Red Runs the Clover

Summer Garage Day Four: Catastrophe

Session started off brilliantly.  Got the new momentary horn switch ($15 Amazon) which worked a whole lot better than the Dime City one I'd been using.  Swapped those over and did another round of cleaning up and zip tying the wires.

Had earlier taken apart the valves on Ivy's head and simply cleaned the edges up.  Did the leak test again and presto!  All fixed, no leaks.  Started reassembling her top end and it was all going swimmingly.

Then it all went south.

I was tightening the head bolts in order to line everything up so I could insert the camshaft.  I did get a sense that they seemed to be just going and going and even with the torque set so low at 16 ft-lb, it never stopped.

Really should have listened to my inner voice screaming, "STOP!"

Then the loud (and familiar) snap as the stud bolt snapped.  Second time.  Unbelievable.  Totally blame myself, though.

Just can't understand why it never stopped on the torque wrench.  I immediately tested the wrench on Red's head bolts and it was working fine.

Summer Garage Day Three

Installed the new headlight switch (just $13 from Amazon and looks trick!).  Surprisingly took 3 hours to do it all and then clean up all the wiring.

Summer Garage Day Two

Switched from Evie to the black frame (needs a name) as the rolling chassis.

Went pretty smoothly.  Had to file down the inside of the swingarm bushings to get it to fit but other than that it was an easy swap.

Took the opportunity to apply grease to every part and anti-seize to every fastener.  Want to make sure she's easily disassembled and reassembled as needed.

Few items to fix for the future:

• Need a narrow spacer on the left cushion
• The left side chain adjuster seems the wrong type (has the long pointy end)
• Need stem washer
• Still need to figure out the deal with the Late style front axle spacer.  I thought I had the right part but it seemed way too long to fit.
• The battery screw hole is plugged!

Summer Garage Day One

First day of Summer Garage Week.

First things first, pulled Ivy's top end after she lost all compression a few days back after running for a few seconds.

Leak test (with gas) was pretty conclusive.  Definitely a valve stuck slightly open.  Left it all disassembled for now.


Switched to testing Red's LED light when hooked up straight to the battery.  Confirmed that while it still flickers slightly at idle, it's almost unnoticeable under throttle.  So definitely could work but now just need a handlebar switch.

Messed with moving Red's needle position to address the stumble/running rich issue, but didn't make much difference and realized it wouldn't matter much under throttle.

So did the full swap to the brand new carb (same model) and voila!  Stumble completely gone and feels like there's much more power.

But wonder why the old carb gunked up so quickly?  Going to order an ultrasonic cleaner and give it a thorough cleanse.

 

Red: LED Tease

Nothing's ever easy...

First up, the new Dime City mirrors were great because of the almost limitless adjustability, but the included 10mm allen bolt was too long for the handlebar mount.  I had to shim it with 3 washers to get the length correct.

They seemed to do the job, though.  Almost giving me a full view of what was directly behind.

I was more excited to hook up the new 5.5" side-mount headlight with the new LED bulb I'd swapped out for the included halogen.

I swapped the buckets over and rerouted all the wiring, which was a lot simpler with the Wago connectors.  Turned it on with the kill switch and it looked fantastic.

It was all going swimmingly until I actually started the motor.  Got a very, very noticeable flickering, pretty much in rhythm with the pulse of the motor.

So... left everything as it was but disconnected the bulb.

Back to the drawing board...

Red: Clutch Cable Lube

Love it when the easiest fix works.  Lubed the clutch cable old-school style using fork oil and now it's buttery smooth.

Also unboxed the new H4 headlight from Dime City.

Red: Spark Plug Check

Red's plug seems ok?

Monkey Motor: Clutch Audit

Added the primary gear, clutch center guide and collar.  All part of auditing the big box o'clutch parts again.

They're all in fairly good nick but I realized I shouldn't gamble on the old friction disks and I only had one left of the NOS bunch I'd bought awhile back.  Should invest in another lot of them...

Given Red's very heavy clutch pull, wondering if I can measure the spring rate on the big springs before installing them.

Red: Fork Seal Saga, Part 4

Realized that maybe I could get smaller o-rings which would then end up being tighter around the fork tube itself.  Picked up some #18s from Ace which were 24mm ID (not realizing I already had a few from the earlier purchase)

Pulled both forks because I first had to switch back to the old "black" springs to hopefully fix the binding issue.

Left the left seal alone since it seemed to be ok, but this time used two stacked #18s on the right side (same position: on top of the seal but under the metal washer).

Testing in the garage was encouraging... the binding issue was gone and the right seal was all dry.

Went for a couple mile ride and things still seemed okay.

Went for a much longer ride the following morning and was getting a tiny bit of binding but definitely not as bad as with the gold springs.

But also found that the right fork was leaking again, but this time it was coming from the bottom of the seal unit and not the top.  It also was very little fluid compared to the earlier leaks.

That said, I wonder if it's worth going back in and putting some o-rings underneath the unit so that they are sandwiched between the unit on the top and the piston on the bottom.

Red: Fork Seal Saga, Part 3

Let's recap...

• Found the left fork leak quite early on, back in May
• Bought a pair of fork bottoms ($39)
• Absolutely destroyed one of them trying to remove the seal
• But used the other one to replace Red's left unit (Part 1, June 1)
• This seemed to stop the leak.. for awhile anyway
• Then in July, the right side starting leaking
• Bought a complete set of forks ($88, though very perished)
• Used one of the units to replace Red's right side (Part 2, July 21)
• But only a week later, found that both sides were leaking again

Realized I could gamble on eBay forks forever and it's just luck of the draw on whether I would get a decent one or not.  And forget about actually trying to swap the fork seal itself...

Then had the thought that the forks are not a precision unit.  If oil is leaking out the top, why not just try to "plug" the leak?  Thought maybe I could just add my own o-rings into the mix.

Got a bunch of different sizes at Ace for about $.80 a pop.

Had the day off of work (gotta love Summer Fridays) and plenty of time.  Getting at the forks is becoming routine at this point.

Removed both forks and swapped to the new "golden" colored springs, thinking that they were stiffer.

Then I added a #19 and a #20 on top of the fork seal unit but under the metal washer so that the spring would hold them tight in place.

Also switched down to 10 weight old (instead of 15).

Ended up being two steps back...

While it seemed to stop the left side leak, the right side was still leaking.  Not only that but the gold springs caused the forks to bind on compression and you had to force them back up into place.  Thought maybe that condition would only exist in the garage but an afternoon ride confirmed that they were binding no matter what.