Petrol Taps

After consulting with the gurus at the ClassicGlory mailing list to confirm the Enots and Ewart type petcocks were rebuildable; I dove right in and stripped them down.  Unfortunately KYL95 has a mismatched set of petrol taps.  Left side is the original Enots type and the right side has a Ewarts valve.

The Enots type came apart easily and it was obvious that the cork seals were the original ones.  There was still a good bit left of them.  Still I'm impressed with the resilience of natural materials such as cork.  I decided to use real cork to replace them since I didn't have any neoprene handy.  The challenge is cutting the wine cork the right thickness, and making the cut parallel.  I managed a couple attempts with limited success until I got the feel for it.  Lengthwise with the grain obviously works better, and some gentle sanding gets it to the correct thickness.  I did a pressurized water test before reassembly and it works fine.  The slider is a bit scarred up, but its still pretty smooth.

The Ewarts type was a bit more challenging.  The rounded cork shape was not something I was prepared to replicate at the moment.  That would mean drilling out the centerpunch and then re-creating the whole brass inside part.  So I cheated.  I clipped the bad edge part of the cork plunger with a razor blade, and fitted a viton o-ring around it so that the o-ring would seal the plunger to the outside and stop it from leaking outside.  It doesn't seal 100% in the closed position, but as long as it doesn't leak down the side of the bike anymore.  I think I'll have to make a more permanent solution here... like maybe the correct Enots valve.

I didn't take photos of the fuel filters taken out of the tank.  I should have since they were a sight.  The right side was nearly blocked with varnish and junk.  The left side had some varnish on in, but wasn't nearly as bad.  A little carb cleaner and some gentle brushing cleaned them up nicely.

Brackets on fork tubes?

Since my own S7 Deluxe is the only one I've ever seen in person, I have nothing to compare it against.  Can anyone tell me what these brackets are supposed to be for on the top of each fork tube?  They rotate under the bolt which closes the top of the fork tube.  There's a small hole in each one where the end is bent up.  What were these intended for?

Guzzi California passenger comfort (part 1)

My wife has complained that the California is uncomfortable and she'd much rather ride on the XS650 as a passenger.  This cannot be!  That's the reason I bought the Guzzi so I could carry both of us in comfort and finally remove that hideous XS750 sissybar from the 650.

The two issues are foot position and seat comfort.  This fix should solve the issue of foot position.  With her riding boots comfortably positioned with the heal against the peg, her toe interferes with my heal.  So, she rides with her toe on the peg with significant discomfort over longer distances  (great for the calf muscle workout however).  So, I saw this article describing the use of stirrup pegs on the rear.  It looks like just the thing.  It gives her heal somewhere to rest and keeps the pipes from receiving melted boot rubber from the heal.  The pegs are Küryakyn Model 8075.  Many thanks to Marina for this accessory tip.

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?