Well Friends,
Have been accumulating parts for a few days to address some deferred maintenance/repairs to Black Betty (that sweet girl.) Weather was near perfect in the shop today and I finally got 6 trees planted in the ceramic, uh I mean soil, that we have here in Skunk Hollow, so decided to start in on the list of Bike/Hack items to knock off:
A little shade on a west wall and some privacy from the neighbors will be good in a few years.
So back to it. The List in no particular order:
1. Weld and paint broken taillight mount (vibration fatigue on a too sharp bend.)
2. Replace front wheel bearings and seals. (Right one getting sloppy as described earlier in thread on recent ride.)
3. Replace front tire. Had a Mitas E07+ Dakar on for the past 16,000 miles. Not completely worn out, but creating a lot of headshake at 18-23 mph if I don't hang on. Replacing with Mitas E07 Dakar, not plus series, smaller blocks, center strip.
4. Replace counter shaft sprocket.
5. Secure rear brake rotor to hub in a manner that will not loosen up.
6. Replace damaged rear brake caliper hanger.
7. Repair and re-true Hack wheel, 3 broken spokes, likely from Crown King adventure.All this is at about 2 years and 34,000 "spirited" miles.
As the parts have been drifting in, I decided to start on at least a few of the items while I wait for spokes and an Outex kit, incase I F up the seal that makes the Woody's wheel tubless. Ideally, I will be able to slip the three new 4.5mm stainless straight spokes in and true the wheel without removing the tubeless seal, but decided having a spare kit on hand would make it a little less intense fiddling with the nipples!
Look Ma, no wheels!
New CS sprocket came in; when comparing it to the one I pulled off, not really all that much wear on the one I removed. Will throw it in the parts bin incase desperate times call for desperate measures.
New "used" rear caliper hangar came in. Nice that it came with a rear caliper, brakeline, speed sensor and parking brake caliper on it, with hardware. At $60 it felt like a pretty good deal.
Old hangar with the score that the bolt head cut into it, similar to last time, when the rotor bolt backed out last week:
Dismounted the rotor from the rear wheel:
Discovered upon close examination, that the Haan hub 4 bolt pattern is slightly larger diameter than the Galfer hub bolt pattern. Discovered this when my good friend Claude cut the shoulder down on some M8 x 24 x 1.25 shoulder bolts to match the rotor holes.
The shoulders ended up needing to be slightly smaller diameter than the rotor holes to allow the shoulders to just touch the holes at the outer point of their radius from the center of the hub. This might explain a bit about why the rotors had a tendency to loosen up.
At this point, I do not know if the Haan Hub is different from the OEM patern or if the Galfers rotor is different from the OEM pattern. I suppose it could be a tolerance stackup issue with both, in unfortunate directions.
Anyway, Claude's new bolts go far enough through to put a jam nut on the back of the threaded hub tab, and the now slightly larger diameter shoulders on the bolts force the rotor to center on the hub a little better than the bolts that I removed with a slightly smaller diameter shoulder.
We are talking 9.5mm compared to 9.9mm for the shoulder diameter, old to new. The holes in the rotor are at 10mm even, so the old bolts were pretty sloppy in centering the rotor on the hub.
Shoulder cut to fit, socket head trimmed down to clear bracket, bolt length shortened to just clear spokes by 0.7mm or so. Thanks Claude!!!
c't'd
c't'd from above
Brought the wheel over to Claude's shop, thinking that I might borrow an M8 x 1.25 progressive threading die. I had managed to forget to bring the bolts I wanted to modify, but Claude had already modified a set of better quality bolts for me, anyway... Good riding buddy!
I believe Claude is uttering a "centering" incantation, in this pic, as we discover the mis match between the hub bolt pattern and the disc bolt pattern.
Claude happily screwing a test fit in...
Backside with a jam nut and plenty of Orange Loctite. When it is set up, tomorrow, I will clean and paint mark for a quick visual inspection method. I don't think it is likely to come loose, again, but I suppose anything is possible:
Yeah, it is possible to get an end wrench on the jam nuts, even with the spokes in the way. Custom fitted bolts!
DCT has a mechanical parking brake caliper that hangs off the same bracket that the rear brake caliper uses, only on the bottom side. Makes for a slightly more complicated rear wheel R&R, but not terrible, once you have done it a few times.
Front tire dismount was easier than it has a right to be... still love the Rabaconda unit.
New Mitas E07 Dakar went on without drama. It had cooled down and I had forgotten to put the new tire in the sun. Thought it might be more of a struggle than it was. Couple of drop-center tools installed to make it a little easier, cold.
Probably some more on this tomorrow; maybe some spokes will arrive; the wheel bearings are cheerfully nestled in the freezer, waiting for installation tomorrow, and the rear wheel assembly is ready to go back on. I'm beat, today, so will call it for the evening.
Your soil will be a bit like ours.
Well apart from needing a pick.
Our sand holds the plants up.
