Project BAMSFH™ - Part 9c - The Catchingupinator Part 2

I had a decently productive weekend even though I really only got time to work on the bike Sunday... and the heat was pretty oppressive and kept me from working more than a couple of hours at a time.

I ended up helping out a friend on Saturday which took up most of the day. But Sunday I got up bright and early and started getting things together to put the front end back together. I had received the new fork seals/dust caps before the weekend along with the crush washers I was looking for. I cleaned out the fork clamps to get the rust and dirt out of them then slid the forks up and in. I set them to about where they were before based on marks, but then realized that I don't recall seeing anything telling me exactly where they should be set to. I went online and grabbed as many pictures of V30s as I could showing the top of the forks and where they sat and am confident that they are back where they should be and that it is the location where they should sit by default. It did bother me that there is nothing holding the forks in other than clamp pressure. I guess if I was doing wheelies or jumping off ramps it would really matter. But as long as I torque them down to specs I can satisfied.

I loosely installed the fork brace (including the reinforced plate) and got the forks roughly aligned and ready for the front wheel and tightened the fork clamps to a little more than hand tight plus a 1/4 turn on the wrench to make sure the forks could support the front wheel weight once I put that back on. That's when I realized that I had forgotten to finish cleaning up the front fender... it was pretty rusty on the underside and the top chrome was not very pretty either as you can kinda see from the photos. I broke out the autosol polish and 0000 steel wool and went to town on the rust. It took some effort but I got about 90% of it gone on the inside, and since it really won't be seen, I called it good. The Autosol protects as well, so I wasn't too worried about needing to do much more than apply a final coat of the protectant. I went ahead and scrubbed the top pretty good and got most of the big rust off and mounted the fender. The front wheel went on pretty easy once I got the order of operations right. I got my order of operations wrong as I tried to put it all together, then couldn't figure out why the brake side was so roomy... then I remembered the speedo cable/housing. Doh! Off comes the axle and one more time, then forget to put the spacer on AFTER pushing the axle through the right side mount. DOH! OK, off comes the axle, spacer off, axle in, spacer INSIDE between right fork and wheel, through the wheel, through the speedo housing, into the left fork. YAY! Loosely tightened to hold everything in place.

OK! Front wheel on and roughly lined up, I lowered the jack putting weight on the front end again. Using this as the "level" I visually inspected everything and once satisfied that it was as level as I could get it, I tightened up the fork brace and then the fork clamps. One more visual check and then I put the brake caliper on and installed the new crush washers on the caliper end and tightened it all down. 

I moved up to the Master cylinders and replaced the crush washers all around as well as the ones on the clutch slave. I topped off the masters with new fluid and was able to pretty quickly bleed the front brakes. The clutch was being a pain, but it also angles weird with how the cables run so getting air out of that system has always been more... fun. I squeezed the clutch lever and tied it off to sit over night and we shall see how it goes from there. Otherwise I will have to start bleeding from the clutch slave and moving my way up. The crush washers did seem to do the job as I'm not hearing any leaks or noises, so that's good. 

My hope is to get home in time to work on one or two things each night and to get the rear end this weekend. I may only have one day again to work on things this Saturday, so we shall see. I plan to run a couple of gallons of apple cider vinegar through the reserve this week, then once it's nice and clean get it back into the frame and bolted down so I can fill it up with gas immediately. Then I can run the new fuel lines from reserve tank to carbs and then get the rear tire back on. Once that's done, I'll button up the rest of the body panels and rear fender, then tackle the final (hopefully last for a while) carb clean. If I can get all that done this week/weekend and get the carbs back onto the motor, I can do the vinegar soak on the main tank starting friday night, letting it soak til Sat morning and then once clean get it back on and filled with gas. I'm going to be conservative here though and plan for at least one more week before I can clean/re-install the main tank. Slowly but surely it is coming together and Albee will be better off for it. 

Skip a week...

