Ryland3210

Whatever you do, I strongly suggest you check out the pinched wiring problem to the stoplight mentioned in earlier posts.

Ah, yes, you bring back fond memories of camping in my '67 Barracuda 383 four speed formula S fastback. With the back seat and trunk panel folded down, two could stretch out full length on a foam mattress wider than a twin bed. It was also fun going to drive-in movies and parking backwards to watch the movie through the rear window (at least some of the time) while reclining. A six-pack, a sweet honey, ocasionally wiping condensation off the window, and no hassles from anyone. Even in the winter, propane fired catalytic heaters supplied for free by the drive-in made it a year round activity. Camp anywhere, any time on state land. The good old days. Youngsters these days have no idea how much personal freedom has been lost over the years, in the name of "safety".

It is not so easy to clean the tapped holes well enough for Loctite to be effective. Why not Schnorr washers?

Thanks for the great picture show, Kevin. I went through DV during the summer, by car. As I stopped and got out, just to see how hot it really was, a bicycle rider rode by. Unbelievable! It was so hot, that even though I had been comfortably cool in the car, within about 3 seconds, sweat started to pour out of every pore. I could easily see how fatal it could be in that furnace, but beautiful it is! The mineral crystals in incredibly brilliant colored pockets of water below the surface were unlike anything I'd ever seen.

Here is another tip from Wildguzzi just after the one referred to earlier: Another Final Drive Pressure Tip from Dave Phillips: To keep my 74 Eldo transmission from slobbering oil all over the place I adapted a plastic tube to the vent and ran it to a square 4.5OZ plastic bottle laying on it's side and held atop the battery with stick-on VELCRO pads. I drilled a small vent hole in top side of the bottle. Once the bottle filled to the level of the tube the excess oil flows into the bottle while ridding and vacuums back into the tranny as it cools down. It works great. I'm interested in comments on this. I set up my boat's outdrive with a similar reservoir. It is mounted on the transom higher than the outdrive. One of the main reasons I did it was to create a constant pressure at the bottom end of the outdrive where the propellor seal is. That way, if there is any leakage, oil will seep out, instead of water seeping in. I will know if it happens by watching the oil level in the clear plastic reservoir. OK, the point of this background is that the outdrive is designed to have its gears flooded, whereas the main drive on the Guzzi is not. So the question I pose is, how much horsepower is lost in a flooded, versus a non-flooded Guzzi gear case? Same question on the transmission. Any takers?

You're on the right track, except the 1/8 pipe size is nominal. The actual dimensions vary with the pressure rating of the pipe. In the National Pipe Thread system, schedule 40 is used for typical household plumbing and schedule 80 and 160 for higher pressures. The outside diameter of 1/8 NPT tapered threads is around .40 inches and 1/4 NPT around .52. There is also a 1/16 NPT and sizes above 1/4 to quite large pipe sizes. Tubing, on the other hand, is dimensioned by the outside diameter. In Europe, these tapered threads are sometimes refered to as "conical" on engineering drawings.

Nanmac is a source of an even wider variety of thermocouples than Omega. They also specialize in open junction thermocouples for fast response measurements. A common metal sheathed size is 1/8 inch diameter, in virtually any desired length. These can be mounted using a compression fitting similar to those used for tubing, but made of stainless steel. Available in either 1/4 or 1/8 NPT. One way to do this would be to weld a 1/8 NPT bung onto the exhaust pipe for the compression fitting. The thermocouple probe can be inserted to the desired length, and the compression fitting tightened to hold it there. The metal sheathed variety is more rugged than the open type, but will read considerably lower than the open type because of the conduction path to the bung and farther through the thermocouple sheath. They also will respond much slower. The engine would have to be held at steady state for some time for the thermocouple to reach equilibrium temperature. I doubt this would be of any practical use, because of these issues. An open type, although more delicate, would be a better solution.

Thanks for taking the time to write this thorough review. I don't see where I was incorrect, however, in my very brief comment which left out the various heat treatment steps which you included. It was not an explicit statement that precipitation hardening was caused by the quenching stage.

I was certain I had thanked you via a personal message for your generosity, especially since I had offered to pay for it. Please accept my abject apologies if you didn't receive my thank you message before. I was also impressed with the meticulous care you took in packing it to protect it during shipment. The situation is that it took my quite some time to acquire the mufflers I was seeking. The reason that is relevant is that I did not want to run the bike with either of those changes without having it dyno tuned and remapped. My plan was to get that done and report back to you. However, John Tavolacci, the local Dyno Jet tech had an accident, and was out of commission for several more weeks. I'm just now getting to the point where I can get that done, but the weather got in the way, then the Holidays. I hope you know me well enough to know I'm not one to ignore the kindness and generosity of others. FWIW a personal message is more likely to get my notice, since I sporadically monitor threads these days. Thanks for the info. on the aluminum sold by Home Depot. PS, I still plan to return the clamp to you (postage prepaid) as soon as I can locate an original airbox cover to carve up. FWIW, I have been waiting to hear from a mutual acquaintance that told me many weeks ago he would get one from his boneyard. Let me know if you want it back post haste, and I'll take it off my bike and send it back.

