Good Times, Bad Times,

you know I had my share
(thats me, back row, 2nd in, with the white hat)

I don't care what the neighbors say, 
I'm gonna love you each and every day.
HA HA 


To everyone whom I met in this shitty year
and to those that kindly left a message on this
sad little tale of one step forward and two steps back,


my best wishes to you for a better one in 2012
and... in those immortal words... 
'fuck this... lets ride'...

jam bar from back in the day

getting the crank nut undone can be a bitch bros

I got this idea from shovelhead.us

as I didn't have a compressor to run my impact driver

the jam bar is made of metal (or aluminium if you run a belt and are paranoid)

about 8-1/2" long (7-5/8" for 5 speeds) by 1-1/2" wide and a 1/4" thick

Chamfer the ends to fit and jam in 4 and 10 o'clock position (opposite to tighten)

As you can see I used a bit of wood and it worked!

Oh and heat the nut, if locktite has been used or its tight. 

diary of a bitch

SEPTEMBER

Started and ran for 6/7 secs with andrews flowmaster carb fitted and died

Try to re-start and big bang and flames through carb

Pushrod adjustment wrong, check ignition timing

No start and carb floods or pump is not working

Buy Super E

Will not start, get software to alter ultima ignition to 0 dead revs so I can kickstart

Dyna Factory setting is 3 (unit made by dyna)

(however as you cannot see what was installed originally, it could have been set to 0)

NOVEMBER

Cannot get to start.

Adjust pushrods (too tight) 

Try with no choke and no pump of throttle

Starts fist time

Starts second time one kick

Will not start hot

Black soot plugs, black pipes

Float bowl air passage blocked by airfilter and back plate, drill hole.

DECEMBER

Reduce jets to .70 definitly better the plug tips only black

Then reduce intermediate to .28 as manual suggests (if mixture less than 1&1/4 turn)

Pump adjusted to 1 turn

Still running rich but plug tips only black, exhaust black

Fit smaller jets .26 intermediate and .68 main

Runs like a dog under acceleration

Change up to .28, better but will not pull under acceleration

Will not start easy cold (will not start with enrichener)

Will not start easy hot, fires but will not pick up and dies

Sat 17th

(Linden @ Grizzlys says to use .31 inter, turn off pump and to check coil output as spark may be breaking down when hot)

Installed .295 intermediate,

tried different start method 3 - 6 pumps no enrichener (as suggested)

took 3 then 3 pumps from cold to start

started hot one kick throttle closed

adjusted mixture (but screw is 1 turn out)

then would not start hot, repeatedly fired a few times but  would not pick up - (only got to fire as this after pumping throttle)

checked coil with tester its ok @ 12.85 v when running.

Wed 21st

Changed manifold clamps and rubbers (no difference)

Fitted .28 and .70 jets

Would not start cold till pump was turned up

started hot with tickover turned up , mixture 1 &1/4 turn out

started one kick in street, didnt pull well , no acceleration.

Would not start again, fired  but would not catch.

Thurs 22nd

Fit .29 jet, Try- kick through off kick on throttle closed - no fire - pump a few times and eventually fires. Adjust mixture (larger jet allows more leeway on tickover screw) 
stop her and start hot 5 kicks (turned up tickover)

In street tap kicker to compression and it does it all by itself and starts - weird.

Go up and down the road and then another 500 yards and about to turn round and it dies. kick 5 times and return, on the way dies and push back.

Check petrol pipe take off carb and plenty of flow out of pipe.

So electric prob when hot or valves sticking or cam timing? Lights were on.

Friday 23rd

Checked relays and connections, stop light not working unless lights on (some tosser connected up to light circuit)

Saturday 24th

Decide to run bike till warm to find fault

Took a while to start cold, will start hot if pump used.

Discovered the top rubber petrol pipe from petcock to inline filter kinks on bend when warm - shutting off petrol supply, which unkinked when I disconnected it from the carb to test supply. The 3/8th oil pipe was fitted because of the petcock outlet fitting is 3/8th. Replaced with 5/16th rubber pipe for 'fuel'.

Decided engine is not running rich, but needs the throttle pumped to start hot (or cold)

ROLAND D. LEBAY

and on the first day of christmas my true love gave to me...

What tosser fitted this 3/8th oil pipe to the petcock

She cut out on me on the road two days ago and I thought , haha this is why she won't start hot! So pull the fuel pipe at carb and plenty of gas! Hmmmm, so its electrics... yes I remember I had the lights on at the time. Check the wiring, the brake light dont work when lights off, ha this is it. But no I had wired it up to lights not the ignition. 

So yesterday when Pete came round and we are fucking trying starts and get her warmed up a few times. I notice this. When she gets hot the top fuel pipe bends and kinks in two and cuts off the fuel supply. A Voila!

