|
|
Restoration
DiaryDecember 9, 2005
 Went to the home where they bike has been stored in the basement since 1985. As I first looked at the bike, it appeared to be in good condition. As we started turning knobs and dinking around with it, the petcock on the left side started leaking.
Brought the bike home on a trailer. Searched around on the Internet about the petcocks as they have to be removed and rebuilt as they are leaking severely.
December 10, 2005
Took the petcock off the left side and drained the remaining gas out of the tank. There was only about a pint left in the tank. Oh how that stuff stinks - 20 year old gas. I took the petcock downstairs and disassembled it, which is easier said than done. It requires cutting or unbending two little crimped spots in the pot metal that hold the petcock core into the body. I eventually got it loose and got the thing apart. The petcock core has a slight corroded spot on it, but I don't think its enough to cause a problem.December 12, 2005Finished the first petcock. I haven't tested it so I guess I can't claim success, but it is back together and seems to operate OK.
 |
Cleaned up and ready to assemble.
|
 |
| Assembled - You can see here how I clamped it in a vise. |
December 16thTook the left side carb off. Popped the float chamber cover off. There was a small amount of dirt and the bowl had a coating of varnish. I cleaned everything up, including taking the jets out, cleaning them and dosing them with carb cleaner, then shot some WD40 into the jets and put it all back together. The floats seemed fine, including the float valve. Its ready to go back on the bike.December 20th
 I bought a couple of tire removal irons and got the front tire off. It was a bear. The bead is so much smaller than the wheel. I've removed truck tires with less trouble.
Anyway, I got the tire off, put some duct tape over the bearings and washed the wheel and spokes up in the slop sink in the basement. Now I'm looking for some polish to shine them up.
I tried to pry the wheel weights off, but they wouldn't budge. I have to come up with a better plan on those.December 23Started cleaning the front wheel with Flitz. That stuff works great, at least on chrome.
December 26Finished assembly of the second petcock. They are both ready to go back on the bike.
I also replaced the cross over fuel hose. That required opening the air cleaner chamber. The air cleaner looked pretty clean.. just what you'd expect with only 3490 miles on it.
I also removed the second carb and put the first one back on. Not far from trying to start this baby up! I just need to clean up the right side carb and change the oil, and put the petcocks back on.
After I completed the work on the first petcock, I saw a web site that said these original petcocks weren't worth rebuilding, that it was better to through them away and buy new. Oh well.December 30, 2005Put the petcocks back on the bike. December 31, 2005Drained the oil and removed the filter. Order new oil filters from Chicago BMW. January 10, 2006
Received the new oil filters and installed one. They are interesting creations - not at like the old one. The picture at the right shows the old one at the bottom and the new one (which is actually two units hooked together with a little plastic strap) and the gasket kit that came with it.
Polished up the front fender mounting bracket and got the front fender back on.January 23, 2006Got it back together yesterday and tried to start it today. It would crank OK, and all the lights came on (and the oil light goes off after cranking a bit) which indicates everything is good electrically. It didn't start but it did fire a couple of times.
The petcocks worked just fine, so rebuilding them wasn't such a bad decision.
I'm not too surprised it didn't start. Its only 40 Degrees F outside and I didn't do an ultra job on cleaning the carbs. I just removed the needles from the jets and sprayed them with carb cleaner and wiped them out. So, I'm not surprised if there a jet or two that is partly fouled.
The right side carb is leaking from the vent, indicating that the float valve isn't working or is set too high. I thought it looked suspicious when I was working on it. I'll probably have to drop the bowl on that side and make an adjustment.January 24, 2006I got it to start and run on one cylinder. The left side wasn't firing. I took the float bowl off and cleaned all the jets again. Also made sure that its getting fuel on that side (at one point, when I dropped the float bowls, there was no fuel in them.)
With the left carb recleaned and checked, it started again firing only on the right, but then it did start to fire on the left. Then quit. Then I couldn't get it to refire.
January 25th, 2006I poured about a teaspoon of fuel in each carb
and hit the starter. It started right up. I kept the throttle open enough to keep it running. It back fired back through each carb a little bit but soon quit and ran just fine. It would continue to run with the choke on even if I let go of the throttle. With the choke off, it would not continue to run unless I kept the RPMs up.
I ran it for a bit, put it in gear and the clutch engaged nicely. The generator and oil pressure lights went off as they should. Everything seemed to be working fine.
There were no fuel leaks.
All I need to do is change the rear tire, and clean it up and we're ready to ride. Actually, we might need to do some adjusting on the carbs, but might as well wait for warm wealther for that.January 28, 2006
Had a warm day and I tweaked on the carbs and got them where the engine will start reliably. It still does not idle just right - have to give it throttle to keep it running. It has to idle too fast to comfortably start out from a stop.January 31, 2006Got the back wheel off and Mark took it to get the new tire put on.
March 5th, 2006
Finally got back to the bick. Put the back wheel and new tire back on and moved it out to the other garage so that it would be out of the way. We're supposed to have some warm weather coming on the weekend - maybe I'll get to start the ol' buzzard up again.April 20th, 2006I ordered a rebuild kit for the carbs the other day and just completed the rebuilds tonight. I put the carbs on and the thing started right up and ran pretty decent on full choke. It wouldn't rev and it wouldn't run without the choke, so there are some adjustments needed, but we're making progress. It wouldn't start before.
I noticed during the rebuild that the chokes were assembled backwards which probably caused it to not start.April 21st, 2006Alleluiah! I got it running great. I found the clog in the low speed jet, cleared that, and it runs good. I adjusted the idle speed and mixture and it starts and idles great. I hear a little valve train noise when its warmed up, but not so much when its cold. With only 3200 miles on it, it may have never gotten the initial valve adjustment.
I washed it up a little bit and its looking much better as well as running good. Getting to be a nice bike.April 22nd, 2006Trouble in River City.
First of all, when I started it up, the left side belched blue smoke.
After running a little bit, it cleared up. The bike leans to left on
the stand and so, the oil in the cylinder head will stay over in the
head rather than run back into the crankcase. All of this to say, its
most likely bad valve seals. If they are rubber, after 33 years, no
big surprise. If the bike had the kickstand on the right, it would
probably be smoking on the right. I left it on the center stand after
running today, to see if it does not smoke the next time.
I got the my manometer built (which worked surprisingly well). I put
it on the bike and started it up, and saw a huge difference in the
vacuum from the left vs. right. The right was pulling much more
vacuum. As I opened the throttle with the idle screw, the vacuum
balance improved, but would not come into balance without way over
running the idle speed. It seems that the left side just cannot
develop the vacuum the right side can. Hopefully its just that the
valves are out of adjustment. They are supposed to be adjusted at 3000
miles, and with 3190 on the bike, it probably never saw its 3000 mile
tune up - just guessing. Hopefully the smoke and low compression
aren't related.
So, the next thing to do is check the valve adjustment.
May 2, 2006I checked compression on both cylinders and its in good shape - 60 psi on both cylinders. Its a little more consitent on the left than the right. While I was doing that, I found the choke cable on the left side had come off the carb, which would definetly account for the flakeness when I was trying to balance the carbs. I corrected that, rebalanced the carbs, and they came out great. Now it runs perfect! A sweet bike.
See some pics of the cleaned up
bike.
May 27, 2006I made a new tang for the center stand and
welded it on. Not having one when riding is a pain, because you do want to use the center stand (its more stable and it avoids the plume of oil smoke when you start a /5 after its been sitting on the side stand when warm.)
|
