Everyday TR1 - carb work and paint

This post is about a lot of things going (rather dramatically) sideways on the old Everyday TR1. This is a story about (new) leaking carbs and paint that tries to fall off more than once. And once it finally stuck on, the petcocks decided to leak and dissolve the paint around them.

Mikuni TM38s over the years have undergone quite some iterations in their design. As it turns out, the newer style floats (left and middle) only offer more buoyancy for as long as they don't fill up with petrol and then are better described as sinks than floats. The older design (on the right) is of rather elegant simplicity and is a direct swap. Only downside: They will fall out of the carb, if you don't turn it upside down, when removing the float chamber.

Older versions used longer studs with o-rings on the end to prevent the floats from falling out, but that is a rather bearable price to pay. Talking about price: They are also substantially cheaper and readily available.

Next, I finally got my wideband lambda (afr) gauge working and instantly put it to good use on the TR1. (It will really shine on the XS-Triple to iron out the last niggles on that, but testing it against a known quantity was meant to give me some rough insights in how (well) it would work).

That's 11.3:1 at idle, which correlates perfectly with my observations: a tad too rich down low and pretty much spot on from the middle upwards.

And then there was a certain someone's brilliant idea to "quickly" repaint the metal bits and make a new rear mudguard. The latter worked just fine, but the paint... different story.

It all started so well...

If you look closely you will undeniable notice quite a few scratches on the new tank. That's because it decided to jump off its painting hook. 

The really annoying part came, when it turned out, that one batch of the clear coat had somehow become chemically incompatible with the paint and started dissolving the affore-mentioned.

Heat gun and scraper: actually works a treat. It made a huge mess, but it was all cleaned up again in about an hour or so. 

The rear mudguard then went on without any notable hickups and looks fabby the way it is. Also if someone is looking for inspiration: The usage of an old (and somewhat hardened) breather tube and R-clamps to route the cable of the rear light on the inside of the guard is to be highly recommended.

Then I decided to make some fresh gaskets to go between petcocks and tank and that's where trouble started again. I specifically used some thicker rubber, thinking that it would seal better than my normal recycled motorcycle innertubes.

Well the next morning I was in for a bit of a fix-it-in-the-morning-before-going-to-work workshop session...

The leakage in itself was bad enough, but after draining the fuel from the tank – I had of course filled the old girl up good and proper...

... the fuel had dissolved the paint. 

More by chance than by perfect planning, I had bought a set of (used) XVS650 petcocks a while ago, only to find that (for my application) the spouts were pointing in the wrong direction. Still, I decided it would be better than nothing.

As is rather apparent in the picture below, this petcock was leaking as well. Luckily this time it was only, because all the gaskets had shrunk quite a bit. Still some rather rude words might have been uttered in my workshop...

A couple hours later the o-rings had swollen back to their regular size and all is well again. Plus there's new filters and fuel lines on the bike.

Next stop: Time to get the exhaust on the XS-Triple built.

The Dre-XT-Stück - gettin' all stiff

... handlebar mounts. The old girl has come a long way, but the stock handlebar rubbers have somewhere along the way decided to go soft again. Which sounds nice, but actually isn't when you move the bars and it feels as if you first have to call your front-wheel and then politely ask it to turn too.

So a set of solid handlebar bushings was called for. Unlike on the sidecar I didn't make them myself this time as I found a dealer, where proper POM stuff was actually cheaper than my raw-material.

Straight from the special parts bin (i.e. trash), came this one piece handlebar-clamp, which originally sported some sort of eagle and pitted chrome.

No matter of normal levels of brute force or heat or a combination of both had the original handlebar bushings move even by the slightest fraction of an inch. It wasn't this happy anymore after it met Mr. sawblade.

Testfitment, but that chrome is just too chromy. Sand it down a bit more, pre-heat it a bit with a heat gun and then blast it with some paint.

The verdict: is it a huge difference? Heck yeah. Especially with a 30mm raise of the bars, it's as comfortable as a hot bathtub in Winter. My hands fall onto the grips all naturally. Next steps on the old Dre-XT-Stück will be a 600 engine as the current 500 4-valve proofed to have a bit too much appetite for oil when pushed and I have to modify the pannier rack that came with the bike to be ready for whatever I want to throw at it.

The XS Triple Sidecar - an extensive Spring cleanup

One might be under the impression that in the last 4 months nothing happened to the XS Triple sidecar, but in reality quite the contrary was the case.

First on the list was some electrical problems, which originally started with a burned out alternator and shortly after the reg/rect unit gave in and only worked on first two and then a single phase, which made it weirdly difficult to troubleshoot as the voltage was going up, but it didn't really push out a lot of current.

As I wanted to fix this as quickly as possible, I picked up a very cheap r/r unit, which had a burnt plug. (I also ordered a new one from China, to have a good spare for the future.) After a quick test on the bike it proved to be working, so next was to replace the molten 6-pin connector. Unfortunately this isn't anything unusual, normally coming from a combination of dirty connectors, which are loose on their counterparts.

