Red: Left Cover Leak Fix

Changed the oil (without cleaning filters).

Swapped out the left cover for the one that had been on Evie.  Needed a little cleaning and gasket scraping, but looked ok.

Wondering if it was the locating dowel on the old one that somehow contributed to the leak.

Doubled up on the gasket, though that probably was not necessary.

Went back the next morning and the shop towel shoved under the leak was clean!  Hopefully job done, but will check once more.

Red: Shakedown #5, Idle Stalls

Holiday morning shakedown run.  Good clean start.

Took a chance running on the same battery that we took around Stow Lake and may have paid for it.

Was on Cabrillo pulling up to a stop sign and she died as soon as she went to idle.  Scary but I pulled over and she started clean so I kept going.

But pulling up to the light on Geary, she died again, same way.  At that point, I did a quick battery swap.

Didn't want to push my luck, so headed home from 8th Ave.  But she ran fine after that, so hoping it was really just the voltage.

The battery I took out was down to 6.23V which is not as low as I'd feared/hoped.  Feels like 6.23 should be ok to run off of, but maybe not. 

Something to keep an eye on...

Red: Shakedown #4, Stow Lake Milestone

Sunny Saturday morning and I said to hell with it, we're going to Stow Lake.

She started well and ran like a champ.

Got some good 3rd gear runs on the road down to the Conservatory of Flowers, feet back on the pillion pegs and flying.  Felt great.

Did maybe three laps of that and then to Stow Lake.

Perfect ride all around and a nice milestone for her first ride around the lake.

Red: Red Herring #3 (Ignition Coil)

Had planned a quick lunchtime ride but came down to find she wouldn't start.

Wasn't even hearing her cough so it really felt like there was no spark.

Sure enough, I popped the plug and tested it and wasn't seeing anything at all on the kick.

My brain immediately jumped to a bad coil, which though it wasn't splitting the crankcase, still meant an epic job to drop the motor.

But having been through multiple red herring scares already, I figured I'd start with the simplest and work my way toward the epic.

Swapped out the plug for a brand new one and still no joy.

Then checked static timing and again found it was dead on.  Also did some testing with continuity, though I wasn't 100% sure of what I was checking for.  But I did get continuity between the points wire and the coil wire that ran inside the battery box, which was good because at least the wires had not become detached.

I popped off the plug cap because I'd wanted to check continuity (which it doesn't have, not sure why).  In doing so, I noticed offhand that the wires in the HT cable didn't seem well placed and there were only a couple that seemed to be making good contact with the cap.

So I re-arranged them to create a little more contact and when I put the plug back on and tested... big fat blue sparks.

So I can only guess that it was already a loose connection and when I pulled the plug the other day to check piston, I'd broken it fully.

That was a close one...

Few laps around the block for Shakedown #3 with no drama.

Red: Shakedown #2

Another big shakedown run to test the fixed shift.

She started up easy and I tested second almost immediately.  A beautifully clean snap into second gear! 

Did laps around the block and tried to seat the rings with 1st and 2nd gear hard runs.

No issues with fuel delivery though when I came back to the garage, I saw that big air pocket in the line again.

Also noted fork oil leaking from the left fork.

Red: Another Red Herring

I was sure that the starting issue was related to the very heavy kick, only because I knew there was a chance the piston was a bit too big for the cylinder, so maybe there were some binding issues.

Popped the top end, not sure of what to expect.  And found... nothing out of the ordinary.  Rings looked ok and I just redid the offset. 

So not knowing what else to look for, I reassembled everything.

Could the hard kick just be increased compression given that the rings had pushed out?  If so, how much compression was it creating now?

Answer to that was 120!  No wonder I was feeling it on the kick.  The compression had essentially doubled from when I measured it cold before the engine ever ran.

Then I thought it might be the needle height and I basically moved it to every single position to test, but nothing going.

Finally, I was staring at the kink in the fuel line and when I gave it a little nudge, gas suddenly poured down to fill the bowl.

Could I seriously just have RUN OUT OF GAS on the shakedown run?  If so, that would be the biggest red herring ever.

Seems like there was some weird vacuum lock happening, maybe a trapped air bubble?

After that she started and idled with zero issues.

Red: Dodged a Cannonball

The bigger problem on the shakedown was that second gear was absolutely nowhere to be found.  Not even a hint of the gears engaging.

