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Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

Imperador do Brasil posted:

Jewish Publication Society?

Thanks for the encouragement!

This is what it looks like with the other plastics, for comparison


John Player Special! A cigarette brand that had great black & gold liveries for F1 cars that they sponsored a while back. (I can't post an image.)

But it looks great in the red as well.

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Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

What did I do to my fresh phat funky GN 125 today. I cut a slot in the bottom allen-head exhaust flange bolt because the inside rusted out to the point where it will no longer hold a hex head socket. My rotting exhaust replacement depends on this being successful.

Tomorrow I attack the bolt with a slotted impact bit and great hope. Salute!

I wish I had a blowtorch.

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

Slide Hammer posted:

What did I do to my fresh phat funky GN 125 today. I cut a slot in the bottom allen-head exhaust flange bolt because the inside rusted out to the point where it will no longer hold a hex head socket. My rotting exhaust replacement depends on this being successful.

Tomorrow I attack the bolt with a slotted impact bit and great hope. Salute!

I wish I had a blowtorch.

This GN 125 is turning me into the ultimate PO, if there will even be a next one for this poor little bike.

The head of that bolt sheared off. The exhaust can now be removed, but it can only be secured with a single bolt at the flange. My only options now are to ride it as is, or use the half-inch of bolt sticking out from the head to continue to work on it, cutting out another slot...

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

Slavvy posted:

Got a blowtorch? Alternatively one of those rotating clamp type stud extractors might make things easier.

Nope... I just found out about those butane ones. But I didn't want to wait for one to arrive; bike has already been down a month. But now I just made things worse for myself.

HenryJLittlefinger posted:

You turned a bolt into a stud. Just clean the threads up and put a nut on it.

Not enough material! The flange itself is half an inch thick. (About 10 mm) It's flush with the newly-anointed stud.

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

MomJeans420 posted:

I was looking at them and couldn't see anything wrong, but once Slavvy pointed that out I swear they're bent around an inch up on the fork tubes (is that the correct term?)

I think the technical term for the fork tubes is "stanchions". The outer accordion-style covering you see on them sometimes is called a gaiter.

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

It's reckless, but I really depended on the independently-owned shops to give me easy passing grades, back when I didn't have a lot of money. (Still don't.)

My trusted transportation, a 1994 bike with an engine coated in grit and oil film, would definitely not pass that Swiss inspection...

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

Slavvy posted:

I've seen it happen several times on sportsters, I think the pulleys are intentionally soft metal so they don't gently caress up the output shaft if the worst happens. I think the strip because people don't do up the nut tight enough, and the locking system is a bit questionable, so the pulley starts moving around on the splines and eventually just flogs them flat.

The inner teeth of my front sprocket on a Yamaha XT350 also stripped one time, deep into my ownership of it. Put it in gear and nothing happened... The XT350 has slots on the sprocket cover, so with the bike in gear, you could even see the output shaft spinning in the middle of the sprocket. No idea about the conditions that allowed that to happen, since I used it for 100% street riding.

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

Chris Knight posted:

After much loving around trying to get the springs on yesterday, a post-coffee idea hit this morning to do each one separately using a wire coat hanger. Some extra grunt courtesy of my Mom for the 2nd spring and the centrestand is on. :toot:


Way back when I owned a CB250, it was possible to fit an overseas centerstand to them. On the mailing list (dating myself here), a guy shared a technique that involved shoving dimes or pennies into the spaces in between each coil to lengthen the spring before putting it on.

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

After a load of delays and other snags, I finally buttoned up my GN125 after changing its rear tire, both sprockets, and drivechain over the last 3 months, and went for a tiny test ride. After 3 months of using the EX250 to commute, I was surprised at how easy this little booger is to use. Just a bicycle that can go 60 mph.

Almost forgot to mention that when I pulled the old drivechain off, I was shocked to discover that it wasn't an o-ring chain after all. As far as I could tell, it was the original chain. It was KNACKERED, having a gigantic slop point of over 2 inches from tightest to loosest, but, it managed it. Might be due to my obsessive oiling the drivechain on every fuel fill-up. Bike currently has 24,000 miles on it.