If the aluminum is the common 6061 T6, it is not very ductile. Typically, it will bend somewhat, but then fracture if deformed too far. Nogbad's annealing to soften previously heat treated material sounds reasonable, but the water quenching afterwards gives me pause. Many alloys will precipitation harden with such treatment. They will get harder, obtain higher yield strengths with with lower ductility with such fast quenching. I used to heat up tools with a torch, plunge them into a carburizing powder for several seconds, then plunge them into water. This resulted in a very hard surface. I don't recall ever hearing of fast quenching used to soften an alloy. However, in the case of work hardened material which does not have precipitation hardening elements, I suppose perhaps the mechanism might be that crystal grains will grow larger when heated, and fast cooling prevents them from developing finer grains. Generally, the finer the grain structure and more dislocations, the higher the yield strength and hardness. Here's an example of precipitation hardening I used in a pinch to make a special purpose screw driver to remove a stuck fastener. Grind it to the desired shape, heat it just shy of red hot, plunge it quickly into water.

Industrial thermocouples are available in a wide variety of sizes and mounting systems. For the temperatures expected in the exhaust gases, these generate a high enough voltage to drive meters directly. A thermocouple is simply two different metal alloys which generate a voltage proportional to the difference between the hot junction of the two wires and the cold junction at the meter, in this case. Various alloys are available to handle various temperature ranges. Accuracies of + - 2% are ordinary, + - 1% is relatively easy to obtain. A thin gauge wire type rated for 2,000-3,000 degrees F would impose very little obstruction. Those interested can search Omega Instruments for explanations, and a wide variety of sensors, instruments and related products.

You have my vote.

On balance, in my opinion, providing the ECU with a more accurate input of temperature, which I believe adding conductive paste does, is the way to go. I used the high copper content anti-seize compound on mine. By the way, be prepared for breaking the plastic holder when attempting to remove it. I personally bought the brass holder ahead of time. Sure enough, the plastic holder disintegrated upon removal, and my bike only had about 3,000 miles on it at the time.

Harley was only 15 degrees away from having primary balance, and with the connecting rod arrangement, zero rocking couple. I have to say, though, the 90 degrees of the Ducati's never looked as aesthetically pleasing as the Harley layout. In the case of the parallel twins, the distance between the pistons provides spacing for the crankpin offset, but then leaves a rocking couple. I have wondered why the offset crankpins weren't always used. Perhaps some cost factor was involved. All reasons why I love the Guzzi layout. 90 degrees, connecting rods only 24mm apart, and good looks.

Timken is the brand name. Timken is practically, if not literally, the grandfather of the tapered roller bearing. They make all three types mentioned: ball, roller, and tapered roller. Rollers, with line contact over the entire length of the rollers, instead of the relatively small contact of ball bearings, withstand a much higher load, size for size. Tapered rollers are more expensive, but used where there is an axial thrust in addition to the radial load, such as in wheel bearings. Ball bearings are also used in radial/thrust combinations for relatively light load applications. Cages and seals are used or not used on all three types, depending on the application.

Thanks, Mark. I think I'll take your advice. I have found the heated vest has the advantage of less need to carry bulky insulating clothing on long trips, just in case I need it. With the heated vest over just a warm shirt under a leather jacket, the lowest setting is plenty warm enough at 40, for example. If I get the heated pants, I can leave behind a bulky insulation layer.

In hot weather, I've done pretty well with a mesh armored jacket. In a ride back from Americade on the Thruway in the high 90's, I found it actually cooler than bare skin. I have the feeling your metabolism is a lot more energetic than mine. Wow! 35 degrees with just leather. Are you suggesting rain gear with good insulation to make up the difference? Thanks.

