A Project Begins....Again!!

[TomB]

I do not think they will be keen to weld on a gas tank.

My attitude towards it was the same, but as a Toolmaker who did Spark Eroding in a bath of Kerosene (dielectric fluid) at the time, which wouldn't explode however much you tried , I figured the gas tank washed out with the same would be Ok to weld, it was. Not a hint of even a slight attempt at trying to ignite at all.




.

[QRFan]

Helluva Job Don

Really enjoying the photo updates Don. Bike's looking really good !

[DGXSER]

Thanks, I am putting some time into it, so SWMBO is reminding me...alot!!

So this weekend I got the electrical connector and fixed the key switch, nice parts and worked well. Also got new rubber gromets for the rear turn signal, as well as the rubber seals for the tach and speedo, removed them, cleaned up the chrome casings, and installed the new gaskets. Worked on the tank some, but mostly worked on polishing/shining up the engine covers, and the grab bar. I have the shift cover, tranny pan, and clutch cover from my first SH. All I can say is, even with the tools Steve has in his tech tip on polishing, I am at a loss as to how to get into some of the nooks and crannies of the clutch cover, tranny pan and stator cover other than hand sanding and polishing. Waiting on pictures until I get all of them done and installed. Of course, then the foot peg brackets and the valve cover will have to come off. Why exactly did I start this polishing thing?

I have found that I must need a different polishing wheel. My bench grinder/polisher is an old dryer motor mounted to a piece of plywood, with a belt and pulleys and a couple pillow block bearings with a shaft through them that is threaded on each end. I have a 6" cotton stiched wheel on one side I am using the brown compound on, it gets the parts to just start shining. Then I use the white compound, on a 4" cotton wheel. I alos wipe the mothers mag and aluminum polish on the part and use the same wheel as the white compound. But those seem to cake up. It almost looks worse after using them than just the brown wheel.

[CaptonZap]

I have found that I must need a different polishing wheel. My bench grinder/polisher is an old dryer motor mounted to a piece of plywood, with a belt and pulleys and a couple pillow block bearings with a shaft through them that is threaded on each end. I have a 6" cotton stiched wheel on one side I am using the brown compound on, it gets the parts to just start shining. Then I use the white compound, on a 4" cotton wheel. I alos wipe the mothers mag and aluminum polish on the part and use the same wheel as the white compound. But those seem to cake up. It almost looks worse after using them than just the brown wheel.

Buffing compound is composed of lubricant and abrasive. As you work it, it heats up from friction, and flows.
Mother's and McGuires have polymers that harden when oxidized and heated. Try dribbling a little kerosene on it, and see if it will keep them flowing.
Otherwise, get it to the white buffed stage with the wheel, and then do Mother's by hand.
Flitz is finer than frog hair. CZ

[DGXSER]

Lunch time for the day (I work from home often), beautiful day out, so I just had to see if I could get the SG to run. Took the tank off my SH and put it on the SG. At first I gave it full choke and it would not run, at all. Then half choke and it kicked and sputtered, ran for a few seconds and died. repeated this a couple times. Then I decided to try with no choke......

HERE SHE GOES!!

Considering I have not even adjusted the mix screws form the 1-1/2 turns out baseline let alone synching it sounds decent. I am going to pull the carbs and put 42.5 pilots in instead of the 45s in it now.

[tarzan]

Sounds good Don.
Nice work

[DCII]

Don the exhaust sounds great, that new baffle gives it a nice tone. Looks like I will definitely have to get you to check out my carbs. Any luck on getting a new tank from FT?

[DGXSER]

Not yet, we are still coordinating schedules. That was just an idle, it would not take any throttle. I took it for abotu a 2-300 foot ride, and the idle jumped to 5k or so. I have since put the smaller jets in the carbs and opened up the mix screws.

But tonight was spent convincing a sophomore that homework is more important than video games, and working on a gas tank. Drilled the hole and worked on the dent. stripped the paint off the tank. Dent looks like your hefty aunt sallies thighs. But it is fillable, with a little more hammer work. Still going for a replacement I think, but I may use this one as a learning experiment.

[DGXSER]

Well, I have been hiding in the basement shop for a while working on my polishing and sheet metal skills. The tank is still not looking very pretty.

Tonight was spent pulling all the engine side covers and reinstalling the ones I worked on, oil filter cup as well. I am not going that far with the tranny pan though. After I get it cleaned good, I will give it a good working over on the bike, but not removing that. (So I say now...tonight anyway. )

I also received the ACCT from the ebay guy. So that also went in tonight.

Now I am ready to go to work in the morning for a rest!!

[DGXSER]

While waiting to check out some needed parts a fellow local member has, I decided to try to get the beast running decently. Since I swapped to 42.5 jets and opened up the mix screws it has nto fired up as easily or run so smooth. I checked compression and al four were between 145 and 135 psi, on a cold engine. All four Iridium plugs were black as coal. I cleaned them up and put them back in. I

t fires up , and idles rough then starts to clear up aftre 5-10 seconds and before you know it the idle jumps almost instantly to 8-10k. So I hooked up the Carbtune to synch up the carbs. Well, it was informative, I had no vacuum on any cylinder whatsoever. The sticks did not budge. I even checked them by sucking on the tubes to be sure they still move. No wonder this thing was such a pain to get tuned. It is hard to say for sure where the massive vacuum leak is at, before you can spray it to trace the leak it is idling up at redline with no throttle.

So I took the carbs off, and pulled the intake boots. Well, most of the screws were not very tight at all, almost finger tight at best. I also noticed black wet streaks on the matign surface between the boots and the head after I pulled the boots off. So I swapped boots and put a set I had on my SH before I got new ones for it. Used black RTV around the seal ring on each one.

I need to find a cheap way to make a testing fuel tank. Gets kind of old pulling the seat and tank off the SH to test this one. I want to try it with the same carbs again first (change one thing at a time to find what the problem is),but if it still is not behaving I am switching to my 78-79 carbs. They are untested at higher RPMS, but have run fine below 4k on a couple bikes (my SH and Steppenwolf's SG).

Always something new and interesting.

[Rasputin]

I simply use an old windshield washer tank. A bit of hose to a valve and then another bit to a "T" and the 2 longer pieces to the carbs. Works good, allows me freedom to adjust screws with no hassle and I can even strap it on with bungee cords and ride it if i like.

[crazy steve]

Fuel tanks off riding lawn mowers work well too. These will have a bit better-sealing cap and are rated for fuel....

[DGXSER]

So I will keep my eye open for a lawn mower tank, I like that idea. The sealing of the intake boots helped, but it still will barely run at all. So I switched carbs to a spare set I have. They have run on a couple bikes before and quite well in low RPM. No go on this one. So I went through the pickup coils, set the gaps, ohmed the coils, all is well. Checked the inginition coils, ended up cutting the ends off the wires for better connection, but the coils ohmed out well also the plug boots ohmed in spec. So put all that back together. It will start and run a little bit with the help of ether.

So next is to try installing the airbox that arrived today. Then put some fuel back to the carbs. After I find a lawn mower tank. Or get a tank for this bike.

[fredintoon]

So I will keep my eye open for a lawn mower tank, I like that idea. - - -

Hi Don,
I thought of that too but too late! About a week after I hauled my old dead lawnmower off to the dump.
What I found at a swapmeet for $5 was one of these:-

http://www.motorizedbicycle.ca/miscellaneous-parts.html

It's a mini-tank that's part of a bicycle power conversion kit.

[Rasputin]

Damn Fred that is a nice little tank for the price and I can do the peanut tank on a chopper look while I test ride it too. I have to get me one of those.