Playing Catch Up

It's been a while since I wrote up the bike blog.
Between then and now lots of things have happened.
We have been to the UK for a family visit, see the travel blog for that info.
Norm's Travels

OK, the big news is that the Kawasaki has been kicking our ass.
Normally we can sort problems in no more than two weeks working on them part time.
With the Kawasaki, it's been close to a month and only minimal progress.

The bike starts fine, but then the problems begin.

This is a record of our attempts so far:

Kawasaki Concours

What we know.

1)The engine starts and runs.

2) The engine RPM will increase correctly but not return to idle at the correct rate.

3)  If a combustible liquid is sprayed over the carburetor boots the engine RPM will increase.

What we have done so far.

1) Carbs have been checked and are clean. All orifices are clear .

2) The diaphragm and slide have been changed in one carb.

3) The idle needle has been changed in one carb.

4) All of the intake boots between the carbs and cylinders have been checked and look to be sound.

5) The throttle and choke linkages have been checked and appear to be correct.

6) All CARB required components have been connected and made no improvement.

7) The screws in the intake boot clamps have been replace to allow for better tightening.

What to try next.

1) Install new rubber boots on the carb to cylinder connections.

2) Connect the sync tool and compare readings across all four carbs.

We have installed new rubber boots, and attached the sync tool.

A new problem appeared.

When carrying out these tests, we use a temporary fuel tank which holds about a quart of gasoline.

That's about 0.94 liters of petrol for those on the other side of the pond who like those French measurements.

We were doing a bit of head scratching with the motor running when we noticed that the temporary tank was empty. Just then the motor stopped, it was not like it ran out of gas, it just stopped dead.

When we tried to crank it again, it was apparent that it was locked up. We looked at each other with that "Oh Shit" look.

Just to be sure we took out the plugs and tried turning overt the motor with the rear wheel. 

No luck.

After a quick battery charge we tried the starter again, this time the motor turned over and blew a quart of gas out of the #4 spark plug hole. It was a bit like "Thar She Blows" and an oil well strike, Rick and I were both covered in gas.

Fortunately we get to work outside, so the gasoline smell evaporated pretty quickly.

Tosca was singularly unimpressed.

This is how you can tell that we are struggling,  Rick has his hat on backwards and is reading the instructions!

The #4 carb was removed and a new float and needle was installed.

Once new plugs were fitted, we tried again. The bike fired right up so we went into the carb sync routine.

After a few minutes, it was running better than we had ever seen it.

I packed up my tent (metaphorically speaking) and headed for the beach.

A couple of hours later, I got a call.

"Back to square one"

With the tank installed and some CARB shit hooked up it  would not return to idle as it should.

More on this debacle following my next visit to Sheddington North.

The next post, tomorrow I hope, will detail some progress with the Panther.

Norm

A Busy Week

Wow! This Is Getting To Be Like A Regular Job.

Nah! not even.

We do this stuff because we love doing it.

The first project was to make the side stand for the Panther work in some sort of way where it would hold up the bike without bending something else.

After some head scratching we decided on using what appeared to be the rear sidecar mount weldment.

The side stand which came with the bike was man enough for the job but just not well attached.

I came up with a bracket design to attach to the existing stand. So after machining the stand I took both the stand and the bracket to JB, my favorite welder and had him join the pieces.

That crappy brazing you can see was part of the original set up and not the work of JB.

Once back at Sheddington, I set about machining the bracket to fit the bike.

As there could be only one bolt to make the attachment, a method to prevent rotation on that bolt was needed.

I decided after a lot of cogitation and perhaps one or two Buds to machine a slot register in the bracket.

The tough part was making the mating key register on the bike. To make this a little easier, it was decided to make a gauge bolt. 

The threaded hole in the sidecar mount was 3/4-20 Whitworth form. (Yes, about as common as rocking horse shit)

I bought a couple of bolts from the local Ace to use as starting stock.

OK they're crap bolts and ungraded but a 3/4" bolt of almost any kind will hold the side stand.

I made the gauge bolt and after a couple of tries got it to screw in to full depth.

Then two of the flats were machined to give a dimension of 1" AF.

The bolt was screwed in and the machined flats aligned to be vertical.

The mount was ground to match the bolt.

This is the bracket after the slot was machined, as you can see it was within 0.001" of the desired dimension.

Here is the bracket mounted to the sidecar attachment point.

It was necessary to make a standoff for the muffler to prevent the stand from impinging on it.

This was the first pass at it, which ended up being just a little too long.I shortened it up and now it is just right. That piece will be found by some industrial archeologist in about a hundred years and will have him or her scratching their head. "Crazy people back then, this thing is BSF on one end and UNF on the other"

The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating thereof.