Hovercraft do not lift themselves up off the ground as a result of hydroplaning. They rise because of the static air pressure created under them. The fans used have sufficient flow rates to maintain that pressure even when they rise above the ground or water. A balance is achieved between the weight of the craft and the pressure times the area of the "footprint" of the Hovercraft. As it rises, the gap between the cushion and the ground or water under it increases. The larger the gap is, the higher the flow rate. As flow rate increases, the static pressure developed by the fans decreases until a balance is achieved. This is an example of the effect of static pressure, not hydroplaning. I have also driven many an automobile with flickering warning lamps that would glow when the pressure dropped below about 1.3 bar. I wonder what the pressure switch threshhold on your VW was? I remember when that was making many drivers worry back in the 1960's. Detroit's answer at the time was to lower the pressure switch threshhold to around 0.5 bar! My answer was to install high volume oil pumps in my cars. For quite a few years, now, the cars I have been driving, some up to the 300 km and more with oil pressure gauges, have maintained oil pressure at idle of at least 2 bar, most maintain 3.5 bar until they reach about 200 km. The implication, at least in my opinion, is that the automakers have decided that pressures of 0.3 bar are unhealthy for the long term life of engines made these days.

Good basic summary consistent with my trusty college textbooks of yesteryear. Nothing new there, but numbers are absent. My "high" pressure is relative, as is your "press the oil", and "This low pressure ..," The hydroplaning referred to in the article depends on the relative surface velocity of the bearing surfaces, and the rate at which oil can flow out of the bearing, and viscosity as well as other factors. Bottom line is that RPM and the ability of the pump to supply enough pressure to feed oil to the bearing are vital factors. So I think it is fair to say we are on the same page, except glowing low pressure warning lights always make me nervous, especially with the 2-5 psi threshholds of many pressure switches today.

The joint between mating parts of an assembled crank requires tight machining tolerances and an additional assembly operation, so it is hard to say whether an assembly of parts smaller than a cast or forged crank would cost less. My gut tells me it would cost more in parts as well as assembly labor. When I rebuilt my '64 Harley engine, it was quite a job to reassemble the crank pin to the adjacent crankshaft components. It used tapered ends to maintain concentricity, but the challenge was to prevent the two adjacent flywheels concentric with each other. It takes a lot less time to fasten a plain bearing connecting rod with its bearing cap to a single piece crankshaft, I can assure you, and no worries about crankshaft alignment. The crankshaft was supported in roller bearings at both ends. Good thing, because the weight of the crankshaft was enormous. It would have taken quite a high oil pressure to maintain hydrodynamic lubrication on the beast, which it didn't have, especially at the design idle RPM, about as slow as a heartbeat! As far as oil delivery is concerned, I don't see any major problem with drilling the holes in the individual components required for supplying oil to a plain bearing.

I agree with some of your points, but not all. This mechanical engineer is familiar with bearing design and practice, but takes exception to some of your statements. It is an established fact that rolling friction is less than sliding friction, otherwise we would be still dragging sleds along on greased skids instead of wheels. The example given does not take into account the viscous friction of plain bearings, which remains even when hydrodynamics of a plain bearing with sufficient pressure and surface velocity prevent metal to metal contact. In a subsequent paragraph, you reverse your own position, and give an example where rollers are used for lower friction. Plain bearings have been used for hundreds of years, and long before roller bearings. The use of relatively soft bearing liners allowed them to live in unfiltered oil because particles could embed themselves in the soft liners, while the shafts were hardened. There's an interesting case involving Isambard Brunnel's Great Eastern of the early 1800's. It's original iron propellor shaft spun in a bronze bearing shell. Years later, a new owner tried using an iron bearing shell to reduce cost. It failed rapidly. Your points are well taken on the need for rollers in 2 stroke engines and low pressure engines such as at least the older Harleys (I do not know whether the newer models have higher oil pressure at idle). I agree that the reason why modern engines make extensive use of plain bearings requires no lengthy discussion, but do not agree with your conclusion. With such factors as today's adequate and dependable oil pressure, better oils, and anti friction additives, the substantially lower manufacturing cost offered by plain bearings is motivation enough for the high volume makers. Regarding cost no object race engines, there is the trade-off between the lower friction offered by roller bearings and the weight savings offered by the plain variety, especially in high velocity applications, such as crank pins, to explain the various decisions.

Sounds good. That's a much longer shelf life than the typical maintenance free conventional battery. When it arrives, you can verify the state of charge by measuring its voltage before doing anything else with it. Then you will know what you got for the money. There are other posts in this forum on optimum charging methods for this battery, and voltage versus state of charge.

My personal favorite city is Venice for beauty, and Italy for food, with Indian as a close second. I think the English still make the best desserts. The cuisine France is famous for was originally brought from Italy when a French King married an Italian. I wish I could remember which one. It escapes me just now. Was it Catherine di Medici?

Dave, have you been hanging around with the wrong people?

Hey, John, I'm glad to see you aren't wasting any time hanging around while your bike's engine gets fixed.