The nice thing about working on motorcycles is that all the parts are relatively light and managable without heavy equipment. The engine came out rather easily after draining the fluids and unfastening the motor mounts.
Note to self... the rear axle is left-handed.\; as is the gearchange pedal pinchbolt.
Also note... the top snubber assembly goes on this way
I actually think this engine and gearbox is lighter than my Yamaha XS650 engine. It doesn't look like it is.
My first order of parts came in from Stewarts yesterday. I have almost all the shaft seals I need, and I also got the front engine snubbers and the flex joint for the exhaust. (Won't be needing that for a while).
The first thing to do is get the gearbox off the engine, so its easier to work on, and check the condition of the seals. There seems to be a lot of grease and oil coming from the clutch area, so I'm guessing they're shot. I guess the second thing to do is pull the bottom, muck out the oil sump (hopefully not much muck in there). Then check the bearing clearances. If I'm clever enough, maybe I can figure out a way to clean out the bypass valve on the oil pump to make sure there's no debris in there.
The seat cover was way beyond repair as you could see from previous pictures. The vinyl was worn clear through and it was threadbare on the edges. The rivets were all rusted and most of the clips were rusted away as well. I COULD have sent away to Stewarts to get a reproduction, but what's the fun in that?
Hancock Fabrics had a nice selection of vinyl scraps for really cheap. I got way more than I'd ever use (just in case I screwed up). The original made a good pattern, and the original horsehair jute was still serviceable. I started with the main seat section cutting out a large piece with plenty of overlap. It went nicely on the jute and I stuck it in place with a little contact adhesive left over from when I redid the carpet in the red Imp. My old hand-me-down Sears sewing machine was NOT up to the task of punching through two layers of vinyl and the jute, so I had to break out the old sewing awl and do all the stitching by hand. The two little triangles at the front of the seat were the only parts the machine could handle.
The bottom and back of the seat was a little more difficult. It had to be made in two sections and then fastened together. The bit in the back that hangs down was easy, the rest which holds three riveted clips was a little less straightforward. It went together rather well, I'd say for never having done something so intricate. Most of the stitches are straight and relatively uniform. Truthfully my hand stitching was more uniform that the old sewing machine could manage. It went together and slid over the whole frame. I crimped the jean rivets into some stainless clips I fashioned out of old shimpack material. It clipped in nicely and seems to have a nice even taut pull to it. No bumps or lumps.
Whew something accomplished anyway. Back to wrenching.
The battery box was so corroded, I couldn't see putting it all back together in that condition. So, I cleaned it out and shot it with some paint. I also took all the little rubber bumpers in the battery holder bracket, and cleaned them up. A little silicone grease should also help preserve them and keep them from getting hard.
I'll wax the crap out of the electrical boxes before assembly to protect the rusted areas and maintain that patina of a well used antique motorcycle. The trick will be to get a good frame ground when I re-assemble. I'm thinking of running a dedicated lead to the engine block. That only leaves the tail light with dependency on the frame for ground, which is easy enough to correct. The odometer sheath apparently provides the ground to the headlamp bucket. It may not be a bad idea to run a ground lead along side the odometer cable and ground the headlamp bucket properly.
The spiral wrap loom for the wiring harness worked out rather well. The bracket that held the harness to the frame spine tube was pretty rotted, and without the rubber grommet that had petrified it was rather useless. I found a hydrasorb clamp rubber that was just the right diameter to match the spine tube. It will be used to hold the harness and odometer cable in place.
I also just won a set of box spanners on eBay. That will allow me to pull the oil pan off and see what's going on in there. It will also be a good opportunity to stop the oil leaks. With questionable oil pressure, I may be pulling the mains to check the wear at the same time.
Well the exhaust headers are shot. They were rusted through in several locations, and had already been patched once. The spare headers I got were worse than what was on it.
I dusted off the old mig welder and started patching. The filth on the pipes must have been from the engine breather, which probably spews hot mist all over the engine. I can see why Stewarts came up with the replacement plate for the front of the engine with the tube down below the frame. Even the muffler is coated with a layer of crud. I'll probably have to soak that in some diesel fuel to get that to come off without scraping and grinding at it. The inside of the muffler is deteriorated, but the outside isn't too bad (aside from the big scar down the side where someone laid the bike over).
