MSerfozo

22 hours ago, B-Mac said:

Great day for riding. Colors are in and traffic was low today

Rode 200 miles in your neck of the woods today, B-Mac.  I looked at the weather forecast and we're supposed to have 2 days of rain followed by highs in the 50s.  Today was my last chance for a while.

7 minutes ago, max power said:

I have the vessel screwdriver and have bought them for hamfisted friends that seem to love to destroy JIS screws with a Phillips. Everyone should own a JIS screwdriver.  

I saw a thread on another forum where a guy was rebuilding a bike engine and there were Craftsman Phillips screwdrivers in the background of the photos.  I had Amazon send him a Vessel #2 before he had a chance to strip the heads of his screws.

My Vessel cross head driver will fit a screw so well that it can hang horizontally from the tip.

17 hours ago, mello dude said:

I'm guilty of occasionally seeing a tool or tools in the OMG gimme that department.....I definitely obsess until I just buy the thing.

Most recently I found some extra long box end wrenches from www.carnagetools.com

Bought 5 of them, they are quite exquisite......very nice for the tight spots...

Oh yeah, those are nice.  They could climb up my list and I'll surely remember carnagetools.com.

Last spring I was working in Holland, MI and I saw one of my techs using this.  I asked where he bought it, and before the day was over, I had driven 25 MI to the Grand Rapids Home Depot and bought one.

It's perfect for the spring clamp on the fuel line behind my petcock when removing the fuel tank.

9 hours ago, Bubba said:

Pretty sure I've got tools in the roller that I may not have used even once, but I steadfastly refuse to call myself a tool geek.

However, at an average of $45-$50 per wrench, I would think you'd be jonesin' for the entire set!!!

I am jonesin' for the set.  The 10mm is probably just the gateway...  😅

I am!  When I see the perfect tool for some job, I just obsess over it until I finally buy it.  I had to have Vessel crosshead screwdrivers, Knipex Cobra Pliers, Wera Kraftform insulated electricians screwdrivers (including 2 sizes of PZ/S drivers for those electrical screws that have a combo cross and slotted head), and I just bought a soldering station that can run off my cordless tool batteries.  When I have an occasion to use these, I just marvel at how perfectly they do the job, even in my hands!

Yesterday I saw a 1000V insulated 10mm box end wrench from Germany.  I have to admit, I would completely geek out to work on bike or car battery terminals with this.

https://www.kctool.com/stahlwille-12161-vde-single-ended-ring-spanner-10-mm/

Does anybody else have some special tools that they just had to buy?

20 hours ago, Tonik said:

New bolt and emery the other surfaces?

The bolt head's surface seems good, no leak there.  Leak seems to be coming from the cylinder  head side, either between the head and the crush washer or the crush washer and the oiler bar.  The 2 holes in the head are supposed to be flat, but more important, they have to be parallel - so I'm very reluctant to do anything to alter it.

What I'd like to find is a sealing washer that's a bit softer than Cu and Al so it can comply to mate the surfaces.  If read that heating Cu until it's red, then cooling slowly will soften it some.

In the meantime, the bandage is working to let me ride.  I put on a new one and rode to see my parents in Nerk today, the new rag has a good 100 miles of absorbency left in it.  I always thought my old bike would become a ratfighter before I finished it - the oily rag fits the look.

Did you save it?

I had to use my "decibel discourager" to keep a woman from changing lanes in a roundabout into the lane I was occupying.  Her window was down so my " '68 Buick horns" had the desired effect.

Rode it 200 miles to play in the Hocking Hills with a riding buddy who just retired 2 weeks ago.  It's great being able to ride on weekdays!  We got a late start because it was 39 deg this morning - waited til it was 60 deg at 11:00 to head out because we're both retired and don't have to hurry anymore!

Hit 374, 664, 56, 278, 691, and Big Pine Rd and had lunch at Tammy's Country Kitchen in Nelsonville.  Traffic was non-existent until after 4 or so on the way home.

