I took about 100 pictures at the AMA Museum in Pickerington, Ohio this weekend. Here’s a few with Honda XLish bikes for MrLarner. I’ll post the rest in sections, Enduro, Trackers, Racing, Vintage, etc. over the next couple days.
I don’t really know what I’m doing, but I’m replacing a few gaskets in the top end of my 1995 GS 500. It was leaking oil from the cylinder head gasket. I got a complete engine Genuine Suzuki gasket kit on Ebay for $110 shipped.
I wrenched on this sucker all weekend. I had a stuck header bolt, which took about 4 hours to get off. The block is made of aluminium, and the bolts were steel. So steal expands and bonds with the aluminium. I replaced the header bolts with stainless steel threaded rod and nuts.
On top of all that, the piston crowns are quite fowled with carbon, and I left them that way. I coulda scrubbed it off, but I didn’t want the crap to fall down into the engine, and I didn’t want to pull the pistons. The valves were also really carbony, and I likely shoulda spec’d everything out while I had it opened. But I figure, it ran ok before I took it apart, I’m cleaning some of the crap out, so it should run better, right? We’ll see.
After I got ‘er all back together at 10:30pm Sunday night, I turned it over with the starter a could times to circulate the oil into the top end. Everything sounded ok, and I could hear the compression opening and closing the valves.
Then I put the carbs on it and started it for real. It’s got an exhaust leak where the headers hit the engine. I tried to chisel out the old gaskets, which must’ve damaged it and caused the leak. It’s wicked loud now. There’s also some clicking under the valve cover. I’m hoping it’s just the cam chain tensioner, which is the easiest fix. If I hafta take this bitch all the way apart again, I’m gonna be pissed.
Wrenching on bikes is only fun when it works.
I rode The Lion about 300 miles towards the foothills of Tahoe last Saturday. My goal was to ride the “12 Loop”, which starts with highway 12 right over the Bay Bridge in the Eastern Bay. From there, I was aiming to head east towards Tahoe, Amador County, and generally get lost in the fast twisties of Northern California.
So…. Yet another blog. From Matthew Bennett. But why?
Well, I’m into mobile phones, motorcycles, data logging, traveling, and connecting with like-minded people through blogging. This site is intended to log my motorcycle trips with mobile devices. I’m certain I’ll run into all sort of problems along the way, and when I do, I’ll post how I did these things, and why you want to.
Run Linux and Ride More!
