Adventure begins here.

_________________

Resident Tightwad

Screw you, Photobucket.

Last night I wired up the 12v head and tail light plus brake switch without rectifiers since.. according to the FSM, the 6v system doesn't use them when supplying power to the headlight. I was hoping because of that and the fact that the lights are 12v it would be ok.
Last night I also figured out that I was mistakenly setting the timing 1.8mm ATDC vs BTDC. There aren't any timing marks and I thought the flywheel spun clockwise vs counterclockwise. Today after I reset the timing and put a new oil inlet banjo fitting on, I kicked it over, bled the oil injection system, hooked it that up and took it for a spin. There was no hesitation at stops and it ran well. But.. the headlight didn't work and the tail light eventually stopped working.
The way I wired the bike would make it a pain in the balls to run all power through the rectifier bolted up under the tank. So, I used that stock one only for the headlight and I used another spare rectifier for the tail/brake. After that, and new bulbs, it worked well.
I put about 30-40 miles on the bike, went on some dirt roads, got it up to 50ish, and it was a blast. Here it is on a undeveloped wooded Delaware River waterfront area by my house with an abandoned coal pier in the background.


Of course when I get the farthest away from my house it started acting up. It was popping like the timing was off, and bogging. I popped the cover and checked to make sure the point didn't come loose for whatever reason and it didn't. I was able to get it home and it intermittently would have a really rough time taking off.
When I got it home I pulled the plug and it looked good - light brown. I started to pull the flywheel and noticed it was binding.. the nut holding it on wasn't loose but it wasn't hard to loosen it. It looked like something got loose in there and winded around. It's possible that it worked it's self loose too. While the flywheel was off I also checked the spark advancer. It wasn't springing back so I took that apart and lubed it up. I'm thinking it was a compound problem of the flywheel being loose or something getting loose in there and the advancer sticking. With the flywheel torqued down it barely touches but I'll have to figure out what is and clearance it. The other thing I didn't do was make sure the advancer was fully advanced (pin holes lined up) while I set the point. I'll have to do that too.
Here's a pic of the spark advancer.


The rear wheel has play too but I was able to get 2 bearings and seals for pretty cheap - $30.

I've had tons of fun on the few hours I spent on this thing and can't wait to get more off road time.

_________________

95 SLE... a keeper. 241k miles. Low and Slow.
97 BMW 528i
98 Infiniti vq35'd i30: 13.3@104mph, 30MPG Hwy (RIP)
02 Jag X-type
03 BMW M5
05 Chevy Cobalt LS
07 Infiniti G35s 6MT (Sold)
07 Ducati Monster S2R 800 with DS1000 swap
83 Yamaha IT175K
72 Yamaha DS7: '74 RD250 swap, JL chambers

Info on dropping a 92-99: Here.

Well, I cleaned out the magneto magnets again, set the timing with the advancer advanced, torqued down the flywheel nut.Took it on/off road for an hour and it ran well. Problem solved I guess.

_________________

95 SLE... a keeper. 241k miles. Low and Slow.
97 BMW 528i
98 Infiniti vq35'd i30: 13.3@104mph, 30MPG Hwy (RIP)
02 Jag X-type
03 BMW M5
05 Chevy Cobalt LS
07 Infiniti G35s 6MT (Sold)
07 Ducati Monster S2R 800 with DS1000 swap
83 Yamaha IT175K
72 Yamaha DS7: '74 RD250 swap, JL chambers

Info on dropping a 92-99: Here.

Well, I took the bike to work today, did a little hill climbing during lunch and there was no issues for the most part.

The only thing is my spark plug wire came out of the boot just as I was leaving work.. I shoved it back in only mashing the wire core into the boot and it fired right up.. lol. I took the long way home (15 mi) for whatever reason too. When I got home I used one of the boots and terminals from when I made spark plug wires for the Bonneville to repair the wire. Easy peasy.

Andd my permanent VT registration and sticker came in the mail.. With my PA address written on it. Good till the end of August '16.


(The idle hangs for a little then settles at 1500)

_________________

95 SLE... a keeper. 241k miles. Low and Slow.
97 BMW 528i
98 Infiniti vq35'd i30: 13.3@104mph, 30MPG Hwy (RIP)
02 Jag X-type
03 BMW M5
05 Chevy Cobalt LS
07 Infiniti G35s 6MT (Sold)
07 Ducati Monster S2R 800 with DS1000 swap
83 Yamaha IT175K
72 Yamaha DS7: '74 RD250 swap, JL chambers

Info on dropping a 92-99: Here.