Slide Hammer fucked around with this message at 19:30 on Jul 4, 2021

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

I've seen a truing stand before, and I've wondered, is that gauge probe spring-loaded? How does it actuate the gauge?

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

Renaissance Robot posted:

Forgot to retighten the header nuts after the first heat cycle and now everything on the #2 header fell off somewhere on the motorway :cripes:

Need new collets and new nuts but there's no way anyone in walking distance is going to have the right ones in stock, so I guess I get to limp 15 miles home with a half open pipe and just hope nothing explodes

I've ridden home with a loosened exhaust flange before. It's just loud. Although, mine didn't fall off completely...

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

I thought that the Ninja 250 also required me to do this. Recently learned I could just hit the starter button as normal.

SO... how do you disable the switch. Mine is really annoying, especially since it seems to be aging and I have to work its little plunger before it will do anything every time I go to start it. Do you just jump the two wires together?

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

AnnoyBot posted:

The Oldwing must be burning oil like crazy because it doesn't leak a drop on the driveway but I found it 1.5qt low this morning. That explains why the oil light was on at idle I guess. It doesn't smoke except when it's been sitting a very long time, like > 2 months, so I'm not sure what's up. Valve guides?

I had an old BMW 320i with around 200,000 miles on it once upon a time. It also needed valve guides. The smoke from worn valve guides only appears as you ride it, under certain engine loading conditions. You can't see it under idle. You might be able to see it if you rev the engine, and as the engine slows down from the peak of its rev.

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

On that note, is there a way to repair a pin lock visor? I mean, I don't even know if it's a feature of the visor or the helmet. Mine has been broken for years now, such that it only has the fully closed, half-raised, and fully-raised positions.

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

It's an HJC CL-15. I've had lower-numbered CL models in the past and the pin lock has never failed on those. It's 3 years old, not quite due for replacement yet.

Although, you just gave me an idea to compare the visor mechanism on the side of the helmet to my older helmets (which I keep around).

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

Oops, I made a mistake. It's the CL-17; the CL-15 was my previous helmet model. I do know that I bought it new just in 2018.

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

It refused to start one day, so I ordered a new carburetor. Cheap Chinese Mikuni copies @ $26 each... irresistible. I'd done this before and the one I got worked right out of the box. Not this time!

Settings seem all wrong. Air pilot screw was like 7 turns out, who knows where the needle clip is set (bogs on anything over 1/4 throttle; top speed effectively 38 mph after an acceleration crawl). The experience is so different from my first purchase that I thought the problem was something else: the old and slightly distorted airbox-to-carburetor boot. (Back in 2012, when I bought this, I experimented with removing the airbox intake horn which restricts airflow, and it was bogging down hard just like it is now. Instant lean condition.)

Today, I tried something different. I'd already tried opening the choke at full throttle, and it just kept bogging. What if it isn't lean, but... rich? Remembering ten years ago, I removed the airbox airhorn again before riding home from work tonight...

Wow, instant improvement. It actually has acceleration up to half throttle, and top speed went up by about 5 mph. Not stock performance, thought, which I'd like to get back. (The uncovered intake is also really noisy.) Will have to play with the needle clip now, in the opposite direction that I thought that I had to move it.

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

Dog Case posted:

The jets in carbs are matched to the application, you can't just buy the same model and assume the default jets are right for everything it could potentially be used in

Edit: Here's stock specs so long as they never used a different carb


You're right, although, the ebay auction proudly touted the carb as a direct replacement for the GN125 (same as the prior one that I had bought). You can even see them now by searching for "GN125 carburetor" on ebay. There's a lot of them. Even if it's junk, $26 for an entire carburetor is a screaming deal. Might as well buy another as a cool paperweight.

