Project CBR600F: Fresh Seals and Taco Time

 Today the Hurricane was scheduled for surgery.  With ratchet straps in hand, it was time to restrain, I mean secure the patient. I had planned on using the motorcycle lift someone gave me years ago, but it really only works well on bikes that aren't a stressed member frame.  So, I lifted with a combo of 2 ratchet straps around the frame, and a standard floor jack and 2x4 to spread the load. 

The front wheel removal was pretty standard, as was the actual fork removal. I loosened the cap before taking them out of the triple tree, to save myself from serious frustration later on.  However, it mutated and came back as a tool failure. 

Thankfully, the bushings were still in good shape, even if the oil was black as the void.  The seals and dust boots were rock hard and probably old enough to vote.  With the legs disassembled (one at a time to avoid confusion), it was time to drain and clean the parts, then test my fancy DIY 3D printed fork seal driver! What's a project without a trip to the store for tools or parts?  I had to track down a long reach 6mm Allen driver for the bottom bolts.  Glad there's a Harbor Freight within a reasonable distance. 

Looking good!

Oh no!

Well, shit.  I guess next time I print them I'll do 100% infill. 

The flanges on the driver snapped off, one at a time.  Granted, I was whacking them with a dead blow hammer when I really should have still used a piece of PVC to drive them.  So, I headed to the store again, for a 5' section of 1.5" PVC.  By using the pipe, an old seal, and the backup washer between them, I was able to drive home all the seals.  With them in place, it was just simple reassembly. 

Delicious.

One done (finally), time for lunch.

It's Tuesday, so tacos!

With a belly fully of tacos and break time nearing an end, it was time to get back to it and finish up the left fork. It's pretty much identical to the right, so, easy peasy!

I'm concerned about these gouges, but we'll see how it goes.

With the forks installed, and everything set to torque spec, it was time to drop the bike and get everything cleaned up.  Tomorrow evening, I'll get the exhaust system put back on with new gaskets, and finish up the headlight assembly.  Hopefully I'll get some time on Sunday to check the carbs for leaks, balance them (again), and see how the 5.5K stumble is doing.  Monday is Ride To Work Day, I may actually be able to take part this year!  The last time I rode to work would have been 2016, on my XJ600. 

Getting closer to being road worthy every week. The next step, is tires and stems.  Then RIDE RIDE RIDE. Stay safe out there. 

Project CBR600F: High Powered Honker

 The stock horn on most motorcycles sounds like someone is strangling a goat.  The horn on my Hurricane is so quiet, it doesn't even work.  After a few "I really wish I had a horn" moments on my test rides, I decided I should probably order the Denali Soundbomb Mini from Revzilla. 

For most installations, this is just plug and play.  However... that wasn't the case with my bike.  I believe this is due to the full LED conversion and how the OEM horn shared a power feed from the marker lights.  When I would press the horn button, the front marker lights would dim and the horn would go "bloop". 

Before hacking into the harness, I took the horn switch part to make sure it was clean and working properly.  Besides being dirty, it was working just fine.  

With that checked, it was time to get cutting.  I unwrapped the harness, found the Wht/Grn wire and snipped it.  To test, I ran a hot lead back to my distribution block.  I turned the key, hit the horn button and HONK! Damn, it's loud. With the power of honk confirmed, it was time to give it some proper connections and clean up the wiring.  

This is the exact reason why I love to use power distribution blocks.

I feel bad for any future owner of this bike. So much red spaghetti.

I'm not a fan of it's current mounting location, so I'm going to try and stuff it behind the headlight bucket when I do the fork seals since I'll have that all torn apart again. 

Tomorrow is surgery day for the forks.  I'm prepped and ready.  For once, I'm using all OEM parts and fluids!

Stay safe out there. 

Project CBR600F: Printing Shade

 My test rides revealed that even with the brightness cranked up, the phone display was difficult to read at times.  So, I found a shade designed for a Samsung phone and tweaked it to fit my application.  

It worked out great with the exception of the slot for the charging cord.  I'll need to pick up a right angle USB cord to take the strain off.  Otherwise, I dig it!  Like the headlight ears, and bucket, this is printed in PETG, so it's gas stable, UV resistant, and pretty tough.  

I'm working on a new version that integrates a spot for the warning lights, as well as a voltmeter.  

Project CBR600F: Breaking The Law!

 Remember what I said about the EPA limiter caps?  Adios you little buggers. 

