What did you do to your bike today?

[Tat2demon]

Finally got around to cutting grooves into my front brake pads today. No more squealing.

Two minutes after that I threw out my back so no more riding or working on it for the foreseeable future.

[tv5150]

Stock Exhaust and Case Guards

I installed the stock "Special" exhaust I won on eBay last month
that's dang near mint condition after detailing them to the "max"
AND I installed the 3 point case guards I got from Tom Chisom thru eBay also
and they are near mint contition after a heavy duty polishing on them also...
Just got back from a ride thru the Hill Country and a couple of the Highland Lakes on some of the greatest roads you could ever ask for on a bike...

[planedick]

Wow

Man, what I wouldn't give for some stock standard pipes as nice as those....

[jwhughes3]

Horsetrading

I traded a little cash plus Little Ranger, the XS400, for an 81XS1100....PO liked the bike but felt it too big...I think he was just too inexperienced....after someone tried to steal it and destroyed ignition switch he lost interest.





It needs an ignition switch, gas tank cleaned and coated, a seat cover and carb cleaning....

I need to find an 81 TCI because the one it has says 2H7 so I am sure it won't run completely right because of the advance..though right now Im afraid to try and start it since I smell gas in the oil and petcocks were left locked on Prime.

Luckily I still have a lockset, switch, sidecover lock and special cap collected from Andreas sometime in past that will work that has a key.

I didnt take pic of sidecovers (same hunter orange) or King/Queen seat that needs recovering.

Special exhaust looks OK, but needs some rust cleanup.

I probably will fix this and let it go...collecting too many, but didn't want to abandon it.

John

[jjz28]

Good looking bike john.

[sparks]

Checked the valve clearance, and used the surface grinder on the shims to get them all within half a thou of each other.
Also found out that the heel of some of the cam lobes is not concentric with the center of the cam shaft, which translates into the fact that the clearance changes as the lobe goes from 90 deg to the stem axis up to in line with it. Not all lobes, but one thousandth difference on a couple of them.
So, since the good book said that the lobe should be pointed away from the valve bucket, that's where I measured it.
I'll re sync the carbs tomorrow, and see if the valve job got rid of the 3500 rpm buzz. CZ

I seem to remember from my misspent youth that cam lobes had a bit of a cant to them on purpose.. this was to ensure that cam followers/lifters etc would spin and wear evenly.. That could be another myth..

Lee
(Sparks)

[BA80]

I seem to remember from my misspent youth that cam lobes had a bit of a cant to them on purpose.. this was to ensure that cam followers/lifters etc would spin and wear evenly.. That could be another myth..

Lee
(Sparks)

You are exactly correct Lee about the spin. In these engines the entire shim, shim bucket as well as the valve is able to spin. In my limited knowlege this would account for the gaps closing as the seats wear as opposed to the gaps widening as the cam, shim, and valve stem tips wear as they do in most other engines.

[sparks]

You are exactly correct Lee about the spin. In these engines the entire shim, shim bucket as well as the valve is able to spin. In my limited knowlege this would account for the gaps closing as the seats wear as opposed to the gaps widening as the cam, shim, and valve stem tips wear as they do in most other engines.

There are some automotobile engines that also use shims and also tend to get tighter as they wear.. Volkswagon water cooled engines come to mind. A "flat" cam lobe often meant a burnt valve would soon follow. On the old pushrod engines, you could, with the valve covers off, observe the pushrods rotating to verify that the cam still had the slant to it..

Lee
(Sparks)

[BA80]

The Ford Taurus SHO engines were made by Yamaha and use the same size shims. They had shims available in smaller increments but have become nearly impossible to find now.

Just FYI

[motoman]

I seem to remember from my misspent youth that cam lobes had a bit of a cant to them on purpose.. this was to ensure that cam followers/lifters etc would spin and wear evenly.. That could be another myth..

Lee
(Sparks)

.....That it is. Actually, lifters or in this case the shims are convex allowing rotation in the bucket. That is also why the shims are directional. Cam lobes are perpendicular, least they better be or you have a 'flat' cam. In the automotive world, that's why you never put used lifters on a new cam, or it WILL end up 'flat'!

[BA80]

.....That it is. Actually, lifters or in this case the shims are convex allowing rotation in the bucket. That is also why the shims are directional. Cam lobes are perpendicular, least they better be or you have a 'flat' cam. In the automotive world, that's why you never put used lifters on a new cam, or it WILL end up 'flat'!

The lifters WILL aquire a wear pattern according to the lobe of the cam they are running on and changing the wear patten is why you can't run old lifters on a new cam or swap them from used to used. New lifters are OK on an old cam but not vise versa.

I haven't heard of a lot of problems from putting used shims on a used cam though. Perhaps because the shim, bucket and valve are able to spin in this scenario the shim doesn't wear to much to be reused. IDK?

[natemoen]

Put led turn signals in my ammo can saddle bags since the OEM relocation bar didn't cooperate with them.

[motoman]

Put led turn signals in my ammo can saddle bags since the OEM relocation bar didn't cooperate with them.

Looks good Nate...........now just find a mounting location for the BMG............

[BA80]

You know it never ceases to amaze me that people go through the trouble to cover thier licence plates in these pics. Is it a secret?

You can ride in traffic with millions of people looking at them but to post pics on a site where the people are supposedly your friends you feel that the tag # needs to be a secret.

Will someone please explain that to me? It seems like total paranoia to me.

WTF difference does it make? What are people going to do with a tag # in a pic that they can't do with a tag # on the highway.

SMFH

[jwhughes3]

I dont know

I have wondered same myself. Not sure how plate can be used against me.

Nate, those signals look good. Those are the really big ammo cans...i have one and its heavy. Did you build special HD brackets to hold up to the weight?

Are you leaving them green or painting to coordinate?

John