Idiot v. Motorbikes, Rounds 3, 4, and 5

[melville]

Thanks! The powdercoater has had the wheels for a month now. I'm going to poke them next week, see where things are at.

[melville]

OK, it's been a while! The PC people took some time and I started courting a gal 200 miles away. She's a great pillion:



There was also 9000 miles in my wee sportscar in November and December and then the weirdest (COVID) work season ever.



All that said, I now have time and money and it's time to get started! First, a little decrustifying:





Then, some bearing installation:



While helping my son with his first oil change on his first car:



I got a little distracted:



But before putting out the flames I didn't waste all the heat that went into the hub. This:



Dropped right into this:



I took the wheels to my local independent with the gently used (3K miles) tires from last summer. I got them back mounted and it was on!







Then it was time for a test sit:



The high bars are definitely different. But perhaps they will work well with the Luftmeister fairing. This is more how I'm used to sitting on Ernst:

[melville]

OK, I moved house AGAIN! But this time's for keeps. My pillion is now 2 miles away and not 200. A little time to settle in, and I'm back working on Edgar.

Where I started today:



Today's goal was to drain the 30+ year old oil, pull the sump and clean it, clean the pickup screen and check the torque on the pickup bolts. Then reassembly is the reverse of disassembly.

I pulled the crash bars and the aftermarket oil cooler while the oil drained. I think the non-cooler filter cover was sitting in the toolbox. I'll be verifying this with an Airhead expert tomorrow. That, and whether or not I have all the right stuff to replace the filter. Here are some photo highlights:

Aftermarket filter cover:



Weird (???) tube in the middle of the filter canister:



Crusty stock (??) cover:





Almost everything that came out of the filter cavity:



This bike was last worked on so long ago that the filter had separate o-rings. This one was stuck at the deep end of the cavity. I made a tool out of a bicycle spoke to get it out:



The plumber's nightmare of the cooler adapter:



I may reinstall the cooler, but the plumbing needs to be better than all that household stuff. I also don't particularly trust the 40 year old plastic oilstat.

The sump came right off, once leverage was correctly applied. I started by checking the torque on all the sump screws. 78 inch pounds only moved a couple of them. 108 inch pounds moved all of them, but none were stripped. The sludge inside was mostly liquid and cleaned right up. Similar for the pickup and screen. 78 inch-pounds didn't budge one of the pickup screws but tightened the other one just a hair. Sump is back on. When I have the right stuff for the filter, I have some special Break-In oil that should help the rings seal after their long slumber.

Next up: Valve adjust, carb cleaning and rebuilds, and maybe I'll drop in a charged battery and feed it some fresh fuel and hopefully make some noise!

[melville]

So I was going to go to my local dealer to get some parts for Ernst and hopefully some guidance on what should go back in the filter hole. This happened that day instead:

https://advrider.com/f/threads/southern ... t-40822160

The fire started just 1/4 mile from my house, pretty much here:



The wind blew it away from town. That's the edge of the densely populated part of town. But it hit the two smaller towns to the north, including Phoenix where not only the BMW dealer burned, but also the KTM and HD dealers.

I resolved my Ernst problem with a $2.99 part from the auto parts store and after installing that, moved back to Edgar. Yesterday's task was draining the tank and pulling it. I'm going to rebuild the (straight) fuel taps and put them on Ernst, then put the recently rebuilt angled taps from Ernst on Edgar. The angled taps look like a lot better fit on a /7 tank and the straight taps similar on a /6 tank. There was about 1 1/2 gallons of 30+ year old gas in the tank. It still smelled like gasoline and was probably ethanol free. Possibly even leaded! The stuff that came out of both sides on the Reserve setting was pretty red, though. Whether it was rust or old tank liner I can't say. I will also re-line the tank.

Here's what I found with the tank off:





After my experience with Ernst, I was very happy to find that brake fluid hadn't dripped all over the frame and rusted the top tube. The dual plug situation was handled with dual outlet 6V coils, still on the wasted spark plan. Each coil has one wire going to each cylinder. Left coil goes to the lower left plug and upper right plug. This would ameliorate the problem of varying timing on each side that happens sometimes with points. Per some notes I found with the bike, there's probably also a points booster. More on this as I find things out when the front cover comes off.

[melville]

Today the air was finally clear enough to do a little work in the garage. The smoke is nearly gone.