I still have a very slight leak.  😩  I tied a piece of cloth around the joint and it didn't leak any more than to soak into the rag.  Bike and my leg stayed clean.  I gotta come up with a way to seal this thing!

Well, shit!  Guess I'll try new copper ones again...

A little more Google shows that these are also sold by Suzuki as drain plug washers for models with a 14mm plug.  Hope they'll hold under the pressure of my application.  I plan to get them swapped later this morning when the garage warms a little.

1 hour ago, motocat12 said:

It's a total loss. Need to get a new bike while you rebuild.

Warm it up then torque it with new washers while warm? 

LOL, I don't need a new bike, I have this one almost exactly like I want it!  Until the next mod, anyway...  😎

I've been wondering whether it's better to torque it warm or cold.  I decide cold was better with the copper washers sandwiched in there because of different thermal expansion between Cu and Al.

23 hours ago, Pauly said:

I think you should use the new washers and apply the specific torque value listed in the OEM service manual, unless it has also been superseded. 

No torque spec for an aftermarket performance part that's probably 20 years old.  I think I'll put it together with the washers and no sealant.  I've torqued these bolts enough times to be comfortable with doing it one more (hopefully) time.

1 hour ago, Tonik said:

Seems to me they redid the washers for a reason. I would follow standard procedures the first time. They may have fixed your issue.

I hope they redesigned the washers for an improved sealing system and not to save a nickel's worth of copper.  I'm hopeful that these will seal better.  They seem to have a light gray coating on the sealing faces that I think will help them to comply with slight irregularities of the mating surfaces.

Here's a closer pic of the application.  Arrows point to the sealing locations.

I'm still having a problem getting my top-end-oiler on the right side to completely seal.  I get a drop of oil in about 20 miles, but it's enough to make a mess.  

I've replaced the copper crush washers a few times and applied differing viscosities of non-hardening sealants (Hylomar and Permatex #2) with a little improvement each time.

A couple days ago I went to Iron Pony and bought a set of factory crush washers from Suzuki.  The original part number had been superceded and instead of simple copper washers I got the ones pictured.

Has anybody ever used a sealing washer like this?  It kind of looks like the sealing ring on a spark plug but more opened up.

Unless anybody has a better idea, I assume I'll just put it together and crank the shit out of the banjo bolts (until they break, then back off a quarter turn).  I might put a dab of Permatex #2 on the sealing faces as well.

OK, I get that you don't want Tonik and his wing along, so somebody PM me the meet location & time.

Anybody still planning to do this?

18 hours ago, Connie14 said:

Maybe next weekend works better for everyone?

I can make next Sat.

Changed the rashed starter clutch cover for a clean one.

I'm still in to meet up with you folks.  I'm too new here to feel comfortable leading or sweeping.

Yesterday I helped a friend with tires.  He has a CBR1000 and some sort of H-D with a 19" skinny tire on a spoked rim with a tube.  🤮

He said the CBR front was feeling wonky at speed so we balanced it.  There were four 5g weights on the opposite side from where they needed to be.  I'm so happy I don't have to count on a shop to do my tires.

Then we put a new tire & tube on the Harley rim.  What a pain tubes are.  The wheel had a 1oz chrome (of course) weight that fits on a spoke so we took that off to check balance.  We needed that 1oz and another 1oz of stick on weights to get it balanced!

I attempted to seal up my oil leak with new crush washers and a smear of Hylomar on all sealing surfaces.  I'm always nervous torquing those 14mm hollow aluminum banjo bolts but all seemed to go well.  No test rides yet due to the rainy weekend.

In the meantime, the guy who built my engine mentioned that it can get hot in traffic.  I remembered that his donor bike had 2 oil temp gauges, one for oil going to the oil cooler and one for oil coming from the cooler back into the sump.  So I ordered a gauge pod and fabbed an intermediate bracket to mount the pod to.  I got the gauges mounted today. 

Eventually, I'll probably remove one on the oil gauges and mount the O2 gauge I got from the donor bike.  That'll be an off season project because I'll need a bung added to my exhaust pipe.