Imp Electric Fan

The shaft driven fan on the Red Imp just wasn't moving as much air as I liked.  The advantage of the electric fan is that it moves just as much air at idle as it does when you are going down the road.  So if the car overheats, you can be assured that pulling over to cool down will actually cool adequately without MORE overheating.

Here's what I did.  I removed the stock fan and shroud along with the rubber.  I got an electric fan off an old Toyota in the junkyard.  I can't remember which model or year (sorry).  It was the same diameter as the Imp fan shroud.  I just created three clips to attach the two together.  It runs off the generator output.  This way the fan only comes on once the engine starts and doesn't steal any amps away from the starter.

Its not pretty but it works.  The air flow is from the engine compartment towards the front and under the car.

Guzzi Cali gas cap

It seems I'm not the only one with sticking gas cap problems on my Moto Guzzi California.  It appears that its an inherent materials issue.

The cure appears to be here....

http://motoguzzimaintenance.wetpaint.com/page/Moto+Guzzi+California+Fuel+Cap

I'm Blind !!!

... Well, no.... but I saw spots for a while.

I bought a Luxeon III 3 watt LED module for the headlamp of the S7 as an experiment.  Its rated at 0.65 Amp at about 80 lumens.  The viewing angle is decent too, so there's plenty of dispersion.  I mounted it on an aluminum heat sink and mated it with a LM317T voltage regulator.  I had planned for a current regulator setup, but the voltage regulator was more practical making the heat sink the Vout terminal and bolting everything together.  I turned it on and got a faceful of light.  It got rather warm after a little while while I was monitoring it with an RTD strapped to the heatsink.  The rated max is a whopping 80'C... which I never reached set at half an amp draw, so I should be good.

I was rather impressed that it threw as much light as it did.  The beam is a bit concentrated, but I think it may be enough to see with.  I'll have to try it out.  I'll likely never take the bike out in the dark anyway, but its nice to have enough light to be seen in the daytime.

The load on the dynamo is now perfectly attainable at normal running revs.

Lean or Vapor Lock?

So, I braved the 3 mile journey into town to the gas station with the S7 Deluxe this morning.  It was a beautiful autumn day and I couldn't resist.  KYL95 started right up and purred along nicely down the road.  No popping, no carrying on, just reliable shaft power pushing me down the road to reach 11,900 miles.

I got a few quizzical glances while topping up.  It even started with a gentle kick for the journey home.  6 miles later I was still enjoying the wind on my face when I pulled in the driveway.

I figured I should take a quick glance around the machine and make sure no leaks or loose bolts were developing.  I let it sit for a few minutes and then figured I'd go out again!

That's when the trouble started.  She wouldn't start.  I had to put the strangler on, and then when I turned it off when the black smoke started, the engine would sputter and stall.  What's going on?  It ran fine for 6 miles and even up hill both ways!

I surmise that either the engine is simply running lean, or that the carb is vapor locking after sitting next to those hot exhaust pipes.  I coaxed it around the house and closed the garage door behind me.  Further investigation is required.  I can't believe that its running lean since when its relatively cold it runs great.  Its gotta be the heat off that exhaust header, even with the fiberglass exhaust wrap.  I wonder what I could use to insulate?  Maybe a piece of the exhaust wrap around the bowl and around the fuel line?

Imps going to Hershey

(It used to be Chocolate Town, USA but since Hershey Food Corp is now outsourcing so much that that title has been pass onto the town of Lititz... where they make Wilber Buds.  Mmmmm)

I just saw this photo and remembered going to the Hershey Vintage Hillclimb in 2008.  Too bad that this was the last Hershey Hillclimb forever.  We didn't know that at the time, so I'm glad we had such a good time helping out and being a part of history.

Decreasing Electrical Load on Dynamo

If I can't make the dynamo put out more current, maybe I can reduce the electrical load of the bike and try to make the best use of the available current that the dynamo will produce.  That means replacing some of the high load incandescent bulbs with some modern LED technology.  Of course 6 volt positive ground LED lamps are not commonplace, so I will have to create them.

Here's the general idea.  The trick will be to diffuse the light enough that it doesn't look like they are LEDs.  The other trick will be to separate the high and low intensity "filaments" on the tail / brake light so they don't feed back into the system.  That's easily done with some regular signal diodes, and two different resistors.  With both resistors running in parallel, I'll set their combined resistance at the maximum current of the LEDs.  With only one running, I'll see what percentage of max current still gives a decent output for the tail light "filament" circuit.

The running lamp bulb in the headlight should be even easier.  I can just use some white LEDs and pile them into the bayonet base of a dead lamp.  Diffusing this lamp will probably prove to be more difficult since there's nothing to hide the fabricated LED lamp assembly in the big headlamp housing.  Maybe a piece of plastic diffuser or reflector from something else will work.

