Ivy: Tank Vacuum, or Obvious in Retrospect

Went down for another session to revisit the engine issue.  When I twisted the gas cap off, I heard the distinct hissing sound of air rushing in.

So it was a vacuum issue in the tank.  Now all the symptoms added up - the engine dying after a short period, but then running after resting a bit.

I had removed the extra DIY gaskets from the cap because they looked ragged.  Could some debris have found their way into the vent hole.  Where is the vent hole anyway?

I tried loosening the cap a bit and went for another ride around the block, but same thing happened.

Finally, just switched the cap with Roxy's to test - and she ran perfectly.  So it's definitely the cap.  Just need to figure out where that vent is and then clear it.


Also checked the odo against a phone app and found it was dead on!!  Seemed accurate down to 0.01 mile.

Red: Brake Pedal Spring, New Shock

Odd jobs for Red.

Added the new brake pedal spring.

Unboxed and painted the new shock (which replaces the crooked one).

Also tested the new aftermarket dual petcock on the dented tank.  Found that the screw seemed too long and wasn't pulling it flush against the tank.

Ivy: Speedo Fix but Engine Dies

Went down for an early morning session to look at Ivy's speedo again.  Once I had the old gear out and was looking at it, it was painfully obvious that the tabs that are supposed to hold it in place on the hub were bent way out.  No wonder it would work intermittently then stop entirely.  A good lesson in taking time to investigate parts more closely once they're disassembled.

Went for a ride later that day and lo and behold - odo is ticking over nicely!  Speedo is working, too, though it's way off.  It reads at 50mph when I'm doing an actual 30mph. 

But if it's not one thing it's another.  During the ride, I felt the engine starting to bog, then eventually it just quit.  My first thought was battery so I swapped that.  It started up and I rode for a bit more, but then same thing happened again. 

Each time, it would restart after sitting for a bit, but wouldn't last long before dying again.

Made it home after a series of pit stops, but just barely.

I thought it was overheating as it was a slightly warm day (60 degrees) so later in the garage, I switched the needle to the second highest notch (it had been in the middle).

Air screw at 1 1/4 out.

Ivy: Speedo Gear and Front Brake

With a hard stop to the garage session, I wasn't sure how much I wanted to try to do.

Started out easy by testing out the new shift pedal (stock).  It was a much better fit but quickly realized it was bent a bit out of shape.  Fiddled a bit with how to hold it down to hammer it back.  Finally settled on putting a big bolt through the center then just stepping on it to hold it in place while I whacked the end with the deadblow hammer.  Really surprised that it worked, to be honest.

With the stock pedal mounted, shifting felt pretty close to Ivy and Roxy.  At least, having that slightly lower peg bars don't seem to be a deal-breaker anymore.  Good enough for test riding at least.

With that bit of "garage luck", decided to go for it with the Ivy front wheel.

This was the first test of the jack stands under each side of the pegs.  But I also added the wood stool under the engine.  Turns out that in terms of holding up the bike, the stool by itself worked absolutely fine.  Though it was nice having the jack stands as insurance.  But now it seems as though I should focus on customizing the stool to fit perfectly under the engine with the peg bars in place then continue to use the jack stands as backup (and they'll need some shims underneath to get them a little higher).

With all that in place, the only thing fiddly about removing the front wheel is getting the fender bolts off.  After that, it was easy to remove the bottoms of the axle holders, then just pull each shock up and over to remove the wheel. 

On to the speedo gear.  As soon as I touched it, it "popped" into place and I thought that it was just misaligned. 

But more surprising was that it didn't have the EBC grooved brake I thought it did.  Not sure where I'd gotten the idea that I'd upgraded them.  Grabbed one of the two EBCs in the bin and did the swap.

With that done, I reassembled everything.  With the wheel back in, I walked the bike around to make sure the speedo arm seemed to be turning - which it definitely was.

Note: you can't run the speedo/brake cables through the fender holder because the cables are too short.

June 17 update:  Unfortunately, no joy on the fix.  Within a few blocks, it was clear neither the speedo or odo were moving at all.

Came back to the garage and removed the cable from the speedo side and taped it to the brake cable so I could walk the bike and watch it.  The cable was definitely not moving anymore.