The thing that I somewhat worried the most about, was the fact that the r/r unit sits on the bottom of the battery tray, which not only is a lot of work to get to, I was absolutely sure nobody had touch those bolts in QUITE a few years.

To my great surprise they came out fairly easily and after a few rust-touch ups everything went together.

And then finally, the bike is charging as it should, pumping out a healthy 14V at idle into a rather empty battery. From here onwards the charging side of things hasn't given me any more headache since Spring (yet). 

Next step was to clean off the protective grease and get her ready for the annual road-worthyness inspection. And a dirty girl she was.

(This level of shinyness is most likely unhealthy, at the very least it feels rather odd to me... Still nice to see that the protective grease did its job.)

Still the bike wasn't exactly performing to the fullest. Hanging idle, not starting up very well at times, sometimes backfiring like it was going out of style.

There were two reasons, another coil had rather quietly left the scene and decided to die and the other was the fact that after an unknown mileage the bob-weights of the ignition advancer had worn itself out so far that the ignition advance was wandering around at least 3-4 degrees at idle.

If that ain't a weak spark, I don't know what is.

The solution to the second problem came on the very last models of the XS Triple and was only available in the states in 1983 or 84. A fully electronic ignition with no moving parts that can wear out. 

Unfornately the slot on the rotor was seriously mangled, so it had to be welded up and then filed back to the stock size. 

Just for comparision that's the first version of the electronic ignition with the mechanical advancer.

Nothing improves reliability like a fresh coat of paint. (And a front mudguard that doesn't rub on the front tyre...)

 

When swapping tyres for the roadworthyness-inspection, I discovered a slightly odd looking rear shock...

So a "new" set of Konis was procured, but they needed some modifications to prevent this from happening. (Who knew that the correct Konis had a bushing in the right lower shock mount as there's a smaller diameter bolt going through...)

Aside from a new set of needles and subsequent multiple attempts at re-jetting this is pretty much what happened to the old girl.  A new set of SE-clocks and upper triples, a new exhaust and some more patching up on the sidecar is still due, but other than that it seems like we're in good shape by now. (Also I may try to officially get the sidecar brake removed from the paper-work as it just an incredibly heavy anchor that is insanely overpowered considering that I mostly ride around alone.)

Been out to the Sölkpass SR/XT meeting

... and my dad and my humble self did more km on the XTs in a single rideout than he did in the entire last year.

Now there's a distinct reason, why my dad's XT is called "the pretty one" and mine's called "Dre-XT-Stück".

A few corners before reaching Pyhrn-Pass.

If it's called "Kirchenwirt", it's only stereotypical that the local church official has got his own reserved parking spot.

The meeting itself is rather small and at the end of gravel-track (hence us riding on the ol' XTs), but the turnout was good and a lot of old friends have been met.

Even though not quite an SR/XT 500, that BSA B31 was probably the sexiest bike at the meeting (at least in my opinion. Even though my dad heavily drooled over the endearingly well-used Guzzi LM4.

We only paid a short visit to the actual bike rally as there was another action item that had to be tackled. On top of the Hengstpass is a little hut, which amongst other things sells some rather delicious Kaiserschmarrn. (Sort of a sweet omelette served with homemade fruit-jam)

Unfortunately on the way home at an intersection we had a bit of a misunderstanding that caused a bit of bent metal, a broken mirror and some bruises.

But as we had some discussion, why the performance of the pretty one was somewhat lacking a bit compared to the Dre-XT-Stück, I dug out a well perforated airbox-lid. As I suspected, the old girl was running rich in all places and that extra bit of air made her very, very lively.

So lively in fact, that I decided that the old Dre-XT-Stück will eventually get the same treatment, especially as she's awaiting a 600 engine transplant some time later this year.

Fixin' the TIG

... and while I am at it also make some overdue modifications.

The thing that had to be fixed was the gas-solenoid. Unfortunately this seems to be a rather common issues with these TIGs and mine was no exception. So the stock solenoid tended to not shut the gas off unless it was gently bumped.

As I know, not everybody takes apart a new welder, here are two shots, showing off the internals. And all joking aside, Chinese electronics manufacturing has come a long way in the last years. The PCBs are nicely laid out, the traces are soldered up where needed and silastic/hot glue prevent stuff from dangling around and all the boards are conformally coated nice and even. 

... and they didn't skimp on the copper heat sink. 

After soldering the wires back together to fit the new solenoid, I hot-glued it to the fan-housing as the original fitment with zip-ties might have broken the cables in the long run.

One thing, where my old welder terribly spoiled me was the quick-release on for my TIG-torch'es gas-line. This will allow to start using my flex-torch setup again and keep the stock one set up for the heavy stuff (and aluminium). 

My local pneumatics-shop had all the fittings for the conversion on hand and it was a whopping 24 Euros, so not exactly breaking the bank on that one. 

I still need a different plug for my other torch-setup as the older welder had the small bung and this one runs the big-one, but that should be rather easy to sort.