I did sacrifice an ultra-bright LED that I had in my junk box from an old project to prove a concept.  Most LEDs have a rather narrow view angle.  I took the file to the lens of one of these LEDs and ground it flat.  Then I used some fine emory paper and polished it up.  I'll have to refine the technique, but essentially it works.  It diffuses the light into a wider area, rather than focusing it into a beam.  I did get a weird halo effect, but I think I just need to polish the edges a little more.

I don't plan to run the bike in the dark if at all possible, so If I can just reliably run the running lamp circuit without the main beam I should be fine.  The main headlamp is a HUGE 30w draw on the dynamo, and it just doesn't keep up.

---

The running light in the head lamp was easy.  6 Ultra-Bright White LED's soldered into a bayonet lamp base.  The rear tail light lamp was a little more challenging, per the above diagram.

Dang! that's BRIGHT!

Both these replacement bulbs LED assemblies draw less than half an amp and put out MORE light than the original incandescent bulbs.

S7 Dynamo MC450 (early rather than late MC45L)

Well, thanks to Steve Benson's pix of his dynamo, I took a closer look at mine.  It is likely a forest for the trees type of thing.  The dynamo fitted to my bike only has two brushes instead of four.  I had never seen a picture of one with the cover off.  And I apparently missed this diagram.  (thanks to Phil)

Lucas Model 450 fitted to KYL95.

Apparently there's supposed to be a later Lucas model MC45L.  It must be an improvement.

So the question is ... what to do about it?  Fashion brush holders for the bottom to increase output and balance the load on the armature, or try to get a different dynamo plate or different dynamo / alternator altogether?  Shame I just spent the cash on a solid state regulator, if I would have known that I'd have so much trouble with it, I'd have been more inclined to covert to 12 volts.

First step will be new brushes.  I'll bodge a set if I have to just to see I can get less voltage drop across the brushes and charge better.

Autocross United 2008

Val and I had our first attempt at the autocross event at United 2008 in Potomac Maryland. Val's red Imp did very well. In my opinion it bested Eduardo despite his dual SU carbs and electronic ignition, even though our best times were exactly the same, the red car was doing it with a passenger and I was solo. Val was having a ball. It doesn't look fast from the stands... but behind the wheel it feels fast.


I got some wheel lift on some of my runs and was pushing fairly hard.  My harder tires were not helping resulting in sliding around the cones, where Val's softer tires allowed Lil Imp to just sail around the corners as if on rails.

Stable Mates

Its getting a bit crowded in the Imp barn.  I've got two Imps, the bike, a pushmower, and the riding lawnmower all in the basement garage.  The close proximity did cause a bit of a problem during the rebuild of the S7.  I tipped the frame off balance and it nearly hit the red car.  After that I rigged up a rope to the ceiling and kept the bike frame securely tied.  The trick with this arrangement is getting the thing that you want to drive out when its in the back.

 We didn't get many miles on Eduardo this year.  The farthest we went was to Gettysburg for the car show they hold at the outlet shops.  It is an awesome show.  The ladies are content to browse the shops while the guys can admire all the classic cars and bikes.

First Ride

The S7 Deluxe has been ready, but I needed a license plate to take it out on the street.  The moment I was waiting for arrived today, when the tag and registration came.  I made some quickie retaining clips to hold the plate on over the original UK number plate.  The clips are made of a strip of stainless sheetmetal curved to catch behind the original license plate bracket.  There's a hole drilled in the strip and a bolt welded into that hole so that when the outside retaining nut is tightened the bolt doesn't turn.  The matching brackets attach from the left and right sides and are backed with a strip of inner tube rubber.  This protects the original bracket and gives some elastic tension to the clips.  The clips are made tight enough that they spring out JUST enough to allow the license plate to stretch between the studs.  It is very secure.  Currently the bottom has no clips but simply a piece of weatherstripping behind the plate to protect the original KYL95 plate from abrasion, but I may add some bottom clips later.

You will notice in the film that I forgot to do something as I drove away.  Yup... forgot to turn on the fuel.  I'm so spoiled by the XS650 with automatic vacuum-operated petcocks, and the Guzzi with no petcock.  I got 50 yards down the road and quickly realized what I had forgotten.  I made a few trips UP the hill from my house.  That way if it stops running I can always coast back home.  Unfortunately, its a rather short drive up the hill, so I made a few iterative trips while tweaking the carb.  Overall it runs nicely.  It pulls well even in 3rd gear, and each shift is flawless (unlike the Guzzi).



The best way to see if you've forgotten to tighten any bolts is to see how many fall off on the maiden voyage.  I did pretty good.  I only lost the nut from the distributor breaker contact wire.  It was an easy fix and I was back going again.

There appears to be some oil seepage from the head gasket.  I'll try to torque the head again, but I don't want to snap a stud.  I'm afraid my attempts to seal the oil passageway have failed.  I may be taking the head off again to improve the seal.  I'll have to see what happens when the engine gets good and warm.  Things may seal up as they get hot, or it  may get worse.

