Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Carb and Fuel line Woes on the Special!

     My bike has been on the lift for a few weeks while I had surgery. I was in the shop last week and went to remove it from the lift and gas poured from the air filter.    Replaced the petcock a couple of months ago with the stock unit I found on line as new old stock. Vacuum line was dry when I removed the carb. The old petcock was leaking. I had changed the jets in the carb a couple of times to see if I could get improved performance but the bike is an 86, little different from the norm. Problem started after last attempt. Leak is with the bike sitting upright on the lift and strapped down and has not been cranked in a couple of weeks. I had the bike either on the lift or on jack stands for 2 months to work on my kick stand setup.

Doesn't take log to strip it down now.
 

  After some discussion with the guys on the Savage Forum I replaced the petcock with a raptor petcock closed of the vacuum port with a cap.



OEM Petcock that I installed a few weeks ago.
 

 
After draining the tank I removed the two bolts holding the petcock in place.

 
Slid the old petcock out.
 
 
New Raptor petcock.  Ordered this off of ebay and had it the next day. 
$9.25 and free shipping!
Turns out the vendor was in Macon, GA.
 
 
Reverse procedure, slide in........
 
 
Replace bolts. 
 
 
 
3/8's vacuum cap.
 
 
Slipped onto the vacuum line port to seal it off.
 
 
Reinstalled.
 
 
New fuel line.
 
 
After reassembling I turned on the fuel and cranked the bike.   Same leak but worse.
 
 Then I removed the float, float valve needle, and the needle valve body. There was a little debris on the screen in the body. I cleaned it checked the o ring and reinstalled.  
 


 
Magnifier I picked up at the Dollar Store.  Great for reading the imprints on jets.

 
 
Then I put some fuel in a cup and checked the float to make sure it wasn't leaking. It seemed to be fine as did the tip on the needle valve. I put all this back together and placed a shot section of fuel line I had left over on the fuel port.


    I proceeded to blow air through the valve while I gently closed the valve with the float. Then I slightly bent the tang on the float arm until it seemed to seal properly. I reassembled the the carb and reinstalled it.


 Turning on the fuel the leak seemed to be corrected. I went ahead and started the bike and let it run a little. Seems to have solved the problem. I may have inadvertently bent the tang down when I was fooling with the carb jetting.
   I will have to change the oil and the oil filter but I needed to do that anyway. I probably have some fuel in the crank case due to the extent of the fuel leak.   I also have a new set of gaskets for the bike because there are a few leaks on the engine. I really need to tackle that. The first time may be pretty slow. The bike being an 86 needs a lot of attention. Cables, housings, brake lines, and so forth. Little things like this teach you so much if you take the time to work through them. 


Monday, December 16, 2013

The Road to Recovery

     Well it's been six weeks since surgery.  The doctor said it was worse than expected and I have about a 4 inch scar.   The torn tendons have been repaired and the bone spurs removed.  When I had the other shoulder repaired in 2009 it took six months to recover, it's been 6 weeks and I am probably 80% recovered.  I am amazed at how well it is going.  Counting my blessings. 
     During the down time I have been able to  work on the bikes a little.  Probably a lot more than I should have.  One Saturday around lunch I was heading into the shop and I noticed a BMW pulling into the restaurant across the street.  I went over and took a look and was surprised to find a 1973 R75/5 in truly beautiful condition.  I went in and had a long talk with the owner about his bike while he ate lunch.  It turns out that we had met before at Riders Hill, he had been checking out the Special on one of my trips there.  Really a cool bike.  I would love to cafe one of these.




