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Last week in The Shop, my neighbour dropped off a generator for refurb. It’s been sitting a very long time, bur hardly has any hours on it. Due up, carb clean, engine cooler fan install, Voltage Regulator and a new battery. It’s a 7000 Watt generator, with a 13hp motor….what a beast.
Go figure, after 1-hour of wrenching, I’m stuck waiting for parts to arrive.
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Despite the lack of updates, The Shop gas been busy.
1: The Katana. Canada Post delivered our battery, the day after Amazon issued us a refund! So my youngest daughter helped me put it all together, and The Katana is curbside ready for sale. Yesterday, an interested buyer asked to take a test ride, to which we obliged. This kind fellow happily beat on our bike, blew all the crap out of it, and she starts and idles much better now. He was impressed with the power, ripped her up to 200km/h and said she’s got lots of life left. Thanks kind stranger! Here’s to hoping he calls back with an offer to but it.
2: Yamaha BigBear 350. My new boss (Brian @ Lake Side Auto in Wasaga) gave me some homework. Reassemble the too end, and set timing on an atv motor that’s been kicking around his shop for a year.
I made quick work of that motor, but I’ve been waiting for 1 CRUSH WASHER for 10 days now, so I can set final torque and bring it back to Wasaga.3: Matt’s 4th Gen 4Runner. About a week ago I performed some overdue mods to Matt’s truck, installing “Anytime VSC Off” using and OEM button, and an “Anytime kill ABS/Traction/Stability” button. Both these mods have been planned for months, but the OEM button took a long time to come in the mail.
4: Suzuki ATV. Again with help from my youngest, we got the ATV 90% ready for a first start. Together we drained the gas tank, cleaned the carb, drained the oil, freed up the rear brakes, and drove about 500 imaginary kms. Before we can do our first test fire, I need the new OEM drain plug to arrive at the dealer. Again, a long wait already for something so small. New drain plug, add 3.5L of oil, and take her for a spin.
Well aint summer just treating us well, too busy enjoying the days outside to keep my thread alive.
In the last month, I flushed the rad and cooling system using a bottle of “Hy-Per Cooling System flush” from Canadian Tire. I got a lot of crud and grimey brown coolant to come out, but I wouldn’t say all my troubles are resolved.
Cruising the temps are down, going slow they are more regulated, but the peak temps are still high. On Wednesday we were almost beaten by a slow drive-thru line, building up to 222F.
Not sure my next course of action, but it prolly consists of a much colder thermostat, followed by a new and improved Radiator. But for now, no action. Let it ride.
Redee’s temp is more controlled on paved/gravel roads at any speed, but still runs @ 225F under 20km/h. It seems like the temps take longer to come up, and come back down more quickly…but still the same peak temps on the same stretch of road.
I want to run that same route with the hood removed and see just how much lower the temps could get. If it shows a further drop in temp, I want to get a VERY cheap hood and cut huge holes into it.
I also plan to get the rad & cooling system flushed, hopefully that’ll improve heat transfer.
I also aimed the headlights in the shop, but still haven’t driven her in the dark to notice any improvements.
Recently in The Shop, a few little fixes while I (STILL 🤬🤬) wait on Canada Post to deliver a battery for the Katana.
I put some sweat equity into removing 50-years of cooking grease from a Coleman 421C camp stove circa 1972. Once it was mostly clean, I turned my attention to the fuel tank as it was not keeping pressure. I replaced the air pump diaphragm with a new $7 piece and it would build pressure, only to leak out fuel cap. So I dug out the old cracked seal, and rigged up a new one from a rubber bulkhead plug. I gave the generator a quick clean, and the stove fired up perfectly on the first match! Not bad for almost 50 years old, and tucked in the original box for at least the last 15 years.
