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Nice job! A date stamp on the video is good to have when selling a motor, that way they know when it was pulled and running.
Full speed on a blower in deep snow is no fun at all
Hoping so! I gotta neighbour looking to add Fuel Injection to his Square Body chev, figure I’ll try to make him an offer for my 350 and FiTech EFI as a package. Keep my stupid TH350 trans and t-case adapter on a shelf should I ever come across a need for it.
Full speed snd no reverse was killer, glad it was an easy fix.
Last night in The Shop, I finally winterized the bikes. Long overdue, and I’m not fully finished as I haven’t filled the gas tank yet. I also did some repairs on my bike, where I re-taped and re-routed all the wiring harness connections behind the headlight. A main harness was chaffing its way through the electrical tape, so I put an end to that gahhbage before I had wires to repair. I also FINALLY adjusted the tension on my counter balance chain, it has a 6,000km service interval, and by the slack on the chain I’d assume it had been missed at least once before. It’s an easy procedure as the tensioner is spring loaded to set proper tension, just gotta loosen jam nuts and it auto adjusts. Whilst in behind the magneto cover, I uncovered the source of an audible rattle. A retainer nut for a sprocket had loosened off, and fallen into the oil sump, the rattling was it being stirred and knocked about by the magneto and counterbaance chain sprocket and chain. Gonna buy a lottery ticket, that coulda been the end of my bike had the nut gotten jammed somewhere in there. Cheap fix, but I tore the main paper gasket, so I ordered a few more from my ebay source, about $12 each to my door.
Theseold bikes are built tough. The nut had plenty of witness marks on it, so thankfully my good luck aligned in there. I couldn’t find a torque spec on that nut, so I defaulted to “very tight, but not stripping threads”.
The chain itself had more than an inch of slack in it too. There’s a 6,000km service interval on the tensioner, assuming it has missed at least one interval. I ordered 3 more side cover gaskets off ebay, hopefully between our two bikes, I wont need any more for a whileGot this sorted out, now my impatience for spring has grown exponentially. Add in the lack of snow in Shrlburne, and I’m starting my countdown to warm(er) weather. I tap out at 5 degrees.
Still haven’t pulled any component of the small block chevy, stalling out of laziness. One of these nights I’ll make my startup and run video, and break out the wrenches and disassemble SOMETHING. One day…
Noticed my snowblower getting louder the last couple days. This morning I confirmed my suspicion when the heat shield rattled off with the welded bracket still bolted on. Gonna try my best to reattach the brackets effectively plugging the holes, but not replace the heat shield afterwards.
Last night in The Shop I changed tasks to focus on the bikes. After rearranging the shop again (tucking that SBC into the dark abyss since nobody wants to buy it), I was able to get good access to Matts bike. I was able to quickly replace the clutch cable, and the pull has gone from a full hand pull and gritty, to butter smooth and a relaxed two finger pull. Even with the old cable in the bench vise, I can barely cycle its stroke length.
Second task was replacing the leaky seal for the automatic decompression lever in the cylinder head. After pulling the retainer bolt and shaft out, the old seal fell out of its bore. I suspected that it shrunk from age, but when I inspected closer there was a groove on the OD of the seal, looks like it was never driven in far enough to begin with. Two quick fixes, total success.Next up, both bikes need their air filters cleaned and re-oiled. A quick engine oil & filter change on mine, and she’ll be ready for spring time rippin’.
Happy first day of spring. Still looks like a frozen Arctic tundra in Shelburne. -10 degrees and 10cms of snow two days ago. Tired of this winter crap…bring on the springtime mud!
Got the thumbs up of approval from Matt last night on the clutch repair, and then continued working on the bikes. We each removed our air filter so I can clean, dry & oil them. While the seat was off, I did some CAD to build Matt a Seat Restraint Bracket, a little piece that keeps the very leading edge of the seat located. I bought an OEM piece two years ago, however since then the part was discontinued by the manufacturer and they are nearly impossible to get. There is a used one on eBay for $85 that comes with a couple other random brackets. Long and short, I folded up and $1 worth of sheet metal into the correct shape, and today Matt scrounged a piece of rubber flooring for the isolator.
Overall it is ugly, but effective, exactly what I promised I could deliver for way less $$ than buying new/used.
Lots of shit weather in the two week forecast, doubt I’ll have the bike out before Easter.Last night in The Shop I got my bike spring ready by finishing up the air filter, and doing a quick oil change. All I have to do is flip on the gas and kick’r like hell. May take some effort to ignite the oil I put down the cylinder in November, but I always manage.
Matt’s bike received the same treatment last night, but we have a bit of rigging to do on his seat still. There are 6 rubber isolators that plug into the bottom of the seat, and 4 of his are missing. Either buy, or make, and his bike is ready too.
Freezing rain today, I think there’s still snow in forecast for most of next week. Lame.
The flip into spring weather means I’ve traded Taco keys for Suzuki. Awesome rides this year, can safely say my mystery rattling noise (that loose nut from counterbalance sprocket) is gone away, and the bike is quite happy.
Plan is to ride a couple hours after work with Matt on Friday. Maybe 4-6pm.
Gahhhh!!! Just my luck, hop on the bike after work, ride about 20 feet and said “woah, that was weird”. Hop off, quick inspection shows my rear tire is flat to the rim. Push my bike up the loading bay, locate an air chuck, try to put air in the tube and it immediately pisses out. Bike still at work, i’m back home, tube has been ordered. Already cancelled my ride with Matt tomorrow, won’t be repaired in time. Gahhhh!! At least it went flat in the parking lot, as opposed to 1/2 way home.
Got my bike loaded up Friday morning before work, easy peasy no drama.
At home I dug out my lift to get the rear wheel off the ground. After spinning it around I located two potential pokes through the tire carcass. Appears to be the same size as the brad nails which litter our parking lot after movers broke apart the skids and packaging from our new machine.New tube is in the mail, I’ll patch this one and keep it as a backup. I meant to order a second tube two years ago to have a backup on hand. No chance of riding this weekend, and weather turns shitty next week. So I’ve got some time.
Took the rear end apart yesterday, and confirmed the tube is pooched, no repairing the total valve stem failure. Unfortunately this was user error, I put the tube in wrong back in 2020. Note the position of the jam nut, one was inside the rim so the valve wasn’t seated flush to the inner of rim. Perhaps I wasn’t expecting a double nut external of the rim. Oh well, will do it proper this time around, parts should arrive Weds or Thurs.
I gotta pull the front apart and verify I didn’t do it wrong as well.
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