This past weekend I only got one full day to work on the bike. Reserve tank flushed with apple cider vinegar, rinsed out, then filled with EvapoRust and let to sit for a while longer. Due to the angles and shape of the inlets, it's really hard to see inside the tank to see how clean it is getting, but after a few hours of EvapoRust soaking, I was not getting any further chunks coming out. I also get solid flow out all the lines including the bottom line. I am calling it good enough for now and ran the hair dryer through it for several minutes getting it nice and dry.... and hot. I then installed it into the frame and connected up the new fuel line to the petcock and filled it up with gas. No leaks! Then I started putting all the rear end stuffs back on. I had taken the change to clean off most of the rear fender parts, but did not disconnect any of the top most plastic bits since most of those had wiring on them. My plan is to get the rear tire on and lined up and the chain tension set, then roll it out onto the lawn and give it a good hose down and scrubbing to clean off all that dust and dirt from sitting so long. 

So all those little things? Yeah, I ended up pulling the clutch master off and tearing it down almost totally. Turns out that I either didn't get it as clean as I originally thought, or due to how long this whole process is taking, it got clogged again. Either way, I cleaned out the return hole and made sure I had pressure going the correct way with the plunger. Once cleaned and remounted, I was able to build pressure pretty quickly after bleeding it. I'm pretty sure I got most of it, but letting it sit won't hurt any while I finish the rest of the rear end stuffs. 

I also found a right angle fitting that matched the fuel pump inlet on the aftermarket fuel pump I had to install. The new pump was a straight through style which if you recall meant I had to run the fuel line danger close to the exhaust manifold. With the right angle fitting, it keeps the hose further back than the other lines back there, so I'm feeling a bit happier about that. I only found one fitting otherwise I would have done the filter side as well. However, since the filter sits loosely in the cradle, it slides back out of the way and stays there a lot easier. New fuel lines all around also make me feel better about keeping her running once I'm done putting it all back together. 

Project BAMSFH™ - Part 9b - The Catchingupinator

Catching up on everything I have done in parts to make it easier to digest and attach photos to later.

I pulled the front forks to try to get the seals clean and found I did in fact have a blown seal on the left fork. Order to V4market for new seals once I pay some bills. The old sponge fell apart to almost dust trying to get it out. The right side wasn't a lot better but held mostly together.

I did manage to get the new site glass lenses for the master cylinders in place. Rebuilt the front brake caliper with new pistons and such and gave it a good cleaning even though I'd done most of this already when I first started this project. I also installed the new slave cylinder gasket. I need to find a source for crush washers for all the banjo fittings as I think they are all slowly giving up the ghost and letting air leak past.

While stopped at the local Cycle Gear for bike wash and wheel cleaner, I found out about a little shop behind them that will mounts tires. $23/piece. Ran home and grabbed the old rims/tires and the new ones that had just come in. $46 later, Albee's got new dancing shoes. I still need to clean up the rims/wheels really well and prolly run some sandpaper over the rotor to clean it up a bit. I'm thinking a new rotor is on the list for the coming months but I have other things to pay for right now.

In the process of pulling the forks, I removed the front fender and found a mass of rust. I initially poured in the old EvapoRust but it was so used at this point that it only sightly started to get the rust off. I did grab a couple of gallons of apple cider vinegar and poured some of that in after dumping the Evaporust. Let it sit for a good 30mins and it really started to take off that stubborn rust. I cleaned it out and rinsed it and gave it a quick 3in1 oil wipedown. I'll spend more time on that later but means I need to be really good at pulling parts to clean the rust off especially things I don't directly look at.

I have wintergreen oil that should be showing up today with which I will start reconditioning gaskets and the old carb boots that are now spares. I had already bought brand new ones before the wintergreen secret was revealed. Sol good as I like having spares of parts. I am also going to try reconditioning the float bowl gaskets as backups along with any other rubber parts I find along the way that might make good candidates for restoration.

I pulled the forks in preparation for replacing the fork seals since the left one was leaking pretty bad. Once I got them off and started cleaning out the cavity to get to the seal, I realized it might be salvageable. I wiped it all down and pulled out the plastic ring and what was left of the foam seal thingy. Then I broke out the seal saver hook and started cleaning out the seal. After pulling some junk out it started coming out pretty clean. I wiped everything down again and then started putting my weight on the fork to compress it and release it. Seeing how dirty the oil was as it compressed. Thankfully that seemed to be the problem as I was able to compress and release with no oil residue as well and compressing it sideways/upside down in order to "force as leak" and nothing further came out. I proceeded to 0000 steel wool/Marvel Oil the rusty spots as well as some oily dirty bits and got both forks pretty clean. They both need some serious polishing, but for now I'm OK with cosmetic as long as the internals are working good.