Can see little blue ring of flame in the burners. Love this old Coleman stuff, so tough and reliable.On Monday my buddy Ratul rode over on his Yamaha Virago, I’ve been offering tele-carb tuning advice for a couple weeks. I invited him over so I could practice using my new Carb Sync tools (which arrived from California faster than our battery from Vancouver) before I use them on the Katana. Figure two carbs easier to sync than 4 carbs….gotta crawl before walk. In no time at all, we got the airflow sync’d between the carbs, but Ratul said the bike was riding worse than before. We pulled the plugs again and confirmed the condition to be too lean in one cylinder. When Ratul was about to depart, I gave him some homework.
1: inspect valve clearance (I had suspicion front cylinder intake valve may be too tight, and the valve not fully closing)
2: pilot air screw adj on the front carb to match the rear carb, about 2.5 turns.
Ratul rode home for an hour, let the bike cool, and got to work. An hour later he called me to say his bike is running the best it ever has, tons of power, no backfiring on deceleration. He can roll onto 5th gear at 40km/h and it’ll pull way past highway speeds. Perfect!
A picture of his plugs before we started sync and tune efforts. (Rear was rich, front was lean).Yesterday I curb picked a couple air compressors & tanks from a neighbour. I’m thinking to mount the 2-gallon tank in Redee as an expansion tank for tire fills. But I gotta cut some crap off of it first, and piece the plumbing together.
Might use the larger tank as an expansion tank for my little air compressor here in the shop.
Hey Finn, I won’t be making it out to this trip, but I wish you all smooth sailing. Redee’s temps still creep up when running below 20km/h, and I’d hate to have “that truck” which drags the whole convoy down.
I’ll put up the Ardbeg dates for the camping trip now that the vacations have been approved.
Good luck guys!
TTT
I got a green light from Sam, just gotta make sure Redee doesn’t overheat tomorrow, and whether Grama can watch my girls on Friday.
You planning to trail ride on Friday? Or just on Saturday?
Thanks Mark, trying to keep new content coming in.
Tonight I finished the electrical work for the new fans, trimmed one “foot” off the grille, and put the bumper back on Redee. By far the easiest night of this project. My favourite part is that there are no more load bearing zip ties in this arrangement!
Tomorrow it’s gonna be scorching hot out, great day for a road test. Gonna check out a swimming hole under a bridge about 15 mins down the road from me. Hoping to keep Redee under 195F….fingers crossed.
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Ooops, I forgot to add the quotations. “Steam Whistle, Do one thing really really well.” No harm intended Steve.
Those 3FG from Steam Whistle make a really tasty “unfiltered” version only available at the brewery. Next time you hit up TO, grab a pint at the roundhouse. I’ve eaten lunch there the last couple years that I went to the Auto Show.
Just watched a short video on TheWeatherNetwork about paleotologists working in New Mexico to dig up 1.2M year old fossil a 10-year old boy tripped and fell over.
Those fossil diggers are rocking a nearly stock looking First Gen!! Red with a white topper.
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Thanks Steve! I completely agree, a factor but no way to tell how much it was hurting. I got the bumper and grille off in 10 mins, then took a couple hours to ponder and cut tamplates and such to un-ghetto the install. That pipe strapping really bothered me, almost as much as the location of the cooler.
My trans cooler is roughly 8”x10”, I wanted to buy one that was 6”x12”, as it would have fit the space better, and not overhang the bulkhead….but an unecessary $75 purchase since this one works just fine, and has a larger surface area than what I was considering.
The new fan is an inch thinner, so it should make re-mounting the bumper and grille a little easier. Everything was pretty crammed together.
Got a lot completed last night in the shop before it looked like a crime scene (ATF puddles).
I mounted the 16” pusher fan offset to the drivers side, got the trans cooler clocked and mounted to the bulkhead on the passenger side, and a 9” puller fan mounted offset on the passenger side mostly aligned to the trans cooler.
Then I replaced all the trans cooler lines, I cut about 2-feet of hard line out in favour of appropriate rubber flex lines. The hard lines were running through the steering linkage, now it’s routed around the linkage. It was here that I made lotsa ATF puddles on the floor.
Today I just have to make the electrical connections (and test them), trim one mounting foot on the grille, reinstall it and the front bumper.