My instincts will have to develop for the brake on the left foot.  It will take a while to get used to.  If I can figure a clean an inconspicuous way to add a brake light switch to the front brake I think I will.  Its a safety item and I think its worthwhile.  Learning low speed turning will also be a challenge.  It does get a little squirrely in the turns.  The bike is so well balanced and so low, the counter-steer effect is prevalent even at slow speeds.  I was amazed.  At speeds I tricycle steer with my other bikes, the S7 tends to counter-steer.  That will take some getting used to.

I need to make a little tool-roll of the essential spanners, screwdrivers, and a tommy bar.  Then I will feel better about venturing further from the house.

Electrical upgrades

The charging system just isn't working well enough.  I tried fiddling with the electromechanical regulator with improvement, however if I do get it working its just going to require lots of maintanence, and if it fails then I'm beside the road.  Can't have that.

Rooster Ignitions offers a solid state replacement.  It fits neatly in the original Lucas MCR2 case with the right bolt holes pre-drilled.  A little blue loctite and I bolted it back up.

The ignition system was also upgraded to a booster type solid state device.  Also provided by Rooster Ignitions, the Rooster Booster fits nicely inside the box.  It's strapped tightly to the coil, with multiple Ty Wraps, and doesn't interfere with the ammeter.  I even put a plexiglass cover over the aluminum case just in case the Ty Wraps come loose.  I don't want it to touch the screws on the back of the ammeter.

Now all I need is to install the spare bulbs in the electrical case.  What a neat idea!  I've never seen that before.  This truly is a well engineered motorcycle.

Jet Block knocked out and cleaned

Many thanks to all the members of Classic Glory who helped me along the way.  I wouldn't have been able to do this without support.

There was some question whether I had the right Amal carburettor.  I confirmed all the parts measured the right specs according to everyone's input.  The only thing I hadn't done was to remove the jet block from the carb body.  All the self-help information said NOT to do this.  Well, I couldn't very well make it any worse could I?  So I heated up the carb body and used some wooden blocks to dislodge and knock the jet block from the carb body.  I found some considerable filth lurking in there.  Certainly a few of the passageways were blocked.  I scrubbed it clean with a toothbrush and some parts cleaner.  Then followed up with carb cleaner and compressed air.  Don't worry about the dremel... I wasn't using that on the carb.  The former owner must have soldered the pieces of wire to the adjuster screws.  That's a pain in the neck when all the surrounding parts are HOT and you can't use a screwdriver.

No one was around to capture my victory lap on video, so this photo at the neighbor's house will have to do.

Oil Pressure Gauge

I decided that the oil switch (however reliable on the bench) is not sufficient for determining what's going on with the oil pressure.  Thanks to Tiger Tom, we made an adapter out of a 1/8" Tee and cut off drilled 7/16" bolt.  The switch now hangs under the spark cover, and the spark cover has been moved outward by 1/2"... this accommodates the 3/16" copper line that runs to a pressure gauge out of a Sunbeam Alpine  (So generously donated by Tiger Tom).  I should just be able to glance down between my leg and the seat to see the gauge.

I'll allow the Permatex "Right Stuff" used to seal the adapter to the block to set up for a day or so.  Then fire it up and see what the oil pressure is.

Started on 3rd kick

It was glorious!!!

I simply checked the spark, squirted some extra oil on the camshaft, and put fuel in.  It started on the 3rd kick.

KYL95 is looking good here shining in the fluorescent glow of my workshop.

Now the remaining issues...  The oil light doesn't go out.  So, I checked that with a gauge... a gauge that was too small.  It produces over 10 psi and pegged the gauge, so I'm good there.  Must be the switch, although it checked good last time I checked it a year ago.  Maybe the contacts are stuck?

I'd like to put a T in the line and monitor the oil pressure with a permanent gauge.  Anyone know what kind of thread that is?  Or should I go back to Stewart Engineering and get the adapter and a modern oil switch?

Second issue.  The charge indicator stays on, which indicates more trouble.  I'll try checking the case ground and then tickling the field coil again and see if that does anything.  I recall having an earthing issue on the dynamo casing when I first started working on the bike back in October.  There is the chance that the voltage regulator isn't working right, but that will take some time to debug.

Overall I'm very happy.  It starts amazing easily.  I didn't let it warm up properly enough to turn off the strangler.  That will be the real test, because before it popped and chugged and carried on like crazy before with the old loose & leaky throttle slide.  This new throttle slide is a little on the tight side... The return spring BEARLY overcomes the friction to close the throttle.

Exhausting Work

I saw a familiar face in "ON THE BEAM" magazine last evening.  Its a great publication.  I didn't expect to see my own face and a picture of KYL95 take up a whole page.

