Makeing my SG better

[azman857]

Well, it's springtime in the ol' Pueblo and it's time to get the '80 roadworthy and install all the parts I've collected over the past year. Brass swingarm bushings, braided stainless steel brakline for the rear brakes and modify the rockers to take the elephant feet valve adjusters. Fix the broken clutch perch,cleanup the wiring, install blade fuse holder. I'm still on the fence about Mike's overdrive 5th gear. I installed a 32 rear sproket last year and happy with it except for the engine RPMs at hiway speed.
Tonight I get the Dremel out and did a bit of smoothing of the intakes and exhausts on an extra cylinderhead and matched valve cover. Just enough to smooth the casting flash. I'll do a valve lapping tomarrow and reassemble the head. I started grinding on some extra rockerarms for the elephant feet adjusters. The metal and tempering they used to make those rockerarms is super hard!
The other night I took off the swingarm and it had the factory plastic bushings. They practically fell out of the swingarm, they were so loose. Still solid and not cracked. I had the brass S/A bushings at hand and one side slid right in and the other side needed to be hammered in. Got the S/A reinstalled and had to stop for the night.
I still need to order the camchain(it's stretched to the max and why I stopped rideing the SG), gasket and oilseal kits.
More to come....Maybe some pics later too!

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

I just got 2 front chainguides from mikes for $32, still in stock...

 

[angus67]

some guys are having issues with the mount bolt/threads stripping on mikes guide. be carefull.
as for the hardness of the rockers. imo, heat cycling in hot oil would tend to make steal harder and harder. Luckily, they don't get so hard they shatter, or do they?
If im wrong about the hardening, meh, just a thought.

 

[Speedthriller]

Angus67, you are wrong about the hardening. When you want to harden steel with oil, you have to heat the steel until it colours "cherry red", then put it in old motor oil. (the more carbon the better) An engine just doesn't get that hot.

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

How many of you have had to drill-out rock-hard exhaust studs?
I know,,, the temp just isn't there to harden things (by the book), but it happens.
I'm no metalurgist, but this has always been a mystery to me...

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

Thanx for the heads-up, angus. I'll check mine.

 

[azman857]

The last couple of nights I've been trying different ways to grind the end of rocker arms for the bigfoot adjusters. The best way seems to be a handheld 4" grinder and the rocker arm tight in the vice between wood pieces. I tried dremel discs and against a benchgrinder. Didn't like either one. On the benchgrinder it was difficult to hold and it would get too hot to hold. With the dremel it would take a long time to grind.
I also loosely mounted a different luggage rack on the SG. It has a sliding backrest with it. If I keep it on I'll have to relocate the brakelight. The rack hides it well. Probably a couple of "L" brackets will work. The new rack came with stock turn signals mounted on them already. It looks pretty good with the seat that has a untorn cover I scored locally for a great price.
I have a set of Konis with the adjustable rebound I bought for a BSA. They are the same length as our XS's. I do have to enlarge the top holes to mount them. I just gotta figure a way to do that.

 

[5twins]

I used the bench grinder on my rockers with a cup of water nearby to dip and cool them as they got too hot to hold. Somewhat tedious process, but it worked well.

 

[azman857]

Oh yeah on the cup o' water for cooling. I'm useing a water soaked napkin to cool the rockers between grindings. Man, does it make some steam! Running a tap through the adjusters threads afterwards to clean them out after all that grinding too. Ordered camchain and gasket kit off of ebay(cheaper than Mikes and free shipping) and put in an order to Mikes for the more of the stuff needed.

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

I've noticed that the VW adjusters have a longer unthreaded relief area behind the foot than Mikes adjusters.
Question: Anybody know how many threads engage using the VW adjusters?

 

[azman857]

About 3-5 depending on the valve and other variances. I'm going to check some other adjusters too.

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

Thanx azman. I get nervous when thread engagement is at or below 1/2 diameter...