I'd take almost any problem over needing to split the case again, so this one was worrying.

Used the display engine to walk through how the gears and shifter should be working (the display engine actually doing it's critical job!)

Realized the big test would be to see if the drum would spin once freed from the spindle.  If so, then great because maybe the problem wasn't the tranny.  If not, very very bad since something internal was locked up.

Went down and once more pulled the clutch.  This is where the previous day's work paid off as I pretty much had the whole process down pat.

Pulled both clutch and primary off and set the rear wheel so I could spin it.  Found exactly what I'd felt on the bike, which was that it just didn't even come close to engaging second gear. 

But then the big test: with the spindle removed, the drum turned freely!

So that left something about the spindle being off.  I brought the display engine down and pulled the spindle from it.  Visually comparing them, I couldn't really see any different.  Except maybe for the weld marks on the "bad" one!?

I swapped the display one in and presto!  Suddenly she's shifting like a champ.  Still not exactly sure what was wrong/different about the old one.

But job done and hopefully this means the last of the Four Great Worries is resolved.  Unfortunately, can't really know until we get her back on the road, which won't be until we sort the piston problem.

But certainly counts as a very lucky break.

Red: Bad to Worse

Went down dressed to ride, foolishly thinking that somehow the clutch cable was the fix to all the problems on the shakedown ride.  In retrospect, that was complete wishful thinking.

Went to start the bike and immediately realized something had changed.  She's been such a "soft start" since first running, with very easy compression and a quick and easy firing.  Now, the kickstart was extremely heavy.  I could barely get her to turn over.

When she did, she barely idled.  I got her to idle for a minute or two on full choke, but without, she died almost instantly.

Again, foolishly thought this was still somehow related to the clutch and the work I'd done the previous today.

But lesson learned... took the rest of the day to truly ponder the problem and separate out the facts from my personal fiction.

It happened so fast on the shakedown run, but the fact was that the engine started to stall and when I pulled the clutch in nothing really happened.  That's why I thought it was the clutch.  But after the day's pondering, I realized that it seemed more like the piston was not moving freely anymore.  It would explain both the problem in the shakedown as well as the hard start.

Went down in the afternoon and popped off the alternator cover and pulled the spark plug and turned the crank by hand.  It moved silky smooth.

BUT... then with the spark plug back in, it got extremely hard to turn on the compression stroke.  Bingo!  The first gear runs must have started pushing the rings out.

Now I'm wondering if the combo of piston, jug and the new .25 oil ring are not working out after all.  Maybe good enough to idle when not under load, but as soon as there was load the tolerances didn't work.

Almost positive now that that's the problem and the fix is simple: get the right piston/rings/jug.  But easier said than done...

Red: Red Herring

Thought for sure that the cause of her dying on the shakedown run was simply a bad clutch.  Perhaps I was just remembering that first run on Ivy where the old friction plates disintegrated.

So went through all the work of pulling the right cover off, pulling the clutch and then disassembling it, only to find that it seemed just fine.

I did swap out the drive gear and both steel plates (installed one with the half moon) and reinstalled everything.  Hooked up the cable and got the same "crunchiness" I'd felt on the ride!

Only then did I realize it was the cable and not the clutch.  The cable swap was all of five minutes (swapped for the NOS one I'd been carrying in Ivy's bag) and so I'd spent hours pulling the clutch for nothing. 

With the oil out, I also tried swapping for a new alternator cover gasket to see if that would fix the leak (unfortunately, didn't seem to).

RED RUNS!!

Started by respraying those couple spots on the tank that had gotten messed up from the petcock fiasco last session.

Did some torquing between coats.

Then installed the tank to the frame and added the petcock.  Fuel wasn't flowing!

But found that as I unscrewed the bowl, gas would flow.  Some kind of vacuum issue?

But took her out on the maiden run!  Felt good but couldn't shift out of first.  Found the clutch starting to get very "crunchy" and hard to engage.  Engine finally stalled out and walked her home.

But other than that, a good first run!

Red: Epic Tank Fail

Today was more about recognizing when you're about to step over that line from bad to worse.

Session started out okay.  The tank had dried nicely but I could still see some black coming through the white coats so I added a few more layers before doing the top coat.

Between coats, I changed Ivy's oil (but not the filters).

Then back to Red... went ahead and added 125 mL of fork oil on each side.  In doing that, I haphazardly went about torquing both the fork bolts and the main steering bolt.  No issues there but realized immediately after that something was wrong and that the forks were not moving at all.  They literally seemed frozen in place.