I had some nice stainless material handy that I used as a patch. The original pipe had to be very clean for it to stick, but it turned out just fine. I painted it black with high temperature paint to protect the welds. I may end up putting exhaust wrap on the header to hide my poor welding skills.
I suppose I'll have to pull the engine next. The gearbox leaks like a sieve, and I can't easily get to the crud on the centerstand with the engine still in the frame.
I wonder if the lean-running engine has anything to do with the baffles being rusted out of the muffler? I'm not sure if its that sensitive, but I'm running out of explanations of why it ran so lean.
The batterybox is rusted in the inside a little. I've had to continually restrain myself from the urge to repaint everything. The inside of the battery box is too corroded to ignore. If I leave it go, it will rust through. I think I'll clean it up and just spray the inside.
There was a curious 20k inline resistor between the spark coil and the distributor. I'm not sure if its supposed to be there or not? The wire was petrified, so that will be replaced. The rest of the harness coming out of the electrical box and under the frame rail isn't too bad. Its scuffed in a few areas, but probably worth preserving. I'd like to get something similar to the "chinese fingertrap" material to protect the wiring harness. However it seems the spiral loom material is readily available at RadioShack.
The seat frame was really ugly. It was just all rust and no paint left, so I figured since I'm recovering the seat, then the frame needs to be restored as well. It looks rather like a medievil torture device all bead blasted.
Tiger Tom was kind enough to allow me to use the bead blaster and paint booth, since its too cold to paint outside.
It looks much better now and will be protected for years to come. You don't really see it, so I used a semi-gloss enamel finish. I should have tried an epoxy finish, but this enamel should do.
I picked up some vinyl material and some rivets to use for the cover. The rivets are chrome, so I'll most likely electroplate those brass so they don't stick out too much and make it blend into the rest of the bike.
The next task is to decide what I want to do with the exhaust header. I COULD order a new one, since this one has been patched twice, the bike was laid down on it, and its all rusted. Its a simple part to replace at a later time, if I so desire. So, I think I'll fill in the holes with the mig welder and some sheetmetal I have laying around. Then cover the nasty parts with refractory cement, and finally wrap the whole thing with fiberglass heat tape. I did this on my Yamaha XS650 and it turned out nicely. Its strictly aesthetics. No one wants to see a bunch of weld patches.
I managed to get some nice Whitworth combination spanners for a reasonable price. That made further disassembly of the bike possible.
I didn't take any pictures, but I did manage to flash the field coil of the generator, and get it to charge. Not sure if it was a good solid charge, but the red indicator light went out. That's enough for now, at least I know it may mean only an adjustment to the regulator, and that the dynamo itself is good.
Here's the bad part. I tested the oil pressure switch AGAIN, this time with a gauge T-ed into the line to measure what was going on. Its pretty conclusive that the switch is fully functional at the 8 to 10 psi range. It turns on and off fairly consistently. This is bad because on the bike, the light never goes out.
The switch is stamped 10psi.
So then I wanted to see how much actual oil pressure the bike developed running with the choke on (since that's the only way it runs right now, carb problem not fixed). I jammed a hose into the oil pressure switch port in the side of the engine. I didn't want to push oil into my gauge, so I fitted my vacuum test jar in line with the gauge, hooking the short tube to the gauge. Well, it developed a nice 8psi or so until I shut it down. I didn't think that the air space inside the jar would fill up with oil. I pumped a cup or so of oil out of the engine. WOW its green... must be that Indian oil the guy I bought it from put in it. Probably good Caster Oil based stuff.
I grabbed the camera just in time to see the oil pressure bleed back under 8psi. But it did reach 8... but I shut it down when I realized the jar was filling up... would it have made it to 10? What's an acceptable oil pressure for this engine? Should I be concerned? Is the pump bypass valve leaking, or is it worn out? Grrrr. Both mean it should be stripped down if 10psi is too low.
My new spanners got a workout while I pondered the oil pressure situation. I went straight for the tank and seat to get them out of the way. The tank is missing one mounting stud in the front left. The seat gave me some fits while I tried to dismantle it. I should have taken the front bolt out first, and left the springloaded part where it was. The seat is all nasty and rusty. Its going to be re-covered, since the original seat is basically shredded. I took the mounting bolts out of the electrical boxes too, since the lid on the one hits the frame when it closes. I think there should be a washer or something underneath to keep it from hitting when I re-assemble.
