Oil pressure issue / motor rebuild

[hairygit]

Hairy, see all problems are down to electrics on these old girls

I know, that's how I learnt so many ways of sorting them, plus an apprenticeship as an auto electrician at Lucas many years ago, I know you find electrics a pain, but it's really just a case of logic and physics!

[Trigger]

Hairy, see all problems are down to electrics on these old girls

I know, that's how I learnt so many ways of sorting them, plus an apprenticeship as an auto electrician at Lucas many years ago, I know you find electrics a pain, but it's really just a case of logic and physics!

I work with logic everyday but, Physics as well ? Right, time for another beer

[MrDavo]

Hopefully we can close this thread soon if there are no more dramas to come - SHE RUNS!

I finished after dark yesterday, but here she is in one piece again, ticking over outside the garage, HM300s telling the neighbours that she is back.



Hard to start until I realised that the throttle stop screw was not touching the stop. The throttle cable adjustment is totally up the pictures, there is a spring in the quadrant,and it seems to take a quarter turn to take up the slack in it, despite adjusting for the right amount of free play. I will have to investigate. I think the cables are the wrong way round as well, as there is an adjuster on the 'close' cable, not the 'open' one, though that's how it was before.

I adjusted the clutch as per the owner's handbook and its not at all right, last time I was in this position I found a good article on the net telling me how to do it properly which worked a treat.

No leaks, no sign of the oil light once running, fresh oil at the cambox, no untoward noises I can hear. She went up though the gears on the mainstand ok.

Once I get everything set up right there will be the nervous ride out to the MOT station, last time is when the oil light dramas started.



Finally back in the garage, locked up to the Sportster. The tyre protecting the XL1200 and the 911 door from each other is an old Dunlop Racing triangular, with an alarming profie.

As the Harley was in 1000 pieces up to June, and the CB750 came apart shortly after I got her running again, it is the first time in a long while I have had 2 complete bikes, rather than one and a pile of parts. Top tip, always undo the cable lock and unplug the battery tender before setting off on a ride. 

[Johnwebley]

great news !!

  bet you had a big smile after you finished !!

[Trigger]

Looks great and thank f#ck that one is finished.

[K2-K6]

Well done for getting sorted out. It's a nice feeling when you get it all back together and running.

I don't think anyone would have guessed at the outset of your problems that it would have such an obscure fault built into it by the previous owner.

The throttle cables are correct, the pull cable has no option for tensioning at the carbs. Just fit and secure with the collar nut. Any adjustment of that one is at the twistgrip but you have to leave enough slack to avoid it pulling the carbs when turning the bars full left and right. The second/return cable is the opposite, having no adjustment at the twistgrip. When you fit that one, make sure there's enough slack so that it doesn't conflict with the pull when at full lock.
With the bars turned fully you should get no binding in those cables at all. If you have, it'll make the throttle much heavier to use. It'll also start to cut the internal sheathing inside the two sharp bends that come out of the twistgrip which also raises the friction in operation.

One area that's not ordinarily considered with batterys if they don't kick out enough grunt when starting is both the sprag clutch, which if driven slowly fails to pinch and drive the crank immediately. This will shorten the life of the sprag in extreme cases as it doesn't really wear much when it drives correctly. And the other being the starter itself,  if the start power is lower than ideal then the time you are using the starter can easily be doubled or tripled unnecessarily. They will, if all set up and working well, just start easily and often on the first push of the button.

It'll be nice for you to get out and enjoy it soon, it seems like you've properly debugged it now.

[MrDavo]

I haven't had time to readjust the clutch yet, but I found the problem with the throttle. The quadrant had been turning on the shaft, it just needed the set screw tightening and the locknut nipping up. I also rerouted a fuel pipe as it was fouling the Tickover adjuster.

The bike then did something it has never done before- it started instantly from cold! That could be a benefit of the ultrasound bath Ed gave the carbs, he has a video of the crud boiling off them. Before it was a sod from cold. It had been yesterday, but the tickover screw wasn't even making contact, a bit of throttle was needed to start up for the first time.

It sees to be running sweetly, it may be a while until I borrow a decent set of vacuum gauges, but the carb top threads haven't been disturbed. Lock to lock doesn't change the revs, which is good. I'm not getting it too hot, but when I put the Harley back together I was advised to let it go through as many heat cycles as I could to bed it in.

I've tightened the valve adjuster caps now, one of the ones I'd left finger tight developed an oil leak, so its definitely getting up there ok.

[Laverda Dave]

That's a lovely looking bike.  When you rebuild a bike it doesn't matter how dark, wet or cold it is you MUST start it just to see if it runs  .  The feeling of satisfaction when the job is complete is immense and can only be tamed by a couple of beers with your feet up and a smile on your face  , I'm waiting for that moment with project 400 
Well done and hope it sails through the MOT.

[K2-K6]

They do once set up properly start really easily, I think the whole bike is easy to run really but they just look a bit complex.

I'm rethinking how to approach vac gauges on this basis; if the demand on wide open throttle are the same for all cylinders and you set the carb slides to be the same mechanically, then why would you adjust them at idle speed to correct idle smoothness? Surely that's the wrong thing to do.
Honda's description for idle adjust is to warm engine, get stable tickover of 1000rpm and then turning one idle screw inwards until you get a 100 rpm drop in revs, then turn the screw out by 1 1/4 turns to set the correct place for that screw. Reset overall idle speed with main tickover adjuster and then complete another cylinder, continue till all are done. I feel this process will give you even and matched demand for all cylinders. It should  be running smoothly at this point.

It does give a routine for the vac gauges, but the tolerance is not that tight. I think people pay too much attention to this without first setting their idles correctly for each cylinder, so in effect the throttle slide positions relative to each other are distorted in an attempt to cope with any error present in the idle circuits.

[MrDavo]

I've been fettling this afternoon, now starting and running sweetly, and the clutch is adjusted correctly now, but its frustrating that I can't go for a ride yet, due to no MOT and damp salty roads. I did fix the faulty indicator, a wire had popped out of a connector which I tightened up in the headlight. Next chance on dry roads I will go for a sneaky spin, or just go straight for the MOT if they've a slot free.

Motor looking good back in frame, newly shiny cam cover looking good. I think the stainless hoses are a bit blingy but they'll stay like that. In my picky eyes the best improvement is the new shiny stoplight switch spring, the old one was painted silver. New side panel badges, the old ones had worn off chrome, Number 7 and 8 bolts everywhere, and you can see Rich's damper rubbers in place. I know the allen screws on the clutch cover are wrong, before you say, but they fit nicely and I haven't got the Honda ones yet.



Outside in daylight for the first time, final touch for Sgt Pinback was a new rubber on the end of the clutch lever, which I found in my box of new bits, as that one was split and kept falling off.



Thanks to you guys for all your help, especially Ashimoto for the crank, which hopefully will have a long and happy life in its new home.