 After he left I went to the shop and cranked the bikes to let them run.  The Suzuki was fine but when I cranked the BMW I smelled gas.  There was a pretty significant fuel leak under the right throttle body.  It was impossible to ascertain the cause with all the fairings on the bike.  The BMW was due for a 66,000 mile service so I had a friend help me swap the bikes and put the BMW on the lift.  He was not prepared for the weight and let the bike tip over when he was taking it off the center stand.  No harm done but I almost had a heart attack.  We got it on the lift and I began to work on the bike by removing the fairings.  Once that was done I started the bike to evaluate the fuel leak.  WTF!  Miraculously the fuel leak had disappeared and no amount of wiggling or pulling on the fuel lines could recreate it.  I tightened every fuel connection and after several hours threw up my hands.  I don't know if I had a clogged injector and a loose fuel line and the tip over unclogged the injector or what but it's not leaking now.  I had been having some problems with high speed acceleration and I was wondering if it might be a worn clutch but the clutch seems to be OK and there does not appear to be any oil leaks onto the clutch.  Some of the forums have suggested it might be an internal fuel leak in the tank.  The last time I rode the bike I smelled fuel at start-up and it ran really ruff but it seemed to straighten itself out.  It may have been a loose fuel line connection, but I won't know until I can ride the bike again so I will complete the service.
Stripped down the RT is not a very pretty machine.


 I purchased a video inspection scope recently and it was a big help on this project.  I needed to turn the rear wheel with the bike in gear to get the motor to top dead center to adjust the valves.  I could not use my left arm but this allowed me to go to the other side of the bike, use my right arm.  Really cool and it has so many uses.




      Over the next several weeks I changed the oil, changed the transmission gear oil, changed the final drive gear oil, replaced the air filter, checked the valves, replaced the spark plugs, repaired a stripped valve cover bolt with a HeliCoil.  I had never done this before and it was a little scary to say the least.  Taking a drill to the heads on a BMW motorcycle!  Really pretty simple.

Drilling out the damaged threads.
Tapping the drilled hole for the HeliCoil.


Inserting the HeliCoil with the insertion tool. 


New threads and a perfect repair. 


     OH yea, heated grips!  I figure it will either be late December or early January before I can ride so the heated grips will be nice.  My Holiday gift request is a pair of Lee Parks PCI gloves.  They have a material inside that is supposed to take the heat from your grips and spread it around your hand.  The R1100RT has a cool little feature that allows you to direct the air flowing over the oil cooler onto your hands.  I have always thought it would be nice to find a way to direct this air flow into my jacket.  Now that would be a heater.



Service and repairs completed. 


   
I took the time to go with a few friends to the AIM Show in Atlanta.

Old classics restored!



The new water cooled R1200GS.
This is the lowered package, my 29 inch inseam can flat foot it!
OOOOOOhhh, what you can get for $18,000!


After the show we had lunch and then went by Blue Moon Cycles in Norcross, GA.


The main level is the sales floor with lots of new and used bikes.

The upstairs area is where the magic is. 

Harley Davidson XA.  Made for the military during the North Africa Campaign in World War II.  Only 42 were made.  a Harley with a Boxer engine.



Rare Lambretta Scooter.



This bike was picked in Italy by Frank and Mike on the American Pickers TV Show.



        

     The BMW has what is called floating front disk.  The steel disk are mounted to the mounting brackets with 12 aluminum bobbins that allow the disk to move slightly on the horizontal plane white remaining static on the vertical plane.  Mine were worn allowing movement on both planes so I replaced them while the bike was in the shop. 


Next time I will turn my attention to the special.  It has developed a few problems as well, sitting in the shop.  How the hell does that happen?   All this happened around Thanksgiving.  So here's hoping everyone had a great holiday.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Shop addition!

I'm PUMPED!

     I just added a new addition at the shop.  A LIFT!  It's that one item that when you start wrenching on your own bikes you lust after everyone you see.  The older I get the more I feel it is just a must have.  Two bad knees and two surgically repaired shoulders make lying on the cold cement and getting up and down in my carport seem less and less attractive every time I do it.  Years ago I studied MTM (Methods Time Measurement) pretty extensively and in the normal work place the hardest repetitive motion was standing from a kneeling position.  We never considered lying on your back rolling over, getting to one knee then standing, that is just counter productive, not to mention painful as you get older.  The wooden elevated platform had worked OK for the Special but it only weighted 300 lbs.  That wasn't even an option for the BMW at 680 lbs.  It had become apparent that I had to have a lift.  Harbour Freight has about the cheapest actual bike lift on the market.  I purchased a wheel chock awhile back from them and that put me on their mailing list.   I have had my eye on their lift for awhile but just couldn't pull the trigger.  They were having their annual yard sale and the lift was listed for $300.  So I jumped.  Drove to Athens on Friday afternoon and picked one up. 