I used some cork gasket material to pad my vice jaws and heated the screws up with a heat gun.  With a little tug, they slide right off. Remove the leftover glue and you're in business. When I pulled the pilot screws, I carefully dug out the spring, washer and o-ring for each.  As I guessed, the o-rings were toast.  Which really sucks because they're even more difficult to find and I have yet to find the factory size. 

However, I went way down the rabbit-hole while writing this post last night, and I believe I've found a few sources for them.  Once I have these replaced, that will be all of the seals and o-rings refreshed on these carbs.  

I got the new floats swapped over yesterday, as well as cleaning up the float valves and seats.  I didn't find any gunk but my eyesight ain't what it used to be. 

Once the carbs are buttoned up, I can get back to farting around town with my leaky fork seals.  The seal kits should be here in the next week or so, and I plan on swapping out the 2x offroad lights for my printed headlight bucket and a round LED headlight.  One step at a time.  

Project CBR600F: Getting into the wind!

Yesterday, with some more garage time scheduled and the carbs reassembled (sorry forgot to take pictures of the fancy metal fuel T), it was time to test ride again.  The idle stayed stable now that the adjuster had the tension spring installed.  The stutter/surge/stumble was still present around 5.5K through about 6.2K. If I powered through it, or ran the bike higher in the RPM range, it did much better.  Hmmm... sounds like the pilot (aka fuel mixture) screw needs to be adjusted.  When rebuilding the carbs, I set it to factory spec, 2.5 turns out.  However, this bike has a K&N air filter, and a full Delkevic exhaust system without a baffle.  So, that may require some adjustment.  

Out in the real world, running errands. Leaky fork seals and all.

Your handsome author and human safety cone!

I thought I was running the RPMs high (around 7K), until I checked the stock tach. 

Later that night, I drained the carbs, pulled them and loosened the bowls so I could adjust the pilot screws.  This being an 80s bike, the mixture screws have limiter caps to keep people from fiddling with them and cocking up the delicate balance set to meet the EPA requirements. It takes a torch and time to remove them, so I just pulled the bowls instead. 

I'm not sure how Honda expects a person to adjust these while the carbs are on the bike, and it's running. Rumor has it, there is a Motion Pro tool that you can use, but you can't have the limiter caps.  Since I already turned the screws out to 3 turns, from the stock 2.5, I'm just going to do some test rides and see how it runs.  If it needs further adjustment, I'll probably pull the limiter caps. 

As you can see from the errand pic, I'm still riding with leaky seals.  The parts haven't arrived yet, so I'm making do. It's not terrible but it will definitely be better with some dampening! I noticed under heavy braking, my oil cool rubs my front tire.  If that continues after getting the forks to spec, I'll have to make a new mount. 

**UPDATE**

Tried a test start today and there's still fuel coming out of 3/4 overflow.  This stopped when I balanced the carbs yesterday but didn't seem to let up today. I'm going to pull the carbs, check all the jet sizes, check the float valves, and replace the floats with a set from my donor carbs. I might actually just test them on the rack this time.  

Tools For The Road

 I like making functional tool kits that skirt the idea of being minimal.  Unfortunately, I tend to ride ratty old bikes that squeak and leave droppings.  So, I over prepare. Here's what I currently have packed for the Hurricane. 

For the recent repairs and mods, I've been trying to use only the tool kit. That way I know I have what I need when I'm out riding. I thought about carrying the full socket set and may do so, just in case someone else needs assistance.  

Project CBR600F: Missing Bits, Broken Bits, Messy Bits

 The headlight bucket print failed about 24+ hrs into the print job.  I missed a setting in the slicer program which resulted in lines crisscrossing the open spaces. Upset at first, but lessons learned. 

In regards to the weird dropping idle issue, after consulting some moto friends, one suggested my idle adjuster may physically be adjusting itself, in addition to the minor vacuum leak.  So, I checked my donor set of carbs and saw this. 

My set is missing the tension spring! Which, when I stopped and thought about it makes sense.  With how much I had to adjust the idle, it should have been damn near screwed all the way in or at least close but it wasn't.  

When trying to remove my carbs, which was more difficult than in the past, they popped off with some force. The tiny little dirty metal colored spring went for a vacation in my garage; only to be found when I gave up hope and went to search for a suitable replacement.  With that crisis resolved, I noticed my carbs were sitting crooked.  Well, apparently, I was too damn ham-fisted to work in the garage that night.  I snapped the plastic fuel T between the carb banks. 

Thankfully, I found a metal version on eBay.  So, it's kind of a happy accident, which gets me an upgrade. I tried to remove the one from my donor carbs, but most of the screws are stripped so badly I couldn't get them out, even with my fancy JIS screwdrivers. No worries, the new piece should be here Friday; and I still need to get dielectric grease for the carb boots.  

