!!! 1986 XL600R Adventure Bike Rebuild !!!

[crobox]

I spent much of yesterday masking and painting the rims. Masking was tedious and meticulous, but un-masking, after the paint, was much worse. Slower and requiring more care, so as not to screw up the paint which was not totally cured yet.

Speaking of which, here they are hanging in the house above the heater. They will be there for a few days before I put the tires back on. They will never look this good again!

[crobox]

I also banged out this little windshield:





I removed this portion from a much larger touring-style windscreen that had been mounted on one of my BMWs many years ago. It was a goofy windscreen and did not stay on the Beemer, but I never threw it away. I just cut it up with that big white bandsaw in the background and smoothed out all the edges. It mounts to a bracket that I welded to the back of the fairing, and also to the two little support arms I fabbed up from thin-wall stainless tubing which go down to the forward handlebar clamp bolts. The arms are curved so that they don't block the view of the speedo.

Now I just need to get that wax pencil off the screen!

[crobox]

And my Pelican cases and McMaster Carr latches came in the mail today, which means I could resume work on the pannier mounting system. As I mentioned some time before, this type of creative fabrication is really my favorite type of work, so I dove into this. I will take some pix tomorrow, but for now here is the updated and streamlined design for the system:



The dark blue stuff (sorry it's a bit hard to discern the dark blue from the black... the color really changes during the upload, or through the browser, or whatever) is a piece that I will fabricate from stainless that holds ALL the components necessary to attach to the rack, and will then bolt onto the back of the Pelicans. By putting all these components (the latches and the locator tubes) onto one piece I can A) eliminate the problem of minor misalignments among components that might arise if I just screwed them individually onto the Pelican, and I can also B) have a piece that I can simply unbolt and move over to another case if for some reason the Pelican cases get damaged or prove to be too small.

As I said, I will post some pix of the fabrication tomorrow and I think it will be a little clearer.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's episode... Same Bat-Time, same Bat-Channel!

[crobox]

I got most of the mechanism for the left-side pannier mounting system done today. I actually got REALLY close to finishing, but then because I was excited to finish and was in a bit of a hurry, I took a bit of a shortcut and broke a bolt. Unforced error. I didn't finish.

I took three pix of the pannier mount but they all sucked. This one was the least sucky pic. You can sort of see how I made a plate that carries all the components and then just bolted it to the case.



For anyone who is paying attention, I flipped this photo so it would look more like the layout drawing posted above. It actually is the left case.

I'm getting a little worried that I'm building a bike that will be so pretty I'll be afraid to ride in the dirt. Maybe I need another bike too .

[brucifer]

Very nice work! Everything looks great. Man, that must have been extremely tedious doing up the wheels. I'd never have the patience for that.

[LandsVW]

Originally Posted by crobox

I spent much of yesterday masking and painting the rims. Masking was tedious and meticulous, but un-masking, after the paint, was much worse. Slower and requiring more care, so as not to screw up the paint which was not totally cured yet.

Speaking of which, here they are hanging in the house above the heater. They will be there for a few days before I put the tires back on. They will never look this good again!

My dad always used an aluminum specific etching primer (seems like it was a weird green color) before painting aluminum on his airplanes, as aluminum oxidates immediately upon cleaning so paint doesn't stick to it. Did you do that as well? It looks really good - was thinking about that and wondering... I'm actually going to attempt to make my 1986 (gold rims) silver - I've heard that oven cleaner will take the gold off, but have been too nervous to try.
Liking the thread!

[crobox]

Originally Posted by brucifer

Man, that must have been extremely tedious doing up the wheels. I'd never have the patience for that.

Umm yes it was tedious. I did manage to remember to snap a pic of the masked, but not yet painted, front wheel. For anyone thinking of doing something similar this should give an idea of how I approached it.

Originally Posted by LandsVW

My dad always used an aluminum specific etching primer (seems like it was a weird green color) before painting aluminum on his airplanes, as aluminum oxidates immediately upon cleaning so paint doesn't stick to it. Did you do that as well? It looks really good - was thinking about that and wondering... I'm actually going to attempt to make my 1986 (gold rims) silver - I've heard that oven cleaner will take the gold off, but have been too nervous to try.
Liking the thread!

No I did not use an etching primer because I've never painted aluminum before and never heard of that problem. We will see if it sticks!

I got the gold off by sandblasting it off, then using stainless steel wool to get the aluminum shiny again. Not all that difficult.