The exhaust wrap is coming along to cover over my patches on the header pipe.  I made some of my own wrap ties out of stainless strips, but I couldn't get them sufficiently tight for my liking.  I had to resort to hose clamps as I used on my XS650.  I think the #2 clamp needs moved up a little to make it look even.  Tonight I will add the protective high temperature paint.

I had to make a little bracket to hold the front of the silencer.  Originally it was bodged with a solid piece of pipe.  That didn't work too well with a rubber mounted engine.  I used a reducer that came with the silencers I got for the XS650.  It fits inside the flexible joint and inside the new silencer.  The hose clamp pinches down on both of them and holds the bracket as well.  The new silencer is WAY TOO shiny for the rest of the bike.  I couldn't see using the original as it was dented from when the bike was laid over some time in the past, and there's nothing left inside.  It won't be tossed, but I'll run with the new silencer.  Unfortunately, the rear bolt for the silencer is stripped.  I can't tell if the thread in the frame is stripped too, but to make everything tight I used a smaller bolt and put a nut and lock washer on the back.

The replacement carb throttle slide finally came in from England !!!  Many thanks to Nigel who sent it a month ago.  I don't know if it got stuck in customs or what.  I immediately unpacked it and test-fitted it in the carburettor last evening.  Its nice and tight... maybe too tight.  Better than too loose.  All I need now is time to assemble everything.  There are a collection of BSW nuts I ordered from British Tool and Fastener expected to arrive today from New York.  That's all the parts I need.

Here's another quandry.  How do I fasten a Pennsylvania licence plate to KYL95 without disturbing  the original UK number plate?  I hate to drill out the original rivets.  I don't want to drill any additional holes, but I know the originals won't line up with a modern number plate.  I don't want it to look too bodged, even though that's what it will be.

The engine is back in the frame

Thanks to the assistance of my wonderful wife, the engine is back in the frame where it should be.  I took the heavy part, she took the light end, and we dropped it down onto the rubber engine mounts.  I have to bolt everything together yet, but its still progress.

The folks at J&J Cycle Barn in Manchester, PA were kind enough to put an inner tube in the rear tire for me after I gave up after it burst the second time.  Thanks to Joe and Jenny.

The next step will be mounting the exhaust, fitting the elbows, wrapping the exhaust header with fiberglass tape (to hide all the welding patches I made).  After that all the electricals need hooked back up, and the carb fitted.

Ahhh the carb.  The slide is too worn and it goes lean.  I'm sure of it.  Still waiting for the replacement slide from England.  Poor fellow sent it in the mail a month ago, not sure if its lost, or stuck in customs.  I've never had to wait so long.... I'm afraid its lost.

Tricks in the TAIL - American Encounter

The 2008 Carlisle Import show, was the site of the TEAE spring B.A.S.H. (Bring A Sunbeam Home) rally.  We were fortunate to run into some other rear-engine cars that were a product of economical pressure brought on the Suez Crisis.  Matt Cotton, a long time Simca enthusiast, saw our Imps and initiated a photo shoot opportunity with us and a fellow that drove his Fiat 850 all the way from the Midwest.

All rear-engine where Powell Tucker said the engine should be.  All water-cooled.  All a litre or less.  All economical.  All cool.  And all in the same place at the same time.

Which one was made where?  Can you tell?  Italy, Scotland, France?



The similarities were stunningly obvious.  We couldn't get the NSU guy to bring his over, but you'd see it there too.  The Simca was the 4-door with a little more interior room.  The Fiat was absolutely stunning.  It was a fresh restoration and a very good one at that.



Here's a brave lad, drove this Fiat from the Midwest all the way to Pennsylvania and only lost his fan belt once.  I think his name was Brian (correct me if I'm wrong).



The Simca had the biggest motor at 1000cc.



We even spied a gorgeous Dauphine.



While in the French section, we couldn't help but check out the RE5 Turbo.



The real treat was the smallest of them all.  The Subaru 360.

Engine and Gearbox mated

Today was a good day.  I got my lovely wife to help me put the first two clutch retaining nuts on while I compressed the springs by pressing the pressure plate while the front of the engine pushed against the wall on my workbench.  The clutch pulled together nicely, and I felt it lined up well too using my makeshift alignment tool (deepwell socket with the bolt stuck through it to center the clutch).  The gearbox slid right onto the mounting studs.  With a little persuasive jiggling of the output shaft with the gearbox in 2nd it slid together.  Ahhh,  I'm a happy guy.

Now I just have to get the tires sorted out.  Frapping Chinese tube blew on the rear tire already.  The front one still doesn't want to seat in.  I'm just going to take it to someone, and have them put a tube in.  I can't deal with it anymore.

