Hello from the Midwest

[TheDigiSync]

Thank all for the welcomes. I've been digging into my '77 GL and sometimes it's not very pretty. It looks like an abscess!

I've been combing through the electrical looking for gremlins and it looks like I found one!


And this.


I had a mosfet shunt style regulator/rectifier sitting around from an old V-Max project.




So I made a simple adapter plate so I can mount it vertically.




And this is how it fits up.


I'm now waiting for some connectors to finish the job. The three stator wires will reach the connector without any fuss. I'll have to rent a "wire stretcher" to connect the regulator output to the harness. I like that I'll have connectors when I'm done that will make future troubleshooting easy. :salute:

 

[Ansimp]

Excellent upgrade :good:

 

[joedrum]

yep nice work

 

[TheDigiSync]

A final picture of the new RR with connectors and wiring. There's just enough room for the connectors at the bottom without any interference from the frame. The common battery cable snakes between the two connectors up to the battery like it was meant to be there. Whew. I left the old harness connector in place so that anyone in the future can more easily go back if they want to.

 

[dan filipi]

Looks good, and a great improvement over the original.

How do your running voltages look with this regulator?

 

[TheDigiSync]

Running? I wouldn't know. I'm working this bike over from tip to tail and haven't started it up yet. The rebuilt carbs just went back on and I've drained out all the gas to put in fresh. I hope to know this week for sure. I've measured my stator windings and all looks good with the static measurements so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they're truly good. What does good, better, best look like with these stators?

 

[dan filipi]

From what I gather, 13.6 to 14.2 volts is preferred.

 

[Denver]

Prefered that's what the shop manual says. :smilie_happy: All 3 of my 1200's put out 14.9-15.1, volts as the top output voltage, to the battery terminals. :headscratch: The same as any that i've seen, the A G M's seem to like it fine, as they last from 7-10 years in my bikes. :yahoo:

 

[dan filipi]

AGM likes the higher voltage so yours is ideal, at least according to the Oddysey rep I talked to.

 

[Denver]

They also seem to do well in the 91 which has a car type alternator, & it puts out the proper voltages, they seem to perform as advertised. :yes: NEVER got the service from ANY of the old flooded type battery's in all the years i had them. :nea: No matter how well they were looked after, they were toast in 2- 3 seasons at best, in any of the 8 or 9 bikes that i've ever owned. :salute:

 

[TheDigiSync]

I got my bike running today and measured the voltage at the battery. I have 14.15 volts at idle and it goes up to 14.3 at higher rpm's. Nicely regulated I think. I'm quite pleased that the stator is good! :clapping:

I'm taking a bit of vacation today so I put Shinko's on the front and rear along with new tubes, rim liner and balance beads today. While the rims were off I gave them a good cleaning and they look great. I also bleed the brakes thoroughly with some fresh Dot 3. Who knows how long ago this was done! The front brakes were slow to release and the fluid in the master cylinders wasn't root beer colored but it looked nasty! I sopped up the fluid that was in the master cylinders because I didn't want that stuff being pushed through the plumbing. I flushed the system excessively and eventually the fluids look clear, the pedal feel is good, and the front brakes release promptly as they should.

Today's running of the engine is the first time since I rebuilt the carbs and fixed the bowl screws so they all have a night tight fit now. I had to heli-coil about eight of the 12 screws. I also flushed out the old gas and refilled with new to eliminate fuel issues.

Prior to the carb rebuild the engine had a strange behavior of starting up and reving good and had a decent 900 rpm idle. However, after a warm up period of a few minutes the engine would still idle okay but would begin to rev lazily when the throttle is snapped open.

After the carb rebuild I think it's behaving the same way. Drat!

The bike has a Dyna S ignition. Tomorrow, I'm going to go through the Dyna static timing procedure to see how accurately it's timed. I'll also check out the mechanical advance once again.

I seem to see quite a bit of smoke from the exhaust when it's warmed up. Perhaps the rings are stuck? I just replaced the valve seals and checked the valve guides for clearance so it has to be coming from the bottom end. I haven't checked the compression myself. My friend did and he said they were all just fine. I'm thinking that I'll check the compression, for myself, when the engine is cold and again after it is warm to see if it decreases.

I'm also thinking about "steaming" then engine for an hour to clean it up internally. Anyone have experience with that? Any suggestions are certainly welcome.

 

[TheDigiSync]

I thought I'd put my plan in writing and sleep on it :lazy: until tomorrow and see if it still seems like a good idea. This is my take on steaming my engine:

I'll use a large container of water that holds 3-5 gallons of water. I'll attach small hoses to the vacuum ports and add some type of restriction such as aquarium air valves on the end of each hose . I'll get the engine hot first then slowly introduce the the water by putting the hoses in the tub of water while the engine is at a high idle rate. The steaming process is supposed to take about an hour to complete. After that time, the hoses are disconnected, the ports plugged, and the engine is run for a while to clear out all the steam and carbon, and then the bike is taken on a run.

Has anyone done this?

 

[dan filipi]

I've never done steam clean and I'm a bit nervous about doing it since these engines are prone to blowing head gaskets. Maybe not a valid concern but I've always found putting miles on the engine in otherwise good tune, goes a long way.

 

[slabghost]

You must be mad. These are interference motors. Pour in water and bend valves. Freeing stuck rings just takes run time and some atf in the fuel and oil.

 

[TheDigiSync]

Thanks guys, I share your concerns. Of course, I wouldn't be pouring in water such as might be done with a large displacement engine. It would be metered in. That said the risk of screwing up is great. If the engine was running better I'd be willing to "run it free" but at this point I'm still considering the options.

A second "radical" treatment that I'm considering is to drain the oil and gas, lay the bike down and pour a mixture of acetone and atf into each spark plug hole. Let it sit for 48 hours, turn the bike on the other side and repeat. This sounds like a mess and it probably best left for frozen engines.

ATF or MMO in the crankcase and gas and riding the bike clean sounds like a lot more fun - and not to mention safer. I'll check the spark timing today and keep on noodling.

I bought a timing sight glass yesterday and look forward to using it. I briefly started my engine with the timing plug removed and that didn't go so well!

 

[joedrum]

id just flush the motor while sitting in a parts cleaner type way without running the motor at all except turning it by hand with crank bolt ...till it for sure clean as new and flushed totally ...to risky running clogs in motor through oil pump at speed to me

 

[mcgovern61]

Can I suggest that you start some new threads for each item being worked on. That would really help others that may want to follow along with the type of repair that is being performed and offer input. The information you are posting here is great! But others may only think it is only the welcome thread and will be missing out on some great work! :yes:

 

[dan filipi]

Yes separate threads will give more exposure for sure and make it easier to comment on each :music:

 

[TheDigiSync]

Will do. :thanks: