CNYCC#16 - June 10,2023

11:20pm—

John (1), John (2), and Alicia have arrived. Time for everyone to crash for the night. Big day tomorrow

 

Saturday morning!
It’s overcast but dry, should burn off

tine to get the coffee going......

Thanks in advance to Len Chacal of xj4Ever, for his support, and some Door Prizes for later on!

Also, thanks to NAPA for donating 4 cans of Seafoam for Door Prizes!

 

Good Morning Carb Clinic-ers! I am away this year and otherwise occupied but am wishing all a great time and sparklingly clean carburetors and good XJ work. Standing by waiting for the pictures.

 

Miss you, John...... you’re known this year as “John (3)”.......

 

Carbman has arrived....

 

Left to right—-
CrazyGnat
Huntchuks
Nuch
BluesBass
AdkRide

 

JBurch


Fred


Alicia, Wild Bill


Nuch doing an oil change, Dave#2 looking on...

All hand on deck to figure a bad oil leak on Mike’s 650.

Long story short—Mike came to us from Facebook land... with a bad fuel and oil issue. It appeared to be a crankshaft seal behind the pickups.
Len Chacal of xj4ever sent a crankshaft seal repair kit as a donation, and lent the tools to use, as well.

BluesBass was on that task, and made a detailed GoPro video and pics of the process. He will write that up after he has a chance to edit things.

HOWEVER....we were actually unable to complete that task due to some PO’s idea of a fix..... which was to grind away the lower 3rd of the case to allow easier removal and replacement of the seal. That created a disaster..... even with the seal in place, the whole area is wide open and the oil passage isn’t completely exposed.... under pressure, even jbweld would likely fail. So Mike will need to decide whether to have some fancy rig welding and aluminum machining done, or get a parts engine to rob a lower case from.

One more positive note, Len ALSO sent a new product to do an installation review...... SO the decision was made to do the installation write-up along with this job as a “hard-luck” consolation prize.

this is REALLY COOL!! Again, BluesBass (John Lysaght) will detail the installation.

What is it?? Well, the oil tally plug is removed, and a new plug is installed (complete with o-ring), but the plug has a brass plug in the center of THAT! That brass plug can be removed, and an oil pressure gauge of your choice (as long as the threads are the right size) is installed. After the bike warms up, record the pressure reading, then shut the bike down, remove the gauge, and reinstall the brass plug. It a new tool for keeping better insight into engine conditions!!

here’s what it looks like when installed——


Is that cool, or what?!?!?

so it’s straight-forward retro-fit.. but we found ONE problem...if there are case savers, they interfere with the installation. The solution was simple.... just loosen the guard enough to let it flop out of the way, but you must remember to tighten it back up.

Again, John will detail that more.

carburetor issues seemed to be due to float levels that were way off, and those were resolved, the Lower case issue will be the first thing to address now.

We broke for lunch....hamburgers, ‘dogs, grilled corn, etc..... fun picnic.

a moment of silence was held in memory of our friend Ken Howard, who passed away about 3 months, or so, after last year’s Carb Clinic. The cool thing is that Ken’s bike that we did a fork seal job on last year, is being given to John#2. (Pic didn’t cone out, but probably seen in other reports), and Kens black bike which he and Alicia always rode is going to Alicia who will be getting HER license. Both bikes were brought up to try and wake up. The black bike was the afternoon’s project ..... it hadn’t been ridden for almost 2yrs. Dave Fox determines the gas still smelled pretty good.... found out it had been started briefly in November, so figured “Let’s see if it’s gonna fire up fairly easily”. Well, dead flat battery. But we hooked up a jumper pack and after a few turns, burps and backfires he got it fired up. After a couple minutes it settled into a smooth idle.... and as long as rpm’s stayed up, it idles smooth but if the idle dropped to far it would quit instantly...battery wasnt holding any charge—
When it fired up, it was an Understandably emotional moment for Alicia...... she asked “PLEASE take me for a ride”.... so Dave#1 took it for a short spin to warm it up good. Then took Alicia for about a 5mi ride. So, it’s here for awhile as house things are attended to, and while it’s here it will get a new battery and some other things.

Other things that were accomplished—-
Diagnosed wet coil issue - Dan
Diagnosed loose clutch bracket -Dan
Adjusted clutch cable - Fred
Resolved bent and low brake pedal - Geoff
Replaced a broken clutch lever


About 5pm those who drove (which quite a few did due to threats of rain), headed home, the rest of us went for a 30 mi ride. John Lysaght set up his GoPro
And his drone to take videos.

after we got back, other who trailered bikes in headed out, and those who are camping settled down to supper..

Hopefully others have their own pics and reports to add!

tomorrow will be another day, and we’ll wrap up CNYCC#16 - “Welcome to Mars” edition.

CNYCC#17 is slated for June 8, 2024

 

Well, here’s a closer view of Mikes “seal”


so look close, and you can see the oil passsge right there.. nope, ain’t no sealing there!!!

 

Oh Good God....there's no end to the creativity of "how to do a job incorrectly" by PO's......

 

Interested in what cold and warm oil pressure readings were on different bikes........

 

Re obtaining a new bottom casing - this is a no no, since cases are line bored as a pair. Mix and match is unlikely to be successful. So it would be new bottom end - and even then the crank main bearings would need matching to his crank to ensure correct clearances. Ideally a pair of cases with good crank would be required.
The PO bodger really struck hard here...

 

Well that botched job needs to be noted as one of the worst on this thread:
https://www.xjbikes.com/forums/threads/previous-owner-masterpieces.57929/

With all the trouble needed to properly correct the case issue as Minimutly noted, I'd be looking for a complete engine.

BTW, sorry I missed this years event. Need to block out the calendar for next year.
Tony

 

Good to know

 

We ended up not going that far, but here’s an couple ideas:

1. I get another replacement plug a couple from you and install them, then I can check pressures before returning the pressure gauge

2. The guys that got the other two plugs can get pressure gauges and then they can supply measurements at some point

 

Tony next year’s date is: June 8, 2024

 

Great to meet everyone!

Am much more favorable towards the Delkevic megaphone after seeing it in person, and very intrigued about the xj4ever rotor maybe fitting an XS.

Dave

 

Sunday afternoon, 3:45pm
Geoff and Dan pulled out, now time to pack everything up til next CNYCC!

By the way—- The XJ Relay Bag II arrived and Dan Huntchuks took it, so we’ll wait to see where it ends up... I’ll go update that forum.

 

Additional pics—-

Bill, Mike, John L, Dave #2, John #2


Dave #1 getting lunch ready


In memory of Ken Howard, our friend who finally crossed the finish line, after fighting Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. He was diagnosed 4 yrs ago, just after CNYCC, was given about 3 -4 mo to get things in order. He turned that 3-4 months into 3.5 YEARS, was at 2 more CNYCC’s, and got married in the meantime. “Never give up, never give in”.

Rest In Peace, Ken.

Getting ready to ride.....

Left to right-
BluesBass, Huntchuks, hogfiddles, CrazyGnat, John ( who is taking ownership of Ken’s xj700), Alicia ( who is taking ownership of Ken’s xj650, Nuch.

other drove, either to trailer a bike to work on, or drove to avoid rain.

 

Duly noted. I shall make sure that no vacations are scheduled for that date. That's what kept me from coming this year. Wrapping-up the honey-do list before we leave to the Keys on Tuesday.

 

K-moe, that would be awesome!