1981 R100RS BUILD - Part Deux

Things are looking up. Jean had enough confidence in my work to ask to go for a lil' two-up ride to see what it was like to be on an R100 boxer again. So we did. I know the carbs need to be cleaned. I pulled her off the lift and it was a bit of a chore getting the Red to run and idle. Jean all geared up just looked and said 'I guess we're not going!"...I grumbled something and kept adjusting and revving.

A quick 4 mile loop to the gas station seemed to get it fit. I waited for Jean to get her gear back on...and we left down the driveway.

A warm-up for a scant 6 miles and all seemed good. It seemed to haul or fat old arses just fine. We decided to be brave and take the Bouquet Canyon loop up thru the local hills.
Sweet, the bike handle d just fine. I'd pulled the trick looking frame braces off so that I could get at the carbs easier. I'm getting the feeling these tings are more bling than they're worth.
The bike feels no different with or without.

Tacos at the Casa Guiterras hot the spot, sunny day, wind at our backs and a fast scoot home.
One quick stop at the market to by a gallon of Pinesol. I have plans...

Mama satisfied, I begin surgery again. Carbs have to come off.

Float needles are shot, well no shidt. Some o-rings look iffy too.
$62 in parts from MAX$$$BMW and she should run much weller.

Since I have to wait for parts, may as well pull the forks apart. There is an obvious top-out clunk coming from the front-end.
Oh for joy... here we go again, mosre lil' surprises await...

...and some crust.

Pulling it apart it looks to be there are some parts missing as well. Max$$$BMW $126.
The right forks compression rod has all come unscrewed and the parts are loose inside the tube.
Not to worry. Maybe that's why she goes 'clunkity clunk' Nothin' money can't fix.
Well, I wanted to re-paint thse fork sliders anyhow, so all will be new...me hopes.

Meantime, installed the Brown sidestand, since now I'm convinced the OEM stand is a trck BMW wrought on it's RS owners.

So I bellied up to the Race Tech emulators to start. Dismantled the bars to get to the springs again. Dropped in the GV's and spacers, even though the Progressive springs are about 10-20mm too long. Time to think about the Race Tech springs, later. I'm a glutton for punishment.

Gold valves arrived after much study on which ones and how for this bike. The initial mod to the forks pretty much sucked as expected, pre-drilled the damper rods for emulators but without emulators. Now that I have them I'll pop those in with 15mm spacers. Matt Wiley at Race Tech informed me that the Race Tech springs will work much better than the progressives...later on that.

I'm happy with the RS dash pad I found on ebay. With the K75 bars ir still fits with a little coaxing.
Gives a more finished look. Feels complete.
Bought a couple goodies off ebay too...

Taking it for a spin shows it's just not running good on that right cylinder even after the carb cleaning and new parts. Right side idle screw isn't doing a thing during synch, so I ordered new screws for both carbs. I made sure all the passages where clear with fishing line. Maybe next week we'll get her going...oh, and the neutral switch is totally toast....

02-11-11
Parts arrived from MAXBMW. It's clear that the old screws are well worn compared to the new ones.

After all this fiddle fart'n around another end-of the weekend test run around the short loop reveals more surprises!
The bike runs better than ever with the new carb parts. Could it be I finally got that right?!!
That's a good thing...so is the new voltmeter (works!) and 140mph speedo (works!). Excellent.

However... I see that the gauge lights don't work other than oil and hi beam.
(SEGUAY)...
I guess going through the gauge set again didn't work. All bulbs good, but the flexy contact board was iffy. Some testing at work by the NASA techs showed the rotor, alternator and diode board are good....

Meantime I jumped on the bandwagon for the Shorai lithium battery. I'll put that in the KTM and put the Odyssey PC310 in the RS.
Pulled the old monster battery out that's in questionable condition.
WTF, everything else has turned out worn out or abused. I'm modding the battery box a bit to make the PC310 fit.

Also read about grounding the bike better. Came across Motolectric who make siper-duper HICAP grounds for this bike.

I figure a little overkill won't hurt. Also added a second ground from the coil bracket ground to the battery negative.

....BUT, after all this I pull up and the battery is DEAD when I try to restart so that I can do a final synch on the carbs.
Hmmm... batttery charger on for 15 minutes. Fine, but no start. (?) It's always started!?!
Turns out there is NO SPARK... ya know, I need a break...
Back up on the rack for another day.

But can I just stop? No not I.

02-13-11 - Back into surgery we go.

Testing the ignition system shows the ICU (amplifier) is bad, even though it is new. Possibly I shouldn't have hooked up the SEARS 2 amp auto battery charger with the ground still hooked up. Maybe I F'd up and popped that sucker, we shall see.

So I have one on order for the next weekend's round of RS chronicles, as well as a ignition sensor in case I need to tackle the ignition Hall sensor (beancan) rebuild. That's a part the runs upwards of $600 from the dealer. Hall sensor itsl;f only $19.95...hope I don't gotta do it tho'...
Also have a better regulator , new alternator brushed and springs coming from Motorrad Electik.

But I hate electrical gremlins, period. I am so electrically challenged...
While I'm bowing all my ca$h I found a new flexyboard on fleabay for a chunk.

