1BigDog

heres some current pics of the "other" woman in my life.

First let me thank Freebird for his clear pics on the screw locations for syncing the carbs in the tech section. I have done this several times without any problems, however this time my vision would not allow me to look deep into the carbs to see the 1-2 screw. All I was able to see was a lump of something in its general area. Some of you old timers will understand the balancing act of trying to see while wearing bi-focal glasses and said screw is just at that point where you transition from the reading portion to the distance portion of the glasses. Dont work too well. Heading back to the garage to give it a try.

So, I take off for work in my SUV and my battery light comes on and the gauge is reading 10V. Alternator decided to crap out. I guess for 160k and 12 years I was lucky. Loss of a days pay and the next few hours replacing it would justify a shop doing it but since its a Friday night and they are closed Sat/Sun im screwed. Poop happens....GRRRRR

Removed and im now installing my carbs based on Cougars excellent write-up. Right now im stuck. Im not sure which hoses fit back on the carb overflow fittings. I have 2 sets of hoses laying on the bench. 1 set has what appears to be two filters or canisters attached to it, one on each hose and routes to the rear. Are these the carb overflow hoses? Another set has just two plain hoses and im thinking these attach to the surge tank at some point. Any suggestions??

So, I combined my float adjustment story with my soon to be experience with my local stealer. Float adjustment first: After cleaning the bodies of the carbs and they sure were grungy, I opened up the float cover. Now remember that this bike has sat for 2 years now but did fire right up a few months ago. More on that theory later. Following Gooses instructions and some phone help from Muffinman I was able to measure my floats. All were in tolerance. Two were spot on at .034 and two came in at .032. I adjusted those two to .034. Not having those fancy sliding calipers and other instruments of measurements I made my own "tool". I took a Q-tip, cut off its head and took my digital caliper and spaced it out to .034 and marked it with a thin line. Using Gooses reference points I measured the floats, all angled properly as instructed. On thing different was I used a 16 0z bottle of water for my prop, not a block of wood. Serves two purposes. One, it holds the carbs at the right angle and two, you can take a swig of water whenever you need to. Back to the two year lay up and what I found inside the float bowl. I found nothing. Just a light dusting of residue from the gas. Came off with some carb cleaner and a Q-tip. No grungy stuff, no nasty buildups either. Same for the float area. Nice and clean. I was amazed. I expected to see tons of gunk in there. Not the case. I can only attribute that to the fact that I have used Sea-Foam on a regular basis, try to use the same brand and station for gas and also use Star-Tron fuel additive. Overall im pretty happy with what I found. Now for the stealer. I figure ill go ahead and replace the float bowl O rings while its apart. Part Shark has them for 5.27 each with msrp of 7.95. Looked up the parts fisch for my local dealer online and he showed 7.95. Called them up to see if they had them in stock and they did. Asked him to set them aside and ill swing by soon. How much each? I asked. He says 10 bucks each.....Hmmmm, 7.95 on your own website and your gonna charge me a premium? I said to myself. Ill see what he says when I show up there later with a print-out of his page. He really defined the term stealer. Ill see soon enough.

My Whirlpool refrigerator, which was made in 97 and bought in 2000 is going on the fritz. The last few weeks things were getting real cold in there, both freezer and refrigerator. The last few days the back of the freezer iced up somewhat and now both compartments is getting warmer. I turned the separate thermostats to a lower setting and it helped slightly but that did not solve the problem. Any ideas on this? I am going to try and clean out the coils tomorrow and see what that may do.Not sure how dirty they are as my wife usually vacuums under there every 6 months. Suggestions please......

I discovered that a stick of dynamite will fit neatly into the exhaust hole on my HD mufflers. I know this because I plan on lighting the fuse if I cant get a stripped bolt out. I have been toying with this bolt for a few weeks. Its one of the allen head bolts that hold on the faux cylinder fins. The top (deep) one at that. The piece of crap bolt material that Yamaha uses has rounded off and I have been trying different methods to remove it. Im leery of an impact driver as I dont want to crack the cylinder even though I have tried it with moderate force to no avail. Its almost impossible to get in there with a dremel to cut a slot and an extractor tool didnt work. I just built up the hole with JB weld and taped the socket into place. Maybe it would harden enough to get a turn out of it. Last resort would be to have a welder come by and tack weld the tool to the bolt head. That aint a cheap solution. So, if you see a mushroom cloud over Jacksonville......well.......