Here is the stand in place and after a bit of judicial heating and pounding the lower end was made to sit flat on the ground.

Thanks to Jimmie with the big hammer and the torch.

The next project in the form of a short video is about the manufacture of the orifices required to make a carb sync tool work.

Sheddington Machine Works

All the best,

Norm

A Day of Diddling

More Headaches.

Tuesday I drove over to Rick's house to help with the Kawasaki.

We took off the gas tank and the carburetors to check the intake connections to the cylinders.

Now this is one of those arrangements designed by a sadist.

If you could remove the air filter canister it would be easy; I think it must be the first part installed in the frame at the factory. The only way I can see to get it out is to take the gas ax to the frame.

You have to remove all of the hoses and cables, then you can tug, pull, and push the four-carburetor assembly out from in between the rubber boots it sits between.

Here you can see the carbs.

One of the problems with them being so close is that the clamp screws on the rubber boots get worn over time due to the screwdriver slipping or the wrong screwdriver being used.
We decided to install socket head screws, of course each side of the boot uses a different screw.
Off we went to Ace hardware to grab new screws. We started re-assembly only to find that one of the new screws was wrong. Not enough so that you would notice, it was probably a stock SAE screw dropped into the metric bin.
GRRRRR! back to the store for a new screw. (As the actress said to the bishop)
Now you have the reverse problem, pushing the carbs back through the gap between the boots and hooking up the cables and hoses.

Once it was all connected we tried running the bike, it starts up real nice and idles OK but when you run up the revs it takes a long time to come back down to idle.

After disconnecting the CARB (California Air Resources Board) required bits, multiple valves, hoses etc we found that by inserting a small orifice in the vacuum line from the manifold the engine speed came down much better. Hmm, maybe we are onto something.

We reconnected all the CARB stuff and it worked well for a short while then started acting up again.
It's my opinion that the problem lies in one or more of the emission control components.
More research and diddling required.

One of the benefits of living in So-Cal is of course the weather, here we are working under the shade of a palm tree with Hibiscus flowers in bloom.

As we now have clear skies most of the time I guess that I shouldn't bad mouth the CARB restrictions too much.
I still think that they should not apply to motorcycles.
Just my opinion...

Ciao 
Norm

Sheddington Transport Division Comes Through Again

Another Rescue

My brother Jimmie called to ask if I was available last Saturday. That is the real Saturday, not my Saturday which is any day now that I'm retired.

At first he told me that we were going to Venice Beach (the one in California) now that's a strange neighborhood.

However, when we checked further it was actually Marina Del Rey where we were going.

We were going to pick up , if the deal was OK, a 2001 Kawasaki Concours 1000.

We arrived to find that the address was a dealership.

PCH Power Sports

The guy selling the bike was keeping it there.

I have to say these were some of the nicest guys I've ever met at a dealership of any kind.

The owner showed up and tried to start the bike, but it was not co-operating.

Rick decided to buy it anyway.

As both the buyer and the seller are from Texas, there was a lot of BS going around.

Then of course there was Arthur who is a big football fan of a Texas team who shall remain nameless adding to the BS.

I needed rubber boots!

Now the problem comes, how to push a big ass heavy old motorcycle up the ramps on to the truck.

Whilst we were discussing this and bearing in mind the narrow escape from disaster on our last mission; the two service guys led by Oscar told us to get out of the way.

They pulled the bike into the workshop and then took a good run at it, the bike was on the truck in a heartbeat.

Well done guys, and thank you.
On a different note, Oscar allowed me into the workshop, something most places frown upon, to look at the jacks that they use on their lifts, I now have the same jack on my lift.
As I said really friendly and professional guys who know their stuff.

We tied it down and off we went, headed for Long Beach.

Once back at Rick's house the prize was unloaded and placed in the yard.

Of course here we have to push it uphill to get it on the ramps.

Here it is in all its glory.

After about four hours Rick had it running, kinda sorta.

Now it runs but has some carburetor problems.

Tomorrow (Two Wheel Tuesday) we will start on that issue.

More soon.

Keep the shiny side up and your knees in the breeze.

Ciao

Norm

March Second Sunday Vintage Bike Meet

March 13th Second Sunday Vintage Bike Meet

Sunday the 13^th arrived, and we still weren’t quite ready, but with an early start we were confident we could make it this time. Another test ride or two and we were ready to go.

It is only about 8 miles to the venue for the meet, but we decided to take a longer route down to the coast and along Pacific Coast Highway; a beautiful ride and no problems. I would not recommend riding bikes such as the Panther in our more developed urban areas such as Los Angeles, or on one of our many freeways, but down by the beach it is always a pleasure.

On to the meet. It takes place in the parking lot of a small hamburger joint, and was well attended with somewhere in the order of 125 bikes there. Check the link below.

