Flyinfool

My 2¢ on TCI location...... I removed both tabs on my TCI and relocated it into the left fairing with the radio. The stock TCI wires reached with no problem. I do not know if there is room in there with the stock radio that is on a Venture Royal. Mine is an '88 Venture Standard with an automotive radio (much smaller than stock) installed an the left side. The TCI does not need any "regular" maintenance. In the faring it is out of sight and out of the way. On top of the air cleaner it is in the way for normal maintenance like checking/replacing the air cleaner.

What are you doing with the broken parts? I read an article once on how to repair that broken part to make it better than new. I would be curious to try it out to see if it works. Here is the article http://www.allvmax.com/technique/moteur-boite-pont/reparation-du-pignon-dattaque-du-couple-conique

Now that just sounds dangerous........

Oopie. I must have got my time machine and my weather machine to close to each other.

Hmmmmm...... I'm not sure yet but was just looking and noticed that R&P Carriages is just 30 miles east from the root beer stand right on HY 6. Maybe I can get a root beer float and a new set of trailer brakes all in one trip......

Cool. Glad you are back on the right road. Glad we could all help out.

I have been kicking around the bushing idea. A bushing could be smaller and a lot lighter but might end up needing a pair of actual thrust bearings. One for pulling and one for braking. I am still thinking on this one. IF I make something it will be a winter project. I have to many other things going on right now. But this is also a fun design exercise. Keep the ideas coming. At the moment I do not have a need for myself since my trailer already has a swivel on it. If I do build one it will be tested by putting it in my truck and chaining it to a big tree with a peak reading scale.......

Some one mention SNOW?????

Its been a while since we have had a nekid chat. And Yesterday (July 14) was National Nude Day.

Just a notice to anyone that may be traveling on I94 through Milwaukee this weekend. I94 will close on Friday evening 7-18 and not reopen till Monday morning 7-21. Both east and west will be closed from HY100 to the interchange of I94, I894, HY 45 Known locally as the Zoo interchange. They will be lifting a train bridge into place over the freeway. Of course this is weather dependent, If the weather is not conducive to the work that needs to be done, the closure will be moved to the following weekend. More info here.

I thought about using 1" taper bearing from a trailer mounted into my own housings. The spindle and hub would work but be very heavy.

I will grant you that if you use the brakes more and engine braking less that mathematically there will be less wear on the engine. But the engine wear that you will have saved is WAY less than the wear you just put on your brakes. Yes there is also the dummies that will go over red line on the engine while down shifting and blow up the engine. We or at least I am comparing service brakes used properly, to engine braking used properly. Unless you are shutting the engine off and shifting to neutral the engine is still running at speed and still creating wear. The brake inspector is there for those that do not know how to down shift, and for those that have a heavy enough load that there is not enough engine braking potential to maintain their speed. That only happens in very heavy vehicles like big trucks, buses and heavy RVs. By the time you would wear an engine to need a rebuild due to the engine braking you could have bought several engine rebuilds with the money you would have spent on brakes. Yes you can stop every few miles to let your brakes cool, but you are still grinding up the rotors and pads. Engine braking puts very little strain on the engine. It is just spinning with very little load on anything. But that spinning still is circulating the oil and coolant at the same rate as if you were powering up the hill. There is a lot less engine stress during engine braking than the stress that is there from normal cruising on level ground. How is that wearing out the engine? Most or at least some, newer vehicles now will automatically use engine braking on downhills for you. I know my truck will. Any time it senses that the speed is rising and my foot is off the gas it will down shift automatically to try to maintain speed. On our bikes an engine rebuild kit is not much more money for the parts compared to the parts cost for a complete brake job. Rotors cost way more than engine parts. I'll bet that almost everyone here goes through a lot more dollars in brake parts than what they do spend on engine rebuilds. I use a LOT of engine braking. My commute to work is 25 miles each way all city stop and go traffic. So I have to brake to a stop very often. At the end of the commute my rotors are only about 15°F above ambient temperature. I have checked it. That is how little I use the service brakes vs engine braking. There are no issues with my engine at 60K miles, still has original clutch, Brakes are on the third set that I know of, and the next change will need new rotors too. Rotors are $250-$300 each times 3 pads are around $30 times 3. That is $840 to $990. But I bet you can not wear out an engine coming down that mountain, even in 100 trips. You will have a lot more wear getting up the mountain than you will coming back down with heavy engine braking. Experience, and the rest of the world tells me that it is far less expensive to use engine braking than using the actual brakes. As you said "It's your machine, but don't ask to use mine on that mountain." I have explained the science as I see it. Can you explain your version of the science as you see it. I can be convinced that I am all wrong by presenting facts that are more plausible that the fact set that I am currently using. I try to learn something new every day. I will only admit to knowing something about everything and every thing about nothing. The more I learn the more I realize I don't know.

