Sunday, April 25, 2010

OK! Put it all together-rode around 25 miles yesterday. I have to watch out, she's still registered non-op since 07-not quite legal..
Things to do still-
bleed brake/clutch
oil cables/chain
temporary fix for headlight bracket
permanent fix for headlight bracket.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

ok.

Things left to do:
Check oil again
Check coolant
Fix shifter
clean petcock filter
grease
top up break fluid
oil chain

facepalm

Or it could be that I forgot about the kickstand switch.

Fail #1!

Got the carbs back on yesterday. Complete lack of catching-turns over ok still.
Thoughts on possible problems:
1. Flooded: Adjust the floats. Didn't do this before, probably should have.
2. Spark: Test all three plugs for spark.
3. Compression: hopefully it's not this, since I have no clue where to go forward on this one.
4. Maybe I didn't get all of the gunk out of the carburetor channels.

Doug Douglas Motorcycles rocked me!
I was running the kid somewhere, doing a final soak of components in carburetor cleaner, and proceeded to toss me float needles in the mixture. Needless to say, the rubber parts crumbled like a very crumbly thing.
Luckily, Doug Douglas had 3 in stock!!

BTW, the Harley part did not fit.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Waiting for the one day.

Hopefully the parts will come in, everything will work, and I can ride the weekend after next. Still contemplating a replacement needle, one of mine looks a little damaged. I just need to make sure that I put that one on the #1 or #3 carb-then I can just pop the top off and drop in a new one.
Meanwhile, doing research. Here's the triumphrat post by MarkBartels on replacing out the instrument lights with LEDs. He uses: "(6) 74-xHP Wedge Base LED Bulb-White 74-WHP for the idiot lights & blinker indicators. (4) WLED-x5 LED Wide Angle LED bulbs-Warm White WLED-WW5 0.95 for the clocks."
Super Bright LEDs seems to sell the right ones.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Carbs out

Taking the carburetor assembly out not as easy as I would have hoped. Whoever supposedly "overhauled" the carbs didn't really seem to. I'm basing this on the fact that one of the needle jet holders had an extraordinary amount of baked on black stuff. Soaking in sea foam didn't dent it, although carb cleaner seems to do better, with multiple applications, I hope to get them cleaned up good. Especially because I don't know that I'll be able to find replacements. Turns out that it doesn't show up as a part number in the Triumph part catalog or bike bandit. I've ordered a holder for a 2003 harley sportster 883 that *seems* like it might fit. Pretty much changing out all the jets, needles, etc. since it's such a pain to get the carbs off. Ordering replacement stuff from Sudco if available, bike bandit for OEM parts if not, and the aforementioned jet holder from the local Harley place.
One last complaint-apparently, it takes as long to ship a Harley part from Wisconsin, as it does a float needle from England.