It's Back

[Pain]

I mentioned several months ago that my H, which I call "Suffering" (I am Pain, after all) blew it's engine. I got a replacement engine off a 79 special, and had the local Vintage Motorcycle Shop (Called, oddly enough, The Shop) to the work.

Today, finially, I got it back. It was actually ready a week ago, but my work schedule didn't allow me to get it until today.


Here she is, outside my house after I got the vetter stuff back on. Got a brief ride in today, I missed it.

A few things that the Shop passed on - They rebuilt the carbs, basically getting 1 great set out of the 2 sets I had. Tim (The mekanic) passed on the origional carbs wer not only not to stock, but everyone was jetted differently, and all the needles were way off. I had never checked them, since I was told they had just been re-built.

All well.

It is tucked into the garage right now, since I get to work. Tomorrow we are supposed to get a couple inches of snow. But Sunday, if the forecast holds, I think I will be able to get out for a ride.

Oh, and I will try to get some new pictures then too.

[petejw]

good to see u got ur bike up and running.
how did u blow the motor?
what damage was done?
just curious.
at least u can now go out and have sum fun with it.


pete

[Pain]

The shop said the blown engine was a result of the carbs being in a bad way, high milage on the motor, and my going very fast. Even if I had not been going fast, the carbs woud've done it in anyway, though I might've caught it.

One of the pistons had a hole in it, the other 3 were making only 1/2 of the stock compression. And oil was leaking from, well, various places.

The new engine, from what I could tell today, is much smoother, and delivers a power curve more like my Special. I always though the standard was kinda sluggish because of the extra weight, it certainly could go when I wanted it too. Now, though, the difference is night and day.

[petejw]

u cant trust anyone to do anything right these days
unless u do it urself, makes u wonder who had mucked around
with the carbies to the extent that all the jetting was wrong
and the needles out of whack.

i got my head back the other day after having it all fully
serviced, valves machined, crack tested etc, he had the cams
with the head and was suppose to adjust the shims, to set the
clearances, after putting it all back together, and she warms up
u can still hear tappets clattering away, ill have to go back
and recheck all clearances again.

anyway ive babbled enuff
hopefully the new engine will give u a much safer ride.

pete

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Pain,
That's great that you've gotten it back together. With that 79 engine, it should definitely give you a better ooomph effect! Just be careful out there with all that cold slippery stuff out there, wouldn't want to hear about you dropping or falling and breaking all that good fairing and bags!!

Hey Pete,

These engines are a bit noisy in the top end. Due to the preset sized shimes and chance for uneven amount of wear, you can have them with a little more clearance than desired, but not enough to go the next shim size. Due to expansion from heat, it's better to err a little on the larger clearances than too small! Also, has been said that the valve seats tend to seat further into the heads with time and wear, which can further reduce the actual clearances, so again, a little tappet noise is okay!

Due to ignorance decades ago, I didn't check my clearances on my bike from 83 to 92 when it lost it's tranny 1st and 2nd gears. When I did my rebuild, I had NO burned valves, was able to merely lap the seats and valves, and got 180psi on all four with my big bore kit! I love this engine!
T.C.

[xs650mike]

Congrats Pain. The bike sure looks sharp with the full Vetter treatment. I just had an email exchange with Craig Vetter, pinged him with a question and he got back to me in minutes...nice guy!

[petejw]

hey tc,
thanx 4 the info,
it just annoyed me that i spent so much money on the
head service, shes really quiet when cold
as soon as she warms up, she begins to tappet away,
i only think its a cpl that mite be out of whack, im going to put a cpl of more k's on her b4 i will recheck it, the only problem
was that he machined the pads so i dnt really no what the
thickness will be, i have a few spare from the other head
that i can muck around with, even went to the trouble
of putting valvoline mc oil in the motor, what a hassle that was
no one sold it, had to go directly to valvoline to pick it up,
they dnt normally sell directly to the public, after i told them of the hassles of finding someone that sold it, they sold me sum, luckily they were only a 20 min drive away, didnt solve the tappet noise tho, gotta say what a difference the new cam chain made, at least that doesnt rattle any more.


pete

[TopCatGr58]

Well, Pete,

IF you have a micrometer caliper, then you should be able to measure the newly machined ones, and then perform your clearance calculations from there. You might also want to take a scribe tool and put a very shallow mark on the BOTTOM of the shim that would allow you to notate what shims are what and their present thickness! Glad to hear the new chain is working well. Enjoy your summer!
T.C.