Cool VeeDub What size? I used to race Formula V, At one time I drove a 74 Westphalia, wife drove a 72 Ghia, daughter a 74 Beetle and my son had a 72 Squareback. Had a spare 009 distributor ready to go, along with a ton of spares and parts cars. Oh how I long for the simple life again.This is the self-powered (2 D Cells) Sun Strobe timing light I bought in the '70's to time the hot-rodded VW aircooled engines I built. Its been with me ever since. So easy to use: just clip on the spark plug lead and press the button. No longer made by Sun, but you'll find 3 companies selling something similar today. $40 - $70.
Look closely and you'll see marks made by many a spinning pulley when the light fell in the engine bay.
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What have you done to your XS today?
- Thread starter I am Carbon
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Hey! A VW guy! There are a bunch of us around this place. Altho I eventually let go of them in the 90's, I had quite a collection like you did. Here is one of my Ghias which I restored, modified, sculpted, lowered and painted.
I'm a former racer, too. I considered Formula V after attending races at The Glen in the 70's, but settled into formula karts (Enduro type), racing at all the great sportscar tracks east of the Mississippi. Send me a PM if you wanna talk racing ....
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Can't let the wife see your Ghia picture. She misses hers. She knows that with aging knees and back that a car that low won't work anymore, but she really loved that car. I got to race a Datsun 510 at The Glen in '98. I raced FV from '83 to '90, mostly in the S.E. but I did race in the FV 25th anniversary race at Road America. I towed it with my 74 Westphalia 1.9 liter from N.E. Fla. What great memories.
Spent some quality time scraping a gasket surface. But really pleased thst I had prepared a couple filter plates last summer so it was ready to bolt on after the clean up.
I had problems with a miss match rear spindle of 17mm fitting the Standard 52mm/ 62mm OS diameter x 20mm IS diameter Bearings.
5 Twins & Halfmile came up with solutions by changing the bearings and using a reducing sleeve from another machine; Jan-P found the reducing sleeve and pointed me at local parts supplier in UK. Bought the bits and I'm now ready to progress using the existing 17mm spindle....Hooray!
REDUCING SLEEVE FROM XS400 / RD400 Etc
SLEEVE IN BEARING & COGNITO MOTO HUB.
Thanks so much to the guys mentioned above, much appreciated.
More on this in the Welsh Flat Tracker build thread next week.
5 Twins & Halfmile came up with solutions by changing the bearings and using a reducing sleeve from another machine; Jan-P found the reducing sleeve and pointed me at local parts supplier in UK. Bought the bits and I'm now ready to progress using the existing 17mm spindle....Hooray!
REDUCING SLEEVE FROM XS400 / RD400 Etc
SLEEVE IN BEARING & COGNITO MOTO HUB.
Thanks so much to the guys mentioned above, much appreciated.
More on this in the Welsh Flat Tracker build thread next week.
I had one of those FT500 Ascot's in the 80's, not a bad bike, lot's of fun but starter was a weak link.
The bendix gears are sintered and they don't cycle out to fully mesh across the entire tooth width with each other so will wear quickly and become non-functional.
During replacement I noted the wear issue and shimmed with washers to get more tooth engagement and had no further trouble with it.
The bendix gears are sintered and they don't cycle out to fully mesh across the entire tooth width with each other so will wear quickly and become non-functional.
During replacement I noted the wear issue and shimmed with washers to get more tooth engagement and had no further trouble with it.
Bleeding front brake. New M/C and brakeline. I get that 1 inch to 1 1/2 inch into the tube and no more. No feel at all at the lever.The caliper/brake shoes seem to be retracted, it moves around on the carrier.
Bike wont start without a lot of throttle and misfires till high revs. Also blowing smoke and as soon as I close the throttle the engine stalls . It's done 500 kilometres since new crankshaft, pistons and rings and head rebuild . It was running ok, a bit hard to start so I tried to sync the one into two throttle cable and checked the timing and now it's unrideable.
Cleaned it up, checked all nuts and bolts and oil change. I too put goop on the sump plate, but was lucky and most of it didnt stick to the crankcase. Back together with the equivalent of Hylomar. Ready for the riding season! Sorry for the glare in the pic.
Veeeerrrry nice looking XS
Did I mention im an Oldfart #. I installed the slides in the wrong carb with the cut away on the inlet side when I re-routed the throttle cable. Had me worried with all the smoke coming out of the exhausts thinking I'd done the valve seals wrongly. It's a wonder it even ran, this is what happens when the wife has a bad day and starts pouring me drinks while I'm in the garage working on the bikes. Lessen learned.
Blaming the wife's drinking for getting you tanked................now I'v heard them all
Fouled a spark plug maybe?
Great looking bike Bosco.
Thanks, cleaned up ok.
Did you prime the master cylinder? Good explanation here: https://cbrforum.com/forum/how-mechanical-40/how-bleeding-your-brakes-prime-master-cylinder-104677/
Still working the front end. Finished painting and polishing, and clear coating the front disk, sanded, polished, and clear coated 50 years of nicks and scratches off the throttle side fork tube, and got the clutch side out of the triple tree. It is coming along nicely. Got to get this bike finished so I can get the BMW out of storage once the weather breaks. I have a bunch of work to do on that one, and there won't be any riding until it is done.
Attachments
No. More research ahead. Thanks.
It took a lot of pumping the Mighty Vac and the brake lever to get 2 1/2 bottles of DOT3 (30 oz) through the system before I got resistance at the lever.I did a lot of second guessing. How hard can it be? I have done autos often over the last 30 years, generally with a leg man pumping, some swearing and maybe a beer or two to pass the time. After the second bottle of fluid I started to wonder about the sensibility of pumping and air bubble DOWN a brake hose and was considering ways to mount the M/C low, the caliper high, not spill fluid and open and close the bleeder valve wihtout twisting and upsetting the caliper.
