Hello Autopian members and welcome to another Wrenching Wednesday! As I type this, Illinois’ weather is quite crummy. Lately, we’ve been getting hammered by severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, and snow, sometimes literally a day after each other. This has been hampering my spring plans. Last year, I took my first swim of year in a lake on March 17. This year, the lakes are still far too cold and the calendar is already climbing through April. The weather has also put a hard stop to my wrenching. I don’t know what it is, but this season I’m not finding myself willing to work in the snow and rain, so I have a lot of stuff sitting around waiting to be finished. Let’s talk about those projects that you’ve been ignoring!
Last year, I announced that I was going to bring a 1972 Yamaha U7E motorbike back to life. You’re probably wondering what happened to the little scoot. A few things have happened! The first is that I asked Yamaha for exact production numbers and unfortunately, the marque does not know. So, it’s rare, but not even Yamaha knows just how rare it is.
Something else happened, and it’s super annoying. I took a bunch of pictures showing progress in my restoration, then I switched from iPhone to Android.
Usually, I start my new phones fresh, but for the first time ever, I decided to let the cell phone store transfer my data. When the transfer was supposedly complete, the store gave me my new phone and asked me to check to make sure my pictures were there. I scrolled through maybe 500 pictures and concluded everything was there. Well, I should have scrolled further because exactly 556 of over 2,000 photos were transferred over. The pictures of my progress on the Yamaha didn’t make the cut. Crap.
So, I’m going to do something silly and I’m going to undo some of the work just to take pictures of everything again. The good news is that I was able to save the motorbike’s carburetor.
I stole my wife’s coffee cup, filled it up with carburetor cleaning juice, planted the carb in there, then placed my concoction under the bathroom sink. I let sit for two days before remembering it was in there. Upon removal from the cup, the carb still had some crusty residue in it. A motorcycle-wrenching friend told me that I could get rid of it using some manual cleaning and some acetone. I scrubbed the carb down using a toothbrush that I found under my bed then put it back into the cup, this time with a huge puddle of acetone. Fast-forward two more days and the carb came out of the other end looking new!
Admittedly, that was several months ago. It was so long ago that the carb now has dust around it. All I have to do now is clean the motorcycle’s tank, install the carb, and run new fuel lines. It should then start and run for the first time in nearly a decade. It’s something that I will get done this spring.
Some of you are also probably wondering about my U-Haul CT13 camper.
As of right now, it’s sitting and waiting for an opening at a local shop. A local dealership service department says that they can fix the camper’s wiring without cutting into the fiberglass. See, U-Hauls feature double-walled fiberglass bodies and the wiring? Yeah, it’s between the layers. I could fix the wiring myself if I cut holes in the fiberglass, but I think the camper deserves better than that. Unfortunately, it seems fixing the glut of broken new campers takes priority over projects like mine.
Perhaps, while I wait I’ll fix the hole in the fiberglass myself! The good news here is that it’s not deteriorating. I check on it regularly and it’s still leak-free and still holding together.
Alright, so those are the projects that I have sitting around that I haven’t touched in many months. How about you? What do you have going on out there?
I am working on a v12 aston for a few years now, it had a little bit of a problem (you know conrod poking out of the engine block).
So far I had to take the engine out twice
https://www.tiktok.com/@v12.lol/video/7257922401210764590?lang=en
i’m 75 and fighting a bad bout of stenosis, so i can’t bend, walk or twist w/o lots of pain. my poor 78 toyota chinook is sitting out there waiting for me to yank the fuel pump and heli-coil my exhaust manifold studs. i so want to get her back on the road….
I have a 1959 BMW 600 that’s been sitting in pieces since 2009. Rebuilt the engine and trans, assembled some of the chassis and have almost all necessary needed parts. I retired about a year ago, but still haven’t been able to put it at the top of my list. Thinking of selling it off as I’ve no idea when I’ll get to it.
Mercedes, you really need to get an ultrasonic cleaner. That two-day carb cleaning would have taken about two hours total. They’re fairly affordable as well.
I’m deep into the spring cleaning cycle and trying to get my garage in shape so I can move out cleanly (unfortunately all my projects are going to be shoved into a garage when I move out, but such is life.)
Got back into re-welding my LS4.9 head and burnt the shit out of my arm cause I wasn’t wearing sleeves.
Wear your PPE folks. Don’t be a dummy.
Edit: oh yeah, and I found out that my Miata has a cracked AC line (common TSB on the ND Miatas) so I get to fix that before Florida’s heat wave gets too intense.
This coffee is terrible and I can’t find my toothbrush!
Pulled my XJ out of the garage this morning. Its raining and my TLX is getting a wheel I curbed repaired, so I needed to give them some space to work where its dry. The new yellow top in the XJ fired right up, forgot how nice it is to not have to worry about the battery. Tonight when it goes back in the garage I’ll finish the passenger side rock slider. Might try to get it to the shop for a brake fluid flush in the next couple days as well.
I need to find axles and preferably new front calipers for my 86 Saab 900 and wire up the Ignition and power on my 53 Buick. Both require time and travel I don’t have the luxury for right now.
Trying to sort out my Lincoln mark VII currently.
Removed my base engine 8v 2.5 from my 84′ 944 race car. Attempting to swap in a 16v 3.0 S2 engine and run it with megasquirt engine management
Finally got the Civic started and out of the garage, good news it’s running as well as it did last year; bad news is that exhaust leak that I though was just the crappy cheap exhaust I got off eBay, IS that; but it is also the cheap exhaust manifold I got off of eBay, so the whole exhaust system is a problem…
I should also put air in the tires…….
