Jump to content

Gearhead

Expired Membership
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    971

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Gearhead

  1. Gearhead
    Squeeze, my understanding of the situation is more fork oil makes for less air volume which makes the total spring rate of the fork more progressive, that is, the total effective spring rate will increase faster because the volume of air gets compressed a higher percentage. Is this what you are saying as well? I actually put in the full amount of fork oil originally, then later let about 50cc out on advice received here. It seemed like doing so made the front end a little less harsh, which I liked. To some extent, any increase in stiffness to reduce bottoming, whether achieved through more oil, thicker oil, stiffer springs, more mechanical preload, more air pressure, or whatever will be at the cost of increased harshness on small bumps, methinks. Jeremy
  2. Gearhead
    I don't remember the exact results of your electrical tests, or if they were done before or after you fixed the pos terminal. Now, with your new starter, repeat those tests for voltage drop on both sides of the circuit while cranking. Also measure voltage from starter pos post to starter body while cranking, and batt voltage while cranking. These should tell you if any of the cables are your problem. Didn't somebody mention a problem if some gasket wasn't the right thickness where the starter got clamped and restricted from turning freely? If the Starter Clutch is bad, will the starter turn fast but the engine drag as the clutch slips? Jeremy
  3. Gearhead
    Yup, definitely fork springs. They are too soft to begin with and get tired quickly. Fork seals leak when bad. No leaky, not bad! FYI, in installed Progressive springs but thought the ride was a little harsh. I ended up with: Preload - about 1/4" less than Progressive recommended. Air - min that the CLASS will put in, 7 psi, but with me sitting on bike on wheels. This ends up being about 3 psi on center stand. Fork Oil - Stock 10 weight, 50cc less than stock amount to account for volume of thicker springs. On the road it's great. I live down a mile of pot-holed dirt road. Sometimes, when I hit a big hole the wrong way, I still get the bottoming clunk from the forks. I figure, what the heck, it's an 800 lb street bike, not exactly made for dirt, so that's to be expected. If I increse preload or oil weight to get rid of that the thing rides too stiff. Jeremy
  4. Gearhead
    Yeah, I'm pretty sure the flasher and canceller ARE parts of the same unit, same box. It's probably expensive. I bet you could find a way to substitute a cheap automotive flasher, but would have no self-cancelling. Jeremy
  5. Gearhead
    Well, you can determine pretty easily if it's drag in the cables and twist grip. It is the most common source of these problems. If your throttle is closing and the engine rpm is "floating", check for vacuum leaks. WD40 is OK, but light. I use DriSlide in cables. It goes in watery through a very thin tube that actually fits inside the cable housing. It dries into a moly paste lube. Jeremy
  6. Gearhead
    Darn, and I thought it was only my new bike tires that attracted nails. You mean car tires can get foreign objects too? Hehehe... Jeremy
  7. Gearhead
    I think there's some kind of factory test equipment that goes there. Jeremy
  8. Gearhead
    "My commuter is an XTZ660 which also has that valve. Before I changed the carb on that I was getting low 30s mpg (UK), afterwards 57mpg, but popping on the over-run. I might switch the valve over from the old carbs if it won't push the mpg down again." What was wrong with the old carb that made mileage that bad? "I'd happily try new diaphragms, but they're not exactly cheap and mine seem okay. If anyone wants to lend some new ones for an experiment " If the diaphragms are bad you can see the holes. Hold them up to the light and look for little pinholes. Mine were much worse than this, no special light required! Jeremy
  9. Gearhead
    The hand lever switches are located just inboard of the levers. When you pull the lever, the plunger pushes out with a spring which activates the switch that cancels the cruise. I think the brake switch is also in that switch unit. The switches themselves are kinda cylindrical, with 4 wires (I think) coming out. Does your brake light work with the hand brake? Maybe the plunger is sticking in. Maybe the wires are broken. Maybe there's spooge on the switch contacts. I did remove mine, disassemble and clean them, although it wasn't that easy. Jeremy
  10. Gearhead
    I vote for the on and off ramp theory (right turns). Jeremy
  11. Gearhead
    I've thought the same thing but arrived at the same conclusion as Kober. Some contact cleaner or even WD40 would free up that switch. Jeremy
  12. Gearhead
    I was actually thinking of dust in the crankcase. Jeremy
  13. Gearhead
    On the way home with the headset connected, I did some more CB testing. It was the same as described above, stuck in RX mode, but I verified that the volume knob is also not working. The on-off click on the knob does in fact turn the unit on and off, but the volume was one level regardless of where the knob was set. I listened in on some dudes' conversation for awhile to determine this. All buttons function normally, as do the remote controls on the left hand grip, but both knob pots are not working. This can't be coincidence. Weird. Maybe it's the twilight zone. Jeremy
  14. Gearhead