 

[azman857]

Well yesterday, the valves were all installed. The rockers are ground and the elephant feet adjusters installed(not mounted). Right now I'm trying to enlage the top mounting hole for the Koni 7610 shocks. I don't have a drilbit large enough, so I'm wrapping emery paper(backed with paper tape) around drill bits and sanding it size. Almost there.....

 

[azman857]

More progress! With the luggage rack on, it kinda hides the tail light and turn signals so I was going to relocate the stop/tail light under the luggage rack. I then saw the taillight on the nearby KZ650B and thought that would look pretty good on the end of the fender. It's big and it has the license plate mount under it, so it's and all in one unit, unlike the stock which is in 2 pieces. And I had a good unit in the shed. It also uses less wattage. I'll have to relocate the turn signals to the lugage rack. No big deal. Gotta lengthen and reroute all the wires.
The new camchain and gasket kit I ordered off of ebay came in today! I hope the order from Mikes comes in soon. I ordered it all at the same time. The camchain was the same as Mikes but a Lot less expensive. Gasket kit seems complete(minus oil seals but with O-rings). It's still in the package. It says it's made to ISO standards. More later.

 

[scabber]

Sounds like things are going together nicely. Post some pictures.

 

[azman857]

I was planning on doing just that tonight.
There's 3 shots of the SG in the bikeport(NO car here) in my album, Improveing my'80 SG, here.
I haven't figured out how to insert pics from my Photo album in my laptop to here. Yet...
Enoy..

 

[azman857]

Tonight, the rear wheel got installed. I can roll it around if I have to now. Rear braided stainless brake hose, Gas cap on the "Standard" tank and the tank mounted. The tank is a different color but it still looks good. Removed the exhaust to prep for engine removal. The Mikes XS order came today! Drained the oil too. Still need to install the roller bearings in the steering neck. Tidy up the wiring and change the fuses from glass to blade type. Install new oil seals and the OD 5th gear. I'll take more pics tomorrow.

 

[azman857]

Well last night the forks got removed to install the tapered roller bearings. had to take .003-4" off the lower diameter stem for the lower bearing to seat all the way. I'm using the "AllBalls" kit I got off ebay. Way less expensive than Mikes and no shipping charges. Of course I installed the outer bearing races in the wrong places. The lower race came out no problem, The race in the upper end it going to be a bit more of a problem. No ledge to knock on. I have a plane " B" though. Tapping a chisel at the gap between the race and neck. Did it in the XJ600 to get its upper race out when installing it's taper bearings. Will take pics later.

 

[azman857]

Last night was a good night. Chisel trick worked well to get the misplaced bearing race out. Re-installed the races in their proper places and the rest of the steering assembly went well. Got the front tire, brakes w/ lines installed and the bike is back on it's wheels. Sawed off the broken clutch perch(couldn't get the grip off) and went to install the Mikes XS650 2 piece clutch perch and it won't tighten up in the bars and the old clutch lever is a tight fit! A bit of sanding to be done to make things work. Today I bought blade style fuse holders and fuses to replace the stock tubular glass fuses. Plan for later is to drill the taillight for mounting and solder in the new fuseholers and tidy up the rectifer/regulater wireing installed in '11. Gotta tidy up the workbench before yanking out the motor for its new head and OD 5th gear. More pics in the album!

 

[azman857]

What's shaking folks? Been busy.Muscled the engine out of the frame. Found a 256 cam and got its chainring off. Need to get the cam out of the SG's engine and get that cam's chain ring on the 256 cam. I figure to set it up like factory initially and maybe fine tune it later. Or during cam installation after the head is on. OD 5th gear, 256 cam, new camchain, VW adjusters all ready for installation. Already did the PAMCO w/ supercoil ignition a few years back. I'm excited to do this engine build! I removed the batterybox to get the rust off from earlier batteryacid damage on it and the frame. I'm running an AGM battery so no more worries there. Probably fine tune the RS/Chrysler installation. Removed the TCI wireing and pickup from the stock loom and retaped.
I'll post more pics in the gallery as it happends.