If Yer Gonna Spew, Spew Into This.

Quote from "Wayne's World"
At the advise of another rider, I ordered this overflow or "puke" can for my radiator. The price was right and I needed one since I loose a bit of coolant during the hot months. It was suggested that a couple of billet clamps could be ordered to fit the crashbars that have holes that fit the can. I circumvented the clamps for a couple of reasons. I'm not a huge billet fan, I want to keep it simple and, of course, I'm a cheapwad. I simply drilled two 3/8 holes in the crashbar, installed nutserts and bolted it up using the, supplied, angle brackets. Again, clean and simple..............and CHEEEEP!

My Odyssey

No, it ain't "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?", just a new battery. I've been wanting to try one of these for a while. A friend has one in his 502 and has had no problems. It came with a couple of cheesy "L" shaped adapters to convert it to side post cables. They received a quick course at Captain La Fong's School of Aeronautics. Yup, the ol' flying lesson. I took the side mount cables and cut away all of the plastic and tossed the little bolts also. This left me with a small mounting tab. I cut the end of the tab off where the original hole was. This left enough remaining tab to drill a 1/4 hole. I covered most of the tab with shrink tube and bolted the cables to the battery with the supplied bolts. Nice and tidy. Using the "L" brackets that they sent would have worked, but there is no need for them and they only add more areas to experience corrosion and bad connections. Remember the KISS principle, Keep It Stupid, Simpleton.
The real bonus is the extra tool carrying capacity. I have a 3/8 drive socket set, a 1/4 drive set, set of Allen sockets, 12 inch and 6 inch crescent, 5 combo wrenches, pliers, screwdriver, Swiss army knife, zip ties, electrical tape, teflon tape, small roll of tie wire, extra chain, fuel pump, fuses, rags and there is still more room for additional stuff. The extra T shirt is in case I want to go somewhere nice. There is nothing in my fork bag and nothing in the pocket, that I previously made, in the right side cover, so there is still more room available for additional items. Plus, I have plans in my head for a rear mounted travel pack that will hold large items. It will attach to the sissy bar mounts. More to follow.

Coming Through in the Clutch

Well, it seems that I've finally solved all of my clutch issues. I've been having problems getting enough throw to fully disengage. It would work well when cold, but as everything warmed up it began to drag, to the point that I would have to shut it down in order to get it in gear. No Good!! I realized that, again, my geometry was off. The bell crank from the cable to the booster was at too acute an angle to work properly. It got chucked into the "Big Tub O' Failures". I fabbed up this new one and what a difference. The clutch action is smooth and light. Not two fingers, but an easy three finger pull. I used the foot peg as a pivot on the old one. This one pivots on a bronze bushing. Not the Torrington bearing that was recommended, but I think it will be fine. I can always change it later if it proves to be inadequate.

At the beginning, I was asked why a vacuum booster AND a mousetrap? I had no real answer, I just thought I'd give it a try. I think I made the right choice. As stated in earlier posts, full disengagement, no heel assist pedal and a comfortable pull at the lever were my objectives. There just seemed to be no way to achieve this with the booster alone. I decided to piggy back the mousetrap onto the existing system to see if it would help. It did. I also discovered that the mousetrap alone, when adjusted tight enough to disengage the clutch would not re engage. This is due to the diaphragm clutch cover and the fact that it becomes easier to pull the farther it disengages. So, the answer turned out to be two boosters, one vacuum, one mechanical. It seems Rube Goldberg and, perhaps, it is, but it does work. I also believe that the necessity to replace the clutch every 10 thousand or so miles on the old clutch bikes is, partially, due to the fact that there was never complete disengagement. At a stop, the disc was dragging slightly. It wouldn't be noticeable due to the weight of the bike. Every time you would stop, you were wearing out the disc and overheating the cover and flywheel.

Another Ranger conversion has a hydro/electric setup on it. It seems to work well from the pix and videos that I have seen. He is riding the bike and so far, to my knowledge, has had no problems. I wish him well. I don't think mine is better or worse than his, just two separate roads up the mountain. We'll see after we have some real miles piled up.

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.