Rd350 built up crank assembly

Posted on by
3

A few of you may of seen the pair of RD350’s I picked up a few weeks ago and there subsequent tear down. This will document the rebuild of the crankshaft. As I type the cases are out in Oregon being vapor blasted HERE, a process similar to glass beading except that its done with a slurry and produces a superior finish that doesn’t stain as easily and looks like the day the part was cast. In the meantime I have been sussing out different things on the bike and gearbox, removing unesscary tabs on the frame and collecting parts for the rebuild.

Having dissembled the the crank to inspect,I found out I would need new connecting rods and bearings in addition to the 4 main bearings that support the crank.

CRANKPINS, the big ends of the rods were just as trashed as well as some bluing form heat

 

While I neglected to take photos of pressing the crank apart it is almost the same as reassembly.

All apart with the pieces that will make it new again, also note the slotted con rod for better oiling

objectives are: Make special fixture to support the crank while pressing it apart and not bend the rods.

Almost fold the press and or explode my push bar to sepiarate the center webs that have been married for 40 years.

Catch crank halves as they fire out the bottom of the press.

All this has been accomplished by the simple fixture I made out of some large square tube with a half a dozen rags stuffed in the end and a plate with an notch cut out for the crank pin to sit.Crank pin in, rod and bearings and thrust washers on

The most difficult part of reassembly is pressing the two sub-assembles together while maintaining the rod side clearance at .001-.003 You can’t see from the pictures how I accomplished this with two pieces of bar between the crank webs. This proved difficult as the clearance I wanted to maintain went away to almost nothing, at least it prevented me from bending the crank pins! Because of this I had to reset the side clearances, not  big deal but a little harder than while it was still the sub-assemblys.  This is the point where I began to get frustrated and stopped with the photography class. After a bit more futzing around I was left with an assembled crank. Next installment will be truing the crank, STAY TUNED!

Chris’s Norton mill goes together

Posted on by
Reply

Sunday night I met Chris aka Goodwill down at the shop to put his Norton Commando motor together. While he has never built a motor before he has a pretty good mechanical knowledge and I get the pleasure of working with him 5 days a week to answer all his questions. He’s been coming down to the shop on Sundays and tuesdays for a few months quietly working away. Ive been pretty busy with my other projects so I haven’t been paying much attention to what he’s been doing. All his busy work of cleaning bolts, fixing threads, and sorting what goes where paid off on sunday.

He will be running one of those fancy superblend bearings on the drive side an a ball on the timing side to control the crank end float.

Chris heating up the cases to accept the bearing race

Crank has been built up and the rods polished by Classic Cycles in frenchtown NJ, you could comb you beard in the reflection of these things. We put the bearing in the “bearing shrinker” aka shop fridge for a while and sorted a few things out. After sufficient shrinking time Chris fired up the heat gun and heated the cases to install the bearing. It dropped in for install with no hamfistery needed.After that, we used sufficient force to assemble the case halves for a dry run on the end float of the crank and camshaft. 2 or 3 tries later we had the float within acceptable limits on both and were ready to jizz them together.We fitted the halves back together one last time and torqued the bolts to: just tight enough in/lbs, checked it one more time and had a Beer. PERFECT SUNDAY

 

 

Sorry AMCA Purists. . .

Posted on by
2

. . . but the 47 year old cloth wiring and flag terminals had to go.

Made a mistake by not replacing all of it when I rebuilt the bike. Too much resistance. This is only a 6V bike, making it worse. Many wires are internally corroded even though the jacketing looks fine.

I kept the old sheathing/conduit at least.

Bright lights and loud horn now. Hopefully better battery life too.

Jason

Cool wires, but beat.

In with the new.

8 Years Ago

Posted on by
3

Hard to believe it’s been 8 years since I took a two month long trip around the country. I rode 11 thousand miles. I was snowed on, rained on, burnt by the sun, flooded out in my tent, swam under the Golden Gate bridge, threw snowballs off the Big Horn mountains, came face to face with a Buffalo in WY, snakes in NM, cops in Long Beach, lizards in TX, hiking in Trinity CA, stripped down bare ass naked and sunburnt when I reached SF and ran down the beach into the Pacific. Met and stayed with new folks almost every day. Picked wildflowers and put them on my bike every few days, watching them turn to dust slowly with wind and miles before picking more. Met up with old friends. Made new ones. And so on, and so on and then some. I still daydream about that trip. While cliche, to call it a life changing experience is perfectly apt.

At Lassen Volcanic park in N. Cali

Some observations and mental meanderings I quickly wrote down upon returning . . .

It happened.

I came home.

Two months, roughly eleven thousand miles, three or four hundred beers, and many new friends later. . . I came in from the cold. I paid the price on the last leg of my trip. It was around forty degrees Fahrenheit and I pulled every last ace from my sleeve in an effort to stay warm. Big deal. The Sun God was kind enough to provide me with balmy days up until the very end. Hell, I got to ride through Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia in eighty-degree weather in a sweatshirt, at the end of October no less. So many beautiful roads framed in bubbles of blaze orange and blood red and glowing yellow were put before me as I meandered through tiny little coal towns on the way back to my home coast. I was intimidated by the powerful beauty and richness before me. So much so that the thought of trying to capture something of it seemed a timid joke. I reverently kept my camera in my saddlebag. My natural inclination to want to borrow a snatch of this to share with my friends or to rekindle my own memories later in the bogs of grey winter were tugging at me. As I often do in times and places of great significance, I decided that this was intended for eyes and memories only. How lucky was I to have caught this perfect curl of Indian summer?