Those carb specs are handy. Thanks. I'm wondering if this carb were put together by a new recruit or something. I set the pilot air screw to 2 turns out, and it's still not quite good (too rich), so I wonder if the pilot jet and even the main jet (for the bogging) is incorrect.

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

I am disappointed to report that the answer to that seems to be "no."

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

By the way, is there a good screwdriver for reaching pilot jets deep down in their recess? I mean, you can get in there with a normal small, thin screwdriver, but the jets usually have these thick slots cut into them that give a normal screwdriver's blade plenty of unwanted play, especially if you need some torque to unstick an old jet.

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

Slide Hammer posted:

It refused to start one day, so I ordered a new carburetor. Cheap Chinese Mikuni copies @ $26 each... irresistible. I'd done this before and the one I got worked right out of the box. Not this time!

Settings seem all wrong. Air pilot screw was like 7 turns out, who knows where the needle clip is set (bogs on anything over 1/4 throttle; top speed effectively 38 mph after an acceleration crawl). The experience is so different from my first purchase that I thought the problem was something else: the old and slightly distorted airbox-to-carburetor boot. (Back in 2012, when I bought this, I experimented with removing the airbox intake horn which restricts airflow, and it was bogging down hard just like it is now. Instant lean condition.)

Today, I tried something different. I'd already tried opening the choke at full throttle, and it just kept bogging. What if it isn't lean, but... rich? Remembering ten years ago, I removed the airbox airhorn again before riding home from work tonight...

Wow, instant improvement. It actually has acceleration up to half throttle, and top speed went up by about 5 mph. Not stock performance, thought, which I'd like to get back. (The uncovered intake is also really noisy.) Will have to play with the needle clip now, in the opposite direction that I thought that I had to move it.

The conclusion of this repair:

I replaced the main jet in the new, suspect carb with the one from my original carb, which was even stamped ""102.5", the correct size. I gained another 5 mph top speed, with much better throttle response all around, although there was still chugging at the last quarter of throttle travel on the highway, keeping me out of the good 60 mph zone.

Getting closer, I decided to try fiddling with the needle and needle jet, but two of the chinesium screws at the diaphragm cap stripped. At that point, I went to plan B, and disassembled the little choke lever mechanism to get at the choke plunger seal, which was something that I had noticed had cracked and was nearly crumbling on my first ebay carb, the good one. Putting it on my good ebay carb, I fitted that to the engine and it ran great. Started right up, perfect acceleration like I was used to. (When it was off of the engine, I had also taken that chance to clean the jets in the float bowl, so it was nice and refreshed.)

I'm kinda put off with how lucky I was with that first carb!

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

It might be some microscopic thing. Every time I've taken apart my carbs to clean out obvious blockages, I never found anything visible. And yet, after poking all of the holes as one should, they always ran better when put back together.

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

Gorson posted:

I don't see the benefits. Ignoring the added complexity (this is difficult) why would they do it this way over a single slightly larger carb? Is it cocaine?

Might be like the motorcycle version of cylinder deactivation... You can have 2 carbs when you're full-throttle, then just one when you're puttering around...?

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

opengl128 posted:

The plugs were all barely finger tight so that was cool, more fun from the hacks the PO had working on this thing. Probably tightened by the same moron who tightened the drain plug that disappeared on me when I was riding it home after purchase.


To be honest, I'd rather have fighter-tight spark plugs than gorilla-wrenched plugs. It's fine if a plug unscrews itself, then you can just screw it back in after dealing with the noise. Too tight and you might be looking at a helicoil job.

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

Almost colossally hosed myself by changing the oil using the wrong drain plug (which allows 2 critical transmission components to fall out). If you are familiar with the GN125, I am talking about the neutral stopper and its spring.

Didn't notice the stopper at first; with a :) on my face ("oh? A spring came out. I hope that that's not critical."), put the spring alone back into the drained sump hole and then that drain plug. Filled up oil. Only before disposing of old oil did I notice the stopper. After looking it up a couple of hours later, went "oh poo poo," quickly drained oil again, then removed spring (still in place, thankfully) and reassembled with the stopper in correct order.

