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.