I had used a piece of 3/8th oil pipe from the new petcock because it had this huge outlet fitting so this 'Made for fuel' 5/16th supply pipe was fitted.

 Pete gave me this tip - use silicon sealant (mine was for windows) on your zorst gasket - it worked too!

Peter has lived a round the corner from me for years and we have never met until he heard about my bike. Pete has a '79 1200 shov stroked to 1340 and has experienced shovel trouble too...

Christine fired up all by herself - whoa... spooky...

Having got her to fire up from cold, switched off and I pushed her into the street.

I was just tapping the kicker for compression and... she fired... and the kicker went down all on its own while I stood and looked in amazement... scary stuff...

and finally I really thought that this bitch of a carb was gonna go on the bay of fools in the new year

 cos I just could not tune it by the book using a variety of smaller jets and my leg is hurting.

We are now back to using .29 /.70 jets and I may have finally found a start routine for hot and cold that is not by the book. I now realise she is not running rich now it was all the start up probs. And she will not start with the enrichener. A good few pumps cold and a pump hot, the tickover turned up and she will catch and fire up. 

MERRY FUCKING CHRISTMAS 

bad santa...

my kinda guy

boing boing

 Decided that this seat pan I had been given by Joe will do till I find some spare cash and decide what she really wants

chitty chitty bang bang...

why use one, when two will do...

chitty chitty bang bang...

 or should that be, shitty shitty bang bang... 

reasons to be cheerful, part 4

brass exhaust rings from pete @ eat the rich 

george turned them out a bit so they'd fit...

so I chopped the slash cuts off of christine's drags and slipped on her new blingy rings...

and noticed a bit of a leak -  both pipe flanges needed a drop of weld

and the exhaust studs were loose... .  

yes you can...

6 Over - Kick Start from Wild Honey Productions on Vimeo.

been there... done that...

from lovecycles

georgie boy...

turned this up for me on his lathe

he's no boy (nearly eighty years)

and finally fitted today when I sourced some screws from 

stig fasteners who stock the correct size in various head types

I finally found out the thread size is 8.32 UNC 

(by googling!)

The carb saga is getting boring

fitted .28 Intermediate again and .68 Main

Hard to start still

Will not start cold with enrichener

Will not start hot easily, fires but does not catch and run.

This is not why I dumped my points and my old carb.

I will have to try with my old carb if I can get that not to flood etc.

shovelicious

 tough

 tougher

elegant

lovely

from bb blog

reasons to be cheerful, part three...

 In the post today an ironic card from my brother,  made me laugh...

and a really top mag arrived too, also some smaller jets for the bitch...

that made christine run like a dog ( my fault)...

but realizing that I am one year younger than I thought... 

- fifty fucking seven and not 58 was I guess a bonus...

and fifteen years later...

UP AND DOWN AND UP AND DOWN
an old fat bloke and

 his shovel

 go for a ride again...

reasons to be cheerful part 2...

 Strapped a bottle on so I could take the bike up the road while she was running cos there would have been a bloody oil slick - and finally Christine stopped gobbing up pints of oil...

 How dare you wear those daggy tracksuit trousers...

 Not sure if the new seat suits her, maybe a different colour...

Christine barely runs if you grab some throttle, the accelerator pumps adjusted down, and jets replaced down to .028 Intermediate and .70 Main. The plugs not covered in black soot now but she will not start cold with the enrichener on and when hot fires but will not catch and keep running. 


Fuck it - Ive just ordered some smaller jets from Alex @ Grizzlys
who had some in stock. 


Lowbrow have started slapping on a flatbox USPS charge of $30 on what would have gone normal post, which fucks buying a set when it hits our customs.

from a planet far far away...

oooh look - there's a clanger...

and there's Major Clangers flying machine...

oh dear

boogie wonderland

I did a little poster and blog site for my mate Johnny and his band

the boogiemen

check them out

rockin good blues!

Johnny sent me a suprise gift, I'd mentioned dropping the pipe that he gave as a wedding present (purchased at the Kent Custom Show I think) back in the day. Love ya.

reasons to be cheerful... part one

I left the return feed off (fixed the oil cooler and was double checking) 
and forgot... till the oil ran down on to the belt drive and the was spun along the patio and up the wall of the house...

Drilled a hole in the 'well made' mooneyes airfilter back plate 

and the air filter! As they cover the float bowl breather passage...

 Installed my old inline fuel filter which leaked and then stopped (leaking)...

It was getting dark when she finally started and I wondered where the sparks were coming from - the battery had moved sideways all on its own, till the cover just touched the live connector...

 

and finally the oil on the floor wasn't coming down from the beltdrive oil fiasco. No it was coming from the between the base of the cylinders! 

I checked the base nuts, and some were just finger tight... 

Never had that happen before. Fuck I've not been down the road on the bitch yet!