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MiCarl

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Everything posted by MiCarl

  1. MiCarl
    I like this design. I don't see how adding bottles does anything more than make extra work and places for it to leak. Placing a couple "T"s in the bottom of the loop will let you have 4 tubes so you can sync the whole thing at one shot. Probably add $2 to the price tho..... BTW that set up is not accurate, it is however sensitive (more sensitive than mercury sticks which are accurate). What I mean by that is it in no way will tell you the pressure in the intakes, just the relationship. The MotionPro SynchPro is similar. That is perfectly fine for synchronizing and I love my SynchPro. If you have even one cylinder that is not firing the vacuum on a synchronized motorcycle will drop very low. There is no way to see this situation on an open manometer (above) or the SynchPro. With mercury sticks or gauges you can see that situation at a glance. I still slap the vacuum gauge set on if I have any suspicions about how well the engine is running.
  2. MiCarl
    The signals cancel after a certain amount of time AND you travel a certain distance. Stopped they'll flash indefinitely because you never meet the distance requirement. On the freeway the distance gets eaten up quickly and they cancel when the clock runs out. I do not know what the time and distance are though.
  3. MiCarl

    Cold

    MiCarl replied to MidlifeVenture's topic in Watering Hole

    I'm just glad I made it through August without turning the furnace on............
  4. MiCarl
    I haven't measured it but I'd guess the one on my 89 is closer to 5" than 3. I have an 86 Royale in the shop. Looking through the coolant door it seems to be just as deep as the one on my 89.
  5. MiCarl
    The filler neck has a sleeve that protrudes down into the tank an inch or two. I believe this is to force an air pocket for expansion if you over fill. That sleeve will make it tough to dump BBs, bolts etc out.
  6. MiCarl
    My 89 came with a Chatterbox headset. It was for an open helmet and I ride full face so I had to wrap the mic boom under the chin bar. I eventually replaced it with the cheapest J&M. The cheap J&M speakers sound 10X better.
  7. MiCarl
    The swingarm on my 89 also has that angle to it. I wonder if they did that to the MKIIs to facilitate getting that washer in. The rear caliper on my 89 does not float, it's bolted rigidly to the bracket. You can see in jonsmyth's first pic that the caliper does not float. The brake caliper bracket is positioned relative to the wheel by the collar between the bracket and the rear wheel bearing. Either the bracket is bent (seems unlikely) or there is something wrong with the assembly. If it were me I'd be pulling that rear wheel and comparing carefully to the parts fiche. In particular I'd be making sure that the bearing is fully seated and it's circlip in place. The narrow end of the collar points toward the wheel - if it's backwards it won't go in as far as it should (and the oil seal will be ruined). You don't have the axle in on your pic at the end of the swing arm so that may have stuff hanging funny but it sure looks too tight. If you look at the other pics of 1st gens you'll see a small gap between the swing arm and that washer. On the 2nd gen it's a much larger gap.
  8. MiCarl
    The Avon rep here also claims that the tires have no mark to encourage proper balancing. He further stated that Avon recommends that the tire be dismounted and rotated if it requires more than 2 oz of weight. I check balance on alloy rims before mounting the tire. I find that about 50% of the time the heavy spot is not at the valve stem and mount the tire accordingly. It's not unusual for an alloy rim to be out by more than an ounce. In general my experience is that the tires are less out of balance than the rims are. I often see internet purchased tires that are over two years old. One customer got a tire that was three years old from one of the well regarded internet sellers. If the tires I get from my distributer were any fresher they'd still be warm. The run in period on new tires is to wear off the release compound from the mold and to give you a chance to become familiar with the new "edge". I mounted a new set of Venoms for a friend who had worn his old tires to a square profile riding on the freeway. He almost took out his mailbox leaving the driveway because the new tires turned the bike smartly with the input he was used to using for a gentle turn. Most manufacturers recommend 100 miles before you ride aggressively on them.
  9. MiCarl