I did manage to print a fork seal driver, which is pretty cool and saves me $40. 

Stay safe out there. 

Project CBR600F: Less Leaks, More Test Runs!

 I started the day off by verifying spark on cylinder 3.  It looked fine, after I reseated the plug wire into the coil, repeated that for cylinder 2.  With that done, it was time to get some fresh fuel.  Test tank hooked up, bike idling to running temp, time to bust out the super fancy CarbMate electronic balancer.  

So far, it's been holding it's fuel, and the coolant leak is pretty minor so it will get resolved once the current host of issues is resolved.  The balancer is super easy to use, so I was done in no time.  Probably should have taken pictures.  With a somewhat proper running motorcycle, I geared up and took her out for a spin.  A few times while out, I had to turn up the idle.  Once on the way home, the bike stalled when I pulled in the clutch.  When starting it up again, the idle was low.  I thought I may have lost cylinder 3 again, so I headed home to temp check.  Ran fine on the way home, and all 4 were firing.   Time to go back out! 

On my last run, had to adjust the idle again but it didn't die this time.  It did however, develop a surge, or stutter around 5K rpms.  I brought it home and parked it. Did a spray test later, and found a leak around carb 1.  The carb boots are new, as of 2019 but I ordered a replacement set anyway.  The fork seals are on the way too.  Found out I can print a fork seal driver, so I'll be doing that once my headlight bucket is done printing. 

So, we're making progress and damn it was good to get out on two wheels, even just for test rides.  It runs strong and is damn nice too ride.  Will be even nicer when the forks don't bottom out! 

Project CBR600F: Oh! Rings and the Spaghetti Factory

 I ordered a set of OEM o-rings for the fuel T, which are damn near impossible to find.  Which seems to be the case for a lot of the first gen parts.  For example, the o-ring for the water pump is rarer than bigfoot. Some guys on a Hurricane page gave me a link for an o-ring supplier who carried an OEM spec ring for the fuel T.  I paid about $20 with shipping for a set of 2 OEM, and about $12 for a pack of 50 for the aftermarket OEM spec.  

**UPDATE** OringsAndMore just got back to me and have a suitable item for the water pump. I ordered a few so I'll have spares. ****

One of these things, is just like the other, but cheaper. 

                                                    

In other news, I managed to print a set of plate mounts.  Did I mention I got a 3D printer?  Well, I did and it's pretty damn cool (when it's not pumping out plastic spaghetti).  I also printed a cramp buster a few weeks ago. 

Radioactive Cramp Buster!

Mmmmm.... sketti! 

Excellent, al dente! 

I have a few other parts that will be printed, handguards, head light ears, switch mounts, and maybe a new gauge cluster with a sun shield.  The material is PETG, which is like ABS but without the nasty VOCs and sensitivity to drafts. I found a cool tool box but with how long it will take to print, I may just buy a tool tube.  

Stay safe out there! 

Project CBR600F: Revenge of the return of the night of the day of the leaks that wouldn't die!

 Well well well.... what do we have here? Leaky fucking McLeakerson. 

I found the source of the latest gas leak, the one that popped up last autumn.  The only reason I spotted it was the bike was revving out the last of the fuel in the bowels and SPRAYING fuel out of the right side of the T.  Probably didn't see it before due to the tank being installed. I had replaced these o-rings in Sept of 2019 . Apparently, my judgement of "close enough", wasn't good enough.  The Harbor Freight o-rings either weren't really sized correctly, or they didn't stand up to the fuel exposure.  Either way, the OEM Honda set have been ordered.  I almost ordered the kit with the fuel T but I have one on my donor carbs.  

In addition to the finding the fuel leak, I managed to clean out my work space so I can, you know, work; as well as replaced my crappy DIY stator gasket. It gave out over the winter and left a pool of congealed oil on the garage floor.  I managed to track one down on eBay, it isn't OEM but it's sure as hell better than what I made. Wait, is this going to be any other "close enough" but not good enough? I doubt it.  

I ordered a set of PlugPhones, and installed my homebrew audio jack.  The audio stream is a bit staticky but not terrible, wind noise may cover that up.  The headphones are nice, and will work well under a helmet, as well as doing chores like mowing.  

Neural uplink complete. 

Looking forward to FINALLY getting the bike to move under it's own power without leaving a trail of fuel.  I didn't bother looking into whether cylinder 2 was working since it's a moot point until the fuel issues are resolved. 

Stay safe out there.