Everything is covered in 50 years of filth. It makes me want to strip it down blast it clean, and paint it. I have such an urge to polish it and paint it, even though I know I shouldn't. One thing is for certain. Someone welded ears on the front of the seat to make it higher. I'm going to take those off so the seat can sit down in the notch in the gas tank where its supposed to.
I decided to only replace the wires that needed replacing at the moment to keep it as original as possible. Some wires had already been spliced, so those may need attention depending on the security of the splice. So far what I've seen they are just wrapped together and taped up. I prefer solder and shrink tube if I have to splice.
I took off the rear fender for the first time last night. There was 50 years worth of dirt and grease under there that had to be mucked out. It was much easier to run the wiring with the fender off. Anticipating the need to remove the fender to change the rear tire, I used two barrel connectors to attach the stop and tail light wires; naturally installed in opposite directions so I don't mix up the wires.
The horn and brake light switch got hooked up too. I modified the wiring slightly from stock and ran the stop light wire down between the electrical boxes to the switch rather than in the right one and back out again. Because of the heavy insulation 105'C MTW wire I'm using it just made more sense. BEEP BEEP! That works.
The adventure came when trying to get the oil and charge indicators to work. The charge indicator had a spring left in there by someone who thought they were going to fix it. It ended up shorting out the connection inside the bulb holder and kept the light from coming on. With that removed and cleaned out with a little bare hookup wire wrapped around the bulb for extra contact along the sides the red charge indicator worked fine. (Is it supposed to be the red one?)
The oil indicator threw me for a little while before I realized that the bulbs are only 2.5v and there is an integral dropping resistor wrapped around the bulb holder fixture.... and that some genius while trying to test the bulb (me) had vaporized the end of the resistor wire. They say its the same bulb holder used on a Rover P4 (Like I'll ever find one of those in the states). A dab of solder fixed that up and I have an operational oil pressure switch light. It felt re-assuring to turn on the new key, and see indicators lamps smiling at me.
The next step is the scary part. When I fire it up, will the indicators go out? Will it charge the battery and is there enough oil pressure. I'll try that this weekend.
The S7 Deluxe does run as received. Not well, and not with much oil pressure, but it does run.
I have no KEY!!! There was a temporary toggle installed by the previous owner, so that had to go. I want a key and I want it to work. So, I took the keyswitch apart. All you do is unsolder the nut on the center of the switch assembly, then unscrew it. Then poke each of the tumblers from front to back and it pops out. I found a key that fit and then ground down the spots that didn't quite make the tumblers line up. (It happened to be a key to the back door of my grandmothers house which we changed over 30 years ago, and I was given the key to play with.) I still had it tucked away in a box... never throw anything away! Only one spot on the key had to be built up. I've got a key that works ... Fantastic!
I've finally had a few evenings to devote to the S7. There are so many things to do its hard to know where to start. The carb has been exhibiting lean tendancies with the needle in the full rich position, so I tore that apart first. The bottom of the carb was improperly assembled with the gasket material bunched up and not allowing the piece to fully seat. This caused an air gap along the inner assembly of the carb. Ah Ha... one problem solved! It was a chore to take apart. I had to mount the carb in the BIG bench vise, heat the bottom with a torch and gently apply pressure to unscrew it. The bowl needed cleaned too, it was full of junk. The main jet was clean, and the mixture screw and jet got blown out as well.
I then started wiring the back of the bike. The original wires were shot. I got the taillight re-soldered, but had to stop since I didn't have a replacement grommet for the fender. I will probably remove the fender to change the tire anyway... and to clean up 50 years of dirt from the fender. A set of barrel connectors between the fender and right-side electrical box are probably a good idea to allow easy removal of the fender without disconnecting all the wires at the terminals. One frapping screw on the brake switch is stuck. I don't want to force it and am reluctant to use the scrap of wire that's attached to it. It may have to stay since it only needs to reach the horn.
Ahhh the horn. I didn't want to pay for an original, so a VW horn is being used. It looks silly because its all bright shiny and new. Oh well.
I used an ez-out to removed a sheared screw from the dipper switch. The insulation of the wires was bad, but not completely gone, so some liquid electrical tape did the job temporarily reassembling the whole thing. The horn button was re-attached as well. Not sure its getting a good earth, so that may have to be re-visited.
