parts/tools that go missing. Sure enough, as soon as I buy a new one, the old one magically appears.

[cowboyup3371]

Lately, that seems to be the only sure fire way for me to find parts/tools that go missing. Sure enough, as soon as I buy a new one, the old one magically appears.

Had something like that happen to me tonight about an hour ago. Couldn't find the magnetic bit guide to my drill anywhere around the garage or back at the house so went to Lowe's and bought a new one. Get back to the garage and guess what's sitting on the workbench next to my combination square? Returned the new one and got my money back along with a good laugh from the sales clerk.

[Burque73]

I had this happen once recently but what made it even worse was the joker kept the attachment I needed for the wife’s car. I made sure to stress the store wouldn’t want to put them out again but I’m afraid they did anyway

Yeah, they probably did just put back on the shelf for the next unsuspecting customer. How much does a job have to pay for people to care? It doesn't take money, just morals.

[Burque73]

After riding to Indiana and back it's time for a bit more maintenence. I discovered the oil drain plug was little more than finger tight. Yikes! Didn't drip at all, but could have easily come completely loose. I'm using a sealing washer as the OEM gasket always leaks.

[alke46]

I did a clean, lube and adjustment of the drive chain on the Triumph today. This is good for me as I tend to abuse the chain a lot more than most do. But I still get very good mileage out of the chains and sprockets on both of my bikes.

I'm convinced most people over maintain the sealed chains��.

I also do a lot of cleaning of the bike once I get started.

Next up will be the same job on the Suzuki tomorrow morning.

[tas850g]

I’ve got an onboard volt meter on the GS and it’s been reading low, 13.2-13.5. I took a look at the 3 legs coming from the stator and sure enough 2 of the male/female connectors looked brown/burnt.

After peeling off the connectors, the wire was burnt and brittle. Cut back the brittle wire and added new connectors and now she is reading 14.0v at 5k rpms.

Now off for a ride today.

[Wire Fox]

Oh, so very, very much. The delight or chagrin of someone with a new project... I'll summarize the last few days.

Removed and cleaned non-functioning starter. Bearing was missing, 1 of 4 magnets separated from body, 1 of 2 brushes beyond service limit. Magnet epoxied back in place and awaiting oil seal, bearing, and brushes to finish repair. The missing bearing tells me that somebody else was in here that had no idea what they were doing...

Removed, cleaned, and re-sealed carburetors. Need to set float height. Need to install o-rings on intake boots. Still waiting on float bowl gasket, bowl drain gasket, and vacuum lines (these were entirely missing-no wonder it barely ran!). Will balance after installed on bike. Hopefully the jetting kit PO installed actually will run reasonably OK, but it's on my watch list. Currently has a 30 pilot, 144 main, shimmed needle, drilled slide. I know, the drilled slide made me cringe, too, and the small pilot is on my short list for why the bike doesn't idle-but that vacuum loss will get fixed first. There's PO-installed pods and straight pipes, so this will be a very-enriched bike to even hope to vaguely run right.

Went to rebuild petcock only to discover it was aftermarket. New petcock on order to stop fuel leaking without vacuum...and so the dang fuel outlet nipple stops falling off.

Replaced clutch cable return spring with generic throttle spring sized to fit. Seems to work and will hold it over until the factory spring arrives.

Adjusted brake lever into appropriate range. It's now no longer rubbing and scuffing the engine case and is appropriately below the peg.

Installed side-stand and switch. There just wasn't one on here. PO fully relied on the center stand, which I admit...is quite easy to deploy on this bike compared to others I've used.

Re-routed wiring harness, as it was a small disaster with stuff criss-crossing and being ziptied everywhere. Still have to visit the headlight housing and instrument cluster, as it also looks like a mess.

Degreased swingarm and clutch cover area. Was tired of getting black grease spots all over me every time I touched anything on the frame. Still not perfect, but at least now there's not enough still stuck on there to be able to package up and save for later...

