Jump to content

twigg

Expired Membership
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,423

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by twigg

  1. twigg
    A dirty fuel filter would do this. Heh ... well it did on my Ford Windstar!
  2. twigg
    Most cooling systems are "self-priming". Any remaining air in the system is pumped to the highest point and vents into the coolant reservoir. Fill it, run it until hot and when it cools you can adjust the level in the tank. It will be lower than when you started if there was air trapped.
  3. twigg
    That sounds like an excellent compromise. I might look at that idea myself I looked. Not a bad spot. I want mine higher if possible, but it's a decent location. If you have the factory horns you could also probably rotate them through 90 degrees and mount the lights there with them. My fairing is off so I don't know if there would be clearance.
  4. twigg
    It's a BMW. Unless you are unlucky, or there is some unexpected design flaw, you won't need the Dealer other than for routine servicing
  5. twigg
    This ^ Usually its easy enough to move the pistons enough without opening the bleed nipple. Just twist the caliper back and forth until a gap opens. This will be hard if the pistons are very dirty and sticking, otherwise it just takes a moment. The excess fluid, which is a tiny amount, simply backs up into the master cylinder.
  6. twigg
    I think this is a timing issue. Although the engine appears to be running well, the boost sensor isn't working. This would mean that the ignition timing isn't advancing correctly. When that happens, the fuel is still burning when the exhaust valves open, carrying burning fuel out into the headers. Do it too long and exhaust valves will burn. Plus .. power is being lost as the fuel is beginning to burn too late in the cycle. In a rich condition, some of the fuel remains unburned and is deposited as soot. The burn is cooler and that can be seen on the plug ground electrode. In a lean condition the fuel/air mix is starved, and there is relatively more oxygen available. It burns fast and hot, which can also be seen on the ground electrode of the plug. A cooler plug can carry some of that away, but in the end it will burn valves and pistons. The ideal burn temperature, by the way, is between 850 and 1150 Fahrenheit. The plug heat ranges are designed to keep it in that range. But they cannot compensate for poor timing or a mixture that is too out of whack.
  7. twigg
    There are a number of reasons why the manufacturer can safely be ignored. First, they are probably concerned about "back scatter", which in a decent light shouldn't happen .... and won't happen if they are concealed by the mirrors. Pretty much every piece of advice about aux. lighting from the LDRiders says "as high and wide as possible". The mirrors are pretty wide on the VR, and aren't really in your line of sight ... ie ... you have to deliberately look into them. Finally, that configuration gives the best "triangle" of light .... car drivers have to work quite hard to miss you. All you can do is find out what suits you best.
  8. twigg
    Behind that section of fairing is lots of steel, with mounting points for various bits. What he could do is fashion a steel bracket that bolts to the fairing mount, and terminates with a flat section directly behind the plastic. Then he could bolt straight through the plastic into the steel mounts. That would look good and be easier to do than to describe
  9. twigg
    I'll happily provide pics. It will take a short while, currently the bike is nekkid of it's fairing, carbs, airbox, coils and ignition. The exhaust headers are off, the starter is coming out. It sounds drastic but all the required bits are on their way.
  10. twigg
    I plan on making a couple of brackets and mounting mine to the mirror mounts. They will sit behind the mirrors, at the perfect height and spacing. Lowes has 2" wide aluminum strips (1/8th thick ... maybe 3/16ths) for about $10. Anyway, it should be plenty strong enough. The lights are small and weigh very little.
  11. twigg
    Wasn't it possible to change the bolts for cap-head bolts?
  12. twigg
    Get it good and hot, with fresh gas ... White smoke is usually water vapor but can be water and antifreeze mix. Whitish blue smoke is oil burning, and you can smell it ... Water/Antifreeze has a sweetish smell, quite different. It may clear up completely when you have run it nice and hot ... If it doesn't then a compression and/or leakdown test will pinpoint the problem. Leakdown is better, and do it at TDC, BDC and halfway to check bore wear. If it's antifreeze then you are getting coolant in the cylinder, that would normally mean headgasket. If it's oil then it's valves, valve guides or piston rings, and the leakdown will identify which. A small amount of oil burning is not a cause for immediate alarm, but burning anti-freeze is, and would need fixing pretty quickly. Leakdown, if you have never done one, is brilliant. You basically set each cylinder in turn at TDC, compression, and pressurise it to about 100psi. The differential on the gauges should be less than 10%, often much less. If air gets by the rings you can hear it through the oil filler. If it gets by the valves you can hear it in the exhaust. If it's valve guides you can hear it under the cam covers and if it's headgasket there will be bubbles in the coolant. The reason for testing at three positions is that bore wear could be minimised at TDC and BDC, but apparent mid-cylinder. At mid cylinder use much lower pressure or you will spin the engine and that wrench you have on the crank nut will smack you somewhere painful. Remove it. A leakdown tester can be made for about $30, you need a compressor. Hope this helps.
  13. twigg
    In the middle of doing that now. Exhaust headers are off and the radiator needs loosening to get them out. Looks like the thermostat housing needs to come off to access the top rear bolt and provide room to pull the starter back.
  14. twigg
    That, of course is true too
  15. twigg
    The ones I have in my Triple are just fine, but they came from superbrightleds.com I have no experience of the eBay ones, but what do you have to lose?
  16. twigg
    Holes in the collector will lead to a reduction in back-pressure from the exhaust. That will cause the engine to run lean, and much hotter than it should. You may get spitting back through the carbs and/or backfiring in the exhaust. Either way, it needs to be fixed
  17. twigg
    Is that related to the oil dispenser fitted to Harleys? Seriously .... Yeah, something not shielded or grounded correctly would be the usual culprit.
  18. twigg
    You can buy Lifetime Updates" from that link I posted. Price isn't bad.
  19. twigg
    Unless you are riding in your garage you shouldn't worry too much about the carbon monoxide. You are smelling hydro-carbon residue and that tiny bit won't hurt for the short time you get it. The turn down caps would probably help. What will also help is wearing earplugs inside your helmet. The exhaust is mostly low frequency noise, and the earplugs will deal with it nicely while not interfering too much with intercoms, etc.
  20. twigg
    Nice looking sig. map you have there. You could meet up with him on your way to "do" Alaska
  21. twigg
    You sure you are looking at the correct part? Those plugs (which I believe are for frost protection) are about $5 each for the 1st Gen. The screw thread is to assist removal, it's spark plug sized.
  22. twigg
    Any MultiMeter that will display RPM will work. The connector from the coils is right there under the left hand side panel. You can back probe any coil and connect the other lead to a good ground. I think the coils fire twice per revolution, so you would need to use the setting for 8 Cylinder engines.
  23. twigg
    I got my 1490T Refurbished for US$132 from Amazon.
  24. twigg
    Start here: http://www.garmin.com/us/maps/numaps_lifetime
  25. twigg
    All spot on! The 1156/1157 LEDs are just fine in my Triple. As for the flasher. This is only an issue with the older thermal flashers. It is not a problem for electronic flasher so don't buy load resistors, spend $10 on a flasher unit at your Autoparts store. Not sure if that affects the self-canceling ... If it does, then a compatible flasher will have to be sourced.
×
×
  • Create New...