So, I started some cleanup work.  I finished cleaning the frame, and preparing it to receive an engine.  The foot rest rubbers were pretty faded and ugly.  Then I remembered what Burt Munro did to hide the cracks in his tires.  Shoe Polish !!!  And quite appropriately its Kiwi.  I brushed some on and worked it in till the rubbers looked good... not new, but appropriately good.  The stuff will inevitably wipe off on my trousers.

Clutch and push rod

Since I don't have any copper washers in my workshop to fit the sump pan, I started working on the clutch.

The thrower seems to work good, so I put the flywheel back on.  The clutch lining was full of oil and grease, so I tried to wash that out as best I could with brake cleaner.

The big project was creating the new push rod.  My workmate Mike had already made the pushrod receiver that I tack welded to the square hole in the pressure plate.   I wanted to make sure it wasn't going to come out and get jammed in the shaft somehow, hence the tack weld.  It shouldn't, but I didn't want to chance it, and I didn't want it to start turning either, since the shaft into the pressure plate is round instead of square.

I took Wilhelm's full length measurement (225mm) from the surface of the pressure plate to the end of the rod and cut the 1/4" drill rod that had bought to fit.  I squared up the ends in the lathe, gave them a slight chamfer and then polished them up to a high shine.  Drill rod (aka silver steel) is fairly hard so that took a while.  I test fit it in the gearbox and it looks right.  I can drop the rod in after the gearbox is mated to the engine.

I decieded against a ball bearing at the clutch end for now.  I can always cut the drill rod more and fit the ball bearing later if I think its not working right.

The next fun part will be to compress the clutch springs enough to put the nuts on.  I guess a few clamps around the flywheel and pressure plate may do the trick?

Cam Chain Tensioner Plunger - Fabricated

Well, with no stock specs for the cam chain tensioner plunger, I attempted to make mine "to fit".  Which meant assembling and disassembling a few times, and a few times in the lathe.  Thank goodness I bought a self-centering chuck.

I started with the hollow brass slug that was the bodged part.  I threaded it partway from the outboard side, relative to the engine.  This way if the set screw were to back out, it would not fall into the engine.  The set screw gave me a tunable platform for the inner-small spring to push against.  I then proceeded to remove material from the slug until it got me an equilibrium on both springs.  This way the tensioner could float properly as the chain moved.  This was all hit-and-miss machining.  I didn't even measure it in the end.  I just took a little more off until it fit.  I tuned the set screw in until I got the right travel on the springs.

The book said that the locking bolt should be tightened at the minimum position of the plunger.  With that set, I buttoned it up.

The next task will be to try my hand at metal spinning in the lathe to make a suitable crankshaft oil slinger disk.

Bodged Cam Chain Tensioner

It appears my cam chain tensioner has a bodged plunger.  I checked out the parts drawing closely and its certainly not like the one shown.  Once I had fitted the new chain from Stewart Engineering, it was apparent that the bodged tensioner no longer worked correctly.  The tensioner assembly cannot be screwed into the block, since the bodged plunger is too long and has no smaller spring.

I've asked on the Classic Glory list to see if anyone can get me some dimensions.  Just my luck the part is not presently available new, so I'd have to fabricate one.  Lucky I have that lathe.

The good news is that the head and head gasket went together flawlessly.  The new stud in the back went in easily, and I managed to set the valve timing like a pro, thanks to the Sunbeam Owners Bedside Book.

Ring, Ring, Ring

The book says there should be a mark on the compression rings to show which way the TOP is.  BZZZZ, Wrong !!!!  Not on these.

So I got out the micrometer and tried to measure the taper.  I did my best and tried to find which side was consistently the smaller width to show which the narrower taper should go up.  (No one wants to pump oil into the cylinders)  I just hope the castle nuts for the big end bolts line up nicely to get the cotter pins in.

Here's the box from the rings.

Here's the box from the new cam chain.  I'm not THAT far yet with all these interruptions, but I will be soon.

Red Inner Tube

When is the last time you saw a red inner tube?  That's gotta be an old one.  Its only got two patches on it but holds air.  It came out of the front wheel.

The rims look pretty good.  They'll need scraped down and the surface rust removed, then given a shot of paint.  I can't see putting them back together without.  The rear rim is worse than the front, not sure if that is lack of cleaning in the past, or heavy braking on the rear.  The DURO tires came in last week (by recommendation of my brother who runs them on his Ural), they look pretty good.  They're nice and FAT-looking.  I got them at a good price from Tires Unlimited

I'm being tempted to paint more and more things.  The center stand is next on the list.  Its nearly devoid of paint and really needs to be protected.  I want it to be original, but I also have an urge to make it "pristine" rather than the "patina" I originally planned on.  I know once the painting starts, its hard to stop until everything is repainted or re-chromed.  Somebody stop me!

