BTW, these are pretty key pieces, very stiff plastic wedges that I use to hold the tire in the valley while levering on the tire.
Well, got the first one off easily enough, but ruined two tubes trying to get a new one on. bwringer offered to help and I took it up to his place last night. He graciously showed how to properly install the tire and got it installed for me. All this while he hosted a group of riders from thegsresources.com in town for the Indy MotoGP. Very much appreciate his help and the lesson in how to install new rubber and balance the tire. Of course, he also told me that Cycle-Recycle II will install them for $12 a tire. Hmmmm...tackle the rear so I'll know how to do this job? Just drop it off and pick it done? Decisions, decisions. WIll probably tackle it just to prove to myself that I'm not utterly clueless.
Nice thread about old bike resto; a good friend had one of those Tempters; got a lot more use than the boss's mega $ chopper. His looked really beat & leaked oil so bad he had rags wired to the jugs to keep it off his pants. It was a real bike though. Got a lot of use and created a lot of smiles. Old's Cool. Makes me want to find a project to fiddle with.......
VTwin; Just wondering if you tore the suspension down and greased everything before replacing the shock. Mine really squeaky and I am considering tearing it all down and greasing everything, but not replacing the shock. It seems to work okay and I don't have the $ needed to replace it just now. Pointless? Might work? Not sure because you replaced the shock while in there?
When I had it apart, I did grease all the needle bearings. The squeek came from the top spherical bearing in the top of the shock. I could have spent the $40 for the bearing, but would have still ended up with a 28 year old shock. Look closely and you can see the rust. You may be able to squirt some lube in there to quiet it down, but pretty sure it's worn.
Afraid the Mighty Tempter is a little less mighty right now. It feels like it has a miss at around 4K rpms. Doesn't matter if it's under a load or just reving to 4K, I can feel it. Plug on the left side looks good, the one on the right looks a bit lean, whitish. So I'm thinking I have a lean miss on the right side or possibly the coil or wire breaking down. Not sure. Any hints? Seems to run ok at freeway speeds, at 5K though.
Hmmm...haven't had issue with mine yet (on this anyway,) but the charging system is apparently quite suspect. I think I remember that you changed the rectifier/regulator, right? Take a look at this material from thegsresources.com site: http://www.thegsresources.com/garage/gs_statorfacts.htm Might prove helpful
Hey, VTwin, Have you changed your chain and sprockets? If yes, what tooth count did you go to? Thinking I'd like to change things out to get a better chain and to drop the engine revs at highway speed.
I replaced the front c/s with a 16t and the rear left alone. I forget what the stock rear gearing is. I live in a somewhat hilly area and would not go more than I have or it would be too hard on the clutch. I can easily do 70mph at around 5K rpm, the bike's sweet spot. As to the regulator and rectifier, I did replace both. The regulator is one of Rick's and the rec was an nos on ebay. Charging is still iffy, but that may be because my regulator touched the hot side of the solenoid and smoked the ground wire I had going to the regulator:eek1. I use a battery tender when I don't ride it more than a few days. I am thinking of getting one of those charging minders with the colored led light. I plan on placing it in the "6th" gear indicator spot since it's not used on our bikes.
70 at 5k sounds pretty good. I know in the Cycle World long-term review they went to a 17 tooth in front and were much happier, but I wanted to hear from a guy still riding one . Indy area is pretty flat, but I'm hoping not to just ride here. The PO had swapped out the regulator before I got it and I've not had any issues once I figured out that the battery was just weak enough to act sorta normal, but wasn't. That charging warning light makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the info.
I think I may have found my running problem. Seal is pretty brittle and while spraying carb cleaner, idle picked up alot. I'll try it first and see how it works.
Save yourself some time and order the boots as well. I had to replace the boots and the orings to get the bike to run correctly. My boots looked to be in better condition than yours. Lots of discussion in the thegsresources.com about guys trying all kinds of repair techniques to keep the boots leak free. Consensus is that none of them work. Same issues with mine. I could affect the idle by spraying around the boots. The orings just crumbled when I squeezed them. I believe I ordered them from www.cycleorings.com. He puts the kits together for the GS series, so I ended with four. I also ordered the carb orings from him at the same time. Here's his take on the orings you are fighting. http://www.cycleorings.com/intake.html
Yep, ordered them as well as oil filters. Seems that Bike Bandit is out of stock on one of the intakes, so I can't ride this week again.
That's a bummer! The good news is that the new rubber will make a world of difference in the way the bike runs. Got mine purring like a kitten with quick throttle reponse and easy startups. Did you rebuild your front caliper? I'm planning on that job, with a stainless brake line, over the winter and am wondering if you found a source for a complete kit.
Thanks, looking forward to getting rid of the miss at 4K rpms. Yes, I did replace the seals in the caliper and rebuilt the master. The caliper came out fine, but the master started leaking at the seal. So I replaced it with an EBAY GS500 master and it's worked out fine as long as no one notices the silver brake lever, kind of like C3PO. I got a black steel braided line from Cycle Brakes. I sent them mine and they sent back both. I highly recommend them.
I got the intake boots in and the o-rings. Installed them tonight and the bike runs much better. A quick ride around the block and I believe my problem has been solved. The Mighty Tempter rides again! This is what I used to prevent stripping out the made out of cheese screws. Almost done.
Good deal, VTwin. Glad you got it running correctly again. I've been looking for an inexpensive JIS screwdriver. Supposed to be much better with the old screws on these bike. Slowly swapping all of the old screws out to allen heads. No more stripping out screws.
Congratulations on getting the Tempter running! It takes a lot of patience an dedication to getting those older bikes going again.
Thanks. I've don't have much choice if I want to ride. http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=354049 I'd also look funny and take forever to get to work if I ride the K11p with it's whole 80cc's
