"New" Ratty Hack... I hope!

[Leaf]

The ugly:



This one here is the worst of the lot:





And hard as a rock. See me squeezing the bjesus out of it?



Yea, yea, I know I have pianist fingers. 'Cos... I'm a pianist. >_>

Le'sigh.... What will we do? :<

Oh wait, what is in this box that I found in my mailbox?



Minty fresh! And very sticky. Don't lick your fingers after getting this stuff on them. It buuuuurnssss! D:=

Let's cook up an intake boot stew!



1 gallon of water, and a pretty good splash of the wintergreen oil. As you can see, it is not miscible with water. My crockpot didn't get hot enough to make the water roll and keep it mixed decently, so I had to give it a hefty stir every so often.



"Nuuuuuuu, I do not want to go in the cookpot! D:=" said the intake boot.



I left it in for 20 or 30 minutes, while working on the sidecar frame. Had to stir briskly fairly often to keep the oil mixed up. If I had to do it over again, I think I'd do it on the stove in a pot. Beware though, while this stuff doesn't exactly stink, per se, the odor is fairly overpowering.

After 20-30 minutes soaking, cooling to room temperature again, and degreased good to get all the sticky funk off:



Much better! Also, very clean.





I taped it up and sprayed the exposed metal areas where the rubber had flaked off with several layers of high temperature engine paint. Also, new o-ring.





It mounted up to the engine right nice.



Also found a nice headlight guard in the junk pile. It's off of an old electric space heater from the 1950s.



I've got the carbs back on, the airbox boots patched up, and the airbox reinstalled. It started raining before I could go get some gas and try to fire it up, though, so I covered it back up and am waiting impatiently. :3

[Leaf]

It's aaaaaalllllliiiivvveeeee! (kinda)

Video #1

Video #2

Good lord, I just rewatched that first video and it sounds like I was on meth or something. O_o

Excuse: I'd just drank a 12oz red-bull and the neighbors were out and I didn't want them to hear me "talking to myself". >_>

[Leaf]

I can't tell if anyone is interested in this thread. :P Should I continue? Or am I making a fool of myself posting about things nobody cares about? >_>

Anyway, I figured out why my carbs were overflowing, despite the float height being correct. The overflow tubes are missing in both bowls!!! Grumble. I temporarily plugged the drains to "fix" it.

I ordered two replacement bowls on fleabay for $38. X_x It appears that the overflow tubes are supposed to be built into the bowls and cannot be bought separately. In the meantime, I'll continue to refurbish the tug and hack. But it started raining again and I didn't get much done today...

Tug total: 694.59
Hack total: $1025

I'm about to exceed my < $700 goal for the tug. C'est la vie. Cheap bikes are seldom as cheap as they appear......

There's a running '84 Shadow 700 on craigslist for $1000..... But I want a standard for the tug, not a cruiser...

[MightyChosen1]

[QUOTE=Leaf;18295207]I can't tell if anyone is interested in this thread. :P Should I continue? Or am I making a fool of myself posting about things nobody cares about? >_>

QUOTE]


I'm listening .

I love low buck projects and yes they seem to always go over budget. I am into my el-cheapo XS650 around $500 ( I think thats the price of the brake pads on a BMW GS ) but should have it going within a couple weeks if all goes right.

[brstar]

I am enjoying this as much as the bigger budget outfits so keep at it. The satisfaction will be just as good for you and for us all.

Cheers Bruce.

[NortwestRider]

You know I'm onboard!!,You have been following my " Low Budget Build ".Us Low Budgeteers have to stick together or we will get over run by the Mega $$$ GS guys !!.

[Leaf]

Phew! Good. :P

Although looking back at those pictures, I think I should have bought paint for the porch instead of paint for the rig. >_>

But... My shack is my castle! :3

And hoooo boy the rent is cheap.

Anyway! It's supposed to rain again tomorrow, but I am going to cart some junk down to the farm and do some cutting and welding (we have an enclosed shop there). And try to get the rest of the seized bolts and nuts off the hack frame. X_x

I squeezed in a little more work before dark, and tore down the back end of the bike, removed the airbox (jeez it's hard to get that thing out of there; the rear wheel and shocks have to all come off), and removed the wiring harness. With all that stuff out of the way, I can rust-treat the frame and track down my electrical problems. I've discovered some cracked insulation and smashed wires already, before even pulling the tape off the harness.

Thank goodness for centerstands. Whomever decided to quit putting them on newer bikes was smoking crack.