Decided on tyres

The original Dunlop tires are completely petrified hard as a rock.  I did some research but didn't want to pay for Avon tyres for a show bike that may not get lots of miles.  I discovered Duro makes a vintage tyre that is wide enough for the S7's bulky appearance.  The HF-302 on the front and rear should do the job.  I got both tyres, tubes and rim strips for a little over the price of one Avon Safety Mileage MK2.

XS650 Done

After adding a Pamco igntion and a dual spark coil, the XS650 runs reliably.

Many thanks to the members of 650Rider and XS650 Garage.

Relining Brake Shoes

The brake linings on the front of the DeLuxe are practically shot.  The rear aren't so bad, so I'll let those go for a while.  I didn't want to pay to send my brake shoes back to England for relining, so I talked to some of the local antique car guys.  I was recommended to get some "green gripper" Semi-Metallic Woven brake lining material from McMaster-Carr.  The catalog number is 6224K115.  It comes in 1 inch strips and is available in 3/16 inch thick rolls.  It came the NEXT day.  McMaster-Carr is amazing.

The next trick is to remove the old brake lining and take some measurements.  The brass rivets drill out nicely with a 1/8" drill bit.  Once seperated I used a depth gauge and subtracted that from the total thickness to arrive at a 0.057" thickness to leave at the bottom.

To create a counterbore tool.  I took a 1/4" cheapo twist drill bit and mounted it in the lathe.  I strapped my trusty Dremel to the tool post with a grinding wheel.  I slowly removed half the thickness of the tip of the drill.  I was mindful to keep the 1/4" step nice and sharp.

I mounted the counterbore bit into the drill press, and set the depth limit jam nuts to that 0.057 inch limit using some feeler gauges.  Placing the new lining carefully around the shoe,  I marked the first two holes... made a pilot hole with the tip of the counterbore bit, from the back of the shoe.  Then flipping the new lining over to the drum side, I counterbored it.  The rivets will drop into the counterbore the same as the stock rivets and can be set in place from the rear of the shoe.

What would be nice would be a kleko that I could hold the shoe in place at the end while working toward the other end.  The excess 1/8" of the brake lining can be easily removed by grinder to obtain the same 7/8" width of the shoe.

I'll likely epoxy the new lining to the shoe for added security.

Its beer 'oclock... I deserve it.

I can't drive 55

I can't drive at all with a blown crank bearing...

The old XS650 was designed for a slower pace.  With 17-32 sprockets, 5th is still revving a bit high.  While its apart I'll drop one of MikeXS 5th overdrive gears in.



The new crank has less than 1thou runout.  The original had over 5thou... no wonder it gooned the bearing.

It should be all back together sometime next week.

S7 work on hold - something else is broken

The S7 engine work is temporarily on hold.  The crank went to the local NAPA machine shop last week.

I'll be trying to put a new main bearing (probably a new crank) in my Yamaha XS650 and get that cleaned up before I continue with the S7.  This will give me some extra time to consider how to place an o-ring in the head gasket to insure a good seal between block and head.  My initial thought is to widen the hole in the copper gasket to make room for the o-ring.  After that I can countersink the hole in the block until I get the needed crush on the o-ring.  More to come on this subject.

Shining new rear main

Behold the glory of a new rear main bearing -0.020"

Many thanks again to David and his wife at Stewart Engineering.  I wouldn't have been able to get this far without them.

Now that I know the exact measurements of the bearings, the crank will go off to the machine shop.  First I'll have to find one who can do a good job.

In the meantime, I have lots to do.  I have to make new brake linings for the front shoes... and probably the back as well.

During all this my poor XS650 has thrown a crank bearing, and is torn completely apart.

Speedometer

If anyone wants to know, the bezel of the speedometer screws on and off of the casing.  I bruised my hands trying to loosen it, but it finally came off after prying at the case to try to get the threads loose.

I stripped off the odometer and trip odometer numbers so I could blast the rest clean with solvent.  Its filthy with crud on the inside, and simply wouldn't work properly.  The trip odometer went back together easily.  The main odometer will go back together tonight.  Its an interesting mechanism, not at all like a car speedometer.  It actually samples the speed and holds it until the next sampling cog comes around.

Rear main pressed out / wheel bearings cleaned

Pressing out the rear main wasn't a big deal.  The hydraulic press at Tiger Tom's made short work of it.

I took this photo to remind me the orientation of the oil holes in relation to the pump housing plate.

Its off in the mail to Stewart Engineering to be swapped out for a 20 thou under bearing.

In the mean time I began tinkering around with other things.  The seat could go back on, nothing holding that process up, so I put that on.  The odometer was really stiff turning, so I cleaned the right-angle gearbox for that.  It still turns stiffly, and I'm not happy about it.  I also couldn't figure out how to disassemble the speedometer.  I know its sticking, because I used a stub of the old speedo cable in the drill to turn it.  It stuck at 20mph.  Its going to need cleaned out.  Work for another day.