So let's add to the build cost shall we?
Race Tech Gold Valve Emulators - $165
Odyssey battery - $150
Flexy board - $70
ICU (again) - $40
Hall sensor - $20
Regulator $40
Starter Relay $40
Alternator brushes and springs - $12
MAXBMW, carb parts, neutral switch - $70
misc. = $30
...what's that total up to?...I dunno...

...taking stuff apart is fun!

While I've got it all apart, and I mean all apart, I'm running the breather hose out of the airbox. Lots of oil in there even though the bike doesn't use oil or smoke.

02-18-11 - Electro Man

Yeah, that's me, electrical genius, well at least it's a learning curve I'm climbing.

I decide to tackle the beancan, easy to disassemble but when I saw that the hall sensor was rivited, I gave up.

I'll leave this to the pros. I've got the word out that I need one. I call Rick at Motorrad Eleckrik and he fills me in on
the deal. Pretty much I'm shooting on the dark on fixing the can myself, a real bitch to do less you have the expertise.
That said, he won't have any super duper cans for 7-10 days...so..
My Options include:

1. Wait 2 weeks til ME gets the super dupers in $300
2. Wait 2 weeks for one from Ebay $120
3. Beg Wirespokes Terry to send me one of his...what a guy, he volunteers to pull one off one of his parked bikes.

Feeling shot down I kick it for the weekend (stay up late, sleep in alot). Went to the show, took the dogs for a hike.

The storm cam thru and wrecked my outdoor studio so had that to do...

02-19-1

Installed the new regulator, new alternator brushes, springs are better than the ones from ME so leaving those alone.

Rechecked all the connects. Pulled the beancan 3 pin connector apart and made sure the pins are straight and intact.

Installed extra grounds, one from the diode board to the coil ground at the frame.
Second one from the coil ground to the battery pole so I'm grounded very well sir.

02-18-11

Took the time on this snowy 4 day weekend to replace the neutral switch.
Inspect the headlight shell, replaced the 2 fuses. For a a place I've been, I was surprised that it looks pretty good in there...

Installed the new flexyboard and checked all the bulbs, methodically dear boy, methodically...

Best news is, the gauges are all together with the new flexyboard. All the lights work!

Just waiting for the known to be good beancan from my friend Wirespokes Terry in Oregon.... soon come!

Third time this winter. This is nuts. After a run south with Jean we returned back up the freeway to find it hailing and snowing, kinda 'snailing' or 'haiwing'. 4 inches in about 30 minutes. After a break in the deluge the mail lady was spotted at the mailbox down the road. She wasn't coming up my driveway in this mud amd slush/ I caught her at the box and yes, the beancan arrived today.

Straight to the garage for the test. Insert beancan. Check all connections. Petcocks on. Contact. NASA we have ignition!
You shoulda seen me dance....

But wait, there's more!

Remember the cute lil Odyssey battery? Oh I have spark, it turns over and wants to start,
...but the battery DIES!!!
This is a fate too comical for errors...'tis.

Well, now it's 4:35PM and Ihave not a battery that works to see if shes'a runna! But no battery!
Luckily I remember that the local auto parts store carries super Yuasa/Interstate motorcycle batteries.
I slide down the slushing road in the '93 Vulvawagon (279K mikes) and get to the store ASAP!

Jason-at-the-counter deals me out a 22 pound lump of black electricity in a box and says
"Wow, that's an expensive battery"...yeah I know Jason, just take the card and turnitover...
Meantime the owner is turning out the lights...oh I could save online but I am so tired of trying to save a buck on this project.

Support yer local merchant. Acton Auto Parts rocks!

One badass Yuasa/Interstate FAYIX30L Cycletron PLUS black box $175 OTD! Done!
The biggest and baddest moto-batt the Y-kids make.
30 amps of shear power and 385CCP...I don't need no trendy lil toy batt'ry no.
This be a MANS FULL SIZED Batt'ry!...thats right...

All tuned and ready to roll...BUT NOOOO!...can't get down the slime road to the dry street to test it. 3HREE WEEKENDS WE'VE HAD sn-ow IN sOcAL!!!

Take a deep breath and just let it go....

So I'll be upgradin'...WTF, over? Good thing I got a raise today, I'm gonna need it for my retirement.

A dressed and ready to go. Alpha system in, back to gether. Helmet on, ready hit the starter button, hard starting battery goes dead.
Yeah new battery. Guess it wasn'r 'readt-to-go". Welll thg pretty much screwed my plans for the day. DEpressing... Later on after she was chraged all the way to the top. Al seemed good. Smooth power delivery, just some surging that has to be gass related.

Tach and speedo both work well....but I'm runnin' 4000rpm 5th gear and speedos reading 60-70 mph. Top gear top speed barely reached 90mph. Pretty sure it's about 10mph slow just by seat of the pants thru the power band and on the freeway where these SoCal a-holes crank 75 easy I'm tackin' along with them reading 65. What you think?

She pops alot when backing off the throttle. Maybe part because the pipes are pretty straight through baffel-less. Right carb was overflowing. So, reset the float, got that fixed. Vented the gas cap cuz it was plugged. Checked the needles on both sides at level 2. Bike runs strong but still some slight surging at steady 3000K rpm 2nd gear for example. Can't figure that out. But I do think the Alpha can has been a good addition. It's very smooth accelerating up thru all the gears. Happy about that. Next weekend I ride ...somewhere... I did manage a few canyon sweeps for pure testing...Love this bike.

Feels great to be back on an RS again.

Part Uno

Part Tre'