Just have to supply nutrients and water cause theres none in the ground.
Your rotor bolt odyssey is quite the story. Was just reading the specs on that Orange Loctite and apparently it liquefies at 450°f so those jam nuts should be safe.
And if I understand correctly, your friend Claude has a metal lathe that's small enough to turn 10mm bolts? When I think of a metal lathe, I imagine some gargantuan piece of machinery ( LINK )
I myself have only used a metal lathe once. Belonged to one of my sidecar buddies. Wait, I think I still have a pic. Yes, here it is -->
I think I'm shaving a few thousandths off this tube so that I can fit it inside a broken tube on my sidecar frame before it got welded.
I'm pretty lucky, in that he works for one of the aerospace majors and has access to most machine tools. 😀
A lathe was an indulgence of mine.
Not my trade but useful and they just sit until needed.
Milling machines are next level intimidating.
Well Friends,
It was just about perfect temps in the shop, this evening, so talked myself into at least putting the back end back together on Black Betty (that sweet girl.)
Had already stripped the two calipers off of the used ebay acquired cast aluminum caliper bracket, so proceeded to bolt up the calipers and abs sensor to the non-scored bracket.
Pads were still reasonably fresh on the rear brake and not so bad on the parking brake.
Remounted the rear wheel with hardly any bad language required...
Bolted up the new countershaft sprocket using Honda extra fancy, ok expensive, assembly paste on the splines. (stayed with 16 tooth, JT Sprocket),
Blue loctited the bolt and torqued it, then paint marked. Decided that an observation port was needed in the countershaft sprocket cover to be able to glance at the condition of the teeth and the clocking of the paint mark on the bolt. Paranoid? Well, maybe.
I think I spent more time with a toothbrush and degreaser getting the chain oiler muck out from around the CS than I did assembling it. Decided to turn the chain oiler off for the reat of this chain's life and see how it goes.
It is supposedly a little better chain than OEM, and has the fancy gold plating, so should not rust up without the usual coating of 90 wt from the oiler. If it goes another 6000 miles, it will have passed the OEM chain up. So not exactly scientific, but if the chain oiler is not dramatically extending chain and sprocket life in the dirt, then I think I will be happy to have less mess and run it dry.
Happily back on two out of three wheels. Contemplated stopping for the evening, but was in the right frame of mind for wheel truing, so set the wheel up on the truing stand.
The hack wheel is a BMW 5 bolt pattern hub with a 62mm center hole. I lucked out in that I had bought an adapter for the Rabaconda tire changer for BMW wheels that took it down to 20mm so I could get it to mount in the cones. The adapter had more slop in it than I would like, but it was good enough to get an idea of where to start tweaking.
My old friends, a pair of vise grips, to hold the broken spokes to unthread from the nipple.
I had delusions of being able to spin the broken spokes out and new spokes in without turning the nipples, much, since the rim is sealed with an Outex kit to make the wheels tubeless. That was not a happening thing. Ended up having to turn the nipples, since there was too much side load on the spokes and a slight bend where they go into the hub.
Apparently, the rumors are true. You can get away with turning spoke nipples on Outex sealed rims. I had the tire on at 30 psi all the while fiddling with replacing spokes and truing the wheel. No pressure was lost.
Used a diamond wheel to tailor a 6.8mm spoke wrench to fit perfectly.
Chris, at Woody's Wheel Works, included a few extra nipples and this bottle of black gooey stuff with the new spokes. It seemed like there was something like that on the old spoke threads, so I put plenty on the new ones. I think it is some sort of combination sealant and thread lube.
Dicked around with tightening spokes to pull the bow in from mostly around where the three broken spokes were. I replaced a 4th spoke that was adjacent to the patch of broken ones. It wasn't broken, but it was whispering bad things to me while I tensioned the others.
Got it to less than a MM of axial run out, no detectable radial runout, and decided that the slop in the adapter was causing more trouble than it was solving.
c't'd next post
c't'd
Remounted the wheel to the hack axel, set the stand next to it, to use the pointer, and continued to screw with spoke tension.
Got it to less than 0.5mm of axial runout and no detectable radial runout, so called it good enough.
Now that BBTSG was once again a rolling hack rig, I decided to cure one more annoyance.
Since I have owned the rig, I have not been able to run at "free way speeds" with the tonneau cover off and no passenger. If I attempt this, the turbulence pops the back of the seat off and flips it forward with a high probability of it jettisoning into traffic.
I had adjusted the post that snaps into the holder for maximum tension, but it still did it a couple of months ago when I was so bold as to try running down the freeway with the tonneau cover off.
So, the blue strap is a tiedown, the spring loaded type with the friction jaws that grip the webbing and hold it from slipping, unless released. I positioned it so the jaws are out of sight, but accessible, off to the left, then ran a few screws through the webbing into the wood panel, behind the seat.
Maybe not super visually appealing, but the seat back ain't leaving the car without permission, from now on.
