cowpuc

Only had to pop pistons a couple times to get a good caliper together, run pistons out to the width of a new brake pad (always figured 1/2 a backing plate width beyond the width of pad was a good place to stop the piston - never have had one pop out using the new pad as a gauge) - rip a piece of old cotton tea shirt to kind of match the width of the exposed piston and 8 or 10 inches long - slip it around the piston and pinch the two ends together so I have the exposed piston wrapped nice and tight in the good clean rag - soak it up with carb or brake cleaner - move the rag back and forth around the piston - remove the rag and examine piston to see if streaks are cleaning up - make another wrap and clean until the pistons a sparkly clean - last cleaning I use a clean rag with brake fluid on it - push the piston back in - push it back out and check for more rub marks - if rub marks are present I start over - when completed I do the other side.. 99% of time this cures sticky calipers.

PRAYERS UP for your Son, his family and ALL those affected by this crisis Lewis!!!

Hey Casey - just finished reading your other thread about your new scoot - WOW ZZZZZ WOW WOW WOW - she is a DANDY = CONGRATS!! Bongo mentioned spying some add on's in that thread - I think I saw more = gotta go back sometime and add to his list .. Don mentioned somewhere about tires being the cause of the hummmm you are experiencing when your scoot is anything but straight up = now reading that you are running Metz's - I can attest to having experienced the noise your are talking about and affirm that Metz's were probably the most pronounced for that noise = my money is on new tires will alleviate the noise.. I am one who had a Metz fail. Long story short, the tire delaminated while out in California - see pic. Have tried many brands over the years, always maintain proper air pressures but do require a lot out of my tires = we load heavy, ride desert temps but ALWAYS purchase higher load level tires (74H or higher).. Michillin has been the highest mileage tire = 6500 miles. Dunny 404 the lowest = just under 4000 miles. I carry spoons and swap my own tires so, IMHO, the 180 bucks I paid for the Mich was no where near worth the cost when considering I could have almost purchased 3 other lower end tires for that price. A good example of this is that I replaced the Metz in the pic with a 65 dollar (shipped) "Full Bore" M-66 - that cheapy Full Bore did an AWESOME job and lasted 5000 miles in 110 degree desert riding fun.. I have read and reread many many writings about folks getting really high mileage out of their rear tires - unfortunately I am not one of them. I do personally know people who have ridden on "dual compound" Dunlop tires and know for a fact that my buddy has just under 15000 miles on his and it is ready for a swap out. Last time I checked - that Dunlop he is running on his Ultra Limited was $245. Again,, IMHO - 15k for 245 bucks does not = 5k for 65 bucks BUT - again,, I dont mind swapping my own tires.. Here is Tire Poll you might be interested in: http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?118014-POLL-2-for-REAL-this-time!!!-What-kind-of-mileage-do-you-get-from-a-rear-tire&highlight=tire+poll and here is where you can find pics of the Metz problem with had - if this link does not take you right to the proper page - you can pass thru all the nonsense in the ride article and go to page 15 and post 223 at this link to read all about it: http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?94309-Ahhhh-the-summer-of-14-ADVENTURE-SERVED-UP-GORMET-STYLE!!!!/page15&highlight=metzler+tire I tried unsuccessfully (we have line problems here in my area) to post pics - sorry but you will have to follow the above link if you want to see them.. By the way,, I am still thinking that its the style of Tread that makes the Metz sing and viborate some when cornering - especially after they have worn the radius off in the center of the tire a little.. Hope this all helps - CONGRATS on the new scoot = IMHO, you did GREAT Casey!! Puc

