Thursday, December 17, 2009

Zoom

My second favorite tool






The "metal make go awayer".

She's a true basket case now

Spoke too soon

A gift from UPS yesterday. The hub probably isn't going to work. Hooray for respoking wheels. I think it's time for a sandblaster as well.

Small crack on the ouside edge of the silver one.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Pioneer?? Scott Towne's Chainsaw Chop


Have a look at this sweet 2-stroke bob built by Scott Towne in his "spare-time". It might have been done before, but this is the first I've ever seen. Much respect for this awesome toy. Check out his blog and link to a Chop Cult article on him.


Scott, you are a modern day pioneer. I want to build a little 2-stroke chop now. I'd bet my botton dollar I'm not the only one either.


In his post he mentions what the hell he would do with a smoker hardtail. Good question but, its the bombbay doors. Cheers for the inspiration.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Heep Jalopokee

The jeep didn't want to stay running today, or the past 2 weeks for that matter, because of an air leak underneath the carburetor.


Look at that nest of wiring and vacuum hoses. When I get around to rebuilding the weakling AMC 150 I think I'll take the opportunity to do away with most of the computer controlled feedback carburetion system and put in a properly jetted carter yf sans electronics. The right size catalytic converter and some tuning should keep it within emissions standards. This thing is kind of a roach. I wouldn't be bothered to take the sawzall to it and make a trail rig out of it. Perhaps a future project. For now, I'll stick to the drive, repair, drive a little farther, repair again routine.


Well here is why it's sucking air. The four little screws holding the carb to the base plate are loose. ( I loosened the 9/16" nut.) The carb was rocking out harder than Beavis and Butthead.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Honda TLR 200 Survival

Some pics of the survival 'Flex. Yes, in case zombies happen.

Barbeque black and olive drab, undeniably my fave.


Ooooo scary.




Stoplight made out of a rattlecan lid. I think Im going make my own fiberglass fender a la Manual. Be sure to check out the Manual Blog to be fully amazed.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Disassemblification


Getting it all broken down finally. If I had a dollar for every time I cussed at rusty, frozen bolts on this bike I'd be a millionaire and could buy factory bikes all day long. Eh.. but what fun would that be???



The front axle gave me hell until I got out a big ass hammer. Steel + aluminum + heat/cold + h2o = stuck. Same with the swingarm. Except there is supposed to be grease in the swingarm. Well I guess the factory squirt 34 years ago isn't doing the job anymore. Imagine that.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Carb and Mag


Cleaned the Carb and found enough dirt to start a potato farm. The process was simple enough. Not much to these little Mikunis.



Cleaned up the breaker points and wired in a new condenser. Replaced wiring to the mags. Good enough to get a spark. During the engine clean up I'll see if some CLR can cut the mineral deposits.

First Impressions


It's a real snotter. The wiring harness is mostly gone. It seems a dog had its way with the front fender. No one liked it enough to bring it in from the wrath of the desert sun. Rust rust rust. But, it did have the redeeming quality of smooth piston action and a satisfying foop-foop-foop-foop-foop when kicked.



Lovely.



When buying it I remarked about the gas capless tank and the guy just kind of shrugged. Guess Im going to have to figure out how to clean that mess up. I dont really want to have to change a fuel filter every 30 seconds.



Cool headlight though. Im tempted to save it for another project since after all this is going to be a full on trials machine and such amenities only become bothersome extra weight.




Chewed off wires, an iron oxide infected chain, and one stuck-ass, seized-on, son-of-a-bitch-ass magneto to get off. Finally after breaking an AutoZone rental pulley puller, it slid off to reveal calcium and lime deposits on the electrics inside. The points were fused together and the condenser was eff'd. This leads me to believe they left this thing to be drowned by sprinklers. Nice.



Sweet! An autolube pump. Errr now a new paperweight. Apparently when you roll on the throttle, the pump produces more oil to be injected into the intake charge. Beautiful design but, I think I'll stick with the premix to keep it simple. Dont even want to know what the little seals and o-rings look like in that thing.

Yam 175 Trials



So I picked this little gem up for a few measly bits not too long ago. It's a Yamaha TY 175 2-stroke trials bike. I used to have a neighbor, older fellow in his late 70's who would ride these little trial and enduro bikes damn near every weekend. Tough old bird, this guy. I'm feeling I should pay him a visit soon. Anyway this guy got me pretty interested in owning a motorcycle. He had a little Honda TLR200 Reflex that was light, very underpowered, but a blast to ride. Plus the little gutless wonder could chug itself up the gnarliest of terrain and not even bat an eye. So, I'd wander over to this guys garage and he and his son would play these old videos of trials competitions and the bikes they've built and bam I was hooked like Whitney on crack. Plus it didn't help that my buddy bought a Yammy TW200 and was less one riding partner. 12-Hundy and a tlr 200 later I was on the trails. Point being these little bikes got me into it and now I'm apeshits crazy. So, feeling kind of disillusioned about my trade of my 'Zuki GS 450 for a busted assed 4 cyl Cherokee, I decided to pick up a rust bucket bike to clean up. And so, here we go...