The next thing is to tear into the wheel bearings.  The rear came apart easily, and the grease looked good in there.  There was no ingress of dirt, so I cleaned it up and re-packed it.

The front wheel bearing on the otherhand did NOT want to budge.  It took three days soaking in PBlaster before it would even move.  I kept striking it with a tool I had made to back it out.  The left-handed thread was a bit awkward, but finally it started to move.  I was glad the rear moved easily, because I didn't realize it was left-handed.  I was surprised that once it started moving it came out rather easily.  I found those bearings to be in good shape as well.  Cleaned the old grease out and put new grease in.

I proceeded to clean the wheels.  The front is in nice shape.  The paint is good and there is very little rust.  The rear on the other hand looks like it was used excessively for braking, because the paint looked overheated and there isn't much left.  What to do, what to do...  I hate to paint it, but its just bear rusted metal on the brake drum.

I drained some of the old gas out of the tank into the lawnmower.  It burned just fine.  Next will be to clean out the gas tank really well.  The one petcock (newer one) leaks a little, the original one, doesn't leak at all.

Dizzy Reconditioning

The distributor needed tearing down to put the new oil seal in, so I figured it was a good time to just recondition the whole unit.  The pin holding the dog to the distributor shaft turned out to be a broken off tap.  It seems to be nice and tight, so it shouldn't be a problem.  The points seem to be in good shape as well.  The problem came when I noticed that the advance plate wasn't securely fastened to the shaft.  This could cause all kinds of inconsistent firing, so that had to be fixed.  It seemed to be simply pressed together without much mechanical resilence left in it.  The easiest thing to do was to get out the mig welder and put a few tack welds to hold it in place.  I seemed to get a good weld, and ground it all down nicely.  With that repaired, I noticed that the springs on the centrifugal weights were mismatched.  I checked the resistance of the springs and found them to be pretty much the same.  That was good, but the one spring was longer than the other.  That wasn't good.  There was enough slack to allow one spring to be floppy when the other was tight.  I bent the longer one so it was roughly the same length as the other one.  I suppose that will do for now.  Its not hard to tear it apart again if it gives me trouble later on.

I foolishly didn't notice that there was a center punch mark on the point cam, when I took it apart.  I couldn't find a diagram of the distributor on how it was supposed to be assembled.  I assumed that the center punch mark goes on the same side as the center punch mark on the end of the shaft (toward the engine).  That makes sense, but if it turns out I'm wrong, its an easy fix.

I repacked the top bearing, and put the new oil seal in.  The old oil seal was like all the other ones on the bike, completely petrified.  I noticed that there were some makeshift shim washers in the assembly, so I put them back in the way they came out, with a bit of grease on them.  It USED TO work, so it should work again.  It turns freely and the points are nearly the same opening on both cam lobes.  I set the gap and put it all back together.

Well, almost back together.  The one insulating top hat washer on the point spring was damaged.  I'll either repair it with some epoxy or find a suitable replacement.  All the TO-3 transistor top hat washers I had were all too small.  I'll have to poke around and see what else I can find.  Once again an easy fix later.

Top End Teardown

I decided to use the day off to take the head apart.  The parts washer came in handy again.  I stripped all the rockers, spacers, and springs from the rocker shaft.  Everything looks good.

It doesn't look like any of the chunks of pulverized rear main bearing got up into the head.  That's a relief.  I was hoping for no problems on the head.  I cleaned out the oil passageways really well... using a pipecleaner brush.

I'm trying to clean as much crud out of the fins as I can.  I don't want to glass-bead any of the parts to maintain some originality.  I just don't want all the dirt on the fins... patina in one thing... dirt is another.

Cleaning, Preparation, and Bearing Gaps

There isn't much to tell about my progress. I received another order of parts from Stewart Eng. I've cleaned the engine block and checked the new rings for clearance after honing. Everything checks out there.

The next step is the big one. I need to find a reliable machinist to turn down the journals on my crankshaft. I'll also be ordering a set of big end shells and a new rear bearing. I need to get a good idea of what undersize bearings to order.

Below is the measurements of the crank that I've taken.  It looks to be a 30 thou under on the big ends, and a 20 thou under on the rear main.

Anyone know, what measurements I should tell the machine shop?

I would think:

-0.030" bearing shells... grind the big ends area "A" to 1.5950" / 1.5945"

-0.020" rear main grind the rear shaft area "C" to 1.4795" / 1.4790"

But would it be more wise to hand the machine shop the rods, and bearing shells .. and ask for a gap.  What gap?  Would that be 1.0 thou or 1.5 thou gap?

Opinions?

Eduardo joins the family

In 2005 it became quite clear that my wife wasn't going to let me drive the Red Imp very often, and if I wanted to drive an Imp, I would have to obtain one of my own.  After passing up a few on eBay and going to see a Mk3 in Maryland, I finally found the ONE.