Need to fix the AC on the z28. A new condenser was put in a few years ago. After sitting it lost the charge. I believe I have a leak somewhere, going to have it tested and see what it takes to fix it.
I figure if it needs a charge, there is leak so throwing cans and cans of AC coolant at it is a losing propastion.
Late as ever…
Currently my BMW Rockster is awaiting a new clutch slave cylinder before I can take it for the MOT and start riding again. Should be on it’s way. Half the bike has to come off just to get to the slave-cylinder, but it’s a relatively simple job which I’ve done before on my previous bike.
My JAPton cafe-racer has a leaky float bowl on the Monobloc carb, and I’ve just received some Viton material to make a new gasket. There’s a nick in the float-bowl face that is just too large for the regular paper gasket to seal, so I’m going to try the Viton first, then if that doesn’t seal, I need to try to grind out that nick in the mating surface.
The Puch Magnum X is still loitering awaiting some time to work on it (it hasn’t run in about 35 years, but it was my first bike so I’m going to give it a go).
The roof on the VW Eos has started throwing errors – but that’s beyond my interest to look into myself (it’s a tool), but hopefully will get that figured out soon enough.
Ooh, good luck with that one. My friend had enough issues repairing his girlfriend’s Eos roof that one of our mutuals made “VERDECK SYSTEMFEHLER” shirts of that car throwing the error.
It’s no longer Wednesday, but I thought I’d jump in as today is my wrenching day. I’ve taken the day off to extend the long weekend and have a To Do list awaiting me. First up is fixing up my son’s new free (from a neighbour) mountain bike. He will be using this to cycle to school every day, so I will be adding mug guards and a rack. The derailleurs need some adjusting, but otherwise it’s in good shape. After that, I need to clean the mud off his old 24″ bike and post it (the bike, not the mud) for sale online.
I then need to fix the throttle cable on my white Vespa. I was riding home from work on Monday when I felt the throttle sticking. I pulled over and checked out the throttle itself and it seemed fine, but something was up with the twist grip. While testing it, it came free completely, so I had no way to ride home. I called the RAC for a recovery service (I’ve been paying for the extra service through my insurance) and they said it would be up to midnight before they reached me, and this was in London! I know exactly how to fix it, but I didn’t have any tools on me at the time. I waited around for an hour, then decided to push the Vespa the 5 miles home. It only took an hour and a half, and luckily there weren’t any major hills.
By the time I finish the Vespa, I should have received a new cabin air filter and normal air filter for my Saab. That should be a 15 minute job, including vacuuming out the inevitable collection of leaves, etc.
Finally, if I have time, I need to remove the rear wheel of my black Vespa so I can take it down to my local garage for a new tyre. After that, it will be ready to be sold to a colleague of mine (thus creating space for a new project).
Ideally, I need to accomplish all of the above while my 2 year old is at day care, so time to stop typing and get wrenching.
You are insane for driving a transit connect but I salute you and admire your commitment to sparkle motion.
If mother nature would quit dumping snow on us I might consider letting the Charger or Barracuda see the light of day. But the big thing I need to accomplish is getting my trailer out of storage and put a new winch on it so I can go pick up my new project car next weekend! Made a deal on by far the oldest car I’ll have ever owned, and it’s certainly going to be a challenge. I’ll spill the beans on it once the deal is closed and it’s safely home, don’t want to jinx things now.
I’ve been trying to get my e-bike setup for family hauler duty because if I have to drive 2 miles to the kids school all the time I’ll be grumpy. I’ve got the front rack setup with a waterproof bag, a comfy seat, and the kid seat in the back finally. Think I’m about ready but I really want to dither it from 26″ wheels to 27.5s, get some mudflaps on the fenders, move the headlight off the bars and down to the front fender, and maybe put a basket on the rack to improve front bag retention.
My commuter is getting a drivetrain swap after I destroyed the previous one through a combination of cheap parts and abuse. Might sell it might not.
The road bike needs some work with a tire swap and an attempt to mount fenders, and I’d like to get the berthoud saddle on it so I can start breaking the saddle in.
As soon as I finish one of these bikes I’ll probably sell it and move on to something else.
My car needs a wash
Howdy – I’m new here. I live and work (fire) in Yosemite National Park. My fleet:
2000 BMW 528i wagon: more or less daily driver, needs headlight love – the auto-level function doesn’t do its thang anymore. Also chasing a phantom water leak somewhere that doesn’t show up anywhere, but the inside of the car is always HUMID.
1990 BMW 325is: I need to find a good auto upholstery shop near here (maybe central CA) to fix a torn driver’s seat. Also need to replace speaker wiring. After that, the car’s mostly sorted and ready for track days this summer.
1994 Chevy K1500: Beater truck, much love. Needs lots, but not a priority.
1997 Chevy S10: Need to sort out a bunch of bent suspension bits in the right front. Also not a priority.
2005 BMW R1200GS: Needs wheel bearings and a driveshaft seal. I don’t feel like doing either job myself, so this will get done at a shop – once I find one.
2018 Yamaha WR250R: Ready to rip the trails outside the park. Love this little bike.
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I have ’72 Honda CL450 that I recieved disassemble and without a tittle about 4 years ago. I need to at least assemble it into a roller so I can take it to the DMV so I can get a request for the CHP to verify it is not stolen.
If anyone knows an easiler way to tittle it, I am all ears. I live in CA.
I don’t have a lot to help you with, but I do know that the smaller-town CA DMVs are usually more helpful and forgiving about things like this. I fought with the Santa Monica DMV about a vehicle title once, but when I moved here and went to the Mariposa DMV, they processed it with no problem.