Italian Work at Sheddington

Work on the Moto Guzzi at Sheddington

There was a small oil leak from the left cylinder area of the Moto Guzzi, it appeared to be coming from the cylinder head.

On Friday we decided to replace the head gasket.

This is not a tough job on this bike, you don't even need to remove the tank.

Getting the carburetor moved out of the way is a bit of a trick but once that is done the rest is straightforward.

With the head was removed, the location of the leak was apparent, it was on the top left in this picture.

The top of the cylinder was cleaned and prepared for the new gasket.

Next the head was cleaned and inspected.

There were a couple of very minor surface imperfections, but nothing to worry about.

The new gasket was installed.

Then it was just a matter of replacing the bits we had just removed.

On this arrangement there are four studs of one size and a fifth smaller stud.

Consequently there are two torque values for the head studs.

With every thing back together it was time for the test.

The bike started up right away and now there is no oil leak.

In 500 miles we'll go back and recheck the torque on the studs.

Sheddington Updates

News From The Bike Front

Now that the helicopter work seems to be complete, there is a chance to get back to work on bikes.

My good friend and work colleague of more than 30 years, Harold Kie, came down from Idaho recently.

We got to hang out for a while over at the  battleship Iowa, checking out the helicopter and of course the gift shop.

Harold made the Sheddington Logo shown above, such a talented man.

Thank you Harold for doing that and I hope to see you in So-Cal real soon.

You may think that due to the lack of posts about bikes, that we over in Sheddington motorcycles have been just sitting around with our thumbs up our butts.

Not true.

We have worked on the Moto Guzzi that my brother Jimmy bought.

New carburetors, new electronic ignition and most recently a small trip computer.

The trip computer needed a magnetic device installed on a wheel somewhere.

The thread on this thing is tiny,3 mm. Fortunately our local ACE hardware store had the tap we needed.

We drilled and tapped a hole in one of the lug bolts and inserted the magnetic device with a little Loctite to ensure that it stays in place.

The display was mounted on the handlebars.

The next step was calibration.

You need an accurate measurement of the wheel circumference.

I have my ideas regarding the circumferential measurement, and my brother Jimmy has his ideas.

Now I may be wrong, but it's highly unlikely. However, as it's his bike, we used his method!

A dab of ketchup on the tire, then roll the bike until you get the second dab then measure the distance between the two.

Except that by the time the second one appeared, Missy had licked the first on off the ground.

I bet Euclid wished that they had ketchup back in his day!

Nonetheless the method worked.

The Panther is finally coming along.

All the black bits are ready to install, the frame is attached to the engine and the gearbox is in place.

Next step, mount the swing arm and the primary.

A new project just appeared on the horizon yesterday, Friday 6/9/17.

A Triumph T140E showed up on Craigslist in Prescott Arizona, Jimmy couldn't resist.

More motorcycle fun in the near future once the bike is delivered.

Here's a historical bike picture, 1991.

Wow! who's that guy with the black hair?

Of course it's not all work when you are retired.

Ciao

Norm

Aprilia

Aprilia Futura

The paperwork finally arrived earlier this month and we went out to Hermosa Beach to pick up the bike.

The bike was in the drive way and an easy access.

When we installed the ramps on the truck and tried the bike on the bottom of the ramps, the angle was too steep for comfort,

So rather than inconvenience the seller by fooling around turning the truck around and putting the ramps on from the top of the drive down hill, Rick opted to ride the bike home.

Here it is safely back at Rick's house.
The EFI light was on all the way back but did not prevent it from pulling hard.
On this bike you can read the fault codes on the instrument display by shorting out two wires under the seat.
A quick check of the fault code #34 showed it to be a a problem with #2 coil.
There are two spark plugs and two coils per cylinder.
Rick ordered a new coil and plug wire.

Once they were changed the EFI light went out.

The previous owner had installed an after market exhaust which was a hair on the loud side for Ricks taste or more to the point his neighbors taste.

He found a stock muffler on line and had a couple of adapters welded to it. The stock headers and the after market headers were different sizes.

Unfortunately the adapters did not fit either.

We needed to make a filler ring about 0.060"  wall thickness to fill the gap.

We took a piece of brass strip and rolled it around a pipe nipple to form a ring.

Once completed we cut off the excess length and used that to make the second ring.

Using the propane torch to heat the brass also heats the vise grips, ouch!

Hind sight being a very exact science, we should have got a piece of aluminum and machined two rings.

However...

Once the rings were installed in the muffler, we used the pipe nipple as an expander to make the rings fit the inside diameter of the muffler fitting.

The muffler was installed but without some pushing, pulling and a little persuasion.

With that done we started the bike up to check the sound and it was noticeably quieter.

On the way over to my house from his house, Rick saw the EFI light come on again.

Another check of the codes showed this to be a fault #36 a  problem with a different coil.
When we checked that coil, we found that the plug wire was burned through.
We made up a replacement with some HT wire we had in stock at Sheddington.

Not pretty but enough to last until the replacement shows up..
 It takes a little driving around for the system to reset. On the way home the EFI light went out, it is still an intermittent problem, but as I said good enough to last a while.
The underlying issue is that the rearmost coil wire can slide down on to the exhaust right where it leaves the cylinder. We will need to address that and a couple of other issues next time around.

