Saturday, Aug 17 3013 [25,348 miles]
I was busy Thursday and Friday and didn’t get a chance to work on the R69S. Today I did the remainder of “things to do when the bike is cold”. I might have done more but found that my gallon container of engine oil was less than 1/4 full.
Mostly clean
A little grease
I lifted the rear part of the fender to lubricate the hinge. While there I cleaned it up a bit. I’ve been making it a habit to spread a little white grease where the two parts come together. Don’t know that it does any good. Pretty sure it won’t do any harm.
Tighten base nuts
perennial small leak
Two of the eight base nuts moved slightly when checking that they were tight. That has nothing to do with the leak pictured in the second image. I’ve always a hint of oil there. It’s not enough to do anything about it other that wiping it off when I notice it.
dirty petcock
clean petcock filter
I pulled the bottom off of the petcock for cleaning and filter access. The internal filter was perfectly clean. In the past I’d found a few paint (?) flakes. Nothing this time.
Pull carbs
Flatten mounting flange
float looks OK
I pulled the carbs off the bike for cleaning. Both flanges were ever so slightly warped. I gently lapped them on some 400 grit sand paper on top of a ceramic tile. I think I’ve done that once before.
My floats look OK. I’ve not had any indication of leakage, either. I didn’t bother checking the lever top needles this time around. The bike will usually tell me when they need replacing.
Busted O-ring
I have lots of spares
Notice the broken O-ring. I’m careful to lightly grease the O-rings and not over tighten the knurled ring when installing the slides. I still break O-rings. That’s why I keep plenty on hand. I also keep a set of spare gaskets just in case I tear something durring disassembly.
Right side needs adjustment
Spark plug OK
Timing slightly off
Last job this afternoon was re-torquing the heads and checking/adjusting the valves. As expected my right head needed lots of adjustment and the left head was fine. I really need to get a replacement head for the right side.
I checked the static timing. The points were opening a little late, with the timing mark at the bottom of the window instead of centered in the winds. I also rotated the engine to check the timing of the other point lobe. There is a very slight bit of differential timing. Not enough to worry about. I adjusted the points for proper static timing. I’ll check with a timing light, later.