Special thanks to RandyR for his loaner of the Valve adjustment kit and to ToyOdie for his help today in doing the adjustment. Let Him Ride swung by for about an hour too. Pulled the carbs off and the adjustment itself took several hours. Dick spent about 6 hours here and between the two of us we figured things out. Too bad I read the wrong measurements on the feeler gauge.......no further comment there. The spread sheet that was posted here from Swifty, I think, was great. Sometime this week I have to finish cleaning the carbs and playing with the float bowls. They sure were grungy under that gas tank. ToyOdie (Dick) got the kit now and should be doing his valves soon as well. Thanks again Dick, It was nice to finally meet you. First beer at Buffalo's is on me.

Yep, just chillin our bare bones in chat......come on in and have a dip of ice cream....it'll make your, oh, nevermind..... :whistling:

So, I plan on going ahead with my valve adjustment while I have (or will soon have) the carbs off. I read of some kit and tool being loaned at some point. Anyone know where to seek this kit and what are the rules for it?

After sitting for close to 2 years I fired the bike up today. Fresh gas, a bit of sea foam and some star tron additive and she fired right up like it was only yesterday that I last rode it. That lasted for maybe 5 minutes then gas started leaking from the left bank of carbs and a little bit of popping. Not sure which one yet but since the bike is now 14 years old im thinking of just going ahead and rebuilding the carbs. Hell, I rebuilt everything else on the bike so why not. Looked up the parts fisch at Stadium cycle and all of their carb parts are listed as not available. Parts shark still had them listed. I couldnt find a total rebuild kit for these carbs. So, what I am asking here is some help from someone who has actually rebuilt a set of 2nd gen carbs. Parts source? Any kits available or must I order the parts "ala Carte"? Id be willing to pay someone if they can rebuild the carbs for me. My patience is running thin right now.

After having the bike up in the air for almost 1.5 years its finally sitting on the ground. I noticed just how low it looks. Even my wife commented on it. It was from the impression the bike made while it was sitting on the top rung of the bike jack all that time. Got to pick up some oil today and some fresh gas, plugs and fuel filter and hope this beast fires up. Cranks over real well. Got some great advice from Goose so it should all go well. Hope to be riding by Bike Week.

Drafting Guys Over 60 This is funny & obviously written by a Former Soldier... New Direction for any war: Send Service Vets over 60! http://us.mg205.mail.yahoo.com/ya/download?mid=2%5f0%5f0%5f1%5f243996%5fAMHVimIAAREoUIVdsgpndxDcSn0&pid=1.2&fid=Inbox&inline=1&appid=YahooMailRC I am over 60 and the Armed Forces thinks I'm too old to track down terrorists. You can't be older than 42 to join the military. They've got the whole thing ass-backwards. Instead of sending 18-year olds off to fight, they ought to take us old guys. You shouldn't be able to join a military unit until you're at least 35. For starters, researchers say 18-year-olds think about sex every 10 seconds. Old guys only think about sex a couple of times a day, leaving us more than 28,000 additional seconds per day to concentrate on the enemy. Young guys haven't lived long enough to be cranky, and a cranky soldier is a dangerous soldier. 'My back hurts! I can't sleep, I'm tired and hungry.' We are impatient and maybe letting us kill some ******* that desperately deserves it will make us feel better and shut us up for awhile.. An 18-year-old doesn't even like to get up before 10am. Old guys always get up early to pee, so what the hell. Besides, like I said, I'm tired and can't sleep and since I'm already up, I may as well be up killing some fanatical s.o.b. If captured we couldn't spill the beans because we'd forget where we put them. In fact, name, rank, and serial number would be a real brainteaser. Boot camp would be easier for old guys.. We're used to getting screamed and yelled at and we're used to soft food. We've also developed an appreciation for guns. We've been using them for years as an excuse to get out of the house, away from the screaming and yelling. They could lighten up on the obstacle course however... I've been in combat and never saw a single 20-foot wall with rope hanging over the side, nor did I ever do any pushups after completing basic training. Actually, the running part is kind of a waste of energy, too... I've never seen anyone outrun a bullet. An 18-year-old has the whole world ahead of him. He's still learning to shave, to start a conversation with a pretty girl. He still hasn't figured out that a baseball cap has a brim to shade his eyes, not the back of his head. These are all great reasons to keep our kids at home to learn a little more about life before sending them off into harm's way. Let us old guys track down those dirty rotten coward terrorists. The last thing an enemy would want to see is a couple million pissed off old farts with attitudes and automatic weapons, who know that their best years are already behind them. HEY!! How about recruiting Women over 50...in menopause!!! You think MEN have attitudes?? Ohhhhhhhhhhhh my God!!! If nothing else, put them on border patrol. They'll have it secured the first night! Send this to all of your senior friends...it's in big type so they can read it.

