what did you wrench on today??

[Grimly]

Oops, not a GS.
I went in for inspection and was told I needed 'brake pads and some new hardware.' (2014 Triumph Street Triple). I got it home and found my calipers were completely seized together! The wheel has to come off to do the brakes, so 'brake pads' turned into new (used) calipers, new chain guard, new (used) shock spring for my new (used) Daytona shock, and re-lubing of the swingarm and linkage pivots. A part has been on backorder from England for several weeks so today I had to de-rust the chain

I suppose the problem with the islands is nowhere is far from salty air.

[Retrosteve]

I popped the fork seal covers off the tubes and released a bunch of water out the right hand side one . After cleaning both im going to need to replace everything but it was only water dripping not oil out of the cover . The retainer clips are in a bad way though and the covers have split .

[xcgates]

After several years of half-hearted attempts, I cleaned/reassembled the carbs, and got spark back to my 850, only to find the carb fuel rails leaking. So this morning saw me look at the new (metal this time) rails, and start poking around a box of o-rings to test fit. Very complicated and strenuous work I didn't complete before heading into work.

Something about trying to be productive before finishing coffee. And distracting dogs.

Here's to more progress over the weekend.

[Shin-Ken 1074]

To help keep the clutch cable silky smooth and reduce wear to the cable it gets a dose of cable lube 3 times per year. The needle fits straight into the OEM clutch cable, squeeze in the lube until it runs out of the cable at the lower cable adjuster and reinstall the cable to the lever. Same thing for the throttle cable. I have been taking care of cables with this system for many years and so far have not had a cable fail on a ride. I do inspect the cables and replace them at 150,000km as I think they have served me pretty well by that stage and its time for a new cable, just for peace of mind.

Cable lube 1 by Max Mutarn, on Flickr

Cable lube 2 by Max Mutarn, on Flickr

[KiwiAlfa156]

What's the 'special sauce' in the bottle, Glenn?

[KiwiAlfa156]

Always thought a cylinder head temperature (CHT) gauge would be a good thing for an air cooled, and toyed with the idea of a thermocouple wired up to a waterproof digital display. And I might still do this, but its hard to find a gauge/display with the appropriate heat range without spending big bucks on a VDO or some such.

So to work out whether a CHT is a good idea or not, I made this.



It's a 6mm 32 gauge copper cable lug I drilled and tapped to fit a cheap BBQ thermometer. This is it after its first heating. I'll reference it, with my optical thermometer this afternoon to see if it's accurate enough. Then decide whether I need/like it

[Grimly]

Be interesting to see what the heat loss in the copper lug is.

[Shin-Ken 1074]

What's the 'special sauce' in the bottle, Glenn?

Hi Darryl, "special sauce" is Inox MX 3. This is similar to other products in this category however, what makes it so good for cables is it cleans and lubes the cable and does not go tacky or leave any varnish/residue to gum up cables. Yes, it looks to have the same properties as that other very well known product but it isn't the same. I buy it from a bearing suppler.

Cheers mate.



Inox MX 3 by Max Mutarn, on Flickr

[KiwiAlfa156]

Be interesting to see what the heat loss in the copper lug is.

Yes it will. The conductivity of aluminum is about 0.6 that of copper, the the lug is also tin-plated, so how more effective the lug is in terms of shedding heat to the air flow I guess is the unknown. That being said, the 'bulb' of the thermometer is in contact with the head, and the heat path of the thermometer is in the mm, so I'm not too worried about heat loss from the lug causing a temperature differential, although the test will be if the temperature goes up after stopping the engine (removing the heat and the cooling source).

[Shin-Ken 1074]

I like to give the chain and sprocket a wipe down each month to prevent the old chain lube building up and gumming up the works. Cleaned the chain and sprocket today before new lube on the chain.

Chain Sprocket ajpg by Max Mutarn, on Flickr


Chain sprocket b by Max Mutarn, on Flickr

[Buffalo Bill]

Back on the road!!!
Last summer in Lafayette IN, I had a low side crash on this bike. Then again a month later it fell off a trailer. All my fault.
Took me a year to get over it but I did, and now it's back.

[steve murdoch]

Back on the road!!!
Last summer in Lafayette IN, I had a low side crash on this bike. Then again a month later it fell off a trailer. All my fault.
Took me a year to get over it but I did, and now it's back.

Glad to hear of your reconnect to the passion of motorcycles.

[KiwiAlfa156]

Yes it will. The conductivity of aluminum is about 0.6 that of copper, the the lug is also tin-plated, so how more effective the lug is in terms of shedding heat to the air flow I guess is the unknown. That being said, the 'bulb' of the thermometer is in contact with the head, and the heat path of the thermometer is in the mm, so I'm not too worried about heat loss from the lug causing a temperature differential, although the test will be if the temperature goes up after stopping the engine (removing the heat and the cooling source).

Seems to be accurate and the temperature doesn't go up immediately after shutting down the engine.

[oldGSfan]

I'm doing the sealing nuts in the head on my '83. My '82 Turbo leaked like a sieve from them, people think it's head gasket. I have an OEM metal head gasket in the parts stash, which was for this leak I presume. I think they are getting rare. I moved recently and can't find the o-rings that I had bought so I had to get another set. Oh well, they will turn up and go on the other '83 project bike. I will replace the valve cover gasket with a Cometic re-usable one. I got two of them for the bikes. I have read the thickness of the gasket can cause issues with the tach drive. Geez, hope not, I guess I'll find out. I'll measure to see what the difference is.

The bike has Rick's stator and SH775 but charging is not up to snuff. Maybe the wires are too long. I need to check my work, I can ride all day but the battery gets depleted. It will still start just fine, but the charger says 40% or so. Dang. I relocated to the tail section. I need to test it out,

One more task is to fix the slight leak in the clutch cover, I don't know what's going on there, I never have problems with my gasket work, but with OEM and good surfaces it drips just a bit. Another gasket in hand, and will see what I can do. Ugh hate to do it but may use Hondabond just to get it tight.

Last thing will be to put the seat cover on, the split original (of course) bugs me, been bugging me since the 80s on all my 1100Es. I am not great at such wizardry that upholstery presents but think I can get it right. The Pit Replica seems really good and a bargain at $60.

The only remaining weird thing is a jumpy oil temp gauge. It works, but testing shows it gets to 300 when grounded, not 320. Duly noted but the bike's not overheating. I have a nice oil cooler but have ridden in the recent 100F temp for quite some time and there's no problem with it stock.

[Burque73]

Got started tearing down the new to me GK. Only one tight valve. It had a ton of oil built up under the tank because the Breather hose wasn't connected to the air box. That smell would drive me crazy every time it stopped.