     I will admit I stopped off at the Varsity on the way home .  http://thevarsity.com/
If your not from Georgia then you might not know about The Varsity.  The familiar "What'll Ya Have?'  and then the call to the line, "two dawgs walkin', fry, ring, frosted orange!"  A normal Varsity meal has enough grease, fat and cholesterol to do you for a year, but God it's good!  It fueled many a down to the wire study session in the early 80's for me, as well as many a pre and post game meal over the years.  Just part of the whole Georgia Collegiate experience so I thought it was appropriate for this trip.  That was my excuse and I am sticking to it.  

An Athens, GA Landmark!

 
     The story as I understand it is that the guy who started The Varsity was a student at Georgia Tech.  He flunked out then went across the street and started the original Varsity in Atlanta.  He later opened a second location in downtown Athens right across from the hallowed Arches and Old Campus.  That location was actually my first real encounter with a Varsity chili dog!  Some years later he move about a mile down the road to his current Athens location at the corner of Broad Street and Milledge Avenue.

 
    The new location had several separate dinning rooms opposite the counter where you placed your order.  Each of the dinning rooms had several booths and on the wall at the far end was a TV, and in each room there was a different channel on the TV.  Sitting here writing this it hits me that this may have been the precursor to today's sports bar.  In the late sixties early seventies it was a pretty unique experience to leave the came and go grab a bite and see what was happening in the other games around the country that day, while you ate.  Now there are seven locations and the catering truck.  They will bring the Varsity to you for a price.  Mostly corporate and communitty events.
 
       When I got back to the shop I called a friend whom I had helped with his lift a few weeks earlier and we unloaded it, unpacked it from the incredibly thin Chinese oak boxing.  I felt like the dad in "A Christmas Story" when he unpacked his "Major Award."  A hammer and a crow bar prying the box apart and then there it was; it was magnificent!  Ferrai Red!  Then all of the sudden I was like Ralphie running my hand over it, the most beautiful tool I had ever seen.  I know I had that same lustful stupid look on my face but who cares, I have a lift! 
        We set it up.  I wasn't thrilled with the wheel chock that it came with, and strapping down the BMW was going to be a little daunting by myself, doable but not without risk.

 
So I removed the stock chock and installed the one I had bought earlier to use with a trailer if I ever find one of those in my price range.  Cheap!

 
It makes loading the bike by yourself so much easier!

 
I may have to put a plate underneath it later to reinforce the deck.  There is some flexing of the deck due to the increased torque on it from the chock, when the bike is being pumped into the air, for now it is fine.  The bikes are stored and plugged into their battery tenders and covered for a couple of months maybe longer. 
 
 
My shoulder surgery is next week so they will be ready when I am. Wish me luck.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Just a little problem.

