Wanted to add a kill switch to Evie for easy startup. Got the spare handlebar switch, which had tested fine, hooked up only to find I'd screwed it on off kilter and had actually ended up melting the contacts.
So ended up just hooking it up to the big box switch.
Ran and fired up nicely. So now she's at least got a nice semi-permanent fuel and switch setup for garage starts.
Made up a new breather valve for Red so I wouldn't have to keep swapping Roxy's back and forth.
Drilled a pilot hole, then went in with the step bit.
Was kind of winging the whole thing given how I wasn't quite sure how the whole thing was even going to play out with the nozzle. But after drilling the hole out to the step bit's maximum diameter, I found that the threads of the nozzle were perfectly snug in the hole.
With some force, was able to get the nozzle to bite into the valve and then just secured it with a few turns.
Only thing was that the nozzle ended up being a bit skewed (not perfectly straight up and down). But good result for being almost an accidental success.
Saw that the early top end used the solid head gasket so swapped over to that for the sake of it.
Did the quick test of removing the air filter, putting my hand on the intake and then cranking a few times. Should get a handful of gas at that point, but not only was there no gas, there wasn't even any suction. Big clue, finally!
Then just walked it down. Removed the carb entirely and found that I had suction on the head itself.
But when I went to test the intake, discovered that I hadn't CUT A HOLE in the DIY gasket!!
Bone headed mistake, but at least problem solved.
As usual, as soon as I cut the hole and put everything back together, she literally started on second kick.
Straight pipe is loud and awesome! Almost too loud to leave it idling but sounds fantastic.
Decided to swap back to the orange (x-Red) jug to eliminate the unknown factor of the Flexhone jug. No issues on the swap itself but it didn't affect the compression at all.
Poured some oil down into the plug hole and got the compression to jump to 60.
First time lapping valves and was surprisingly straight forward.
The suction cup was fine on the larger intake valve, but would never successfully stick to the smaller exhaust valve. But just by keeping downward pressure on the valve while spinning, was able to get the lapping done.
Thought this was going to be the magic fix, but after getting the head back together, the psi hadn't budged at all and was still down at just 35.
So a pretty conclusive leak test on Evie's early head: gas drained in seconds.
On the carpet later that evening, it was easy to see just how cruddy and caked everything was. Removed both valves and gave them a good cleanup. Used fine grain to just clean up the edges of the valves. Will first see how it does with the leak test again then will decide whether a lapping is needed.
Update 10/19: Redid the leak test and found that while it was definitely improved, there was still a significant leak from the intake valve. So looks like some lapping is in order.
Unclear what caused the clutch to freeze up on the last ride, but to safe, decided to swap in the new but thinner disks (in case the two extra-thick ones were somehow the root cause).
After swapping everything over, had that same issue where the arm was very far out and was locked stiff, but with a slight push it "popped" right into place. It was now much closer to where the cable was held.
But why???
In rebuilding had also realized that the arms of the cotter pin were sticking out at right angles and so had bent them inward. Could that have been contributing to the issue the whole time??
Installed the new "two nut" clutch cable. Even with all that extra length it was still a tight fit. Ended up having to remove one of the nuts just to get enough slack in. But at least it's on.
10/8 UPDATE: Test ride on the new clutch/cable. The very good news is that there's loads more power on tap. So for sure I must have set up the old clutch badly to where it was always partially engaged and robbing stealing power to the wheels.
Bad news is that twice on the ride, the clutch "stuck" and wouldn't pop free when I released the lever. Not sure if it's an internal issue or if it's the cable. Hope it's just the cable...
Relatively routine at this point. Swapped in the other extra-thick friction disk so that there were two fo them installed.
Didn't actually seem to impact the clutch distance that much but seemed better to have the two thickest in there so that hopefully that withstand the extra HP a bit better.
Got some new wood-handled screwdrivers which I then sanded down specifically to handle this oily clutch work. Worked a treat!
Now just need to wait on the new clutch cable.
Next attempt at the clutch fix after spending time on the carpet working out how the different plate thicknesses affect the clutch arm slack.
Popped out the clutch and swapped one of the disks for the extra-thick version. The total width of all four plates together was 10mm. However, after reinstalling the basket, saw that it was very far away from the primary gear (5mm), which is a good initial test.
With everything reassembled, that proved to be accurate. It was better than before in that now there was at least a little slack in the clutch arm before it engaged, but it was nowhere near enough to install the cable.
Realized two things:
So on a ride last week after a nice long cruise, Red started hesitating as I rolled on the throttle. Low speed in first seemed fine, but anything beyond that she'd hesitate and lose power.
At first, thought it was yet another carb issue. But in idle in the garage, there was no hesitation at all as I rolled on the throttle. Quickly realized it felt much more like the clutch was slipping under power.
Silver lining in that theory would be that if the clutch plates were already on there way out, maybe it would explain why she never felt as spunky under acceleration even after the big bore.
So went down with the goal of at least inspecting the clutch and then taking it from there. Had spent a lot of time on the carpet building up a new one, or at least preparing a second one, but realized there was no point in a straight swap without taking the time to really investigate the current one.
At first, everything was almost too easy. Pegs, exhaust and kick pedal all came off quick and easy. Right cover came off no problem (probably thanks to that anti-seize).
Popped out the clutch and got it disassembled. Was pretty pleased to find what I was expecting which was a set of very smooth friction plates. These were the type with the "wide" sections so probably the best of some old ones and not the new "narrow" section ones from recent eBay purchases.
Measured them both at about 2.5mm which was almost at the limit. Oddly though, the new ones were almost almost the exact same width. Thought that would be a bonus though since it wouldn't affect the overall thickness. Soaked them in oil and got the whole thing back together easily, even the small springs which I just pushed in using a flathead and downward pressure with the thumb.
Clutch was even all aligned on the first try and slotted right into place. Still too easy...
Got ambitious and decided to do the right thing mechanically and swap out for a new right cover gasket. Had to peel off some old gasket along the upper edges but not so bad. Ended up changing the outer clutch cover gasket as well and those screws were almost frozen. Used the Husky along with the 7mm wrench and got them out without having to resort to the impact driver.
So got everything all put back together only to be totally and completely stymied as now the clutch cable was waaaaay too short. Pretty much impossible to get the cable installed with the amount of slack present.
Having gone through all the prior work on the carpet, realized that something had changed the position of the basket such that it was now pushed out much too close to the actuator. The arm now had absolutely no free play (it was basically engaged just at rest) and had way too far to travel to ever be able to attach to the cable.
Since the friction plates themselves were exactly the same width, the only other thing that could have changed was the thickness of the gaskets (though the weird thing is that the replacements would have to be thinner than the ones they replaced to cause this). Or maybe they both contributed a small part to the entire problem.
But following clutch logic, 2 thicker friction plates should force the basket closer in toward the engine, thus allowing more play in the arm before it engages. Only one way to find out, I guess...