I started with installing the oil filter and dropping a couple quarts in the pan. In my first experience with the $2000 O-ring I found the article and chart by St. Anton of Largiader very helpful:

http://largiader.com/tech/filters/canister.html

Edgar takes both a shim and a gasket. That done, it was time to remove the carbs:



I've had the float bowls off and things don't look too scary in there. The rebuild kits are coming. And because I am who I am, there was a bit of this:





I mean, the buffer was right there. Nothing to it.

[gspd]

Dude! -
Glad you're doin' OK.
FYI
The right side of your bike has a left side valve cover. and vice versa.
The louver lines are angled down to the rear instead of being horizontal.
I trust that this situation will be addressed with due diligence.
It's hurting my eyes. ; )

[melville]

Dude! -
Glad you're doin' OK.
FYI
The right side of your bike has a left side valve cover. and vice versa.
The louver lines are angled down to the rear instead of being horizontal.
I trust that this situation will be addressed with due diligence.
It's hurting my eyes. ; )

Yes, valve adjustment coming after I know whether or not it turns over. I think it does because the seller moved it around in gear and lost his grip on the clutch lever.

[melville]

With some time on my hands this afternoon, I got a bug in my ear about seeing if the key was on the bike. There was a bunch of stuff in the tool tray, including a few 35mm film canisters. I opened them up and found:

A set of advance springs
A couple float needles
A timing hole cover
Many and several copper crush washers
A pair of 150 main jets
A pair of 2.68 needle jets

No key.

Next were the pockets in the fairing. I'd already pulled an exhaust nut wrench (the BIG brass version) and a clutch cable. Next was another clutch cable and a brake cable. Then the camping stuff:









Yes, TWO corkscrews! PO liked to party. A lot of this stuff was wrapped in newspaper which was disintegrating. One bit I saw was a review of the movie Breaking Away, which came out in 1979 and forever changed my life.

https://youtu.be/HL3U44It_No

Failing in finding the key, the next step was to take the fairing off so I could get the switch out of the headlight shell to take it to a locksmith. I left the frame brackets on as I'm really wondering about life behind Luftmeister. Here's what waited for me:



The fairing harness comes in from the upper right:



The wires are mostly DIN colors. Looks like low beam is more orange than yellow. It was wired directly to the junction board, which was pleasant after my experience with Ernst where the installer cut into the various wires and soldered the (Hannigan) fairing harness to them. Just the same, I'm feeling like I want to redo the terminals:



Those look enough like the hardware store terminals that have caused me so much trauma that I want to replace them with proper double crimps. There was curious stuff in the fairing itself:





It looks like a lightswitch. It seems to be set up to interrupt the high beam wire, possibly to make starting easier. Yes, it was wired in to the harness with posilocks or whatever those horrid blue things are. And it was just bouncing loose inside the fairing pocket. Grrrrrrrr.

Eventually I got the ignition switch out:



I've pulled things out of VWs and gotten keys made from codes on the item (door handle or ignition switch). There appears to be something stamped in to the brown plastic but it doesn't appear to be long enough to be a key code, as I expect that there are five tumblers I see only three digits stamped. I'll let the locksmith sort it out.

[melville]

So today I figured it was time to get the airbox off, battery out, in prep for pulling the trans back to lube the input splines.

I removed the long screw from the clamshell and started opening it up. A little surprise inside:



I've been reanimating abandoned German vehicles for over 30 years. I've never found mouse evidence in an airbox before. This next pic gives a clue why I found it this time:



Another PO who redesigned the breather outlet away from the intake tract. In this case he removed the screen from the scoop on the starter cover. Mickey also filled the starter cavity with fluff. There was a bit of time removing all that crap. Note that the K&N filter element filtered out the mice! The metal mesh was mouse proof, unlike, say, an OG paper filter. Nonetheless, I'll be replacing it with a paper filter.

The original breather hose was rerouted outside the starter cover and into this hose:



Which then ran under the battery tray and around the left side of the fender to come out here:



This may have been the original battery! No leaks, no rust on the battery tray. The vent hose was still in place:



COVID and the recent fires here served me well on this one, as I had an N95 mask for working on all this mouse nesting material. Looking a bit cleaner when I left off:



I'll be pulling the starter to clean underneath. Oof.

[SteveD]

Yukko!
Are you going to go full gloss or clean and rub 'n buff?

My recent engine tear down engine wasn't as grungy as yours but it was filthy. I washed and scrubbed it a bit then applied the rub 'n buff. It took less than 20/60 to do the whole case.