Well, I'm pretty bored with this whole Covid Shelter-In-Place thing. I don't have it quite as bad as some others- since I'm a healthcare worker, I need to go out and get to my job. But still, on my days off, I'm here at home trying to keep busy with whatever I can.
Today, I decided to get working again on Angie, my RD400. When I left off at the end of last season, I still needed to get the bike properly jetted. I messed around with a few carb configurations, but it actually resulted in killing the bike altogether. For about a week, I tried to get the motor to fire, but it was a done deal :(
I woke up early. Got some coffee in me and started picking at the bike. I hunted down the original carb configurations for when I had my first successful start and I figured I'd go from there. I swapped out the main jets from 280's back to 260's. I found that I had put in 27.5 pilot jets, so I returned them to 30's. I checked the needle position and the A/F mixture screw. I double-checked my plugs to make sure that I wasn't running 7's. I made sure they were gapped to 0.025-0.028". I wasn't entirely sure if which plug wires went to which plugs, so it was going to be a crapshoot. After a few unsuccessful attempts, the bike finally roared back to life! It ran hella smokey and the idle was high, but at least it was running again!
While I was tooling around the bike today, I also installed the aftermarket horn, although I didn't bother yet to clean and paint the mount.
Last year, when I put her to bed, I was thinking of doing to jetting myself, but now I think I'm over it. There's a shop in Martinez that can tune it in. I spoke with them last year. They had just finished doing an RZ350 and they were comfortable with 2-strokes. I think they quoted me around $500, which is pricey, but I just want it done correctly.
The majority of what still needs to get done is the jetting and the last parts of the electrical that I haven't been able to get working yet- the brake light and the turn signals. I found a small shop in Livermore that said they could hunt down the electrical problems. I'm in the home stretch!
A collection of blurbs stemming from mostly the motorized projects that I do. Some posts mixed in have to do with my experiences in X-ray school. (Some entries are from older blogs that I killed off.) Some of my toys are a Mazdaspeed Miata that I work on and take to the track, a little Harley that I can't stop modding and an old Yamaha RD400 that I've been collecting parts for over the past 15 years. When I'm not wrenching, sometimes I mountain bike, sometimes I snowboard, sometimes I make beer.
Sunday, April 26, 2020
Thursday, April 2, 2020
No!!! Not Another New Hobby!!
So with this whole Coronavirus stay-at-home thing going on, I've got nothing going on except for lingering projects around the house, catching up on binge-TV, and shopping online. Since we just came back from a vacation to another country, plus we were on a cruise ship, that was a double-whammy to my employer and I was asked to self-quarantine for 14 days before returning to work.
At first I was thinking about buying an older 911 Porsche, an air-cooled model, but that'll probably run me just south of $40K, plus I wouldn't really be at liberty to tweak it the way I would really want to, being that it would actually devalue the car. So I started thinking that maybe I'll just build up an old VW Bug, like 1962-67. Heck! they practically have the same motor (in principle). Plus I could really hot rod it out and no one would really care- it would probably increase the value of the car! The prices aren't too bad- there's always a deal out there somewhere if you're patient enough. And all the parts are readily available.
But before I found my perfect Bug, I revisited the idea of getting involved with the sport of vintage go-karting. A team of brothers from my childhood are now really into it. They are active in one of the vintage kart organizations and participate in a lot of their local events. Apparently one of the club members recently passed away and had a garage full of old karts that his widow wanted to sell off. They put me in touch with her and I was able to purchase one of the fully restored karts for a very reasonable price. That being said, I have sworn off building more cars with the exception of finishing the BMW.
Go-karting is a whole lot cheaper than taking the Miata to the track. On the average, it costs over $200 per HPDE for the Miata. With go-karts, it only costs $20-35 per day for the day's session. This kart is already built up, so there's not much to do with it except dust and shine it up. There's no suspension to tune or maintain. There's just a stock one-cylinder 2-stroke chainsaw motor on the back. The entire kart only weighs about 80 lbs. I can even hang it on the wall in the garage for storage, so it doesn't really take up any space! It even fits in the back of the RAV4 for transport. Fuel is a little harder to find, since it runs on methanol (alcohol racing fuel), but it's definitely available.
The kart is a Bug Sprint, most likely mid-1970's with a McCulloch MC-93 unmodified motor. It's got a Tillotson HL carburetor and runs alcohol for an output of probably just under 15hp. It's chain driven with a centrifugal clutch and is stopped by a hydraulic disc brake in the rear. It's got aluminum Azusa Tri-Star wheels on all corners with skinny Vintage Speed tires. It's a very well sorted kart.
There are a few things that I've purchased since I bought the kart a couple of weeks ago. I drove to Sacramento and met the legendary Terry Ives to pick up some fuel, 2T oil and an air filter setup. I bought a used EZ-Up tent for events. And today I bought a used Coleman Mini Starter I found on Craigslist for $90! That was a steal! I did have to upgrade my helmet situation since both my auto and motorcycle helmets were Snell 2010. I was able to find a brand new Arai Snell M2020 helmet! Lastly I found a really nice 2-layer Nomex Simpson jacket for $140 on eBay. I think I'm set!
At first I was thinking about buying an older 911 Porsche, an air-cooled model, but that'll probably run me just south of $40K, plus I wouldn't really be at liberty to tweak it the way I would really want to, being that it would actually devalue the car. So I started thinking that maybe I'll just build up an old VW Bug, like 1962-67. Heck! they practically have the same motor (in principle). Plus I could really hot rod it out and no one would really care- it would probably increase the value of the car! The prices aren't too bad- there's always a deal out there somewhere if you're patient enough. And all the parts are readily available.
But before I found my perfect Bug, I revisited the idea of getting involved with the sport of vintage go-karting. A team of brothers from my childhood are now really into it. They are active in one of the vintage kart organizations and participate in a lot of their local events. Apparently one of the club members recently passed away and had a garage full of old karts that his widow wanted to sell off. They put me in touch with her and I was able to purchase one of the fully restored karts for a very reasonable price. That being said, I have sworn off building more cars with the exception of finishing the BMW.
Go-karting is a whole lot cheaper than taking the Miata to the track. On the average, it costs over $200 per HPDE for the Miata. With go-karts, it only costs $20-35 per day for the day's session. This kart is already built up, so there's not much to do with it except dust and shine it up. There's no suspension to tune or maintain. There's just a stock one-cylinder 2-stroke chainsaw motor on the back. The entire kart only weighs about 80 lbs. I can even hang it on the wall in the garage for storage, so it doesn't really take up any space! It even fits in the back of the RAV4 for transport. Fuel is a little harder to find, since it runs on methanol (alcohol racing fuel), but it's definitely available.
The kart is a Bug Sprint, most likely mid-1970's with a McCulloch MC-93 unmodified motor. It's got a Tillotson HL carburetor and runs alcohol for an output of probably just under 15hp. It's chain driven with a centrifugal clutch and is stopped by a hydraulic disc brake in the rear. It's got aluminum Azusa Tri-Star wheels on all corners with skinny Vintage Speed tires. It's a very well sorted kart.
There are a few things that I've purchased since I bought the kart a couple of weeks ago. I drove to Sacramento and met the legendary Terry Ives to pick up some fuel, 2T oil and an air filter setup. I bought a used EZ-Up tent for events. And today I bought a used Coleman Mini Starter I found on Craigslist for $90! That was a steal! I did have to upgrade my helmet situation since both my auto and motorcycle helmets were Snell 2010. I was able to find a brand new Arai Snell M2020 helmet! Lastly I found a really nice 2-layer Nomex Simpson jacket for $140 on eBay. I think I'm set!
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