I have twice in the last 3 years towed someone else's trailer for them. If they had a non standard configuration it would not have happened easily. That is why I have mentioned it. You may well go 50 years, I seem to have it come up once every other year. Actually since the ball is aligned with the receiver there will be even less side force than in a "normal" configuration and the bearings are so over rated that even if there was side force is would be completely a non issue. The bearings are rated for 2100 lbs of working load EACH. That would be a lot of side force.

I have never heard that theory and have always been taught to down shift to maintain speed. What is being worn out or damaged by using engine compression that is more expensive than $700 - $800 worth of brakes? Pads and heat warped rotors.

Pack a bunch of lunches.

I have already loaned my spare tire to someone and it worked well enough to get them out of the woods and back to a town. :rasberry: If everything were standard then there would only be one model of everything to choose from. Some things function best if they are non standard, like a key........ :moon: :moon: :moon: :rasberry: :rasberry: :bang head:

As was mentioned above. New diaphragms do not have any holes. Once the pinholes start, it is the pinholes that a tear will grow from. Why would anyone go through the effort to tear something apart, and then not repair a found problem, and then go through the effort to reassemble with parts that they know have started to fail and they will have to do it all over again when they finish failing? And yes a few pin holes do make a difference in drive-ability. When I replaced my diaphragms there were just a few pin holes in them. I noticed an immediate improvement in how the bike ran with the new diaphragms. There was another member present that had running issues. His diaphragms each had 4 to 5, 1/4 inch tears in them. his bike ran really bad. We put my old diaphragms in his bike and he never knew the bike could run so good. As soon as he got home he ordered new diaphragms and was again amazed at how much better still it ran. As to all of the science as to why it works the way it does, I am not 100% sure of. All I know is that if you have a leak, you will not have the correct amount of vacuum that the system was designed to work with. That can never be good. And has been proven by testing to not be a good thing. I can understand you want to know the science involved, But because you do not understand the science involved does not mean that it is not there. I do not understand the science of how blood gets oxygen out of the air and into the blood and then again releases the oxygen into the target tissue. But I do know that I will not work well if it does not happen, and while small leaks in my systems will not stop me from functioning, my whole body does work much better when it is totally leak free.

All of that, the hole on the slide is a calibrated leak. any holes in the diaphragm are letting in more outside air than the system was designed for. AND, the pinholes are probably the beginning of a tear. If you have pinholes, the diaphragm is going to be junk soon anyhow. While you have it apart anyhow is always a good time to fix it right.

You know that ole Puck don't like to read, he just likes to turn his little fingers loose on the keyboard while he sleeps........

:sign yeah that::sign yeah that: Very important difference.

It may be neat, but when you go non standard it drastically limits your options in an emergency. Only another Bushtec owner can pull your trailer for you, and you can only ever help out another Bushtec owner by pulling his trailer for him. The same is also partly true for weird trailer electrical connectors.

If the plugs are wet with gas then everything is wet with gas which can wash down the cylinder walls. Check your oil for gas contamination.

Good thing I have a 1st gen, the critters can't seem to catch it..... As mentioned, I have seen many issues with mice. But then we do not have rats around here in this part of the city, that I am aware of. The shop that I take my car to had to replace a complete wire harness under the hood of a car because the mice ate all of the insulation off the wires. 6 Months later the same car was back for another under hood wire harness and expecting it to be warrantied?

The total length of the Swivel Ball Mount would be just 4.3 inches longer than the current home made stinger that I have, and this Swivel Ball Mount is actually .25 inches shorter than the commercial one sitting on the shelf at Auto Zone. I have changed the design to always have the center of the ball on the same centerline as the bike, regardless of how the ball mount is rotated. This will mean that the center of the ball will never be different from the center of the bike. This will prevent the feeling that you get from the type shown above that lets the ball tilt back and forth allowing the pull to be off center, or allowing the coupler to move back and forth possibly upsetting the bike. This will also lower the center of the ball about 1.7 inches from what I have now. I do not think it will be an issue with my trailer. Other trailers the ball height is more critical. It would not be difficult to raise this up to keep the ball height but still have it rotate on center. I just have to add the step up or down before the swivel part. But adding a step to change height will also add about 2 inches to the length. I still do not think that the extra 2 inches of length will be an issue. I am wide open for questions comments and snide remarks, even constructive or destructive criticism will be accepted. I am not designing this to full Class I standards. No one will ever be pulling a 2,000 lb trailer with their bike and this Swivel Ball Mount. I hope. I would not hesitate to plug this into a cars receiver and pull a 1,000 lb trailer. Still a lot more than any bike should ever be pulling. it is not just the trailer weight that must be considered in a design like this, there is also the dynamic loading. How many Gs of braking or acceleration or turning can the tow vehicle generate. Also there are the impact forces of the trailer and/or bike hitting a bump or pot hole to consider.

The only other option that I can think of is that you ran the tool into the aluminum head real hard. It is theoretically possible that with all of the leverage that you have by turning the crank, that you put a dent in the aluminum of the head and squeezed the bucket bore. Look at the area in between the two buckets to see if there are any marks on the aluminum?