 

Flush with the knowledge that I don't have to shell out another $40, I went ahead and cleaned the wheels while they are off the bike. I degreased the hell out of them making sure that I protected the bearings. I scrubbed them down pretty good in the hard to reach off the bike places and gave a simple wipe down for the rest. I figure I will put her through a good full detailing once she is running again. But for now, I just wanted to get most of the grunge and oil off.

I next started on polishing off the rusty front fender, again with 0000 steel wool and Marvel oil, but they are pretty nasty/rusty. I might just have to settle for good enough on those. I also have a LOT of rust spots all over the lower frame including the controls that I will have to eventually get to. I wish I had a simply easy effective way to remove rust from chrome without elbow grease.

All in all, progress is being made. I have brake shoes coming this week and then I can clean the chain/lube and put the rear wheel back on. I also ordered dust caps which should come in soon and then I can put the front end back together. I was going to pull the carbs and start cleaning on them, but I knew that I wouldn't get to them this week unless I got lucky. But the various seals and o-rings are soaking in wintergreen/alcohol solution and should be nice and soft by then. I intend to keep the old carb boots as backups just in case.

Project BAMSFH™ - Part 9

Project BAMSFH™ - Part 9 - a.k.a Where have I been for 7 months...

Long story... long long painful (sometimes boring) story. 

So, when we last left our intrepid Hero, he was looking forward to the final steps in getting BAMSFH running on road legal. Things were looking up for our guy in greasy coveralls, as I was finally able to get the paperwork in hand and down to the DMV to pay the fees and get the title transferred to me. Albee is now registered, insured, and as far as everyone and DMV is concerned, owned by me. And there was much rejoicing. 

However... (dun dun dun dun)

I hit a bit of a snag around the same time as I was finishing the last bit of the title saga. Since I didn't start with a full on top to bottom fuel system cleaning, I kept pushing more crap back into the carbs. The final straw was once I got the idle smooth and choke off. She rev'ed fine and didn't seem to hesitate at all. I felt confident I could take a ride around the block to the nearest Subway and see how she did. On the way there, she ran like a top, nice and smooth with good power. But as I am pulling into the parking lot, she starts to die. I give her some gas and she starts to recover only to stall out completely as I rolled into the parking spot. I shut her off and take a quick look see and don't see anything obviously wrong. I decide to give her a few minutes to cool off as I head into the Subway to place my dinner order. Back outside, I try to fire her up and she won't go. She's trying but it's definitely a gas thing. I know that is full, and I can't easily get to the filter to check it due to it's location under the battery. After a few cranks an no catches, I start to push her home. Thank the gods for a <500lb bike and only being around the block. Still the longest "around the block" I've been on in a while. 

I get home and into the driveway and go inside to eat and cool down from the effort. I hook up the trickle charger because I know I have been abusing the battery a lot lately. About an hour later, I am back out and trying to get her to start. She tried but sputtered out again. I'm frustrated... I'm tired... I've lost all hope that this bike is fixable by me. I lock everything up and I go inside. 

My plan at this point was to find a local mechanic who would take her in and do the things I couldn't do because of lack of space and no garage. Of course money is tight and other things are going on taking up the spare cash so I keep putting off finding a mechanic. The few I do bother to look up are all very high priced and i'm pretty sure I would spend more than the bike was worth getting it running. So instead she sits. Every so often I remember to hook up the trickle charger again, but for the most part she just sits. I wasn't too terribly worried about gas varnish this time around as I has put in some Stabil stuff into the tank that got run into the carbs before she died so there was that at least. 

Skip forward a few months and still nothing is going right for me to get her into a shop. We ended up having to buy a new truck to replace my aging Jeep which ate into our limited savings. Then I get word from my job that they are letting me go. Well fuck! That puts a damper on paying for bike stuffs. And a good thing I didn't take her in and use up the rest of my savings. But things were looking up. A friend was trying to get rid of two roommates that he was not happy with. We offered to be the replacements and started negotiating the deal. It seemed too good to be true and ended up being a bit of work to make it work out... plus it took much longer than we expected to get the old roommates out before we could move in. Eventually we were able to move in around beginning of May and started to get settled.  