Ill be spending the night in the Longwood FL area on Oct 30th to 31st. Im not familiar with the area. I know there are some shady areas over there. I need some hotel info on where the better areas are. IM having some mods done to my Mustang at Lamotta Performance on 17 and I want to try to stay in the immediate area but some of the local hotels have pretty sleazy ratings so im concerned with the overall area. Thanks, Jeff

Saturday we had my daughter Kelly's baby shower. Saturday night her water broke and she was rushed to the hospital. Shes now in the NICU (neonatal ward) and will remain there until little "Gavin" decides to make his entrance. Shes at 29 weeks and the baby weighs in at 2.5 lbs, which surpasses some benchmarks for weight and size minimums. The longer the kid waits, the better it will be. Original due date was Dec 9th but that would be a miracle if the baby waits that long. Could be any day now, we just dont know. Were all just hanging in there right now. Please keep Kelly, Chris and baby Gavin in your prayers.

After the bike being on the lift for about a year she will be coming back to earth in a few days. Just got to add fluid to all the brakes/clutch and bleed, route some electrical accessories, install the tank and seat and it'll be good to go. Should be like a new bike with all the work that went into it. Should get another 10 years out of it. I dont need no stinkin "new" Venture anyways..... Lets see: rebuilt and deburred and polished the lower legs and beer cans. Progressive springs and Amsoil fork oil. Polished the R-1 calipers as well as the front rotors. Also polished the rotor bolts as well as the brake banjo bolts. Polished the lower tree as well. New neck bearings and races. Flanders bar conversion. Chrome switch housings. Polished the brake and clutch masters along with SS brake and clutch lines. Rebuilt rear caliper. Chrome front and rear wheels. Rebuilt said wheels as well with new bearings, seals spacers, dampeners. New saddlebag rails. VMAX rear. Saddleman seat. Assorted chrome accessories. (im still finding stuff that I have ordered while I was under the OXY spell) (no, for you newbies, it was for knee replacement, not a crack hoe addiction) And I did order much stuff..lol Even taught myself to mount the tires. I didnt want the shop to scratch the chrome. Im sure there is more stuff that ill uncover but thats all I can think of right now. I still need to strip and polish some of the old billet covers that the chrome has been fading off. Thats something that I can do as the winter sets in here in Florida. I was hoping that Eck would have invested in a new paint job for his future investment but, ah, well.........

Im rebuilding the rear wheel with all new bearings, spacers and seals. I have a question on the proper positioning of a spacer flange on the disc brake side of the wheel so maybe someone here who has had to rebuild their wheel and/or someone who has removed the bearings on that side can answer this. Or maybe someone who has a rear wheel laying around with the bearings removed can chime in too. The spacer flange is a stamped steel spacer with one side flat and one side hollow. It goes into the wheel just behind the wheel bearing and seats into a cut-out in the axle opening, followed by the bearing. What I need to know is what side of the flange faces the bearing. The flat part, which im leaning to or the hollow portion? The parts fiche offers no help. Thanks

So, someone said to me the other night that they wouldnt give a rats ass. It got me to thinking. Do people really give anyone a rats ass as a gift or something or is it a folklore thing? Cmon, its pouring rain outside now and im bored to death. I truly know that at least one of you here really does give a rats ass. Lets here from yas......

