[AT] OT: non-tractor covid-19 activates

Wed Apr 1 10:34:47 PDT 2020

Hi Steve:
Commercial announcement:  :-)
If you are chasing machines... A granddaughter of ours and her husband have
such a business at Fairfax Vermont. It's called Vermont Industrial Supply.
Our Daughter and her husband moved from Montana to Fairfax to work for them
(and just to be close) and the three of them work at it full time. Our
son-in-law works at Ben & Jerry's. They buy and sell all manner of tooling
and their volume has become quite high. Most of what they sell is used but
the spread of what they end up with is surprising. I can't actually make a
recommendation since I have never been a customer of theirs.  :-)  But you
might find them useful. BTW, I don't get a commission...   :-)
I do think that they are good people.  :-)

On Wed, Apr 1, 2020 at 7:56 AM Stephen Offiler <soffiler at gmail.com> wrote:

> Not surprised about the compression, Spencer.   Japanese bikes are built
> more or less like Toyotas and Hondas (go figure)... they just last and
> last.  I see you're tooling up, and wanted to mention THE go-to source for
> motorcycle-specific special service tools, Motion Pro:
> https://www.motionpro.com
>
> So, speaking of Japanese.... at work, one of the many things I do is
> manage and grow our CNC capabilities.  We are small, funds are tight, and
> we aren't a job-shop so I can't just finance a sweet new piece of equipment
> and pay for it by selling parts to others.  We build parts for our own
> internal needs, so I pick and choose parts we currently purchase from
> others, figure out what we can save doing it inhouse, and use the projected
> savings to fund the acquisition of used CNC equipment.  Once I locate a
> suitable machine and coordinate shipping and rigging, it lands on the
> factory floor, I next get it all set up, leveled, aligned, and powered,
> then on to figuring out what's wrong.  Bear in mind we're talking say
> $15,000 for a machine that was $200K new in 1997, so they have some miles
> on them.  I do all the necessary refurbish, largely myself, but I also know
> a great independent CNC repair tech for stuff that is beyond me.  Then I do
> all the programming, tooling, debug, and finally write detailed "cookbook"
> setup instructions so I can hand-off to the shop floor guys for daily
> operation.  Sorry, I'm rambling a bit... my main point was that these CNC
> machines are Japanese, and ~25 years later, they will still happily run
> 10,000rpm on the main spindle, and still hold tolerances in the +/-0.0001"
> range.  I like older Japanese stuff.  Back to your Kawasaki, we've got two
> vintage bikes:  my wife has a '76 Honda CB-200 and I've got a '75 Yamaha
> DT-175.
>
> SO
>
>
> On Tue, Mar 31, 2020 at 8:53 PM Spencer Yost <spencer at rdfarms.com> wrote:
>
>> So I mentioned a little while back that I was doing a valve lash
>> adjustment on my 1989 Kawasaki 454LTD. It is been awfully hard to start,
>> and valve adjustment is a common culprit. I’m glad I did it because the
>> adjustments were definitely out though I could tell they were not so far
>> out to affect starting to a degree its been happening.  So I started
>> looking for other explanations.  I seem to have spark and had the smell the
>> fuel on spark plugs. So I didn’t think it was fuel or spark. I then did a
>> compression test:  For a 30-year-old bike it’s got startlingly nice
>> compression. 135 both sides cold with no oil. But I also noticed that it
>> took 15-20 seconds of starter time to actually get the four or  five
>> compression strokes you need to get a max reading.  Hmmm.   That’s
>> suspicious.
>>
>> So while the alternator crankshaft “peep-hole” cover was off so I could
>> rotate the crankshaft for the valve adjustment, I took a look see at how
>> fast the starter was spinning the engine.  The engine wasn’t spinning at
>> all except about every 5-10 seconds it would catch and turn over once.
>> Clearly the starter clutch was slipping.   This would explain why I had
>> better luck roll starting it than using the starter. But the engine is big
>> enough and I’m small enough that I need a pretty big hill to roll start it
>> and that just isn’t viable where I live or wherever I might stop so I have
>> to fix it to be in “riding” condition.
>>
>> So I took this opportunity to order a few things on eBay like flywheel
>> puller and a fuel petcock that this bike desperately needs. They should be
>> coming in a few days.  My guess when I get it disassembled is to find weak
>> springs in the clutch.
>>
>> The goal is to have this bike starting and running smooth  before the
>> covid-19 zombie comes to get me so I can out-run it. :-)
>>
>> Spencer
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-- 
-- 

Francis Robinson
aka "farmer"
Central Indiana USA
robinson46176 at gmail.com
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