    I'm no expert but my understanding is that this is the best case scenario on a single family dwelling. You're doing good if the rent covers your expenses and the cost of the money. Even if you're not borrowing the money for the property there is still an opportunity cost. This is the return on another investment (say a 4% CD or whatever they pay today).
  10. MiCarl
    OUCH! That's no fun. I use an 18mm spark plug socket from SEARS, a 3" extension and a universal joint. No need to yank the heat shields. You will need to remove those chrome covers behind the horns. If they get fuel fouled iridium spark plugs are junk just like the cheap ones. A $3 plug should easily last 30,000 miles. I don't see any reason to pop for the iridium.
  11. MiCarl
    This is the technique. It is critical that both legs of the centerstand touch down, if they don't it's almost impossible to lift. As you push it down rock the bike back and forth and you can feel them touch down. I like to approach it as if I am pushing the lever on the stand into the ground with my foot. Point is, your leg should be doing most of the work. With the right technique a girly girl can do it. Girly man should have no problem.
  12. MiCarl
    Hey, no problem. Thanks for asking informed, intelligent questions. Trying to explain something helps clarify my own thoughts. Now, a nice Rip Van Winkle style nap is in order........
  13. MiCarl
    Couple of flaws in your reasoning. 1- when the coil melts together resistance goes down (instead of a long wire in loops it becomes a short tube) and 2 in your solution of V=IR you assumed current is constant, why not assume voltage is constant and current goes down as resistance goes up? But in your question you have caught me on something I was afraid I'd be caught on when I oversimplified: The output of an alternator isn't really measured in volts (just like pressure doesn't give you the whole story on pumps). We talk about volts and amps when referring to electrical systems but what really matters is power. Power can't be measured directly (it's calculated from volts and amps) and because certain elements of the system are fixed we can cheat and use volts or amps for most of our diagnostics. On the plumbing example I only talked about the pressure the pump created and glossed right over volume. The true measure of the pump is actually the pressure * output volume. In an electrical system the volume is measured in amps. The true measure of the alternator is Power=Volts*Amps and the unit is watts. So, using that algebra they forced on us in the old days: P=V*I and V=I*R so P=(I*R)*I which means P=I*I*R, Power = Current squared times Resistance. Power is fixed by the engine speed. So, when resistance goes up current goes down and vice versa. Now, doing some more math (V=IR ~ I=V/R) Substituting in above P=(V/R)*(V/R)*R ~ P=V*V/R. Again power is fixed so as resistance goes up voltage also goes up. When you turn on goodies the resistance of the system goes down and the voltage drops. The regulator is like an automatic goody, if there aren't enough other goodies on to use the power output by the alternator it turns itself on to use some of the power and keep the voltage in check. So, hopefully I've proven that what is in question about the alternator is it's power output. What determines that? The power the alternator can output is determined by the strength of the magnet, the rpm of the engine and the length of wire in the coils. (I am deliberately neglecting loss due to resistance in the coils, which is minor). Increase any of the three (magnet, rpm, wire length) and the power output goes up. Decrease any of them and the power output goes down. Shorting the coil effectively makes the coil less long (shorter!) reducing the power output of the alternator. Yes, resistance in the coil goes down (that's why we use an ohm meter to see if they've shorted) but that is more than offset by the reduction of the effective length.
  14. MiCarl
    That's a lot like saying "a spark plug failed causing the engine to produce more horsepower". You can visualize electricity just like water flowing in a pipe. Your stator is the pump. The amount of voltage (pressure) it puts out is only effected by rpm (how fast you run the pump). Anything that malfunctions in the stator (pump) reduces the output. If you don't have enough load (open valves) in the piping the voltage (pressure) will get too high and things start to break. To keep the pressure from going too high there is a relief valve (voltage regulator) that bleeds off any excess so stuff doesn't go boom. That's why we don't cook regulator/rectifiers and stators by loading up with accessories. The stator always works at maximum capacity anyhow, and any electricity we use doesn't need to be bled off by the regulator/rectifier - reducing it's work load. What does happen when we put on too much accessory load there isn't enough water (electricity) left to refill the bucket (battery) and we end up sitting in the dark.