Ordered new tires both because they're worn out and because they're the wrong size. Chain rubs the current rear tire and chain guard was removed by PO to make room for this fat tire...

New chain and sprockets on order because the master link is frozen and a roller is MIA. Paired with the lack of chain guard, my left leg now trembles at the thought that I test rode this (I promise, I knew the bike was crap as-is. I just wanted the seller to prove that it starts, runs, and would go through all the gears).

Clutch cable grossly too long to be routable. Factory cable on order.


...as you can tell, I bought quite the trap of a bike. Here soon enough, I'll have it up and going in a reasonable safe and reliable way. Before I'm done, I intend to go over the valves, front and rear suspension, brakes (including new brake lines), and finally the bearings of the headstock, swingarm, and wheels. Two weeks ago, I didn't even know what a GS was, as I've always been on the post-2000s dirt and dual-sport stuff. I'm already feeling like I'm something vaguely like an expert after flipping through the FSM and Clymer for a while, and tearing into all of these things.

[dorkburger]

Last Sunday, my refurbished turn / hi lo switch got all crunchy inside and started acting up a few turns from home.
I took it apart on Tuesday. Everything looked in order except for a tiny spring. I wasn’t sure if it came out on disassembly or previously. With everything appearing to be in order I started to put it together. Then I launched that tiny spring. I saw it’s general direction and heard it ping on the baseboard heat cover, but I couldn’t find it.
I then figured I’d take the easy way out and use the parts bike assembly. I forgot that it was... “modified” . The only two wires coming out were from the horn which I assume was repurposed for a quick shifter or some other drag bike necessity. I opened that one up and took the spring. Comparing the two switches, it seems that a tab broke off of the button on mine. Back together and working. Interesting that the buttons are different.

I just found the lost spring. It joined the other parts in a ziplock bag.

[oldGSfan]

I rigged up a 220V outlet for a MIG welder that a friend who moved out of state gave me on permanent loan. My outside work area is right where the oven is, so I put in 2nd box for a split and bored a hole through the stucco for the 6 AWG wire and weatherproof box. I hadn't worked with 220 wiring before, it's difficult to bend into shape to fit the boxes, even 2 gang is a bear to get all stuffed in there. It's all good now, just won't cook and weld at the same time. My son's friend is a welder and I'm going to invite him over to show me the ropes. It took me a while and was cramped working down low, it really was a workout!

[dorkburger]

Last week, I resurrected a trash picked generator. Fixed the broken pull cord, cleaned the gas that was impersonating coffee from the tank and carb, and it started right up. Surprisingly easy. 120 and 240 volt output checked out ok.
I had to cobble up a couple of motor mounts and need to get a proper fuel line. At first I thought it may have been a Honda, but its a cheap Chinese knock off. Certainly not big enough to serve the entire house, but it should handle a couple of refrigerators, heat, and a few lights if the need arises. We had two week plus power losses severyears ago, and a generator would have been nice.

[Buffalo Bill]

Last week, I resurrected a trash picked generator. Fixed the broken pull cord, cleaned the gas that was impersonating coffee from the tank and carb, and it started right up. Surprisingly easy. 120 and 240 volt output checked out ok.
I had to cobble up a couple of motor mounts and need to get a proper fuel line. At first I thought it may have been a Honda, but its a cheap Chinese knock off. Certainly not big enough to serve the entire house, but it should handle a couple of refrigerators, heat, and a few lights if the need arises. We had two week plus power losses severyears ago, and a generator would have been nice.

If I was your neighbor I'd suggest a muffler upgrade. We had a power outage here that lasted a few days, all the gens together made a deafening racket.

[GregT]

If I was your neighbor I'd suggest a muffler upgrade. We had a power outage here that lasted a few days, all the gens together made a deafening racket.

Agree. Race pits these days are very noisy places with the generators running for tyre warmers etc. The bikes have to meet noise standards, I'd like to see the generators regulated too.