Yahweh tribute bike

[pete]

Hey that little bit of progress is better than nothing Wally!

Bugger on the finances but I hear ya'... we just got a $2000 vet bill so any chance of the concrete going down for the shed any time soon went out the window...

[Good Times]

Was just wondering about you and the bike Wally. Thanks for the update!

[wally]

Geez, time flies! I haven't been doing much on the bike, but been checking the forum regularly.

Been some radical life changes: grandmother passed away at 90 years of age, father in law passed away in motor vehicle accident, plus I am now working for myself!

Anyway,pulled out bike today in between doing other stuff, gave it a wash and then got thinking how to handle the bar end mirror mounting issues.

Came up with this solution:

The problem, cheap Chinese mirrors!


Solution:


Welded onto handlebars:


And some glory shots!

[wally]

Also made a small work table for garage




My welding not best, but table is pretty level!

[wally]

Then a quick question...

My rear brake is not great at all! New shoes, etc.
I made a new mounting for the return spring, as I took the chrome covers off. In same spot, but pedal verrrryyy soft. Any ideas/tips?

[pete]

Sorry for your losses Wally, life has a way of doing that at times

But excellent progress on the 450, she looks great!

What do you mean by soft on the rear pedal? You mean it doesn't spring back real easy? I find the drum quite useless compared to the front disk, but if you hit it hard it will still do some good, and I use it a lot trail braking into corners... helps if you get in just that little bit too hot...

[rwnielsen]

Loosen the brake rod and rotate the arm 1 tooth clockwise on the spline. Readjust your pedal. The rod should pull the arm towards a 90° not past it.
That will offer better leverage.
Step 2 would be to cut narrow grooves at an angle through the shoes almost all the way to the metal.
All my early bikes had drum brakes. They can be "adjusted" to work remarkably well. Good luck, Nice job on the bike!
Rich

[wally]

Pete, it is as if there is no resistance when you press down on pedal, like the spring is too weak. Also, the shoes never kick in to brake.

Thank you for the tips Rich! I will try them out next weekend!

On a side note, the Buell kept me busy with unforeseen breakages, plus I started restoring the small 50s fridge:





Repair sections:






All made using this:

[pete]

What Rich is saying sounds about right to me too, I initially had it out of whack and it was almost impossible to get some good braking force out of it.

Nice work on the fridge!

[wally]

Rich, thanx for your advice - it worked a treat and the back brake is now perfect!
Who would have guessed...

Now just sorting out spongy front brake!

I fixed spacing issue for bar end mirror to ensure it doesn't interfere with throttle.
Then filled up tank with fresh fuel, cranked end cranked and saw fuel running out overflows of carbs...

Unhooked fuel lines and it just kept flowing, which means the petcock is now fully shot!

Time to search for a new one.
Then it is carb adjustments and hopefully running this coming summer!

[pete]

I can't remember now Wally but what's the setup with your front brake? If you have the original rubber hose on there then ditch it... get a new braided line! I got mine from Rennsport via eBay, something like $US26 from memory.

Rebuild that master cylinder if you haven't done so also... the genuine parts aren't too expensive so you can do it properly.

[wally]

Pete, all rebuilt with braided hose:

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showpost.php?p=1781876&postcount=63

Master cylinder was faulty, bought new Chinese one, not sure if that is the problem?

Ps - glad to hear your bike is running on 2 cylinders again!

[pete]

Cheers Wally, I'm glad too

With your M/C... is it the same size piston bore as stock or different? I went slightly smaller (12.7 or 12.9mm from memory) and it made an improvement... slightly stronger force but the lever comes a bit closer to the 'bar which gives it a bit more feel.

You can also try another bleed... this time when you're done strap the lever back to the 'bar overnight and see how it feels in the morning, made a huge difference for me.

[wally]

Fridge is still in progress, been doing some other furniture projects, but more importantly...

my petcock arrived! Saw postal note in box today, so hopefully installed and running by weekend!
Then fine tuning jets and then roadworthy and registration!

hopefully!

And back to being active on board again!

[wally]

Just a quick question regarding my replacement pertcock for the 450 that I received today.

In the picture the vacuum port faces away from the motor.


Can you simply unscrew and rotate it to face forward or is it made to only fit this way around.

May be a silly question, but you never know...