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My boss has never bought hardly any used equipment in my 30
years--and it was all manual machines (2 horizontals, radial drill,
long bed TOS, 3 grinders and some small stuff from an acquaintance
that was retiring). All 3 of our CNC lathes are Mori's, great
machines. We have never pushed them hard like a lot of shops, their
accuracy is great. I do have one that couldn't repeat the last job
we ran on it, so it will need some attention from the dealer. Of
course as slow as things are now........<br>
<br>
John Hall<br>
<br>
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 4/1/2020 7:56 AM, Stephen Offiler
wrote:<br>
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<div dir="ltr">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: <a
href="https://www.motionpro.com" moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.motionpro.com</a>
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<div>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.</div>
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<div>SO</div>
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<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Mar 31, 2020 at 8:53
PM Spencer Yost <<a href="mailto:spencer@rdfarms.com"
moz-do-not-send="true">spencer@rdfarms.com</a>> wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px
0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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. :-)<br>
<br>
Spencer<br>
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