Continue reading →

Im Turning Japanese

Posted on by
1

For a long time now Ive been wanting a Yamaha RD350-400 but just couldn’t justify the cost of buying one with all my there current projects. I bought a fancy app for my phone that searches craigslist for you under the search criteria you want. It cost the same as a good cup of coffee, best 2.99 I HAVE EVER SPENT! At work this past week this modern marvel of technology lets me know that there a pair of rd’s for sale in upstate NY for $100 with title. Called guy and he gave me the story, been sitting since 81′ was the fastest bike he has ever ridden etc. After getting off the phone I felt an immeadate call outta work sickness coming on. Me and Cleo Dog took the 10 hour ride there and back through the fall leaves and countryside.Lately Ive been rather disapointed in the amount of time I’ve been getting at the shop. This project will be done at my house only like old times. Get to put a few hours in after the kids go to bed. 


So Simple and well designed, no wonder the brit's went out of business

This will be kind of a super bike build. Lots of fiberglass, the bike stock weighs in at 351 lbs dry, pretty light to begin with. Im going to try to shave at about 50 lbs off it. I split cases and crank the other night, The build sheet will include new bearings throughout, rods, pistons, banshee reed cages, yz125 reeds, boost bottle, updated brakes and shocks, and aluminum rims. Stay tuned.

Brooklyn Nights

Posted on by
Reply

Don’t let sunny day appearances fool you. Every time you see someone on a nice old good-running bike you can be sure they’ve put in hundreds or even thousands of greasy hours behind the scenes in some garage or sidewalk or living room.

Brooklyn. 1998. In the earlier phases of R&B refinement. After a 30hour weekend getting the motor buttoned up and back in the bike after a major failure. Riding with sport bike guys. Best way to get me to do something? Tell me I can’t (keep up).

Jason

Dues are ALWAYS due.

Let's call it a day

Synching Twin Carbs

Posted on by
9

We were talking with a friend last night who was trying to get his dual Dell’Orto carbed Guzzi synched and idle speed set. As is often easy to do, we slipped into over-analyzing what needs to be done and how to accomplish it. Then after a a couple beer’s worth of continued speculation and jabber, we reeled it in and simplified it.

Synching a twin is easy. Here’s how to do it.

Some people are conceptual learners, needing to understand how something works and the approach behind tuning it. Others a procedural learners, concerned more with how something is done than why it works. Both are valid. I’m in the former camp. I’ve found that once you know how something works there are many different recipes for how to do it.

There is only one goal in synching your carbs: To have all cylinders contributing the same amount of effort at any time.

There are three steps to doing this on your twin:

1) Obtaining the optimal idle fuel mixture for both carbs

2) Setting the idle speed screws so both carbs run at the same rpms when the other cylinder is not firing

3) Adjusting the throttle cables so that the throttles move at the exact same time when the grip is turned.

There are some tools you can use to make this job easier or quicker, but they are not required. You can do a fine job of synching with just your ears and a screwdriver. A simple vacuum gauge like one you’d get at the auto parts store will make setting idle fuel mix easier. A motorcycle carb synch tool makes step one and two easier. A tachometer could also be used in place of a vacuum gauge or synch tool for the first two steps.

Continue reading →

Fall Pennsyltucky Ride

Posted on by
3

I’ve been having a hard time getting out for a ride in the last couple months. Work is blown up and demanding mad hours (need to find a new job). Emmett is now walking. Cold weather has me tired all the time. There’s no end to things that need to be done around the house.

Got my chance yesterday. Almost folded when I woke up to see the 34F on the thermometer and the clouds in the sky. After breakfast and a snippet of sunlight, I decided I’d best take my chances. Good thing I did.

Per usual, I chose a general direction and tried my best to let my good road instincts guide me. Sometimes it works fabulously. Others, well, some of you have ridden through plenty of suburban sprawl hell zones that this city has so many mile of, with me. Sorry. Yesterday turned out right and I found some new great roads and routes to get out of Dodge with minimal foulness. I even wrote the names of the roads down on my fancy phone a few times during the day so I might get back there and continue scouting at some point.

I ended up at French Creek S.P. and Hopewell Furnace. I’d been camping at the former a few times but never had the pleasure of checking out the furnace. Wow. I had no idea. What a place. A system of sluices for carrying water from Hopewell Lake runs for miles through the woods to drive the water wheel for the furnace belows. The wheel house below is almost temple-like in its quiet and demand for calm. The coal barn and feed room set on the hill must be 100 feet above. Downstairs there were ten or more casting mold stations that appear to have been recently used. I wonder if they give demonstrations. The furnace is obviously not working, but there’s no reason they couldn’t make molds there at least. The pig iron troughs in the floor at the foot of the furnace were still full of old rusty iron. Stacks of pig iron lay about the building everywhere. Molds for frying pans and griddles and shirt irons too.

After a dynamite cup of coffee from a visitor center lobby vending machine (which spilled on me and took almost ten minutes) I made my way while I still had time. I suited up and pulled my ipod out of the tank bag. I spent the next few hours riding twisty back roads around Berks and Perkiomen counties through the blaze colored trees. Listened to Fleet Foxes and Fruit Bats and Black Keys. Perfect companion.

It was nice to be back on the BSA again. I finished this bike (again) in the Spring and spent the first couple months of the season riding it everywhere. Then for some reason I put it away in August and hadn’t been on it since. After pumping up the tires and changing the oil, she was a flawless ride. Nimble and perfect for this type of ride. You can flick this bike through the turns at 60mph just like a modern bike, or pretty close at least.

Got home by sundown and went out to dinner with my family.

Jason

Manatawny Rd somewhere just below Oley, PA.

Covered Bridge Rd just outside of Pleasantville

It wouldn't be Fall in PA without coal


Continue reading →