OC Vintage

 Lots of bikes for a bit of a cool day.

The Panther created a lot of interest as very few people had even heard of it let alone seen one.

 An appreciative crowd with my friend Rick explaining the intricacies of the machine.

The organizer of the event, Joe Kagerer, asked if I was staying until the end as usually I take off before then.

 Rick thought that it was a good sign.

When the votes were tallied, the winner was, the Panther by a significant margin.

I felt sorry for the guy who came second,

He had this absolutely pristine BMW, and I won with a ratty old Panther.

The voting is done by the crowd and as they say in Yorkshire:

"There's nowt as queer as folk"

The winner rides off into the sunset with his prize.

Moto Music

Motorcycle Friday

Today with the threat of rain bordering on "Epic Proportions" we decided to work on the Moto Guzzi.

So, I ran over to Jimmie's house around 10:00 and we got to work.

After a small issue with the ignition timing triggers involving crossed wiring the bike was running.

Albeit not well.

We checked the compression and found a significant disparity between the left and right cylinders.

The left was acceptable at around 150 PSI but the right was over 230 PSI.

With the throttle wide open the gap closed somewhat but was still something like 210 to 240.

That problem still needs further investigation.

The right cylinder was running extremely rich at low RPM and the bike would shut down at about 4000 RPM.

The right carb was removed and all parts inspected.

The Delorto carburetor is very similar in function to the Amal, we looked at and tested every orifice, we were so intrusive that we could have worked for the TSA.

Then we had one of those Ah Ha! moments.

The main and idle jets had been reversed by a previous carburetor diddler.

These are shown as part numbers 16 and 17 in the diagram.

Now it's my opinion that the designer allowed this problem to happen.

If the idle jet and main jet had different threads there would be no chance for this confusion.

Murphy needs to be kept in check by careful engineering not careful inspection afterwards.

Just my opinion...

We put them back in their rightful homes and Voila!

Check the link below for the result.

 Moto-Music

Now the bike runs and idles well, you can crank it up past 4K RPM without problem.

With that problem solved, we moved on to the brakes.

The front left disc and the rear disc are operated from the rear brake pedal in what is known as linked braking.

It seems that the circuit has a lot of air so the brake bleeding process began, then another Ah Ha! moment arose, the brake fluid was DOT 3 and it should be DOT 4.

A trip to the auto parts store was needed.

At this time the rain really arrived with strong winds and a torrential downpour.

Back to the brakes, after a short time of being seriously drenched, we decided to give up for the day happy with the success achieved.

The brakes will more than likely be a project for next Tuesday.

Now we can really say,

Ciao Bella

Norm

Panther Petrol Problems

I Know, I Had To Use The English Word!

Other wise the Alliteration wouldn't work.

When we were running the Panther there were two problems with the gas supply, as you may recall from earlier posts.

1) The float level was too high.

2) The idle mixture was way too rich.

The Amal carburetor of the monobloc type has no means provided to adjust the float level.

I guess that they thought that their machining prowess was such that it would be just right every time.

My brother Jimmie has a theory that over time they suffered from tolerance drift when making the needles and seats.

The only way to adjust the level with any precision is to machine the face on the threaded connection which acts as gas hose connector and valve seat.

This is the part from my Panther, as you can see it too shows the marks of the Philistines.

However, the machined brass face is the one used to adjust the float level.

At first I thought that a really good finish was necessary to achieve a seal which would be gas tight.

But, upon reflection decided that gas should never get that high so it is a moot point.

I machined 0.020" from the face and refitted the part in the carb. With everything connected there were no leaks, that is a good thing.

On to the rich mixture at idle.

I purchased a new jet from Triumph Classic Motorcycles in Costa Mesa.

Now, I can remember part numbers and serial numbers and all kinds of stuff, but John is even more AMAL that I am. When I asked him about the jet I needed, he rattled off the part number immediately, I guess a life time of dealing with the stuff will do that do you.

This is the idle jet looking like it just came from the factory, which is hardly surprising as it just did.

This is the old jet, as you can see it has a really big hole.

Maybe the previous owner drilled it out to make it start better, who knows.

The new jet has been installed and is awaiting testing.

Now I am just waiting for the clutch parts from the UK  and we should be ready for another test ride.

The design for winch mount for the truck is proceeding apace and most of the material has been sourced from a local steel stockholder previously used for other bits.

Industrial Metal Supply

Pencil and paper, but it still works, the good thing about pencils, is that you can see what you have.
There are no batteries to die on you and unlike pens, no ink to run out on you at the critical time.

I'll keep you up to date as things progress.

But here's a pop quiz:
What is the origin of the AMAL name.

Answer next time.

Or credit to the first correct answer.

Ciao Bella,