The Red Menace Chronicles

[Hans]

Nope, wet, very wet.

Found a new source of weeping oil in the valve cover area, the rocker arm shafts have a copper washer, seems to be a bit of leak there.  Unfortunately to fix that, the engine has to come out again which I don't feel like doing right away for some reason.

[stevecrout]

my oil leak solution to owning British and American bikes........

[Hans]

Well, since mine is Japanese, a little RTV and tightening up the gasket properly (oops, cockeyed it) works wonders.  Other than the slight top end leak which requires pulling the engine. 

[Hans]

Situation update.  "Fixed" the top end leak by backing off the rocker shafts and re tightening.  Looks to have reseated the copper washers.  Took a look at the spark plug after yesterday's ride and it was a slightly alarming whitish colour, so out came the carbs in in went some slightly richer main jets.  I didn't touch the idle circuit in the hope it wouldn't affect the good starting I've been experiencing.   Took that opportunity to polish up the float valve seat and replace the float bowl gasket, hopefully that helps the fuel weeping.

[Hans]

She just continues to break my heart.  Got the new larger tank, so could go further afield.  Fought with fuel leaks for most of March, finally got on top of those.  Up and quit on me on the last Tuesday night ride.  Popped, wouldn't pull, run ok, pop, die.  Strt after a minute, pop , die, end of story, home on the trailer.  At home, zero spark.  Checked the stator I installed last spring with the multimeter and Zero ohms through the ignitor coil.  Must be shorted.  Pull it further apart this weekend if I can find the time. 

Old bikes.... always have a spare.

[Hans]

Definitely fire the mechanic..... wasn't paying attention to the Ohm settings on my multimeter.  Stator now tests good.  Ran the wiring loom looking for shorts or open circuits and everything checked out all the way to the coils.  Coil reads good on the Ohm meter.  Signal generator reads a little low.  No spark to be seen.  Plug was a but sooty, but nothing too bad.  On a "throw the cheap stuff at it first" attempt, I got a new plug and trimmed back the plug cable an 1/8th of an inch.  Nice healthy spark.  Put the Ohmmeter on the old plug, reads an open circuit.  Scrape the soot, reads OK.  Maybe the plug just fouled?

Anyway, I've transferred the insurance to the SRX400, it started 2nd kick after the winters sleep.

[Hans]

So, being the masochist that I am, I'm back at it.  Since the last post 4 years ago, I've intermittently tried a few things.  A new kill switch, a new crank sensor, a new coil, and a cleanup of the worst of the wiring gave no joy.  The carbs have been in and out multiple times, and I'm not sure where some of the bodywork is. That as it may, I've tried 2 new thing.  One is a new genuine Chinese CDI.  The other is to reset the valves.  I was wondering if maybe they had run tight and were lifting up when it got warm.  So, I had one intake valve super loose, one good.  One exhaust valve was good, and the other was tight.  Checked the spark by spinning the engine over with a drill and it was really healthy.  Put some fresher fuel in the tank and got it to fire up on the 10th or so kick.  Think the carburetion is way off as it started without the choke.  Ran it up and down the street, shut it down, and firing it up on the first kick.  Figured that was enough pushing of my luck for the evening and packed everything up.

[stevecrout]

Despite the amount of grief and anger they generate its hard to toss them to the curb isn't it?  A little like a relationship (I've only heard about).

I wonder if there is a compounding of issues here that is causing said mechanic to pull out precious hair?  Is it possible there is a warping in the head or the mating to the cylinder that would cause the valve clearances to go so far out? This, coupled with an iffy spark might be enough to cause the running issues?  Once everything is nailed down is it possible to do a compression test cold then hot?

Just my 2 cents.