    "So far I am averaging about 28-30 kms after putting on about 800kms. I am thinking the biggest reason for my poor mileage is the weather Ive been riding in is usually 2 celisius to 8 celsius so ive needed some choke on quite a lot of the time. Today I was out and about for about 150 kms with the temp about 16 celsius and i was able to back the choke way off for the first time since owning the bike." I ride thru the Tucson winter, where it is not unusual for me to start out in near-freezing temps in the morning. Choke is only on for maybe two minutes. Start with choke, back out, drive part way down dirt road, turn choke off. "Almost forgot....I did reroute the crankcase vent hose..Instead of it going into the airbox I rerouted it to the outside where the battery hose vents....I never liked the idea of a vent hose venting into the carbs.." Did you put any kind of filter in line in that hose? I would. Jeremy
  15. Gearhead
    Yeah, what they said. There can also be drag in the throttle housing, where the twist grip turns. It could drag on the bar, but where I've had problems is where the part that the cable connects to turns in it's groove. Grease helps. Congrats on getting her running! Jeremy
  16. Gearhead
    Thanks all for your input. I may have keyed the mic, BRIEFLY, with no antenna connected. Hmm... I looked up the CB specs on p. 8-20 of the manual for 86+ bikes. It's p. 449 on the PDF manual available here. Under the Transmitter section, there is a line that says: Output Protection.................5 minutes for all VSWR's Does that mean it will tolerate 5 minutes with the mic keyed, even with no antenna? The thing is, it's not Transmit that's giving me a problem that I know of, it's Receive. Marshall, I apologize if I misled you but I have not yet checked SWR with any of my antenna or duplexer setups. You asked about volume control; it may not be working either. I didn't put on my helmet / headset, just listened thru the speakers. The signals I was receiving were quiet in the speakers (I was probably a good distance from them), and the volume knob did not change them. Keep 'em coming! Thanks, Jeremy
  17. Gearhead
    I suspect that when the starter lug was grounded to the body something got too hot and melted, and that's causing your low starter power. You'll know soon. Jeremy
  18. Gearhead
    Jerry, I agree the duplexer is not the problem, perhaps a secondary issue. Actually, keying the mic put the unit in transmit mode like normal. The RX indicator goes off and the TX indicator goes on, and yes, the unit goes quiet. I had no other CB present to see if I was actually transmitting. Jeremy
  19. Gearhead
    Well, GW, we all know there are lemons out there, your theory could be correct. Kinda sucks if you're one of those with low mileage. At idle rpms the engine doesn't pull too much vacuum at each carb. The key is you put vac on the line, then let it out, and see if the rpm responds accordingly. I'm not sure that the coasting enrichers can hurt the mileage. I think bad diaphragms there would just cause a very small vacuum leak. What they do it this: on the overrrun (letting off the throttle to utilize engine braking), engines tend to go lean and thus misfire. This is not really a problem, just causes popping in the pipes, but it increases emissions. The coasting enricher counteracts this by enriching the mixture a little under hi-vacuum conditions. Here's how. The pilot (idle) circuit meters a mixture of fuel and air thru a pilot fuel jet and two pilot air jets. Under hi-vacuum, the coasting enricher pulls against a spring and closes off one of the pilot air jets, reducing the air supply and thus enriching the mixture. Jeremy
  20. Gearhead
    Ditto what Todd said. Placement is critical. Sound levels decrease with the square of distance. Therefore, if you double the distance, even if it's from 1/8" to 1/4", the sound level gets cut to 1/4 the level. This applies for both speakers and mics. With all the road and wind noise in a helmet at speed, distance from mic to lips and speaker to ear is critical! Quiet helmets help alot too. I have the low-end J&M headsets in new Scorpion helmets. The visors don't seal great so there is more wind noise than I'd like with the helmet, but the sound is not bad, even on the freeway. Jeremy
  21. Gearhead
    Pics probably not necessary at this point. You will soon have another armature to compare against. I think you can check continuity in the armature by checking from certain commutator pads to certain others. I'm not sure which ones, check your manual to see if it has a procedure. Factory service manual is available for download here. Jeremy
  22. Gearhead
    Thanks Jerry. I'm not an electronics guy. I've seen these things referred to as a duplexer and as a matching box. To me, it "splits" the signal to the CB and radio. It's a Firestik box designed for that purpose, about the same size as the factory stock "splitter". Is overloading the front end permanent, and how does it happen? Remember, now it is stuck in RX mode even with no antenna (or box) connected. I know it's bad to transmit with no antenna connected, but turning it on shouldn't be a problem, should it? Jeremy
  23. Gearhead
    If you have access to a mighty-vac hand pump, you can check that it holds vacuum, although your tests sound pretty much OK. You can easily see if it is working its magic like this. Get the bike running again. (Although while the carbs are off you might want to pull the bowls, slides and coasting enrichment diaphragms and check things out.) Disconnect the vac hose to the advance unit and plug the intake stub nipple. Adjust the idle up to about 2000 rpm, because the vac advance does not funtion below that. Now suck on the end of the hose, and the engine rpm should increase. Release the vacuum and it should come back down. It will never have pressure on it, always vacuum. Jeremy
  24. Gearhead
    Hmmm, PTT works, but will recheck all connectors. Thanks. My thought is that perhaps a Squelch pot solder joint has cracked - maybe? Jeremy
  25. Gearhead
    Hey, that makes sense, and it's not good! Are you sure the cable was making contact with the body? If so, that's a direct short! This explains the hot solenoid, but I'm surprised the thing turned over at all. Did you fix it so none of the lug or stud is contacting? Jeremy
×
×
  • Create New...