I'll probably relocate the battery to the hack (possibly using a deep-cycle marine battery so that I can throw it on a charger when parked and then drain it running a heated suit in the winter; assuming the Hawk's anemic charging system won't be damaged trying to charge a battery that big). I'll also be relocating the right-hand signal lights to the hack. So, while I have the wiring harness off, I shall rebuild it to make these things less roundabout.

[DirtyDR]

Keep up the reporting, all builds are worth reporting.

[bmwhacker]

Originally Posted by Leaf

I can't tell if anyone is interested in this thread. :P Should I continue? Or am I making a fool of myself posting about things nobody cares about? >_>

Anyway, I figured out why my carbs were overflowing, despite the float height being correct. The overflow tubes are missing in both bowls!!! Grumble. I temporarily plugged the drains to "fix" it.

I ordered two replacement bowls on fleabay for $38. X_x It appears that the overflow tubes are supposed to be built into the bowls and cannot be bought separately. In the meantime, I'll continue to refurbish the tug and hack. But it started raining again and I didn't get much done today...

Tug total: 694.59
Hack total: $1025

I'm about to exceed my < $700 goal for the tug. C'est la vie. Cheap bikes are seldom as cheap as they appear......

There's a running '84 Shadow 700 on craigslist for $1000..... But I want a standard for the tug, not a cruiser...

Keep it up dude....you're my kind of guy. Low budget hacks are cool!
I built mine out of a pile of old derelict bikes I found on the cheap. Sold off excess parts to partially finance the thing. I did a 1st. class (lol) "rattle can" paint job on mine (except the fuel tank) The reward was well worth the effort!
The "deep pocket folks" who order sidecars built by the "experts" will never have the intimate connection to their rigs that us hands on scroungers do !
Fun doesn't have to break the bank....although I promise you'll go over budget, it will be worth it when you're cruising down the street on your hack.

[cleatusj]

Keep it coming as home builds help us all learn. Even those with bigger budgets when building their own have to face decisions on what to use and how it might be used different than the manufacturer planned.

[Leaf]

My carb "fix" is still leaking, so... Grumble. No more test rides for a while.

The replacement float bowls shipped today, though, and should be here by the end of the week.

I am having a devil of a time breaking some parts of the hack loose. Everything has been liberally dosed with red threadlock. The two nuts on the front mount are way stuck, and the axle won't come out despite extreme application of the rubber mallet. I expect I'll have to take them down to the farm and get them apart with an impact wrench and a bench press.

The plunger shaft on the shock is rather rusty, too. Hopefully it comes apart so I can polish it.

[Leaf]

Lil' bit of painting before dark.

The rear rack is primed and awaiting a few layers of rubberized undercoating. The fenders, frame, and headlight guard are just sprayed with cheapo rust-treatment implement paint and awaiting primer, but the undersides of the fenders and the headlight guard will get some rubberized undercoating as well.

I tried to hit everything as well as I could with a wire brush, but there were some nooks that I couldn't reach. Hopefully that rust treatment will seal it up for a while.

Haven't gotten to the swingarm yet. I'm going to have to take it off to get it (and the rest of the frame) good.

[YOUNZ]

Originally Posted by Leaf

My carb "fix" is still leaking, so... Grumble. No more test rides for a while.

The replacement float bowls shipped today, though, and should be here by the end of the week.

Either the float isn't floating (they can get saturated and not float) or, more likely, the needle isn't seating/sealing properly.

[Leaf]

Originally Posted by YOUNZ

Either the float isn't floating (they can get saturated and not float) or, more likely, the needle isn't seating/sealing properly.

I tested the floats for leakage by letting them, well, float in a bowl of gasoline. Also tested the needle seal by letting gas drizzle through them with the bowls off and gently lifting the floats to where the tang is just barely pushing in on the plunger on the float needle, at which point the gas flow stopped properly.

I don't know why I didn't realize what the problem was sooner, lol. I was head scratching while looking at the carb diagrams and then saw something in the picture that wasn't on my float bowls and it was like, "Heyyyyyyy, wait a minute... *derp derp*"

Here's some random float bowls from google images with some arrows added:



The problem turned out to be that the brass overflow tubes pointed to by the green arrows are missing in both bowls that I have, broken off apparently at the base, where the red arrow is pointing. So all the gas is draining straight out the overflow opening before it even touches the floats.

The only reason that one of them wasn't leaking was because all the crud that fell out when I soaked the carb bowls had fallen down into the overflow hole and plugged it up.

I tried "fixing" the problem by putting vacuum nipple rubbers over the drain nipples on the bottom of the bowls and lashing them tight with tie wire, but it still dripped gasoline onto the engine slowly. Not safe, imo. :3

[Leaf]

Thread is on hiatus until Frontier fixes my DSL at home. -_-'

Will keep collecting photos, though.