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

Fuuck, that's looking like a new fuel injector.

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

cursedshitbox posted:

the OG Vette had mechanical injection as an option

Oh poo poo, I remember this. It was called Kingfisher. That and the fact that the original Vette was a six-cylinder are the only things I remember, though.


Slavvy posted:

K-jet is what I'm unfortunately familiar with, both the electronically regulated kind and the giant flappy paddle only kind. It is hell.

Wasn't the electronically-regulated one called L-Jetronic? The flapper was K-Jet.

Currently looking for the thoughtful/insane German auto tech smiley and it does not exist :( .

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

I noticed that a lean-kind-of stumble was appearing at the beginning of what passes for a powerband on my bike, same as when I first bought it, so I changed the air filter for the first time in 10 years. It's foam, so I properly oiled it with the gooey air filter oil this time. (It seemed to come from the factory with some kind of residue on it, but I did this anyway.) Interesting transformation.

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

This is why the first thing I've always done when I've purchased a used motorcycle is bought a new clutch cable and installed it.

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

Slavvy posted:

Today I fitted a replacement carb to a gn125 because someone stole it out of the bike in a carpark

Why would you steal those. It's easier to spend $19.99 + free shipping for one on e-bay

Although.... you might get one with the wrong settings... yeah. It was me. I stole it

Edit: GN125 the CA page executioner :killdozer:

Slide Hammer fucked around with this message at 07:02 on Jan 31, 2023

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

Come to think of it... is 3D printer plastic gas-resistant? :thunk:

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

Ulf posted:

So heated grips count as farkles? I guess I always thought a farkle should have an LCD or be sold by Garmin or something.

Heated grips are an accessory. No way in Sharper Image hell they're a farkle... I stake my Schubert windshield wiper, oscillating siren, flare gun helmet with electric defrost and app visualization (perfect for my vise-grip (tm) cruise control/bobblehead) on it.

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

The load-bearing stickers will come with a gigantic sticker on them in caution-orange that says "NOT TO EXCEED 2 LBS." They will, however, be capable of supporting 3 lbs. but on failure you waive your right to a load-bearing sticker lawsuit.

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

Hey, while we're on that topic, is there a way to tell when needle bearings wear out? With plain roller bearings, you get the detent. Do needle bearings get something similar?

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

Electrics are the worst because it's the only problem where you can know the cause and still have to hunt.

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

You could even use a towel, if it wasn't raggedy. When I need to undo the output sprocket nut on bikes, I wrap an old wooden baseball bat in an old pair of corduroy pants and jam that in the rear wheel. Works just fine. (I imagine that rope would work well for spokes, where an entire baseball bat can't fit.)

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

knox_harrington posted:

I made a cable for tying up my helmet, just a deterrent rather than anything else.


Wait... don't motorcycles still get sold with helmet locks?

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

Oh crap, have helmet locks gone the way of the centerstand? Unconscionable.

SEKCobra posted:

Do you mean the metal wire strap you put under the seat? Most inconvenient thing ever, would never use.

On most bikes—well, I mean, the ones I'm used to, which are all old now, I suppose—The helmet lock was just a key-actuated hook off to the side of the seat, and beneath, over the chain guard on most bikes. When you turn the key, the hook dips down, and you can slot your helmet's metal d-rings into it, like opengl said. Then you turn the key back and the hook lifts up into the frame, such that there's no room to pull the d-rings off of the hook. And, you just leave your helmet like that. I use it every day when I go to work.

If it rains, you have to finagle your helmet into a position where water can't get inside. Or, I mean, you can try...

Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

Valt posted:

I changed the trans fluid since it looked and smelled pretty bad.

Why is this? Gear oil reeks in a way that motor oil doesn't. Some kind of sulfurous compound?

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Slide Hammer
May 15, 2009

I mean, it stinks in differentials and the manual gearboxes of cars, too.

Maybe not "stinks"-stinks, but, it's different.

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