After High School and working in a Machine Shop (Gardner Denver (anyone remember them?) in Grand Haven Mi - spinning parts out for air tools) for a few years I went to the Boilermakers Local 169 over on Chase Rd (as I recall - maybe an east sider will varify that Chase Rd exists over there) in Detroit Mi - stood in line for almost 14 hours just to get an app in, got an interview and got put to work building a Power House on Lake Michigan.. Rigged for em for a few months before they started taking apps for Weld School to learn how to tig and arc weld pipe. Had 4 years of welding in High School so, in their opinion, I was a good fit for weld school = took almost a year but the results were no bad x-rays on all high pressure steam pipes I welded (all "scratch start" as you mentioned Shawn) and stamped = paid off BIG TIME making a good living and stayed with them till I got married and decided not to travel any more and went to raising a family.. Landed a shop job with a German firm, did a TON of fabbing using an English Wheel and tossing tig at sheet metal work. After all my years of Tig welding - this shop job was my first exposure to a high end, water cooled, foot pedal controlled Tig outfit = NICE!!! 12 years later I found myself doing ground up bike builds (a dream of mine - what a BLAST) in my own shop using all the skills I had learned thru the years.. From all of that I would suggest: 1. If you are unfamiliar with Tig welding and interested in getting started in the art form, go to a Skill Trades Center or a College and sign up for a Tig class.. Hopefully by doing so you will learn to "see the puddle" (until you get to that point - your welds will be mediocre at best), grow to appreciate different Tungsten and grinds for flame angles and intensities and become very aware of how much welding is similar to painting from the perspective of 95% preparation and 5% application.. 2. If I were just beginning and wanted to buy a welder to play with AND be able to do some sheet metal work I would not buy a Tig welder - I would buy a Mig welder.. I know,, I know,,,, sounds insane BUT - I can tell you,, a decent (using cover gas - NOT "flux core") Mig is almost as versatile as a good Tig outfit and a whole lot less expensive to operate - a lot more affordable for the home shop.. Tungsten is not cheap, you HAVE to have a diamond wheel on the bench grinder to grind Tungsten, if you cant afford a water cooled Tig outfit you are kind of throwing your money away IMHO and on and on.. 3. IMHO, as suggested = a good Oxy/Ace torch setup is a MUST have for the home shop - have owned a set since I was just a kid and gotta tell ya, aside from my 16 inch channel locks and my vernier calipers = my torch is my favorite and most used tool.. The problem I found early on with trying to use a torch for sheet metal work like we are talking about is the heat needed to make a weld will more then likely create warpage problems.. Either Mig or Tig would be wayyyy more controllable in that regard. On the same token though,, unless you are planning on clear coating over your welds so you can show them off - you will probably end up needing to use some body filler anyway so warpage may not be that big of a deal.. 4. Something else to think about.. I believe you will find that factory fuel tanks are coated internally after finish welding, no idea what the factory process is for doing this but I do know that once that "coating" has been disturbed the tank becomes very open to rust and, as you probably already know - rust and gas can create havoc on carburation.. Very early on in my Chopper Daze I discovered that my home made tanks had to be coated internally - I spent many many hours playing with homemade coatings and using different tank coating applications. In the end I found that Red Kote (used to be used commercially by tank/radiator shops) worked the best for my shop use.. Tig up tank - clean it internally and coat it = NOT ONE BRING BACK because of tank rust after using Red Coat.. Another really fantastic thing about Red Coat is that it forms a tank within the tank which I found to work hand in hand with using Mig instead of Tig for doing tank work.. Sheesh,, I am writing another book here,, sorry about that Shawn - fingers got carried away.. Anyway,, LOVE the looks of your project - TONS of fun and wish you nothing but the best completing the endeavor... Wish I lived next door - I would gladly sit in your garage and druel Puc

Now there's a view of a 1st Gen that a 2nd Gen rider dont get to see very often...

Where is @mirider when we need him? I rode Big Mac (his gorgeous 2nd Gen w/ a Voyager Kit) and it rode awesome.. As I recall, a dealership set his up for him but maybe he has a link to some install instructions or could snap a quick vid of what goes where on the belly of the beast... I do know that the two wheels you get from Voyager are suppose to go on the back DanL - hopefully you havent started with the sawsall and got em on the front all ready like @Marcarl did when he did his...

Nope, I am innocent,,,,,, this time ...

Cant help but wonder if higher R's from the Max reguire the valves to be a little lighter.. BEAUTIFUL Riv!!:thumbsup: Looks like they cleaned up real pretty! Personally, I like to drop a Dial Bore into the jug just to double check my work for taper and oversizing on the hone.. This can also be done by measuring ring end gap (which is not a bad anyway when installing new rings). My personal rule of thumb for end gap is 10 to 20 thou is good on a non high compression "built" motor. 25 thou is pushing the limit and 30 is oversize/bore job time.. You probably all ready know this but I will go here any way, easy way to check end gap is to drop in the top new ring which is usually a "flat faced" compression ring (2nd is usually a scraper and 3rd usually an oil ring). Check the new ring for any "burrs" on its gap edges (where it splits). Squeeze it together and push the new ring into the bore (clean the bore really well and lube it first), slip a clean piston in on top of the ring and push it up the bore, remove the piston and check the gap on the ring with a feeler gauge - simple but effective.. Move the ring up or down the jug with the piston - check it in several places along the length of the stroke and see what it like. Not just looking for oversizing on the hone job but also looking for taper - make sense? Makes me thinking we gotta hang this up till Christmas Riv .. Hope you folks have a safe journey back to the North Country my friend!!