Albee went into the side yard for now while we figure out the garage situation. The friend has his own small metal shop along with a bench setup for making jewelry. The middle of the garage is setup for storage as they never really used it for cars. I was hoping to make use of the garage for Albee, but that was not going to happen due to the layout and everyones needs. So instead I hauled a 10x10 popup out of storage, bought 4 tarp walls and clamps, and setup my own garage in the back yard. Setup a table out there and took my tools and such out as well then rolled Albee into her new home for a few months. 

The garage:

Now that I can actually tear things down and clean everything right, I started taking her down to frame and engine. I was not planning on doing anything major to the engine just yet. I started just like before by draining the tanks, and man was that nasty at first. All that rusty grungy gas was trying to and mostly succeeding in getting into the carbs. Once drained, I pulled the main tank and set that aside. I'm not going to start on the de-rusting until I'm mostly ready to button it all back up since last time I cleaned it too soon and it rusted back up on me. 

Next came taking the rear wheel off to check/clean/replace the read brakes and check the wheel bearings. Turns out the PO before parking her replaced the bearings as they look in great shape and spin very freely, which kinda sucks since I had ordered new front and rear bearings thinking that they haven't been touched for 7+ years if at all. Rear sprocket also looks good but I will get a second opinion on that when I take the wheel in to get the new shoes put on. Chain is also looking good even though a bit rusty. I will pull it off and check the front sprocket so that I can get it nice and clean. The rear wheel was set in pretty far on the tensioner, meaning that the chain is not old and stretched. Unless I see any warning signs during the removal and cleaning, I'm calling the chain good. Brake shoes are definitely worn but not down to any level of concern for the drum surface. I went over the wheel drum with brake cleaner and 0000 steel wool to get it nice and pretty smooth. 

With the rear wheel out, I was able to remove the rear fender and get the reserve tank out. Getting the rear fender out was a pain in the ass, but not totally complicated. My concern will be getting it all back into place correctly later. Fingers crossed I can puzzle it together and thankfully the service manual and fiche all show it going together properly. The reserve tank was nasty... shaking it out poured clumps of crap and rust. I got most of it out and then poured in some Evapo-rust and swished it around a bit then dumped that out. In just the minute or so of swishing it already fouled the evapo-rust. Once I got most of the bigger chunks out I plugged up the holes and filled it with evapo-rust and shook it up good. I'll be letting that sit for quite a while I thing to make sure all the crap gets cleaned. This got me worried about the main tank, so I grabbed it and shook it... rattle rattle rattle... like sand and rocks. Crap. I spent a few minutes shaking the crap out of the main tank to get as much chunk and powder out as I could then set it aside... I'll focus on it later. 

Even when you think you got the tanks cleaned, there is always something left in there. 

Once the reserve tank was setup, I cleaned the brake shoe part of the drum really good and set that aside for the new brake shoes. Then it was on to the clutch slave cylinder. I had picked up a rebuild kit and decided now was the time to replace it. As I was slowly and carefully pumping the clutch to get the piston to work itself out to a position where I could grab it, it reached a point where it wasn't moving any further. I ended up having to bleed the clutch lines to finally get enough pressure to push the piston out. Turns out that I have a slight leak up in the top banjo bolt as I could hear it slurping as I pumped the clutch lever. I added that to the To-Do list for now and went back to the slave cylinder.

It all came apart pretty easy and the replacement parts were all very straight forward to put on. I had a little issue at first getting the piston back in, but then remembered that I am a tool using primate and grabbed the brake fluid and lubed up the cylinder and seals. Then it all slid into place. I pushed air out and did a slight bleed to get it all set and then went to put the slave back on when I noticed the gasket was pretty hosed. Sigh... I went ahead and cleaned up the surfaces and bolted it back on for now. Added a new gasket to the order for that night. 

I was tempted to start the replacement on the site-glass as well, but its been pretty hot and I needed a break plus I knew that I would be replacing the front brake pistons next weekend once those come in from V4market. So when I go to replace the clutch slave gasket and then the front brakes i'll drain the masters and replace the site-glass.