Rick rides off into the sunset, well he rides home which is in that general direction.

A New Division at Sheddington

Sheddington Marine

This morning I took over a trailer hitch and we fitted it to old #9 (Rick's Truck)

Then in something of a divergence from our normal activity of picking up motorcycles, we picked up a jet ski and trailer.

Neither of us have much experience with trailers, especially backing up with them.

However after a bit of guidance and a lot of hand waving it was located on the drive outside of the correct house.

Fortunately another associate, Fernando was on hand to assist with the task.

Fernando had just left his "Hideaway" when he was seconded for some help.

Remember Fernando's Hideaway?

 Oh no, that was Hernando's Hideaway, never mind it was a good line.

And all you'll see are silhouettes
And all you'll hear are castanets
And no one cares how late it gets
Not at Hernando's Hideaway

Ole!

This is the model, a Sea Doo GTI by Bombardier.

The motor is made by Rotax, so it should be strong, we think that a quick clean and tune up should see it ready for the ocean or lake.

Here the senior members of the Sheddington Board congratulate one another on the successful completion of another  mission. 

The guy in the red shirt is Rick's son Austin.

We had planned to pick up a motorcycle too, however that idea was orange tagged when the paperwork didn't show up.

This will be another challenge for the S.I.M.W.

Sheddington Italian Motor Works

Now it will be sometime this week when we make the trip out to Hermosa Beach to pick up an Aprilia, which by chance also has a Rotax engine.

As the motorcycle is being sold by an attorney, we want all of the paperwork straight before money changes hands.

Saluti

Norm

Las Vegas 2017

Over 1,400 Bikes For Sale

   The bikes offered for sale at the two auctions ran the entire gamut of motorcycle history from the sublime to the ridiculous.

   Having said that, ridiculous is a subjective term, one mans pride and joy is junk to another.

   With that many bikes to look at we decided to add an extra day to our normal trip.

We left on Wednesday around 11:00 AM and returned home on Sunday having "NOT" bought a motorcycle.

This was the pre-auction inspection are of the Mecum venue with over 1,000 bikes to view.

Of course I took a look at the two Panthers they had on display.

The 250 twin shown above is known in Panther speak as a lightweight.

This bike sold for $5,500 plus a buyers premium of 10%.

This 1948 600 cc single  model was not allowed to be sold and was orange tagged  with what was described as a title issue.

Over at the Bonhams auction, they had what they thought would be the star of the two events.

A 1936 Crocker Hemi Head which the estimated at $500,000 to $600,000.

However it reached $365,000 and did not sell.

This poor Vincent also at Bonhams had been vandalized with metal flake paint and a gold seat!

It was listed with an estimate of $80,000 to $100,000 but did not sell.

Back over at the Mecum auction they had the highest price for a bike between both sales.

This 1912 Henderson Four sold for $490,000, it came complete with the two stands!

Why so much money?

This one is totally original, this is the paint from the factory and the stock oil leaks.

After the sale, we were walking past this bike and there was a guy on his hands and knees measuring the spokes with a Vernier caliper.  I thought, it's a bit late to be verifying details like that when someone has already shelled out the $490,000 for it.

As you know my main ride is now a trike, so thinking of where I would go next for a change in pace, I looked around some of the more unusual lots.

This one popped up.

It was bid up to $11,500 but failed to meet the reserve.

How about a Harley tool box filled with Snap-On tools all still in the original wrapping?

Sold for $29,500, these ones would be for looking at while the Harbor Freight  tools were used.

We had perfect weather for the drive both ways. It was very clear but cold in Las Vegas and I mean Butt Cold.

The First Second Sunday of 2017

Second Place at Second Sunday

On Sunday morning, Rick came over and we synced the carbs on his Moto Guzzi.

We needed to make two adapters to fit the threaded ports in the intake manifolds.

That in turn necessitated the use of the patented Garriz Gauge.

Two adapters of 6mm x 1.0 thread were made and used to good effect.

However, we found that the carb on one side could not be adjusted down sufficiently.

The throttle cables were removed and the throttle stop in the twist grip trimmed.

You can just about see the adapter on the end of the hose.

That solved the problem.

New throttle cables were sourced from El Cheepo Throttle Cables Inc for one sixth of the price of the genuine article.

Unfortunately they are too short, not by much, but just enough to be useless.

These throttle cables will last for a very long time and never wear or kink, hanging on a nail in Rick's garage.

So our Sunday morning task accomplished, we set off for the Second Sunday show.

All was going well as we rode along PCH with the sun shining and the ocean to our right.

The Morini started to develop some kind of fuel problem, the engine revved up but did not seem to have any power. It felt like it was running on one cylinder.

After about a mile of this kind of this type of bad behavior, the Morini gave a couple of surges and then went back to normal. Maybe a little piece of schmutz got loose in the fuel system.
Hmm, I wonder what the Italian word for schmutz might be.

We rode the rest of the way to the meet without problem.

This is the Morini in place at the event.

There were a total of 97 bikes there, not all of which are in the Vintage (over 30 years old) category.
All bikes entered for judging are required to be in this category.

We got second place with the Morini.

The winner was:-

This 1979 Suzuki GS 750.

I should have asked for a recount as I think that the ballot was hacked.

Ciao Bella
Norm