Today I was working on the bike and thought back to my first shaft manipulation. I was much younger then and it took me about an hour to manipulate my first shaft encounter. WOW was I pooped!!! Well today im a bit older but wiser and as I was manipulating my shaft it was all over in 45 seconds!! I was aiming blind into the dark abyss and before you know it, I was done!! Just think, one day I may not be able to manipulate my shaft ever again!! Well, at least its coated pretty good with Honda Moly 60 now. Should last a long time. Wait, what were you all thinking???? I was greasing my driveshaft and installing the Vmax rear. What the ............Some of yous are really sick...... Also removed the last of the scorched rear wheel dampeners that Chrome Pros left in the wheel when they chromed it. Took much manipulation (again?) with a SawZall and a metal cutting blade along with a blind hole puller to remove them. Cleaned out the bores with a sanding drum and installed the new dampeners. Tomorrow AM ill install the new bearings in the wheel and just maybe ill have it buttoned up. Hmmm, still have to break the Avon off the old wheel and mount it on the new wheel. Yea, learned how to do that by hand as well. :smile5::smile5:

Last week I received a suspicious email from PayPall saying my security needs updating. Notice the spelling in PayPall. I fordwarded this scam email to PayPal and thought all was well. I never opened the link. Decided to check my emails today and found several notices from PayPal about a new recurring 50 buck withdrawl. Went to my account and found I was hacked. Somehow they got my password and set up an automatic withdrawl. So far my bank account was charged 100 with another 100 pending. PayPal had me update my security info and put a stop on this new account and is going to issue the refund within 7 days. You guys may want to look at your accounts as well. First time I ever had an issue with PayPal and they resolved it swiftly.

Whats the definition of guts vs balls? Guts is when you come home from an all night drinking binge with your buddies and your wife greets you at the door with her broom and you say "are you still sweeping up or are you taking that out for a spin tonight"? Balls is when you come home from partying all night, smelling like stale beer and cheap perfume and your wife meets you at the door and you say " " Whoa, you're next, Chubby"

The pasted message below was my last email that I sent to chrome pros in Corpus Christie Texas. As you can see the customer service sucks big time. While the wheels came out nice, they also left in the dampeners in the rear wheel, causing me a whole ton of extra labor to remove them. Unfortunately for me I didnt order them through Ebay, but directly on the phone, which may have given me more protection. But, if there is no response from them by Friday then I will file credit card fraud charges against them with my Citi card. So, some of you PM'ed me about this company possibly considering using them for plating. Right now I would not recommend them to anyone. Ill see what happens after Friday. Sure do wish that we had a member in the Corpus Christie area to go there but apparently not. "Ben, this is the third email that I have sent you. You still havent answered my previous emails. When we spoke on the phone you promised to inspect the return core wheels this past Monday and issue the 485.00 credit as you promised to my card. That has not happened. I spoke to another rep on Tuesday who assured me that the wheels would be inspected and a credit issued. When I asked for his name he hung up. Still no credit to my account nor any response from your company. You had no problems responding to my inquiries for the last few months but now that payment was made all that I am getting is the runaround it seems. I need a commitment from Chrome Pros as to when the credit will be issued. Jeff Koppelman"

Has anyone here removed the rubber dampeners from their rear RSV wheel? Im not talking about the fingers but the actual rubber bushings that sit in the wheel. Just got my chrome wheels back and the rubber was destroyed. Any ideas??

http://travel.usnews.com/features/Americas_Best_Ice_Cream/

First we were hit with TS Beryl and we lost our cat, Dragon, in it. Now, here comes Debby and the B**** dropped 12" of rain on the area so far. My little neck of the woods is doing good so far but most of the town is a mess with downed trees and major flooding. Parts of I-10 are closed. Last night there were at least 3 hydroplaning accidents on I-10 alone, all within a 3 mile space. So far we still have power.....what, you thought I was pedaling a stationary bike to power up the computer?????