Picturing that lop eared Seafood eatin Dogman varmint to be camped out next to some seaside Lobster joint with his feet propped up next to a camp fire and full of Lobster's right about now:big-grin-emoticon: Hope all is well brother:thumbsup:

Dealt with something similar a while back Raggy, hit the zips with some compressed air to clean em up - then used chap stick and a quick warm up with a lighter - worked like new and still does...

Bang shang a lang - you nailed it Vaz - when I first took a peek at that pic I was thinking "that thing looks sooooo familiar" - couldnt place why but you got it - definitely got that classic look about it!!

Totally tracking with ya Casey = may as well get new:thumbsup:!! The stuff I have is all old Honda Line stuff - came in their original boxes and still in those boxes somewhere, thinking I have two full face set ups and one open face set up.. Came with an 86 Aspencade I bought/sold many years ago - not even sure they are wired the same as the ones for the Ventures.. Gotta be able to find the stuff brand new fairly reasonable nowadays - maybe do a quick search on Ebay or something,,, certainly seems like prices on that stuff should have come down with all the modern blue tooth technology and modern electronics being what they are... All the best in locating the right scoot - never know,, you may land one with alllll the goodies already there!

No idea on the HD Jacket but WOWZY is that AWESOME in its own right.. Gonna go peek in my HD History book and see if I notice it on one of the riders in there. Will be back.......

TOTALLY 100% awesome and GORGEOUS RAGGY!! Just thought of something = take chapstick, run it down the zippers on your awesome find - up n down a few times with the zips and they will work like brand new if they dont now.. I also have found that a quick pass on the chapstick smear with a lighter helps to but do it quick and not to close to any fabric.. ,, still got the WW2 Goggles that came with Olivia the War Bike, will have to make sure you and I wear our very special goggles next time we meet for Hot Dogs = we will be the best dressed bikers in America running around with our goggles snapped on our foreheads = twins even if ya grow your beard back :backinmyday:

Confirmed Bongo = factory radio/cassette player contained the intercom.. All non existent on the standard = not so bad though,, especially if you can sing at least as well as Tip n I can

Think I still got a couple full set ups somewhere that never did find the need for (they are used though) - will have to do a little digging if someone is interested. I am also pretty sure I have a wireless setup - same deal,, never used em.. Wow,,, just occurred to me,, rode all those miles leaning on the wife or a kid of ours and never found the need for an intercom - says something for the quiteness of the riders space on those great big gorgeous MK1 1st Gens we wore out through the years

Wonder if someone may have stuck LED's in your tail lights or maybe ya got some crud or bad ground on the tail lights that is creating a resistance the lower voltage just cant quite over come...

adventure

Well Joe,, your one up on this ol boy = never ever did get to have a 2nd Gen.. Thought I better jump in here and tell ya on the new scoot though - you get er all ironed out and adjusted to your liking = I gotta hunch your gonna LOVE IT!! All the best in your new endeavor! Puc

Have seen a few of them buzzing around - kind of a cute little bike but I was never one to lean toward the Chinese market,, they are getting better as time goes by, IMHO, but still got a ways to go. For the money, still thinking I would go with an older Honda or Yam.. Sold a 95 VLX 600 earlier this year for 900 bucks (WOW did that sell fast) and, personally, I would go that route if l looking for a rider.. Korean? If thats the case,, maybe a little higher opinion.. Short story about the Chinese scoots.. Years ago when I had the dealership I was at the Dealer Expo in Indianapolis. The Chinese were just starting their journey into the market. They had a small room with a few Mopeds and a couple CRF50 Honda clones up in the dome. BBR had some amazing "pit bike" stuff downstairs - really classy stuff with some pretty healthy prices attached - even dealer cost was up there. There was a large group of Chinese businessmen taking lots of pictures of the BBR lineup of parts. Got approached by a couple ladies from China when we ventured up stairs to look at the displays up there. They tried and tried to get me to sign up for a couple containers of Chinese scoots - as a dealer, you bought by the container - could mix up the inventory but you had to fill a container.. After turning them down, an employee I had with me asked why. In his mind, $90 per unit was a really good chance to make a buck.. My reply was "not if everything we sell ends up back at the shop":happy34:. Following year those things started showing up all over the place - even "tent sales" along roadways were common. Stopped at one of those tents one day and got talking with the guy trying to sell his toys.. Said he had been at the same Expo and two containers of inventory, he had a small shop in another location but chose to use the tent sale routine to disassociate the Chinese stuff from his shop. Said he did not know it at the time but those early "Honda Clone" motors were redesigned with a "rotary" tranny that had no stop between between top gear and bottom gear - imagine trying to teach a kid learning to ride a little bike like that that if he got going in 3rd gear and pressed down one more time he was instantly in 1st gear:fiddle:. I returned to the Expo the following winter. walked up stairs and this time the Chinese had HALF the dome filled with all kinds of scoots. Noticed they even had cloned a pit bike up with all the "BBR" look alike stuff. Got talking to them about where their prices were = up to $130 a scoot, still the "gotta buy a container full routine".. Spoke with them about the tranny design - even took them over to one of their machines to demonstrate what I was talking about. Didnt even get a raised eyebrow:confused24:.. Years have passed since all this, sold the shop before we moved here to the lake shore. Have since watched the Chinese market somewhat. Getting to be quite a few Mopeds buzzing around here - neighbors bought a couple Chinese 150 scooters and one lady actually put 4k miles on her 2012,, ran ok but was pretty noisy when she sold it and bought her Honda 600 Silver Wing (COOL SCOOT) but I was impressed it did that well - think she paid $750 for it new and resold for 400 = not bad. Her husband bought a Honda 50cc clone motored quad for their grand kids - told him to double check the tranny - seems the Chinese finally figured out the missing stop on the shift segment was not a good idea cause that was no longer an issue.. Fingers got away from me again - they love talking anything bikes almost as much as me:whistling:..