September this car came up for auction on eBay.  It seemed well cared for, and had a bit of history to it.  The body was the best I had ever seen on an Imp (which wasn't much).  It was a California car and hadn't been sujected to the snow and salt of the north east.



Val and Tiger Tom went to pick him up while I went on my annual motorcycle trip to Elk County with the Friends of Nature.  We discovered some important aspects quickly.  No brakes, No Oil Pressure, No compression on number 4 cylinder.  Just the kind of work I can do... the body was fine, all it needed was a bit of wrenching.  There wasn't a spot of rust on the undercarriage and the only issue was a leaky steering rack boot.

The wrenching took four months.  Looks tiring doesn't it?



In the meantime, we learned some of the history of the car.  The original owner Eduardo Pallazo from California must have loved this little car.  He painstakingly maintained it, kept his reciepts from Sunbeam Specialties, and created a one of a kind wooden dashboard for it.  Legend has it Mr. Pallazo was a Hollywood carpenter and set builder.  The dash was fitted to take the place of the Mk2 cardboard shelf in the standard car.  We refer to the car as "Eduardo" now in honor of the car's first owner who cared so much about it.  Originally taitian blue, the car had been resprayed Toyota Super White II, which makes it a bit stark like a rolling refrigerator, but the interior makes up for it.  The stock Imp seats had been replaced with VW bug seats, with the bottoms cut off.  The rest of the interior which would have been orginally vinyl was decked out in a blue velour.  Oh, Eduardo is a pimpin' little Imp.

Sorting the brakes was no big deal.  The master and slave cylinders were stripped and redone, and refilled with DOT 5.

The oil pressure problem was the big deal.  The mains were shot and so were the big ends.  The engine bearly made oil pressure at idle.  Someone screwed up majorly, and had installed an external oil filter in a way that basically short-circuited the lubrication system.  It was basically a new block for goodness sake, and it was almost ruined!  We took the claptrap off, and concentrated on new bearing shells from Speedy Spares.  Luckily it wasn't too bad and we didn't have to turn the crank.

Number 4 piston had us going for a while.  It wouldn't develop compression, and would simply leak by the exhaust valve.  We pulled the tappet shims and measured them all.  Oddly enough the number 4 intake and exhaust tappet shims had been reversed by the previous klutz to put the engine together.  They were swapped, and the engine ran like a champ!

I took a few victory laps outside Tiger Tom's workshop in 4 inches of fresh snow, drifting the Imp happily around the snow covered blacktop.



Later I pulled out the Subaru radio and put in an MP3 CD player out of a Ford truck.  I can now play all my bagpipe music on MP3s.  The dash was refinished and restored to its original glory.

I later replaced the transaxle mounts... with the engine still in.  It CAN be done, but I don't recommend it.  The front of the gearbox would fly up and hit the bottom of the tunnel... so new transaxle mount were a MUST, and of course supplied by Uncle Malcolm Anderson.

The work wasn't over though.  The Solex (err Slow-lex) carb kept acting up.  I couldn't tune it right, I even got a rebuild kit of Uncle Malcolm and it still wouldn't tune up for me.  I finally gave up and in an impulse ebay purchase got a set of SU HS2 carbs and a LYNX manifold from a fellow in Oz.  Now I was commited to getting the engine to run right.

The Lynx manfold came with two carbs alright... two left-handed ones.  Blast!  How I had to get creative.  The linkages didn't work out, and I had to create custom ones.  I think I'm the only person running two left-handed carbs on a Imp in the whole world.  I tilted them, cutting a groove in the bowl to housing junction to get them to stay level.  Then I changed the routing of the throttle up over the top, to meet with a custom bracket I had made.  Notice the big spring tower to hold the throttle closed (the spring came off an upright Hoover vacuum cleaner bag).  It all worked out rather well.  I even used an old clutch cable to join the enricher levers to the existing choke cable.  The whole thing was topped off with a K&N air filter from a Suzuki GS750 motorbike.

I ended up with the V3 needles and blue springs per http://www.imps4ever.info/tech/carbs.html#SUs



I thought I was done, but there was something else not right.  Every time I made a left turn.  Especially one made in anger, the oil warning light would flash.  Now friggin' what?  It shouldn't do that.

So, I pulled the sump cover off again.  Nothing looked strange, but having limited experience, I had no idea what could look out of place in there.  So I consulted the great gurus of the Imp club, and they informed me that my oil pickup was off a 930cc engine.  Well that makes sense... it was made for an engine that sits straight up rather than at a 45 degree angle.



There were no replacements of the right type readily available, so I went on modifying what I had.  I got some idea of how close it should be from the bottom of the sump and did some basic cutting and re-welding.

I think it turned out pretty good.



Now I can turn left in anger.  In extreme anger at the autocross last autumn it performed flawlessly.

Eduardo had been very reliable, comfortable on a long trip, and a joy to drive.