Today was productive.

"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
05/18/2020 at 23:11 • Filed to: None

The Ducati is shockingly okay to work on. Forums/Facebook groups made carb removal out to be a massive hassle but, uh, have any of them owned a Yamaha or Kawasaki? Honda still holds the title for consistently having thoughtfully-designed carb setups for maintenence. This still wasn’t bad. Battery and coils are mounted to the airbox so that’s six additional screws to remove but if that scares you sell your bike and get a Razor scooter.

As expected there was somehow a freaking whole-ass boulder in the main jet of the one carb I’ve taken apart so far. Also expected is weak-ass stock US-spec jets that are barely adequate on a stock bike, much less for one that was modified like this one is. Dynojet Stage 2 describes my exact set of mods in their instructions so I’ll be ordering that to throw in here and have a merry christmas.

For whatever reason I consistently have brake issues with every Miata I own. Not sure why. Brakes were making a horrible noise so I stopped driving the car and finally got around to taking a look. Caliper pin has welded itself to the bracket and I fairly well mangled the bracket trying to get it out. There is one salvage yard in town that has an NC so ho pefully I can get a good bracket/pins from there and clean/grease the pins. Don’t seem to be able to buy the bracket on its own from anywhere.

So that’s all a lot of fun.

DISCUSSION (15)

dumpsterfire! > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
05/18/2020 at 23:23

Until I read this, I would have thought carb removal on a Duc would have been comparable to a Ferrari engine out service.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
05/18/2020 at 23:34

And here I was patting myself on the back for mopping the kitchen

shop-teacher > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
05/18/2020 at 23:35

Not too shabby!

SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
05/18/2020 at 23:47

I’m sensing an Oppo trend of posting about machines that were broken, have been repaired via the act of dismantling and are yet, quite visibly, still broken.

Beefchips > SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media
05/19/2020 at 00:32

the great th ing is that if you never put it back toget h er you can just assume you’ve diagnosed it correctly!

ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability > SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media
05/19/2020 at 00:33

Don't you jinx me now, my disassembled machine goes back together tomorrow

SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media > ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability
05/19/2020 at 07:39

I’ve put mine back together... I’m not yet game to turn it on. On the up side, it’s got new gear oil in it and the oil is still in it!

SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media > Beefchips
05/19/2020 at 07:45

Yeah but then it looks at you from the corner of the shed or its resting place in the paddock...and, by Huey, it can manage some seriously filthy looks. After a while, it gets to you....

RacinBob > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
05/19/2020 at 07:58

This is my old racing partner. He has anything you could need for a Miata. http://isellmiataparts.com/

JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
05/19/2020 at 08:09

Yeah, that doesn’t look to o bad. In my experience, except for Ferrari and later Lamborghini the Italians understand that at some point you will have to FIX your motor-vehicle and they make it relatively sane to do so, even if it is by doing things like making the entire inner fender remo vable to ease access to the timing belt (Alfa Romeo 164). Also, unless you’ve worked on a non-R BMW bike you can’t say you’ve seen a “diff icult”carb removal. The Germans don’t build things to be serviced, and the BMWs without opposed twins especially so. I mean they are remarkably reliable... But when you do finally have to get in there... Woe unto you.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t
05/19/2020 at 09:05

My Kawasaki is the most unpleasent twin that I’ve ever worked on... the carbs hover between two rubber boots that aren’t removable from what they are attached to, so to remove the carb you have to mangle these stupid boots out of the way. Absolute disaster, especially if the boots are old and hardened, not much better if they’re brand new.

Yamaha... fuck yamaha. So much. I’ve worked on a couple but the worst bike I’ve ever worked on which gets the title of Worst Fucking Bike Of All Time is a Yamaha 650 V-Star. What a piece of shit. Want to do an oil change? Remove the right brake pedal. Now remove the engine cover under that which has three screws holding it on and covers nothing but three more screws for the OTHER engine cover you have to remove. Congrats, you just spilled oil everywhere because when you drain the oil it does not drain out of the oil filter housing inside the engine. Carb reinstallation has to be done half-blind with all the screws in idiotic locations, I hope you have plenty of long handled screwdrivers. Oh, and the carbs themselves... fucking Mikuni CV carbs with forty goddamn sensors bolted onto them for no reason to make an already complex piece of equipment even more obnoxious to service.

All of this for a mediocre-sounding slow as balls shitty cruiser. My Vulcan 500 would absolutely walk it in a straight line. My 1983 Shadow 700 would leave it for dead instantly while being incredibly easy to work on and an absolute joy to own.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
05/19/2020 at 09:05

I need to do that tbh.

JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
05/19/2020 at 10:13

Oil change on a BMW F650 involves two special tools (or fabricobbled approximations) high risk of covering your front tire and brake with oil, and guaranteed oil drips down the side of the crankcase cover with possible alter nator oil contamination.

Removing the carbs requires (at minimum) removing the seat, battery box and tank fairing loosening and shifting the airbox rearward (which requires removing the exhaust, which can theoretically be done without removing the rear fender, but I have found in practice is impossible without doing so, which also requires removing all external rear plastics). If the rubber intake boots on the engine side are heat hardened (they are), then the airbox must be removed entirely to allow enough room to wiggle the carbs out (the airbox must be spli t in order to remove it from between the frame rails) . Loosening the various clamps and fasteners requires either a VERY short right-angle screwdriver (its too tight to use a standard ratcheting style multi-bit right-angle driver, i made my own by grinding down a double-ended right angle screw driver and recutting the bit. Y es, of course all the screws are posidrive, THIS IS A GERMAN MOTORCYCLE! ) or entirely removing the fuel tank (which requires removing the front fairing, draining the radiator and removing the hoses and cooling fan, and ideally draining and removing the oil-cooler as well.) A nd this ignores the fact that it is *impossible* to disconnect the throttle cables (yes, plural) from the carb slides until the carbs can be rotated 90 degrees, so all fiddling and fin agaling must be done while trying not to kink or break those cables. Remember also, this is a SINGLE cylinder engine with TWO carbs. One for each intake valve, the carbs are also tuned and jetted slightly differently from one another so as to opti mize performance and throttle response across engine RPM and load. It works, BUT AT WHAT COST? T he left and right carb bodies are not interchangeable, but the jets and tuning for the left and right carbs are different and you don’t reassemble them correctly, woe unto you. This is why my F650 is still not fully reassembled. I set the floats and valves wrong for the left and right carbs first time ar ound. I went as far as pulling them and resetting them correctly, but then we moved and geared up the farm, and it’s been sitting in pieces for three years. Maybe this summer I ‘ll find time and energy to finish the job...

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t
05/19/2020 at 10:46

I hate every single word you just typed. I’ll have nightmares now.

JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
05/19/2020 at 11:38

Now, at least I won’t be the only one with these nightmares.