So thinking through this:

• The cable itself is working, which is an easy test to do.  Also easy to swap out to test another cable.
• The speedo is pretty sure to be working, since again, a pretty straight-forward test and also another easy one to swap.
• This is very similar to what happened before, where the speedo gear seemed to turn but then stopped after awhile.  It must be that it starts off working and in alignment, but something happens and it stops.
• The problem could be...
• Just the speedo gear itself, which would be the best case scenario.
• The brake, which would just mean swapping over to the newly purchased spare.
• Or, very worst case, it's something to do with the hub, in which case we're talking swapping to a new wheel entirely.

Garage: Unboxing Swingarm, Low Bars, Tank

Caught up on some unboxing.

The swingarm had one spacer frozen halfway off the bolt.  Wish people would mention stuff like this...  Shouldn't be hard to get it sorted, and worse comes to worse, it only takes one shock which is fine given it's supposed to just be the temp painting part.

Another set of low bars for the future.

Then the new white tank for Red.  Dent free, but badly corroded.  Will need more than just 80 grit - probably Dremel and/or Roloc work.  But it's in good shape and interior doesn't seem too bad.

Run Red Run: Engine Mount

Wanted to get the new "Double Bill" engine mounted so that I could get VIN verification done with officer Wong.

Found that the new stool stand with the metal brackets fits perfectly under the Early engine.  Popped out easily.

The laid the bike down on her right side to install the new one.  But while the front mount slid right in, the rear of the engine would just not slide through.

After a few attempts at just muscling it in, decided to check measurements.  Found that the corner engine mount was about 1mm wider than the early engine (which slid in nicely).

Decided to file down the sides of the mount by that 1mm instead of messing with the frame.  The big file made short work of that soft metal.

Once it was file down, it still took a little elbow grease to line up, but got all the bolts in relatively easily.

With the the engine mounted, the next test was to mount pegs and pedals.  The right side (kick and rear brake) seemed fine.

But the left side was a little odd.  The shift pedal and the peg bar were on a perfect horizontal line, which felt uncomfortable because there was nowhere to rest your foot without touching the pedal.  But then again, now I wonder if that's closer to stock then the way Roxy and Ivy are setup - with the bar up so much higher than the pedal (because in that setup, you can't really engage the pedal with your heel).

But the peg itself also seems a little bent forward so it's probably lower than it should be.  Also the shift pedal is aftermarket and didn't seem to want to push all the way flush against the shift shaft.

Need to get a stock shifter... and maybe test Roxy's pegs and then keep an eye out for a similar peg on eBay.

Run Red Run: Dime City Sidewalk Runs

Added the new Dime City controls: "shorty" levers, the simple blue kill switch, same horn button that Ivy has, and black mirrors mounted with separate 10mm mounts.

With the seat bolted in, did some sidewalk runs from the top of the hill. 

Felt fantastic...

Red: Bottom End Transplant

Epic day on the carpet to transplant the engine from the 495-507 Trochoid case (will no bill of sale) to the new 482-234 case from Bill (with bill of sale).

Work notes are in Volume 3, page 22.  Also captured this in procedural notes.

Just random highlights:

• Had been especially worried about fitment of the crankshaft, but it went it pretty easily just using a gentle "rocking" motion.
• Testing the oil pump and found the gears were very gravelly and would barely turn.  Then realized that it was missing its gasket.  With that installed, it turned perfectly.
• Used the heat gun to install new Nachi bearings on both sides of the case.  Although later during re-assembly, realized that the small bearing could be installed just by hand and would fall out pretty easily.  
• Added in a "Nippo" brand crankcase gasket (made in Vietnam).  Had a couple unopened Honda NOS gasket sets, but was wondering how much the material degrades over time.
• Had an issue once the cases were together where tightening the bottom or left side screws caused the mainshaft to lock up.  Took the whole thing apart and with these two things fixed, was able to get it closed and working.
• Make sure to turn the shift drum fully counterclockwise before closing the case
• Also make sure the kicker is in the "unlocked" position 
• Had to remove one knock pin from the Right Cover where the case already had one.  Ideally, I think you want both the knock pins on the case so that you can hang the gasket off it, but having one pin on each seemed to work fine.