Now that February is drawing to a close, we can dream of Spring!!! I had a couple fairly significant projects this winter. What did you all tackle on your Speedsters?
Thanks to those of you who contributed to the exhaust and carb projects! I’m so happy with the result!
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After last year, having to pull the engine to evict the tenants of a Mouse Condominium in my fan shroud, I'm trying NOT to have any major projects this year. Maybe I'm due.
That said, I'm sure something will come up. All I've done so far is rotate the tires and I'm trying to emulate @MusbJim's "Chillaxin" approach. Hopefully, it'll be an easy Spring and maybe less soggy than last year.
That's some really nice carburetor stands! You must have needed something to do that day...idle hands are the devil's workshop.
Agreed, but I can't claim credit. That is Rick Hunt's good work....
I am ready for some sun and dry roads. Second California winter in a row with cold wet depressing weather. I'd almost rather have snow and ice than this 40 degree rain every day. I know, b!tch moan....
@Teammccalla posted:I'd almost rather have snow and ice than this 40 degree rain every day.
Trust me on this: you wouldn't.
People who say, "if it's going to be cold, I wish it would snow" do not work in the snow.
Shoulda had this question a year ago. LAST winter was a doozie that focused on a rebuild of the rear brake and drive train: Bearings, rotors, CV joint assemblies (both sides), plus a rebuilt tranny and a dizzy upgrade (Magnaspark). Rear drive train work precipitated by a loose castle nut, and subsequent chewing of the driver side spline in the brake rotor. When removed,, it was nearly smooth, with just a hint of what were once teeth. Earlier in the summer the tranny disgorged a major part of a ring gear tooth at a trans oil change. Remarkably, there was no overt symptom of this gear tooth failure. Must have been that way for hundreds of miles.
THIS winter: keep the cover on, the trickle charger plugged in and the mouse traps emptied and reset fresh every few days.
Further note to prove that I am capable of learning and following the good advice freely offered here. Some good miles after the rebuild of the drive train elements, and an initial torqueing of the castle nuts to at least 235 ft-lbs, I got my cheater bar and punched up one more "crenellation" on said castle nuts. Just me on the end of about five feet of cheater bar. Pushed the nuts to one more slot, reinserted the hitch-pins, and called it a day.
I am just getting around to my winter projects:
Fix the engine compartment lid latch so it isn't a 2 person job to open it.
Finish turbo hat installation.
Try again to get cruise control to work.
Replace defroster outlets & install tiny little fans in the hoses to vents.
Finish fake Rudge wheel things.
@Stan Galat , we have bleeding rain again today! You are probably right. It’s part of being a Californian to b!tch about the weather, when it’s pretty much nothing to complain about. We complain about drought when it doesn’t rain. Such is life.
@El Frazoo , those sound way more serious than carb and exhaust! I need to research upgrading brakes. I think that the power I added put me right at the limit of what the stock VMC disks do. I’d prefer a little more brake, but that’s for the future. Transmission too. A 901 is a dream, but I don’t think it’s high on my list. If I blow up what I have, I will look for some kind of upgrade, I’m sure.
@Michael McKelvey , cruise control and defroster. You are in a different league, my friend. I have a rag behind my passenger seat for defrost. I can say that my lid does work well. At least I have that going for me.
Everyone, keep ‘em coming. I have to do something in this rain other than take stuff apart and put it back together when it has no need to come apart at all.
I have a thread elsewhere on here detailing my adventures with Bridget. The engine is back in, oil and coolant changed, hoses bled. This weekend I aim to put the interior back in again and see if I did it right.
The Spyder is getting new valve cover gaskets and an oil change. After the valve adjustment. Then a carb dial-in and maybe some futzing about with the timing curve again.
I have an oil change/valve lash check coming up and that's about it. The Speedster is up on the lift, hopefully high enough to discourage my mouse friends from getting up in there. They are more than welcome to inhabit my neighbor's back shed.
We have had a few days nice enough and with salt free roads that I should have gotten the Speedster out by now, but chose, instead, to get my bicycle ready and have been riding that, instead. The bike doesn't have carburetors to get gummed up or fan shrouds to get mouse nests in or other fitzy things. It just goes.
I'll get around to the Speedster in the next couple of weeks. No salt left on the roads and the temps are getting nice out.
@Teammccalla posted:Now that February is drawing to a close, we can dream of Spring!!! I had a couple fairly significant projects this winter. What did you all tackle on your Speedsters?
Thanks to those of you who contributed to the exhaust and carb projects! I’m so happy with the result!