     My wife is going back to school to become a Doctor of Education. It has become fairly apparent that you have to be really smart and work really hard to become one of these. So let's just say I have some time on my hands. Actually "The Lycan Project" was started to help fill the time she was going to be busy working on her degree. Of course I went to work and pretty much got the thing done. Conclusion, it is much easier to build a project bike than it is to get a Doctoral degree.  Ya think?
     Well she had been out of town taking classes, The University of Alabama to be exact.  Think that's not hard for me to swallow?  Just look at the pictures of this bike, Yea right.  There is Herring Bone everywhere all of the sudden.  One of my friends really pissed her off recently with the comment "I can't believe Danny is letting you do that!"   Yeah, honestly that exact thought crossed my mind but I am proud to say that I am above any petty sophomoric collegiate allegiances and realize that anything that is for the betterment of the home team (Me and Her) is a good thing.  If she can endure "The Hell Hole that is Tuscaloosa Alabama" and get her degree God bless her I'm behind her.  Anyway she had not seen the fruits of my labors so I took it by the house for her to see.  She gave me the obligatory praise as per our agreement, she's my wife.  Then I took it back to the shop.     
     There is a slight incline into the shop.  So after riding the bike I never ride it into the shop, I push it, not sure why but I do.  This had never been a problem until that day.   I opened the doors, came back out grabbed the handle bars and lowered my chest to the tank, pushed with my legs and felt it tear, my left rotator cuff.  I new it as soon as it happened.  Pain, not incredible but sharp.  Then I couldn't raise my arm.  I rode the bike into the shop and went home.   Doctor visits, MRI's, and more doctor visits.  I have bone spurs and a partially torn left rotator cuff.  They say it won't be as bad as the right cuff I had repaired in 2009.  It took Six Months to get over that.  Complete tear, 3 stainless steel anchors, worst surgery I have ever been through.  Their saying 8 to 12 weeks with this one, so we will see.
     Over the couple of weeks since the tear I have learned to compensate somewhat and I can function pretty well, even ride the bikes.  The pictures below are from one Sunday afternoon trying to get a few miles in before surgery!   I had received a call from Riders Hill that the Sidi boot parts I had ordered had arrived.  Not knowing when I would get a chance to pick them up I decided to head over that way.  I headed out on my other bike a BMW R1100RT, I call him Blue, about 10:00 AM and was about a mile from the house when I fell in behind a couple of  black sport touring bikes, a Honda ST1100 and a BMW R1150S.  They were headed in the opposite direction from me but what the hell, I swung around and headed after them.  I pulled up at a light, they asked where I was headed and I said "Just Riding mind if I tag along?"  "Sure come along."  So I followed.  We stopped somewhere along the way and one of the guys said they were going on some pretty curvy roads, was I OK with that.  I just smiled and said sure.  Not long after that it became apparent they had no idea where they were going.  At one point of confusion they asked me if I knew a place where we could get off the bikes for awhile.  We weren't far from The Tallulah Gorge Overlook so I took them there.  After Cokes in the old 7.5 oz. glass bottle I offered to take them on some of my favorite roads.  They were happy to follow. 
     The statement about being up for some pretty curvy roads had kinda stuck with me.  So Brer Rabbit here decided to take them into my proverbial "Brier Patch!"   First we cruised along Lake Rabun for one of the prettiest Lake rides in the state, making sure to not get too far ahead,  over to Hwy 197.  For those of you that don't know, Hwy 197 from Clarkesville, Ga to Hwy 76 between Clayton and Hiawassee is referred to as one of the most scenic drives in North Georgia.  I winds along the Soque River and Lake Burton and is truly beautiful in a car.  On a motorcycle it is 24.7 miles of "The Dragon" with driveways, pontoon boats, and scenery.  Once we hit 197 at Brooks Store, about the midway point, well lets just say Ole' Brer Rabbit ran off an hid in His Brier Patch.  I pulled over at the junction with Hwy 76 and waited a good 5 minutes.  In their defense there was a little traffic.
     They need to head back to the city and I need to get to Riders Hill so we headed in different directions.  It was a great ride over the mountain to Hiawassee and then to Young Harris where I spent two wonderful years from 1979-1981 finding out I wasn't going to play tennis for a living, had a lot of fun though.

Young Harris College,  Class of 1981!

From there I proceeded over to Blairsville and headed toward Blood Mountain but turned on Hwy 180 to Suches, GA over Wolfpen GAP.   A few rain drops and some low hanging clouds at Two Wheels of Suches made me decide to head on over Woody Gap to Riders Hill.  Once there I had lunch and picked up my parts and headed home.

Riders Hill.


Boy there is always some eye candy at Riders Hill! 
Moto Guzzi V7, Wow! 


It was about 3:30 PM when I got back to town and I thought I would take a few photos of the BullDawg Special at the local Depot. 

The Big Red Apple.



Tallulah Falls Railroad Exhibit.



Water Park at the Depot.


Off the Rails!


My composition is improving.


Surgery isn't too far off so it was good to get one last big ride in before the ordeal.
Wish me luck.