Last night I went to tighten up my headtube bearings. Same deal as a threaded 1" headset on an older or cheap bicycle. I didn't feel right not cleaning/lubing up at least the top the bearings.. I figured if there was a bearing cage it would be gone and bearings would be itching to go everywhere. There was no cage and I was careful but not careful enough.. and I lost a bearing.. I have a bearing supply place locally but really wanted to get this back together.. thought hard and remembered I had an unsealed bmx hub I ran maybe 15 years ago (pack-rat status) I dug it out, took it apart, took a caliper to the bearings and they were the same size! Lucky lucky. I cleaned/greased everything, got it all back together and it's tight/smooth.

At a stop light ripping home from Home Depot today I was watching my front brake lever flopping all over the place. The lever pivot hole was egged out.. So I made a shim with a cut up old hose clamp, pressed it in so the overlap was in the worn area, greased everything up, works good now. Before there was a lot of travel before the lever even pulled the cable.

_________________

95 SLE... a keeper. 241k miles. Low and Slow.
97 BMW 528i
98 Infiniti vq35'd i30: 13.3@104mph, 30MPG Hwy (RIP)
02 Jag X-type
03 BMW M5
05 Chevy Cobalt LS
07 Infiniti G35s 6MT (Sold)
07 Ducati Monster S2R 800 with DS1000 swap
83 Yamaha IT175K
72 Yamaha DS7: '74 RD250 swap, JL chambers

Info on dropping a 92-99: Here.

So the other day I wired in a stock 74' ignition switch ($15), replaced the frictions in the clutch pack ($20), replaced the pressure plate springs with barnett springs ($20), and the rear wheel bearings + seals ($30).

I think it took me the same amount of time to do the wheel bearings as it did the clutch pack.. One of the inner dust shields came loose and straddled the collar that's between the inner races of the bearings. Because of this, I couldn't move the collar out of the way to get much of a lip to pound out either side..
I came up with this.. wedged the head of that nut on the stud in with a screw driver and pounded it right out.


The bike feels way more solid. The rear wheel was pretty bad and the clutches would slip right after you got into the powerband.

I went on some dirt/gravel running trail that was pretty fun and I took it up to 65. lol. It was screaming.

A buddy and I were in center city Philly tonight and all these random streets are blocked off due to cranes and 18 wheelers setting up stuff for the Pope coming. Whenever there was a traffic jam it is soooo easy to just squeeze through cars over to an alley or side street to get out of the mess.

I love how cheap this thing is but still so fun to tool around on.

_________________

95 SLE... a keeper. 241k miles. Low and Slow.
97 BMW 528i
98 Infiniti vq35'd i30: 13.3@104mph, 30MPG Hwy (RIP)
02 Jag X-type
03 BMW M5
05 Chevy Cobalt LS
07 Infiniti G35s 6MT (Sold)
07 Ducati Monster S2R 800 with DS1000 swap
83 Yamaha IT175K
72 Yamaha DS7: '74 RD250 swap, JL chambers

Info on dropping a 92-99: Here.

Got some stock '76 bars for cheap to replace the bent '74s.

_________________

95 SLE... a keeper. 241k miles. Low and Slow.
97 BMW 528i
98 Infiniti vq35'd i30: 13.3@104mph, 30MPG Hwy (RIP)
02 Jag X-type
03 BMW M5
05 Chevy Cobalt LS
07 Infiniti G35s 6MT (Sold)
07 Ducati Monster S2R 800 with DS1000 swap
83 Yamaha IT175K
72 Yamaha DS7: '74 RD250 swap, JL chambers

Info on dropping a 92-99: Here.

Prolly feels a ton better with straight bars.

_________________

Resident Tightwad

Screw you, Photobucket.

Between the new frictions and bars it feels quite a bit different.

Did a bit more exploring today.



https://youtu.be/tVY_xpakIsc

No trouble keeping up with my buddy's '74 DT250 too.

_________________

95 SLE... a keeper. 241k miles. Low and Slow.
97 BMW 528i
98 Infiniti vq35'd i30: 13.3@104mph, 30MPG Hwy (RIP)
02 Jag X-type
03 BMW M5
05 Chevy Cobalt LS
07 Infiniti G35s 6MT (Sold)
07 Ducati Monster S2R 800 with DS1000 swap
83 Yamaha IT175K
72 Yamaha DS7: '74 RD250 swap, JL chambers

Info on dropping a 92-99: Here.

So I rolled the dice today. Kinda won but ultimately lost.

Last weekend I ditched my stock air box for a pod filter and I played around with the slow/fast jets. I ended up with a 175 main and a stock slow jet. The plug looked good after ripping on it for a while so I went with that.

Fast forward to this weekend. 35 miles into NJ there's a vintage mx swap meet with a dirt track open to the public on Saturday. My buddy and I decided to ride there.. the closest bridge into NJ has a speed limit of 35, which was convenient. But most of the roads are 45/50 mph with people going 60+.