By this time, I was out of the mood to do anymore work, so the tail-light bracket (last item on recent list) is going to wait until tomorrow.
It was only 1.30 am when I finished and a balmy 48 F (9 C), so I decided to go for a rip around Skunk Hollow to see how things had progressed.
Headed south and ended up in a Casino parking lot, where there was plenty of room to do brake tests and ever tighter clockwise circles to practice flying the chair.
No weird noises, slop in steering or suspension. And of course, the new front tire eliminated the headshake that I had gradually gotten used to, from the old big block tire wearing down. I like the big block tire on gravel; it grips better in gravel switchbacks than the standard tread E07, but I don't think I will put another one on the front. The headshake was much worse with this one, as it wore down, than it was with the smaller block pattern E07, not plus, that also had a center ridge.
So all in all, the rig is back on the road and ready for adventure. Well, after I fix the broken taillight bracket on the hack fender, tomorrow, anyway!
Cheers!
Decided to turn the chain oiler off for the rest of this chain's life and see how it goes.
It is supposedly a little better chain than OEM, and has the fancy gold plating, so should not rust up without the usual coating of 90 wt from the oiler. If it goes another 6000 miles, it will have passed the OEM chain up. So not exactly scientific, but if the chain oiler is not dramatically extending chain and sprocket life in the dirt, then I think I will be happy to have less mess and run it dry.
First, I protest your use of 90w gear lube in your ScottOiler.
And secondly, I protest your thoughts....yes, even your thoughts...of turning off your ScottOiler.
In New Jersey they would ask...whatsammatayu ???
As the self proclaimed ScottOiler expert here, having installed more than 2 dozen of these ScottOilers on chain driven motorcycles, and having more than a dozen of those ScottOilers on my own chain driven motorcycles, I can tell you...that even in the ungawdly heat of Skunk Hollow, Arizona, I would never run 90w gear lube in a ScottOiler.
In Oregon, they would ask...Yo, poopyhead....whatsammatayu ???
That 90w gear lube you have been using is wrong in so many ways, they may write a song about it, and it would have to be a Country/Western song, somewhere along the lines of...My dawg refused to love me anymore, and my Girlfriend left me, and took my dawg with her, because of all the slimey junk on my countershaft sprocket housing. She (both the dawg and the GF) needed a man with more sense, and cents.
It's a long song title, so they would shorten it to....Dawg Gone, Girl Gone...I'm gonna miss my Dawg
Dane, use a much lighter OIL....not a gear lube, and preferably an oil that is also a CLEANER, or CLEANSER. The 90w gear lube you are using sticks to the countershaft sprocket housing, and invites sand and grit to cling to it, thereby wearing on the drive chain. This is the opposite of what you want to have happen.
Use a generic (not expensive) brand of 5w-20 motor oil from Walmart, then mix it 50/50 with an equal amount of Marvel Mystery Oil, to act as the cleaning agent in the oil mixture.
As you already know, you are not trying to lube INSIDE the rollers of your drive chain, as it is most likely a sealed chain, with o'rings to keep the inner lube kept inside. What you are trying to do is introduce a thin layer of oil as a film between the sprockets and the chain rollers, so that you avoid the dry friction of metal on metal. Even in the ungawdly heat of Skunk Hollow, Arizona, you still want an oil that can fling OFF the chain, and sprockets, taking with it any grit and sand, rather than using that grit and sand as a grinding compound.
# 1, remove all 90w gear lube from your ScottOiler.
# 2: fill the ScottOiler with 5w-20 motor oil mixed with an equal amount of Marvel Mystery Oil
# 3: Do NOT turn off your ScottOiler. Adjust the flow rate so that it lubricates the chain/sprockets, but doesn't leave a mess on the side of your tire.
Two Million Mile Rider
Exploring the World in Comfort
@miles-ladue Yeah, I could try that... The Scott oil got a little hard to find...
Well Friends,
It was a pleasant enough afternoon, so decided to conclude my round of maintenance on BBTSG by repairing my "temporary" tail/brake light bracket that cracked along a bend line that I likely bent too sharply, while cold, for it to conform to the hack fender:
It is made out of relatively thin sheet metal, maybe 16 guage or so. Thought about just gas welding it, but Lord knows I need the practice TIG welding, so that was the decision.
Had a piece of 1/8" (3mm) flat stock lying about, so cut a brace for the "inside" side of the bracket.
Tacked the bracket back together, ground out the area around the brace so I would not need to cut the wires on the taillight connector plug to fish it through the bracket and ground the bracket to fit the angle needed for the tail light to be mostly vertical when attached to the hack fender.
Clamped it in position and welded it up.
Finished the weld on the other side:
Rattle can of Krylon and called it good:
Three bolts and a connector, and it will go on in the morning after the paint dries. List completed.
Then, back to riding!
Your welding is progressing very well.
Not sure if that is a good thing. 😉 🍻
Hold my keyboard and watch this! 🙃