Tried to reset at that point.  Drained the oil from both sides (the left side drained in a solid stream, but the right only dripped, not sure why yet).  That changed nothing.

Added in the jack stands and started unbolting the forks themselves.  Got the left side undone from the fender and axle and found it moved fine.  Undid the right side and realized that was the one that was causing the problem.  I could get it to move but only with a lot of effort and it would keep getting "stuck" in place.

Undid the lower fork bolt but it was only when I undid the top bolt that everything came loose and started working again.  I must have torqued it all out of order and caused some kind of bind.

Redid everything in the right order and problem solved.  Added back about 100 mL on each side (forgetting that the right side probably still had a bunch stuck in there).

And I thought that was gonna be the hard part of the day...


Then a kind of summit fever hit.  Realizing I was so close to being done, I decided to push for getting the tank installed and petcock hooked up.  There was still more than enough daylight to get everything done and take her out for a maiden run around the block.

Chain of events went something like this...

• The tank dropped into place nicely.
• Installed the dual-inlet petcock, no problem.
• Ran a 3/16" line from the vertical inlet to a gas catch.  Thought maybe I should do the secondary inlet, too (and lucky I did)
• Poured a cup of gas into the tank (petcock still closed) to test whether I had any leaks out of the base of the petcock itself.  So far so good...
• Turned the petcock on and here's where all the trouble started.  With the petcock on, I got flow coming from both lines, which I was not expecting.
• I thought, no problem, I'll just run the secondary inlet to the actual plugged side of the tank and essentially render it closed, but when I did that, I stopped getting flow from the main inlet.  I think it must create a vacuum lock or something.
• This is exactly the point I should have stopped, packed up, and thought through the problem carefully, slept on it and come back the next day.  Instead, I got stubborn and all kinds of impatient.
• I tried a couple more combinations hoping to find a way to get flow from just a single inlet, but nothing doing.  Should have been a little more thorough with testing because now I can't even remember exactly what I tried.  Plus, I only tried it on Reserve.  Maybe on plain "On" it would have worked???  I just didn't have enough gas in the tank to try it.
• So instead of stopping, I thought I'd try to hook up the old single inlet petcock.  But made a gigantic toxic mess as I tried to somehow detach the dual petcock without spilling the remaining gas all over the place.  
• I succeeded in getting the single inlet one on... only to realize that it was that it was so wide that you couldn't mount the tank with it already installed.
• That's the point I called it a night.  Made even more of a mess trying to slosh out the remainder of the gas into a bowl.  Screwed the single back in and left the tank open.
• Ended up smearing some paint on the bottom left of the tank and all the gas dripping out basically melted away everything on the right side near the petcock.

Lesson(s) learned.

First lesson: I should have done ALL of this petcock testing before painting the tank.  That was just plain hubris.

I should have been more patient when first testing the dual-inlet.  I would have realized I could have tried the "On" because obviously that would NOT have required gas flow from secondary inlet!!

I did end up ordering a single inlet as soon as I got back up, which is probably the right way to go anyway.

Do I fix the paint while I wait for it to arrive, or not even bother till I test everything completely?

Red: Tank Painting, Day 2

Not sure why this painting session didn't seem quite as tedious as usual.  Nothing special, really.  Turned a black tank into a white one.

Did 4-5 coats of primer and then about the same using the Dupli-color white engine enamel.

Also, lubed Red's chain.

Red: Tank #3

Quickly swapped the left bottom handlebar mount.

Then started sanding down the new black tank (third one so far).

The paint is hiding a lot of rust underneath it, but no way I'm stopping to do a bare metal prep job.  Let's get this painted and mounted first and get the bike on sea trials, then we can worry about a super clean tank...

Red: Chain On!

Not really sure why I pushed off doing the chain for so long.  It actually went so easily, I felt like maybe I was missing something.

Set the wheel as far forward as it would go and ran the chain all the way around.  Top tip: do this with the rear wheel locked in place!

Marked the link that had to get popped out and noted that there was plenty of slack on the chain at that point.

Popped the link, which was as easy as before, and then installed the master link.

Then only had to dial the chain adjusters back a few turns before it pulled out the slack.

Job done!

Also labeled some of the wires in the box, but stopped short of actually shortening anything at this point.