My petcock was leaking pretty bad and the replacement didn't get here before this weekend.. add to that my reserve doesn't work. So the bike starts up no problem but it leaked out a gallon of gas over the past week and it died not too long after starting it up outside my house. The owner of our support vehicle, 88' 4 banger Yota truck with a '79 IT 250 in the bed had a gas can. So that got me to the nearest gas station. I fill up and we're on our way.

My bike felt 100% solid cruising at 50-55 mph. My buddy's DT250 kept bogging out every so often on prolonged stints @50+. I think his float is set wrong..

3/4 of the way there his bike was getting progressively worse, so it got loaded up into the Yota truck. I figured out that my leaky fuel issue was a combo between my petcock and the hose clamps on my fuel line. After tightening up the hose clamps it stopped dripping/pissing fuel more or less. At this point I also realize the bolt holding the rear swing arm for the rear drum is missing and the arm is dangling.. lol. It must have rattled it's self loose. I strapped it back up with one of the zip ties holding my kill switch wires.

We get there and my bike had no major problems.

The dirt tack at the meet was built for older mx bikes, which is a good thing, but I've never really ridden anything like this.. it was pretty wild. My tires are kinda beat, hp is pretty low, suspension is meh, and my right ankle/heel isn't the best from my injury back in june.. But I went for it.

2 laps around the track and I was whooped.. I pull off and look down to see my carb pissing fuel out of both vents... tapping it to un-stick the float doesn't help. Taking it apart and moving the float around doesn't help.. I know it's set right.. And my zip tie didn't last - to be expected. Another guy comes over after seeing me screw around with my carb to ask me what's going on. I tell him and he suggests taking a piece of scotchbrite pad to the float needle seat. After doing that, flushing it with gas, and reassembling it seemed to do the trick. Then 10 mins later the bowl vent started to leak again.. lol. Since it was a swap meet I was able to find a nut and bolt for my drum at least. Free of charge.

I was able to make probably 10 or so passes on the track with the leaky bowl vent. 2 at a time. I would just shut the fuel off every time I stopped.

Huuuge learning curve but it was absolutely supplemented by 15+ years riding bmx. It's hard to explain but my impulse reaction got me half way there and figuring it out got me the rest of the way. By no means was I killing it but I wouldn't have been able to make it around the track without my background.

We were getting close to leaving and my buddy points out that my pod filter is gone.. I take a look at my plug and it doesn't look bad at all. I go searching for my filter but can't find it.. I figured since I up-jetted and my plug looked ok, I would try to ride it home.

Wellll here's where I rolled the dice and lost. I only got about 8 miles before I started to loose power and the bike ultimately died.. I fried the piston pretty good.. Turns out I wasn't up-jetted enough to run no filter.. Up into the Yota I went. Live an learn.

The top end is already off.. All the 6 bolts it took. Even though the piston is fried the jug doesn't look too bad. It'll just take a hone, piston/rings and it'll be back on the road. Somewhere in the sub $150 range to fix.. If I keep it stock..

_________________

95 SLE... a keeper. 241k miles. Low and Slow.
97 BMW 528i
98 Infiniti vq35'd i30: 13.3@104mph, 30MPG Hwy (RIP)
02 Jag X-type
03 BMW M5
05 Chevy Cobalt LS
07 Infiniti G35s 6MT (Sold)
07 Ducati Monster S2R 800 with DS1000 swap
83 Yamaha IT175K
72 Yamaha DS7: '74 RD250 swap, JL chambers

Info on dropping a 92-99: Here.

That's a pretty good melt-down. If you lost the filter while out on the track, there's a fair chance you sucked some dirt anyway and running lean finished it off for you. Looks like there was plenty of blow-by already, so it was due for a new set of rings. It'll feel like a whole different bike with a fresh piston & rings.

_________________

Resident Tightwad

Screw you, Photobucket.

I got this thing back together a couple weeks ago and it wasn't quite running right. Long story short I put new tires on it last week and I got it running and the fuel dialed in last night as the snow started to fall. It was close but I met my goal for giving this a shot:



My street is like a wind tunnel and it's the only clear street I saw in my neighborhood.

The bike does ok in 4-5 inches of packed down snow and some loose stuff, feet off the whole time. Snow drifts and stuck cars kinda limited my turning options a bit. The good thing was if I hit a dead end I could just drag the back around with one hand and head in the other direction.

