what did you wrench on today??

[Baatfam]

Lately, I've really grown to like riding the old Triumph TT, and since I am riding it much more often than in the past, I felt like it needed a little love.
She is an '01, I bought in 2011 with just over 7K miles. Mostly used for track days and occasional short rides, so only at 12K now.

I've kept up with annual oil changes, chain care, and such.
But since I really didn't put many miles on it, I never did the long term things like changing the brake fluid and coolant, replacing brake lines, plugs, or checking the valves.

So going to do a 12K service. Valve check, plugs, brake lines, coolant and brake fluid change, fuel filter (in tank), air filter, and maybe replace the coolant hoses.
Most parts are on order, and the bike is about ready...

[wyly]

Been slowly plugging away at an off-topic bike;

Makes a nice pair alongside the Kat. Its a survivor, the CBX owners have had an opportunity to strip off the better upgrade components.

[wyly]

Discovered my rear wheel was locked up , frozen brake pistons I spent a day working on it no success, calipers are junk now. I had a Honda caliper and hanger in a bin but it didn't play nice with GS1150e suzuki swingarm, with a lot of cursing and effort I made it fit. Today I'll torque the bolts and re-install the pipes then I'm ready for a test ride.

[Baatfam]

Still working on the Triumph.
Spark plugs did not want to come out after 22 years, but they finally did. Replaced the fuel filter, also.
Gas tank is back on, and it runs.


Putting off the valve check till winter. But doing the coolant flush next.

[LMARJ2434]

Mucked around with a stiff clutch and did a compression test on the newest project bike. Also at 42 years old, learned how to use flickr.

IMG_0088 by LMarJ2434, on Flickr

[Grimly]

Bought a used rear caliper from Germany, and a rebuild kit from the UK.
When both arrive, I'll sort that one out and fit it, then buy another rebuild kit for the one that's on there just now - it's starting to stick a bit and when they start doing it, they just get worse.

[Cipher]

I wrestled and angel that had decided to infect by truck with trouble codes.
po622 to be precise. Finally pulled back enough vanity coverings to see one broken wore and another holding on by a strand or two.

There is a huge fault when addressing issues related to complex systems. A lot of us tend to go for the most terrifying complex root cause without first plodding through the flow chart.




The issue with my code was that the two wire harness had work hardened and broke partly through its filaments over the course of 12 years of various frequencies and amplitudes of vibration.




The reason a dug down into the harness was that I was getting a low not infinite resistance on the sense wire. This was due to cross talk I assume in the breaking wire pair.




No matter some overpriced shrink tube butt joint and a struggle to gain access as the wires broke off with an inch or so hanging out of the main harness.




Put it back together fired it up and the battery light had gone as did the service charging system warning.




It was replace with throttle position codes due to the fact that the work hardening that took out the alternator pigtail also weakened the very fine gauge wires to the TPS. Im positive I didn't tweak them of jam then in any way.




The were broken off evenly. Friday stores closed so I recall I bought some whiz bang uninsulated butt joint sleeves once upon a time and after searching found them and started to prep the wire ends to receive them.




Then I quit for the day because of hunger and twilight and fatigue apt to cause mistakes.




Its a scary thing to know that a harness can be ready to break at any moment. Had I been back in the woods it would have been a misery.




Have any of you experienced wires breaking from vibration induced work hardening of the filaments?

Is there a better way to address the breaks? I am going to heat shrink then tape the individual joints then wrap the whole bundle.




Well at least it's not the damned ECM and the dealer isn't getting any money.

[Grimly]

Have any of you experienced wires breaking from vibration induced work hardening of the filaments?

Is there a better way to address the breaks? I am going to heat shrink then tape the individual joints then wrap the whole bundle.

I will try to find some really fine-cored wire to replace the troublesome bits - much more resistant to fatigue breaking.
These days, fine-wire core silicone leads are easy to find in red and black, and other colours if you're lucky enough to need the sizes they're offered in.

[dorkburger]

Saved from a dumpster yesterday, took a couple of very short rides tonight. It's going to be a hoot once it warms up in the Spring. It's an absolute hack job, yet it's growing on me...

The dumpster bike by Glen Brenner, on Flickr

[steve murdoch]

That looks like it could be fun. Got a Speedway vibe to it.
A derailleur on the right side? How many gears does it have?

[dorkburger]

Steve, it's a hot mess. It started as a 26" mountain bike. It now has 20" wheels. The chain seen in the picture is the engine drive and a poorly cobbled idler pulley for chain slack. The other side has typical pedal crank / sprocket setup, though interesting as most bicycles have the chain on the left. Both chain runs need sorting. The engine has no transmission. Just a clutch, so is go or not. Starting procedure is to pedal then dump the clutch.

After a couple of very short test runs last night I looked at it from that low angle and had to get the camera. With the wrong wheels it has on it peadaling in any position other then bolt upright causes the pedals to hit the ground. The dumpster I pulled it out of also had a gutted E bike in it. I looked at it this morning and snatched it. It has short pedal cranks and actual brakes. It seems that it may turn into a fun zero cost project / welcome mental sidetrack.

[Carter Turk]

Finally changed the front tapered roller bearings & rotors/pads on my daily driver 91 VW vanagon (272,000 miles).
I've had the parts sitting on shelf for a year & half, not finding the motivation till now.
It was actually fairly easy to do, just messy.
The rotors were worn 3mm, with a pronounced lip on the very edge.

[Redman]

Helped son change out main bearings on his family's washing machine. He found some kit with bearings and insertion presser tool for 50 bucks. Worked fairly well.

I changed out belts on my 1982 5HP 24inch two-stage snowthrower. I should thought to ask son to repay the favor. Seperating the augar assembly from main machine was awkward doing by myself. And getting it back in place was awkward and strenous.

ANd in both of those projects I had a Dorkburger Moment.



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Other note:

Project with sons washer, the parts kit had a QR code scan thing to a U-Tube vidio.

My project, I retrieved the original 1982 manaul (you know, multiple pages printed on paper, stapled together. Along with original reciept.) that had been stored in file cabinet (you know, the metal thing with drawers, and hanging file folders) along with other appliance manaul from over the decades.

.

[Retrosteve]

Mounted the new horns in their rightful place and took another engine case off ready for its matt black paint . I got the idea of matt black casings from Mr Kaplan who was showing a Gs 1000 with the black casings . With the chrome allen bolts it really sets it off

[gtem]

Been working on the Voyager some, pulled the wheels off to run down to bwringer's place to mount up my new Shinko 777HDs. Then I went to replace the fork and shock oil (rear air shocks are servicable which is pretty neat!). Rear shock oil looked about brand new when I poured out a few drops so I left them alone. The fronts however definitely needed doing. Well, upon reassembly this damn circlip popped out of my hand and dropped somewhere deep inside the front of the bike. I spent a longer time chasing this stupid circlip down than I did doing the whole fork oil job (it had rolled down into a ledge on the radiator trim). On a positive note, removing all the stuff and removing the rear wheel was actually not so bad at all, aside from a pair of very tight 8mm hex head screws on the rear brake caliper that I stupidly tried to get out driving a 3/8" drive 8mm allen head socket with a 1/2 inch cordless impact driver. Result was one broken (harbor freight) 8mm allen head socket.


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