Rust Never Sleeps

Time to change gears.

Here is a proven method for rust removal. Even though I am a Boy Genius™, I did not come up with this one. The key ingredient is Sodium Carbonate. It can be purchased as Arm & Hammer Wash Soda, or as I did, as pool and spa PH booster. I got a big ol' container of it at Wally World for about 5 bucks. Procure a plastic container large enough to immerse the rusty object. Tie a piece of wire to the rusty victim. You will need a piece of iron rod. A hunk of rebar works just fine. Place the rusty part in the bucket and put in enough water to completely cover it. Add a tablespoon or so of the Na2CO3. Stick the rebar in the solution, making sure it does't touch the part being derusted. Attach the negative lead of a battery charger to the wire connected to the part. Attach the positive side to the rebar. remember, in spite of what young Tom Edison said, DC current flows from negative to positive. You will see bubbles begining to form. This is hydrogen, so do this in a well ventilated area. Remember the Hindenburg? Oh, the humanity.

I used a crescent wrench that I found buried while clearing weeds. It is way beyond salvation, but was a good piece to experiment on. I left it in the solution for three days, only because I forgot to check on it. I removed it from the bucket and hit it lightly with the wire wheel. Nearly every bit of the rust was gone. It still is no good and will go back on the hook as a garage ornament' Next time I am going to try using my DC welder as a power source to see if it goes faster or better

Nooks and Crannies

I don't like to venture too far away from my tools. The toolbox that I built will hold quite a bit, but I still felt there was more room to be found. When I had the seat off, I noticed that there was a large gap between the fuse box and the side cover on my bike. I made up this little box and glassed it to the inside of the side cover. I went to the Borg the other day and picked up a set of three zippered nylon bags, small, medium and large. They were cheap, under 5 bux for the set. The medium one holds a full set of 1/4 inch drive sockets and the small one has extra fuses, electrical and teflon tape, small zip ties and a Swiss Army knife. Both bags fit into the new storage pocket and free up space in the toolbox. I have room now for extra fuel and water pumps or whatever. I plan on going to a drycell battery when this one conks out, so there should be even more space for additional stuff.

Man Plans......God Laughs

I took it out yesterday for a test run and all went beautifully. The clutch was working perfectly. A nice three finger pull. I was stoked. Woo Hoo!! Finally, sucess. I put the bike away and decided to get up in the morning and clean it up a bit and take a longer ride. This morning I put it all together and fired it up and.........THE FRICKEN CLUTCH WOULDN'T WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After calling the bike and myself a few choice names, I began adjusting all of the various links, the mousetrap, the spring tension.........nothing. As I was about to push the bike outside and set fire to it, I noticed that the pushrod that comes out of the back of the booster was cocking at an angle when I applied pressure. I said to myself, "Self, this cannot be good." I yanked off the booster and made a support plate. Simply a hunk of 2 x 1/8" flat steel with three holes, one in the center drilled to the size of the pushrod and two that fit the mounting studs. I placed shims, (OK, flat washers but shims sounds more professional), between the support plate and the pushrod seal to apply a bit of pressure and keep the vacuum in the can where it needs to be. Works bitchen now.
One suggestion, made by an old hand at this sort of thing, is to install Torrington bearings on the mousetrap and the cable-to-booster bell crank. I will be doing this very soon, but for now, it's working well with the bronze bushings in the mousetrap. The bell crank is steel against steel, so that will be the first thing that I will change. With the lessened friction that the bearings will give me, I think it will be, nearly, perfect.

Another Cheap Coverup Scheme

I modified the left side cover today. I filled in the old switch holes as well as reshaping the bottom edge to cover the booster linkage and squaring off the lower corner to cover more of the frame. I hated to kill my flames, but cest la vie. I will repaint them black and put a BH logo on them. There is still a bit of work to do on them. There is at least 1/8 inch of Bondo and three paint jobs on them. I'll take them down to the bare glass and start from scratch. In a former life, I used to paint cars, but I may be a bit out of practice, plus the new paints are not like the old lacquers and enamels of yore. If all else fails, I still have a gallon of good old black acrylic lacquer on the shelf, but I understand the base/clear coat paints are pretty user friendly.

Thinking Inside The Box

I took a little time today and hammered out a battery/tool box. I first made a cardboard mock up. After I was satisfied with the fit, I transferred the cardboard pattern to sheet metal. All that I had laying around the shop was a hunk of 16 ga. It's a bit thick, but at the cost of steel these days, I decided to use it. I don't have a brake. so I used the vise, "C" clamps, angle iron and a body hammer to fold it. A few, quick welds and there you are. The bracket for the fuse box had to go away as it interfered with the new box. The fuse panel was mounted to the side of the box along with the flasher. With the full sized car battery there is still plenty of room for tools and parts and like Johnny Cash's Cadillac, it didn't cost me a dime.

Boy Genius™ vs. Experience

Another guy that has been through this conversion told me that the angle of my release arm was all wrong and it should be pointing at 7 O' clock and push to 5 O' clock as you look down at it. Being a Boy Genius™, I thought, "Hogwash!" The fulcrum is the same, the pressure plate is the same, the release arm is the same. How can the angle make any difference?? So, another trip to the parts house where I purchase a "long" Chevy throwout bearing. I stick it in and lo and behold, the clutch pulls much easier. Boy Genius™ never took geometry, so I guess there are forces working here that I am unaware of. The other thing that, probably, helped is that the new bearing has a curved face that slides over the fingers of the Belleville spring easier than the flat face of the old bearing. The flat faced bearings are for Long or B&B clutches only.
I noticed that when I shut off the engine, I could hear air rushing into the booster. "This can't be good", sez I. I put a clamp on the hose where it connects to the booster and, again, the clutch pull gets easier.
Another thing that has been pointed out to me is the importance of eliminating as much friction as possible and setting up the booster so it pushes the release arm as straight as possible. These are valuable suggestions.
At this time I have an acceptable clutch pull. I'm still going to look for improvement until I achieve the fabled two finger pull each and every time.

Consistant Inconsistancies

Well, today I went out for a short test ride. The clutch just won't work consistantly and it won't disengage enough to shift without clashing the gears. But....it does work, just not as well as I want, soooooooo, I blew it apart again. I need to try a different pressure plate. I put a 12" Crescent wrench on the end of the throwout arm and it took all that I had to pull the clutch. Doesn't seem right to me. I have another pressure plate that I will stick in tomorrow. Fortunately, the mods that I made to the frame allow me to remove the trans and bellhousing without splitting the frame. I can have the clutch exposed in about 30 minutes, so it isn't a huge PITA. I never expected it to work the first time anyway. I've gotten some good advise from several people, so I hope to get it right on the next try. If it takes 5 or 10 more trys, so be it.