WrenchHacker

So this last week I have been working on a few details. My choke cable wouldn’t stay open when pulled, so I’ve replaced that. I also found a hairline crack in the boot between the right-hand side carburetor and the engine. I don’t think it had gone completely through and I don’t think it had affected the fuel mixture yet, but I repaired this with some superglue to prevent any future issues.

But my biggest project has been to repair the paint…for the third time. I don’t have the facility to do paint, so it’s pretty frustrating to keep working on this. The reason I had to go back and repaint again was that in my haste to get the bike out on the road a few weeks ago, the fenders were not well protected and got scratched. I also noticed a couple spots on the tank where the paint had started to chip…already.

Rattle can paint is shit. It really is and they shouldn’t even sell this crap in stores. If you’re painting something that will never get touched and doesn’t have to look good at all, sure this crap will work. But if you even remotely care what it looks like when dry, you shouldn’t use it. But I’m not willing to pay $1000 for a pro paint job, so I’m again using my Preval sprayer and with my auto paint and I found a better solution for the clear. I’m using a polyurethane paint called SprayMax 2K. This is a 2-part clear coat in a regular spray can that is “supposed” to go on a lot more like professional clear coat. This seemed to work OK, but I’ve already seen some spots that didn’t come out as well as I wanted. I guess I’ll have to wait until everything is cured to sand it out and see how it looks smooth and polished.

This weekend was one of success and then relative failure with the bike.

First off, I got the bike started. This is a huge step in finishing the project, but certainly not the end of the road. I write code all day and this morning I couldn’t help thinking how building this bike is analogous to designing a program. You might write a program for days or weeks, but while you’re working on each individual part, you’re really just making a guess about how everything will work together. Then one day, you’re able to compile your program and it runs for the first time. This doesn’t mean the software is done – it’s just time to begin testing. Sometimes things work as you want and other times you have to rebuild certain pieces to get them to work as a whole.That’s what this weekend was for me.

As soon as the bike started it, I began to see problems. It didn’t turn off with the key, but it would with the kill switch. The bike didn’t idle great and ran weak on one side and really got on the other. It wouldn’t rev beyond 4 or 5K RPM. There were some fitment issues with the rear fender and seat. And on. And on.

But most of me didn’t care. As soon as I could put the bike in gear, I rolled it out of the garage and took it for a spin around the neighborhood. It’s pretty loud and attracted plenty of attention – most of it deserved. It’s pretty awesome. But quickly I could tell there were more issues and I might have jumped the gun on my test ride. The left side was running very lean and the pipe wrap was getting hot so fast smoke started to pour off. Also I didn’t tighten down the battery box very well and it was starting to come loose. I got her home and she now has her first 2 miles.

The issue with it not shutting down the with switch was an issue of dirty contacts in the ignition. Check.

The issue with the idle and it not running right was another issue. I thought it might have to do with the fact the carbs weren’t balanced, so I began buying the parts necessary to build a manometer. But while I was looking into that, I also examined the mixture screws again. While rebuilding the carbs I noticed that the right side was missing a mixture screw, but I thought this was by design. Sunday, I realized it had broken off so cleanly prior to my carb rework that I didn’t notice it was in bad shape.

I pulled the carbs (for like the 10th time in a week) and decided to use a screw extractor to get the old, broken needle out. It was very, very resistant and when it finally came out, it took the aluminum body of the carb body as a hostage. I immediately began to laugh at how ridiculous all these carb issues are. I have spent probably 50 bucks on random parts for these things, had other owners give me parts, and spent probably a dozen hours on different aspects of the rebuild, only to have it break catastrophically in the end.

I don’t know what my next step is. I’m looking for another owner that can give me a clean right side body or maybe an entire set of clean carbs. I’d rather not spend a whole lot of time cleaning another set, but I’m at the mercy of what the market bears right now.

I haven’t added much in the last week or so because it’s been crazy busy. Had some family in town, my roof is getting re-done, and there are some other things I’ve had to do around the house. I ended up getting the front brakes bled last week and doing a re-re-paint of the tank. My first repaint worked alright, but I ended up sanding too far through the clear trying to get out a couple imperfections, so I had to fix that. They say the third times the charm…

This week’s project is re-doing the carbs. I mentioned before that Murray sent me some used parts. Monday night I had a chance to get carbs split apart, springs unhooked, and took out the shaft connected to the butterflies in an effort to replace the hangar. I was initially nervous about getting this far into the carbs, but I bought a book from Larry Cargill that explains the inner workings pretty well. Tonight I hope to have some time to reinstall the parts I removed.

I’ll also spend some timing cleaning them thoroughly. I had done what I thought was a good job with carburetor cleaner, hot water, and an air compressor, but after reading Larry’s book I think I could do better. I bought an ultrasonic cleaner from Harbor Freight which I’m hoping can get into all the spots I can’t. I used this tool a little Monday night and was really impressed how well water shaking at high velocities can clean something. I think I’ll end up finding a ton of uses for this – anywhere from the garage to jewelry.