Carburetors look great; I have another suggestion for you. Get some rain hats from Beck and install them; you don't want to get caught in a rain storm without them. Ask me how I know. A couple of members here have also gone through the same ordeal; hydrolocking is not fun.
I live in NorCal (Bay Area) so it would be rare to get caught in an unexpected downpour. Very rare. Even if I get caught in the rain, how much rain would it take to drown my carbs?! That is a serious question -- it sounds like it happens. I looked at the threads and this is a real thing!
I lived in Baltimore for a bit, and also in Colorado. Both places, I remember getting blindsided, and having water sloshing inside my shoes, etc, soaked to the bone in a matter of minutes.
That doesn't really happen here. It's what we pay those absurd state taxes and housing prices for. We have advance warning of a storm, and it rains soooo rarely from May to October. On days like this Saturday, we know if there's a good chance of rain, and then I don't go, or don't go far anyway. Luckily Spring is most definitely here -- thank the Speedster Gods!
@Stan Galat posted:
Clean work, but that ignition module mount!!! Wow
My Lord ! that's ambitious work Stan. I can supply the meatballs for all that spaghetti hanging there. Just let me know. Always here to help ..............
Dave
Nice work Stan. Still running that serpentine setup.
You know...... If you took all that extra wire and bundled/balled it up in a random-sort-of-way and then crammed it up under the dash, it would look a lot like some of our cars.
Jus' sayin'.......
Curious, now, to hear how this all works out for you, and it certainly keeps you off the streets.
"An idle mind is the Devil's playground", as they say......
@MikelB posted:Nice work Stan. Still running that serpentine setup.
Yes, because of the dry-sump, but I think I'd get away from it otherwise. On my setup the idler is spinning at a ridiculous speed (obviously), but I think a lot about how fast the fan wheel itself is spinning as well, and it seems dangerous and like a waste of power.
I'm to the point of believing (really believing) that the belt slip of a tiny little V-belt turning a great big alternator and heavy fan on a normal cooling system is not a bug, but a feature. I've seen some data that would indicate that there's not much cooling gain after about 4000 RPM or so of engine speed (about the point where a stock setup starts to slip) with a serpentine belt.
@Gordon Nichols posted:You know...... If you took all that extra wire and bundled/balled it up in a random-sort-of-way and then crammed it up under the dash, it would look a lot like some of our cars.
The ECU is a Microsquirt... which I know sounds like gibberish, but which is a DIYAutotune product made for controlling motorcycles and the like. It doesn't have the capability of full sequential injection, so it's a batch-fire proposition. What it is is small and mostly weather resistant, so I can put the module in the engine bay, which really helps me with packaging. I mounted it under a cover up between the deck lid hinges under a cover to add a bit more protection.
I bought all the stuff from Mario Velotta (the DubShop), who is the ACVW EFI guru. Mario sells a Microsquirt harness that has a 5 ft or so wire on all 35 pins, about a third of which I'm presently not using.
The thing is, I don't know what I don't know. I may want or need some of those unused leads down the road so I cut nothing off. I routed the unused leads with the rest of the bundle inside the shrink-tube down to the very back of the car behind the Accusump I have mounted under the deck-lid latch. They're not wadded up or random, but they are unused and "extra" (at least for now). I have them in their own shrink-tube with the end running past the bundle, pinched off to keep them from grounding or shorting to anything else.
The current idea here is to have everything ready, then install the new 2234 I've had sitting on the stand for an embarrassing amount of time now, wire the terminations, then remove the throttle-bodies to light the new engine and break in the cam with carbs, reinstall the TBs and have @DannyP help me with the EFI light-off and tune. This will involve either flying Dan here or trailering the car there -- but either way, it'll be a logistical undertaking.
It's madness for sure.
Stan is doing things "the right way!" Beautiful wiring and a conservative startup plan with Danny supervision. As long as someone is standing nearby with a fire extinguisher I'll be happy. Of course, Stan, you could just add a BlazeCut into the mix...
@Michael Pickett posted:Stan is doing things "the right way!" Beautiful wiring and a conservative startup plan with Danny supervision. As long as someone is standing nearby with a fire extinguisher I'll be happy. Of course, Stan, you could just add a BlazeCut into the mix...
I don't have any idea if it's the "right way" or not, but it's the only way I know how to do things. I play to my strengths, and attempt to paper over my weaknesses by doing everything I know to do to help ensure a good outcome. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't, but I can only do what I can do.
I may have the most beautifully wired disaster in history, I don't know. What I DO know is that I've done everything I know to do. We'll see how it turns out.