Sounds AWESOME Jack!!! Now if only my poor little antenna TV setup would mysteriously connect to the Discovery Channel on the 5th of Sept

Yep,, looks like a normal valve job by the book = lap em in brother! Should be good to go there..

AWESOME - looking awesome Riv!! As always, these guys are batting 100% IMHO.. Only want to add - with it apart and open, the dingle berry hone will NOT be worthy - you really should follow Fool's original thoughts and go with stones. Probably not a bad idea to find and actual framed cylinder hone if you can locate one - the type that holds the stones securely so you dont end up with high spots .. The spring arm type would definitely be better than dingle berrys but, if you can locate one of the frame types - they do an amazing job of chasing out ridges and pits while holding a good bore with no taper.. Concerning resurfacing the heads. Personally I would take a good fine flat file (I would use a Mill too if I had one in my back pocket like Jeff does ), lay it across the surface and lightly pivot it back and forth from the handle end across the surface (like the sweeping hands of a clock) to locate and remove any dinged high spots before I started lapping the surface - finish lapping like has been mentioned is perfect - dont want to be lapping at an angle from riding on high spots so to speak. As your working the high spot of the repair area that we talked about, it appeared to me that there was plenty of weld to rework the surface with. In that spot I would carefully flat file in a normal filing way until I just started seeing file contact on the machined surface and then switch to a lap as mentioned. Not real sure on our Ventures but some of the modern day stuff you had to watch how much surface you pulled when lapping valves in as they were coated valves.. Others you could lap with no fear.. Will take a peak in my shop manual and see if it says anything about it if you havent already checked. I know that one head had the cams already removed.. With Bob mentioning the need to make sure all the caps/bearings get back in their original positions (100% in agreement with him - LOVED seeing you had replaced the rod caps on the rods in the pictures, PERFECT way to keep track of em!) it dawned on me that may be a little difficult with that head. I did not examine the cam journal caps closely but you may want to. It is possible that the guy Larry got the parts from originally marked those caps before taking them off - thats pretty common. If not - you may want to make sure the cams spin free after tightening down the caps and may have to move them around like your playing checkers to find just the right "feel" on the journals - I have a gut feeling this really wont be much of an issue - not like we were talking rod bearings as the main support for the cams are actually the saddles they set in - but you REALLY need to make sure you have no binding going on for sure - dont forget to prelube everything when putting together. Looking at the cooling system - I would replace the thermostat while you this far down,, thats kind of a bugger of a job to do on the roadside. Gotta run - LOOKING GREAT BROTHER!! Keep the faith! Puc

THAT is an AWESOME link Raggy - THANK YOU!!! :thumbsup:

:lightbulb:If the Flyin the ointment Fool doesnt notice someone stole them parts off his Snoper Charger to build that thang and have them replaced before Christmas, you may be able to jump on AZZI and come up for a Hot Dog during your next vacation Trust me Riv - this ol "Garage Foreman" knows EXACTLY how your feeling about the parts delima.. Speaking about being a garage foreman - one of the funnest times I have had in modern day history had to do with a Meet n Greet that @ragtop69gs and his lovely wife Jeannie put on.. @bongobobny and I sat around giving instructions to those working on someone's scoot.. Thinking Bob was the General Foreman on that job and I ended up somewhere in Mid Management - sooo much fun