Red: New Breather Valve!

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.

 

 

Red: Going Big Bore

Since getting Ivy running I've been able to compare her with Red side-by-side.  Seems crazy, but Ivy just feels much torquier, especially winding up in second gear.  Then again, she does have Roxy's old jug along with brand new rings.  But Roxy's cylinder is standard size and nothing special as far as I know.  Not sure how that could translate into such a big difference in the feeling of torque.  Maybe it's the exhaust?  Either that or the carb.  (Ivy's currently running the Sheng #1)

Decided to take the leap and install the DRATV Big Bore into Red now that she's feeling "under powered".

• Installed the 5 piece ring set before heading downstairs.  No issues getting them on.  Helps that I had some recent practice doing Ivy's new rings.
• Also filed down an old knock pin until it fit easily into the top right hole.
• Disassembled the top end.  The new pick set was handy getting the wrist pin circlip out.
• The old case-to-jug gasket was looking a bit brittle so swapped it out with a new one.
• Filed down the end of the knock pin a bit to make sure it fit flush into the case.
• The new piston went in ok.  Followed the standard setup for placing the gaps.
• It was VERY fiddly trying to get the jug over top of the rings.  Was constantly worried about knocking a ring out of its groove or messing up the 3-piece oil scraper somehow.  Finally just got it on after constant fiddling.  Maybe next time the strategy would be to insert the piston into the jug up to the rings before installing it to the crankshaft.  Or, get a piston ring sleeve thingy.
• Used the thicker copper gasket provided by DRATV to help with clearance.
• Slowly torqued the head cover nuts to 10 ft lbs.
• For some strange reason, it was VERY hard getting the advance back onto the end of the camshaft.  Why???
• With everything back together, she started right up.

Shakedown: ran quite a few laps from about 17th to 25th, keeping the revs varied.  No smoke!

But she suddenly cut out on 25th and Lake.  Feared the worst, but after making it back to the garage realized I'd simply run out of gas!

But... biggest disappointment was that I simply did not feel like those extra 14cc's made any difference at all.  Didn't really feel that much extra torque.  Didn't feel that "surge" in second gear that I was comparing against Ivy.  Very strange.

Thinking of swapping back to the Sheng as a test.  Maybe that old Keihin is just not breathing as well?  What could be giving Ivy that extra feeling of power???

Red Runs the Clover

Red: Fork Seal, Part II

Surprised when I realized I'd done a four-hour session.  Wasn't anything so epic, but perhaps I was taking my time.

Went through the now-familiar process of removing the seal unit from the right fork, but realized something was a bit off when I opened up the drain plug and nothing came out.

Pulled the bottom fork off and saw the opening was pretty gummed up.  Shined a light into the hole and it was completely blocked up.  Used a small allen wrench to poke around and finally saw there seemed to be not only fork muck but also some kind of residue, maybe very old gasket material.  Then used a longer bolt to clean the threads and push it out.  Sprayed the inside out with the hose to rinse it clean, then ran some WD40 through it.

Bolted everything back up and flushed it with a tiny bit more fork oil before filling it with 125mL of clean fluid.

Given how much muck was in the right, was worried same might be true on the left.  Removed the bolt and once again, nothing flowing.  Popped the bottom off and pretty much the same level of muck although no gasket residue on this one.  Just did the power rinse with the hose and the WD40, which seemed to clean it all out nicely.  Filled with 125mL.


Took a fresh look at the battery compartment.  Had hoped to use the new terminal block to attach all the positive leads together, but even though the block fit fine in the compartment by itself, once it actually had wires attached to it, it was just too clunky to fit clean.

But after untangling and sorting the wires a bit better, realized that maybe I could get away with just organizing the existing mess a bit better.  Removed the old "junction" and chopped each lead much shorter to get rid of the excess.  Also used a zip tie to lock all the positives together.

The negative bundle was the only one that attached to the battery so only those wires had to be long.  Shortened one of the kill wires and then used a bunch of zip ties to make it a little neater.

Putting everything back in, it's still a nest of wires, but when you pull them free, it's much more organized and clear where everything is supposed to go.  So good enough for now...

Still not sure why Ivy's compartment is so "empty" compared to Red's...

Also checked the plug and it was black and clean.

Red: Fork Seal Swap

One big job and lots of little ones...

The main event was swapping the left fork seal housing in the hopes it would fix the leak.  Got a couple of fork bottoms on eBay that were very perished and really almost the only usable thing was one good housing.

So the fender and wheel came off.  Then unscrewed the fork bottom from the housing.  Then unbolted the fork leg itself.

Examining the left leaky housing, it was obvious how worn down it was.  The new eBay one did look much better.

Swapped it over, flipped the spring right way up (the narrow coils go on top!) and put the fork back finger tight.

But I had also seen some weeping on the right side and sure enough, that housing was pretty perished as well.  Not having a second good housing to use, all I could do was clean it up as much as possible and replace the o-ring.  Hopefully that's enough.  At least it never leaked as badly as the left.

Added a touch over 100 mL of oil back to each side.


With the wheel off, also took a look at why the front brake seemed so weak (especially compared to Ivy's).  Didn't really see anything wrong with the brake itself, so I'm worried that maybe the drum lining is worn down, which unfortunately means a new wheel hub.  Though that kills two birds with one stone so that I could balance and true it at the same time.  A job for another day...

Also got excited fitting the speedo cable until I realized that there was no speedo gear!  Added the cable for now, but will need to wait for the part.


Then went to torque the rear flange bolts only to find that 3 out of the 4 would spin endlessly.  All I could really do was try to hold them in place with the tabs.  Will need to check them often.

Found a tiny leak from the bottom of the base plate, but it's a very slow leak.

Finally, added the new thermometer to the bars (the one that I got from an Instagram add and then took 2 weeks to arrive...)

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...