  15. MiCarl
    Voltage test at the battery shows the condition of the entire charging system. If battery voltage is good then the discrete components are good. Only if the voltage at battery is wrong do you need to check the other components. Referring to your other post: A bad stator will not damage the radio or any other components on the motorcycle. A bad regulator/rectifier letting the voltage go high can damage any number of things. Fortunately, regulator/rectifiers seem to generally fail to a low voltage condition.
  16. MiCarl
    I think a bravo drive is a single control. In any case, l whether single or dual lever, the control is designed to prevent you from shifting unless the throttle is backed off. You could certainaly defeat the mechanism, but I can't imagine why you'd want to. As a practical matter I believe the dogs are undercut (like on a motorcycle) and will resist disengaging while under power.
  17. MiCarl
    Interesting. I quit using Winchester shotshells years ago because they were packing them too tight and the shot would deform the case making it difficult or impossible to chamber them.
  18. MiCarl
    I participate in a couple other forums where topics are seldom deleted. Instead, offending posts are edited/deleted and the offender gets his knuckles rapped. In the rare instance where a thread tends to keep going off the rails it is simply locked to prohibit new posts. Would it be possible to do that here rather than junking the entire thread? Seems a shame to just pitch everything over a few mistakes/bad apples. ***EDIT*** OOPS. See you're doing that. Thanks for taking my suggestion! You guys are fast!
  19. MiCarl
    That's going to vary by helmet. On my FX-100 I was able to just tuck them behind the lining where the ears are. My new HJC IS-16 Helmet is much tighter there and that didn't work. I had to whittle the Styrofoam away to have enough room. Some helmets come with a pocket to slip the speakers into. They come with velcro on the speaker and an adhesive piece of velcro to stick into the helmet. In both of my installations the fit was snug enough I didn't bother with the velcro. I have the full face headset. Placing the mic is tricky. It's rather large and chin bars often have air chanels in them you don't want to stick the mic through. Also, on my wife's helmet I ended up a bit low in the chin bar and it gets some wind noise. Hard to reposition after making the hole. Some of the newer J&M headsets I believe have a very small boom mic that is probably the way to go, even with a full face helmet. BTW, the el-cheapo J&M I have has quite good sound quality in the ear pieces and the mic.
  20. MiCarl
    Glad you're ok. I probably would have gone back. But as others have pointed out people can be quite unreasonable at times. Bottom line is the owner is responsible, even if the chain broke, dog dug under the fence etc. I wouldn't bet on it. Their necks are pretty tough. When I was a kid we had a lab that thought he needed to chase loud cars and motorcycles. One day he went after a car that was missing the muffler. The driver slammed the brakes and the dog piled right into the bumper (this was back when bumpers were steel beams, not plastic). The dog ran off into the woods and disappeared. Two days later he came home, cured of his desire to chase cars.
  21. MiCarl
    It doesn't have to be loose to clunk. Mine has cracks where the plastic is riveted to the metal support. When I glued them up my clunk went away. It just came back yesterday and I checked - sure enough my glue let go.
  22. MiCarl
    Picture 3 looks like a standard H3 bulb. Isn't that all that gets replaced???? **EDIT** Ok read your answer wrong. Saw whole thing and panicked. You can get that bulb (with wire!) just about anywhere that sells anything automotive.
  23. MiCarl
    It's a customer bike. My 88 parts bike came with a set of 86 forks so I can sell them to him. Probably need the triple tree too. The crash actually broke one of the inner fork tubes at the tree. That would make sense since Urishi Black is the color that's not available:headache:
  24. MiCarl
    Assuming the frame on this 86 is straight it's going back on the road. It was mint before someone ran a light...... Anyone know what this color is called? It'll need a new LH fairing.
  25. MiCarl
    The guards should do a good job of protecting on a fall over. I wonder if it fell on something that got the water pipe. Something on the ground near the bike?
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