Purposfully disorganised Post

[dogshome]

Hi all, I recently acquired a 1983 R65 after 5 years of indecision and then my mate saying "why don't you get a BMW?". He has 2 or 3 currently.

Royal Enfield. Too expensive and slow.
Yamasaki. Likely to get into trouble (again...)
Super skooter. Way too expensive.

Loving it. Very easy maintenance, metric fasteners, no butchered screws or bodges. Bulletproof. Handles like a 250 and puts a smile on my face 

Low impact upgrades:
1.Krauser 25L panniers. Left one OK, right one cracked. They are polypropelene, so cut the lid off a bigger one and plastic welded it to the base of the original. Can't see the join as it's at the bottom.
2. LED H4 bulb and LED tail and RT sidelight. Huge improvement.
3. Change alternator bushes. No red light at idle.
4. Change all fluids including 5W fork oil. Keep it low viscosity.
5. Weld up centre stand and foot-pin
6. bush wobbly gear stick with 12*10*20 oilite bush.
7. Remove (surprisingly OK) coathanger gear rod and replace with M5 rod ends. Piccy. Rubber boot from original will go back on when I know I can get my size 13.5 hoof under and over properly. Adjustable..
8. Balanced carbs.
9 Ditch horn for ring dual tone compact air horn. Relay.
10. Solder up and replace fuel tap corroded pipes, fit new seals to tap.
11. Thoroughly clean fuel tank.
12. Buy second hand boot and jacket, new lid and gloves and go riding.

 

[mrclubike]

More than likely your LED bulbs are what is helping the GEN light stay off at idle
Changing  the park  light to LED  will   help even  more

The LED conversion is one of the best upgrades to a Airhead their is 

But beware the H4 LED bulbs have a limited life span
It gets hot inside the lamp housing
But they are making improvements to the H4 LED bulbs all the time  so they may be lasting longer
That is Why I spent the money and changed to a purpose built LED Head light

[dogshome]

Looks good.

The inside of my headlamp is empty apart from the connector for the main bulb. So there is air space. But I will take your advice and check now.

I got two bulbs, will take some measurements of amps and maybe put the spare one in a biscuit tin for an hour and see how hot it gets. I can't imagine it's dissipating as much as a Halogen 55W, but the heat is behind the reflector now.

The LED improved the generator light for sure.

The light quantity and quality is much better though - almost like the D1S Xenons on the car.

[dogshome]

House training.

The R65 is a naughty girl! She deposited some fuel so I swapped the float valves, measured the float weights ( a bit heavy but not much over 10g) and set the heights. All dry.

A few weeks later and she has been wet in the night. We've had words... floats out again and 14 and 15g respectively. She has not been run for 5 years and I think the floats must have dried out. Me running her again and fuel soaks floats again.

Got those, all good. However one of the top caps was leaking air badly. I noticed the metal plug (Welch plug and fibre washer) rattling. Inside that carb top was also grubby (clean on the other). I can confirm that putting the top upside down in a stout tube and hitting the cap out from the inside with a long bolt does the job. Cleaned, dremmelled to rough up and epoxy
poured in on top. Will squirt a bit more on the inside when that goes off to make super sure it won't move.

The tap has also been trouble-some again, this time the silly cork ring (new one) got distorted when I took the pipe off and leaked. I had to flatten both the aluminium spigot tube and the bottom of the threaded tank socket to sort that. They had also corroded and had a rough face and a thin face respectively.

If this wetting continues I shall be leaving a light on and perhaps the radio in the garage overnight!

 

[Matt Chapter]

If this wetting continues I shall be

...turning your fuel taps off just after dismount, works a charm.

[dogshome]

If I hadn't turned the (recently repaired) tap off, there would have been a mini "Buncefield" disaster in my garage 

The new floats have solved it :-)

Sorting the floats and fixing the vac leak through the top cap means she is purring like a kitten now. The valve-gear has mysteriously gone quiet too. Presumably because the two cylinders aren't fighting with back-lash now. She will happily pootle along at idle with the clutch out in first gear 

[mrclubike]

 I wonder if your fuel tap is shutting off all the way
The float and needles are not fool proof
Even in new condition they can leak if the fuel tap is left on or faulty

As far as the valve train getting quiet
I would check the valve lash every 1600km until you know they are stable
DO NOT  set them to .15mm (.006)and .25mm (.010) as Snowbum suggest
Set them to .10mm (.004)  and .20mm (.008) 

The rocker shaft end play being to loose is the loudest source of noise when it comes to the valve train
set it to  about  .04 mm 

[dogshome]

Wheel bearings.
I dropped the rear wheel out to see how that worked and to have a look at the brake shoes. A wisp of oil around the centre but no leak as such and plenty of meat on the shoes. So clean up and re-assemble. Will get a seal next time shoes need doing.

The wheel bearing grease looked dark brown, so pulled the seals, cleaned and re-packed with red grease (synthetic, waterproof stuff). Races and rollers all good. The seals however, had been smacked in with a sharp chisel and looked more like crinkle washers. The seal lips were still fine though, so I flattened the metal part and re-fitted.

Noted that the steel outer race tubes were gouged and might need to cut bearings out if they ever want replacing.

To the front then. The same gorilla that did the back obviously did the front. Seals all wibbly-wobbly. One bearing had a tiny amount of water in it and a slight wisp of rust. The race looked OK (although not perfect) with a slight discolouration. Not pitted or galled, just a little hazy. The rollers all fine.

I straightened the crinkles and refitted. The seal lips were OK, but without springs and not ideal. So front bearings and seals on the list for 2020.

Apart from the crank being 180 degrees out, the wheel bearings are the first proper 'bodge' I've encountered.


The only area I haven't been 'in' yet is the clutch. I have no reason to think the gorilla has been looking for bananas there though 

[Barry]

So if the gorilla bodged the seals how did he do on setting the bearing pre-load.

[dogshome]

Well, the amount of black gunk on the outside says they were done a very long time ago. The bearings look ok and I've not noticed any play.
Probably by luck....

[dogshome]

 I'll check. Can't think they can be far out or something would be damaged after many miles?

[Barry]

Can't think they can be far out or something would be damaged after many miles?

That's a good point but it only takes 2 minutes to do a check with Duane Ausherman's shake the wheel test.

https://w6rec.com/the-5-wheel-bearings/

[dogshome]

Interesting article. Will do :-)

P.S. 120/90 18" Conti Classic Attack tyre is new and very nice, but a complete PITA to get out of the swingarm.