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Sunday Sunday Sunday! Got the entire day to myself in the shop. First goal is to harvest the 3RZ from the donor, secondary goal would be to harvest Evan’s parts (CV’s & steering rack) third is to get the donor back outside.
Yesterday I received my new Voltage regulator in the mail, so I threw it, a new fuse and headlight bulb in the bike. The new bulb didn’t turn on when the engine fired up, so I tested the battery and it had less than 1 volt stored. Gonna try to recharge the battery by idling the bike in the driveway today, otherwise I’ll put the charger on it.
Yesterday, Matt bought himself an old bike, a 1986 Suzuki DR 600S. Same bike as mine, just two years older, and in better shape than when I brought mine home. Carb troubles are its only defect (this far). I suspect the float is sticking because he says gas was pissing out the overflow vent, and the carb is missing the rocker arm for the accelerator pump. I’ll do my best to repair the carb on Friday whilst I do consumption, I know Matt is very eager to hear the bike run. It would sputter and die when he went to buy it, my guess is that it was horribly flooded.
The Shop has been slow lately, the bike is down waiting on parts, I had to put rear brakes in my wife’s Caravan (full CPR treatment, and an E-brake cable), and I have a bunch of random furniture and donation items cloggin’ up my workspace. Hoping to clear the shit out and start into the 3RZ donor very soon. I think it is finally “next in queue” to come through the bay door.
Eeek! Saw 19.5 volts on my ride, my voltage rectifier / regulator is pooched, so the electrical system is getting way too much voltage, which completely explains why my bike eats lightbulbs. Suzuki has obsoleted the part, so I bought a Caltric unit off ebay. Hoping it arrives quickly, estimated about 2-3 weeks.
Today in The Shop, a quick mod to the bike for diagnostic purposes. My bike eats light bulbs like they’re going out of style, mainly the dual filament (running/stop) taillight, luckily they’re only about $1.50 a piece. However yesterday morning I was about 20 metres out of my driveway and the headlight blew, not great at 5:30am, but I’m thankful it happened on my lit street rather than halfway to work while I’m riding +60 km/h on a country sideroad.
Anyways, I’ve ordered some LED bulbs to hopefully resist failure from vibration, but I have a suspicion the failures may be caused by inconsistent voltage. So today I added a cheap LED volt meter using an unused +12V source near the handle bars, and a bit of two-sided tape. Not the best install, but hopefully this is temporary until I determine the root cause. Really hoping it’s vibration related as I feel it’ll be a much cheaper fix (LED bulbs in the mail already).Update, the carb tweak is going strong. I filled the tank on the weekend and saw 6L/100km vs 5.2L/100km on the tank prior. Not bad considering I was pretty hard on the bike “testing” and tuning, and my final 75kms on the tank were touring backroads and some No Winters with Matt.
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There, I fixed it.
Got the carb out in record time (practice makes perfect), pulled the bowl off, pulled the main jet and held it to the light. 2/3 blockage, just a pinhole of light. Ran my largest jet cleaner through it, and didnt even feel resistance. Now a flood of light coming through. Back together, starts on first kick, and a test drive. Safe to say she def pulled past 5,000rpm on hwy 89.
I still can’t believe the carb had debris in it again. Just my luck I spose.
All good now, time for a beer.
Gahhh, the bike is back in the shop. The carb troubles continue, still running lean. My symptoms:
1: won’t rev out past 5,000rpm
2: top speed like 105km/h
3: at 5,000rpm, roll off the throttle and the bike “speeds up” momentarily before slowing down.It’s a shame cause the bike starts beautifully with one kick, and has decent power under 4,500 rpm. Just can’t pull any power above 4500-5000ish.
All my literature and my spark plugs suggest a lean condition. It could simply be the float height is too low, or there’s something obstructing fuel flow into the carb. Either way I’m gonna take a couple hours to dot my i’s and cross my t’s.
Well apparently I can’t post links, so I’ll type it out, kinda
Go to Youtube, I’m user “Mecheng1”, and my uploads should be visible to you all.
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There’s a very good chance the left lever works the rear brakes along with the right foot pedal. On my atv, the rear brakes are single drum brake, cable activated. Thecable runs directly to the right foot pedal. The left bar lever has a cable which runs to the right foot pedal. The bar lever is quite ineffective as it requires Super strength to operate, however once stopped the parking brake can be set on the hand lever.
On Saturday night I received the repaired and recovered seat from my neighbour. It looks and feels great, Greg did a great job.
Waiting on ebay to deliver my new starter so I can toss it in there.Ride went well, but the new carb setting is slower than before. I’ve lost some top speed, and the 5,000-7,000 rpm pull is weaker. But starting is WAY easier, and up to 5,000rpm feels stronger.
Not sure how to proceed other than keep riding and check my spark plugs at a later date.
I could try to lean the needle jet (currently in richest position), but it’s a solid 2-hours of work for a 10-second adjustment, which may not improve my condition. Sooo, ride it out is the current plan.Well I finally got my test ride in this morning…. to the fas station…. on my way into work. Trial by fire I suppose haha.
The carb work was noticeable pretty quickly, bike starts much faster and the idle speed is much more controlled. The exhaust note is deeper now that the fuel mixture is fatter too, amd the bike smells like an old machine too. Glad I’m not lean anymore.
The clutch, no change noticed at all, except it doesnt slip when cold now. So that’s good.Gonna take a long ride home, try to run some no winter maintenance roads.
Monday night in The Shop, I finally completed the clutch job on my bike! AND a repair on the muffler so I can clamp down on tbe midpipe seal. BUT WAIT, there’s more. I also test fired the motor post carb rebuild, and she fired up sweet, the choke knob even performs a function now too. This morning I finished bolting on all the extra stuff that had to come off like the fuel tank, seat and number plates.
I’m pretty pleased with my efforts, but won’t put on a seal of approval until I have a successful test ride (hopefully after work tonight). It’s too dark at 5:45 am to be stuck on the side of a county road for some bullshitty thing I goofed up.
An update on Truckee, the air bags I added handled the atv and Ardbeg perfectly! At 60psi I had essentially returned to stock unladen height, and kept off the bump stops all weekend. Money well spent.