[LandsVW]

Originally Posted by crobox

I found a few minutes to sneak to the shop and, knowing that I'm gonna replace the timing chain this coming week, I decided to pop off the clutch-side cover. Everything looked pretty good except for this:



That's the little tube which is, I think, one of two outlets from the oil pump. It obviously went in crooked during the last assembly of the engine (whenever that was...). The sort of amazing thing is that the seal between the cover and the pump was apparently good. All components in the cam and valve area, as previously noted, are in very good condition, so oil was definitely getting up there.

I am particularly nervous about this area... the way that the oil pump outflow goes into the side cover. When I was 19 or 20 years old, I replaced the clutch on my first XL600R (see page 1 for pix) and managed to forget an O-ring during reassembly. My head got fried in short order and I had to have an expensive repair done at Golden Gate Cycles (way back when it was on Van Ness).

For all you who have done this before... once I correct the little aluminum tube problem and replace the associated O-ring, does everything else here look to be in order? The larger hole in the background slightly to the right mates up with the other, larger output of the oil pump, but there does not seem to be a replaceable O-ring or other type of seal there... there is a seal there held in place by a circlip, but there's definitely no replacement for it in my "full engine rebuild gasket and seal kit". Anything I need to know? I don't want to make the same costly mistake again....

this thread just saved my butt, I'm thinking. I had reassembled my XR600 after buying it as a basket case, and got to thinking: did I see that little oil pump o-ring and metal tube? I remembered the o-ring, but not the tube. I haven't run the bike for more than 10 minutes, because of a few other issues, so today I pulled the side cover off. Sure enough! NO tube! PO must have lost it upon disassembly, and since I bought it literally in a basket (ok, milk crate and cardboard boxes) AND that tube isn't magnetic so it didn't stick to the magnet tray he'd given me with all the bolts, I was clueless as to its existence.
Whew... I pulled one out of my parts bike engine and installed... Thank you! good pictures and detailed information.

[Homerb]

If you ran the motor for 10 minutes without the tube, did you check for oil flow to the top end when you first started it. 10 minutes is plenty long enough to damage the camshaft and followers if theyre not getting any oil, if the o ring was dislodged during installation.

[LandsVW]

Originally Posted by Homerb

If you ran the motor for 10 minutes without the tube, did you check for oil flow to the top end when you first started it. 10 minutes is plenty long enough to damage the camshaft and followers if theyre not getting any oil, if the o ring was dislodged during installation.

Yes, strangely enough when I crac ked the banjo bolts I had oil flow. first thing I checked upon startup. When I opened it back up, the o-ring was still in its position but like I'd said, no tube. I'm just really glad to have seen that picture! :)

[Homerb]

Sweet. I thimk the tubes main function is to hold the o ring in place, so if it was where it was supposed to be, all is good.

[LandsVW]

Originally Posted by Homerb

Sweet. I thimk the tubes main function is to hold the o ring in place, so if it was where it was supposed to be, all is good.

Sweet! thanks for the confirmation! I figured maybe the tube would maybe direct flow and maybe if oil pressure was high, might keep the o-ring from moving out of place or something. But again, I"m glad to have installed it so I know it's correct now.

here's my budget (and probably boring) thread if anyone is interested:

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=835547

[crobox]

I will definitely be cracking that banjo bolt when I fire it up for the first time. If only I know about that when I was 20!

[crobox]

I had 2 hours in the shop today and was able to correct my screwup from last night, and finish the bag-mount for the left side.






The mount is very stout. Bag goes onto the bike in less than 20 seconds, and comes off in less than 10, although these times might get slower when there is a rear wheel and rear fender in the way, as the latches are on the inside as you can see. The pannier racks are also pretty easily removed with 4 bolts each. The top rack is not really removable; the fender and turn signals would not have mounts without it.

I am still waiting for my damn cam chain to come in the mail! If it's not here by Monday I'll call XRs Only and try to track it. A day or so after it shows up I think I'll have the engine back in the bike. The wheels should probably go back on this week too. It will start to look like a motorcycle!

[crobox]

Originally Posted by LandsVW

here's my budget (and probably boring) thread if anyone is interested:

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=835547

I just read your whole thread.. Not boring at all.
What's the story with priming the oil pump? I remember noticing that Steve from SF did it in his rebuild thread, but your thread was the first time I remember reading that it was a critically important thing to do. Do you have to pull it out of the engine to do it?

Thanks for linking your thread... Tons of good info in there.