_________________

95 SLE... a keeper. 241k miles. Low and Slow.
97 BMW 528i
98 Infiniti vq35'd i30: 13.3@104mph, 30MPG Hwy (RIP)
02 Jag X-type
03 BMW M5
05 Chevy Cobalt LS
07 Infiniti G35s 6MT (Sold)
07 Ducati Monster S2R 800 with DS1000 swap
83 Yamaha IT175K
72 Yamaha DS7: '74 RD250 swap, JL chambers

Info on dropping a 92-99: Here.

Those are some impressive drifts. Once the snow settles and freezes, get that thing out on a snow-covered frozen lake. Too much fun!

_________________

Resident Tightwad

Screw you, Photobucket.

Got pitted, so pitted earlier.

_________________

95 SLE... a keeper. 241k miles. Low and Slow.
97 BMW 528i
98 Infiniti vq35'd i30: 13.3@104mph, 30MPG Hwy (RIP)
02 Jag X-type
03 BMW M5
05 Chevy Cobalt LS
07 Infiniti G35s 6MT (Sold)
07 Ducati Monster S2R 800 with DS1000 swap
83 Yamaha IT175K
72 Yamaha DS7: '74 RD250 swap, JL chambers

Info on dropping a 92-99: Here.

What happened to the snow? Nice to find a little dirt!

_________________

Resident Tightwad

Screw you, Photobucket.

We had a slushy mess 2 weeks ago.. which the bike was also pretty fun in.. but it's gone. For now.. Lol. We'll see if the temps swing back that way. It was 50-60 and sunny over the weekend and 50 today.

_________________

95 SLE... a keeper. 241k miles. Low and Slow.
97 BMW 528i
98 Infiniti vq35'd i30: 13.3@104mph, 30MPG Hwy (RIP)
02 Jag X-type
03 BMW M5
05 Chevy Cobalt LS
07 Infiniti G35s 6MT (Sold)
07 Ducati Monster S2R 800 with DS1000 swap
83 Yamaha IT175K
72 Yamaha DS7: '74 RD250 swap, JL chambers

Info on dropping a 92-99: Here.

I like riding when the dirt is damp but not soupy. Plenty of grip, no dust, you can stick the tires in a turn or let the back drift out a little. So much fun.

_________________

Resident Tightwad

Screw you, Photobucket.

I'm definitely with ya. When I figured out that you get more grip out of the front from powering the rear wheel around behind it in a turn it was like a light bulb went on. Damp dirt makes that so much easier.

_________________

95 SLE... a keeper. 241k miles. Low and Slow.
97 BMW 528i
98 Infiniti vq35'd i30: 13.3@104mph, 30MPG Hwy (RIP)
02 Jag X-type
03 BMW M5
05 Chevy Cobalt LS
07 Infiniti G35s 6MT (Sold)
07 Ducati Monster S2R 800 with DS1000 swap
83 Yamaha IT175K
72 Yamaha DS7: '74 RD250 swap, JL chambers

Info on dropping a 92-99: Here.

This bike wasn't running for a little bit. I think the snow shenanigans finally caught up with the magneto parts. There was a bunch of corrosion on the coils, stator plate, magneto magnets and condenser. I pulled it all apart, sanded/cleaned it all, put in a new condenser and coated the sanded surfaces with light grease or oil. Seems to be working well.. I may get rid of this since I'm +1 bike then I currently have space for. We'll see.

_________________

95 SLE... a keeper. 241k miles. Low and Slow.
97 BMW 528i
98 Infiniti vq35'd i30: 13.3@104mph, 30MPG Hwy (RIP)
02 Jag X-type
03 BMW M5
05 Chevy Cobalt LS
07 Infiniti G35s 6MT (Sold)
07 Ducati Monster S2R 800 with DS1000 swap
83 Yamaha IT175K
72 Yamaha DS7: '74 RD250 swap, JL chambers

Info on dropping a 92-99: Here.

I can't remember if those old Yammies had points or not, but I'm guessing if you have a condenser, you have points. The old Bultacos were notorious for the points contacts corroding if the bike sat for a while...dragging a piece of sandpaper across them usually got it running again. Those old bikes are great for a little nostalgia, but as you know they pale in comparison to the newer machines in every way - suspension, engine, brakes, handling, reliability, weight. If you're needing to unload a craft, this is the one. They can bring a surprisingly high resale value if you can find a vintage enthusiast.

One a side note, we found that using silicone RTV to seal the magneto case exacerbated the points corrosion problem. Something out-gassing in silicone RTV promoted corrosion in an electric field - it created white powder on everything inside the mag case. Switching to Yamabond 4 (or something similar) pretty much eliminated the powder residue on the mag parts. Didn't completely clear the corrosion on the points contacts, but it did help dramatically. As a result I now never use silicone RTV to seal anything near an electric field.

_________________

Resident Tightwad

Screw you, Photobucket.