Ground truthing '02 Lemans purchase

[gstallons]

I'd leave it alone . 

[FreyZI]

10 hours ago, gstallons said:

I'd leave it alone . 

Great.  Now that we've decided that I will not screw around inside the final drive, I have to decide what paint to use.  Here's a shot of the torsion bar bracket thingy with a cast alu piece I shot with some VHT wrinkle paint. 

Looks a pretty good match to my eye.  I think I'll give this stuff a shot on the final drive.  I had been leaning toward matching the swingarm, but this is so close to original I have to go with it.

This particular paint can be air dried, but to "cure", the instructions say to put the painted pieces in an oven at 200F for 20 minutes.  I did that with this piece.  I'd like to do that with the final drive, too.

I don't see any reason I can't stick the whole final drive in the oven at 200F for 20 minutes.  I'd remove oil drain bolts, of course.  I'd imagine most grease (P.O.x2 seems to have been a fan of red grease) would be okay up to that temperature.

Cheers,

Frey

[Lucky Phil]

4 hours ago, FreyZI said:

Great.  Now that we've decided that I will not screw around inside the final drive, I have to decide what paint to use.  Here's a shot of the torsion bar bracket thingy with a cast alu piece I shot with some VHT wrinkle paint. 

Looks a pretty good match to my eye.  I think I'll give this stuff a shot on the final drive.  I had been leaning toward matching the swingarm, but this is so close to original I have to go with it.

This particular paint can be air dried, but to "cure", the instructions say to put the painted pieces in an oven at 200F for 20 minutes.  I did that with this piece.  I'd like to do that with the final drive, too.

I don't see any reason I can't stick the whole final drive in the oven at 200F for 20 minutes.  I'd remove oil drain bolts, of course.  I'd imagine most grease (P.O.x2 seems to have been a fan of red grease) would be okay up to that temperature.

Cheers,

Frey

You only need to cure VHT engine enamel for "Chemical resistance" read gasoline resistance. You could probably get away without the heat curing but if you have an oven and an understanding wife then it can't hurt anything.  

Personally I'd stay away from wrinkle finish paint. It collects dirt too easily and is hard to clean. looks nice but not in the "real world"

Ciao

[FreyZI]

I got Bubbles put back together.  I started with the rear, as I swapped out the badly peeling anodized-looking red pork chops for a pair of dark silver-ish pork chops that came with the bike from PO.  Though I had considered a "one side at a time" approach to pork chop replacement (i.e., take as little apart as possible), I ultimately decided to just take everything apart.

Now that I've had the rear apart, the good news is that most of it seems pretty serviceable.  I did not break into the rear drive, but oil looked fine and magnetic plug looked fine, too.  All the joints in the drive train looked good enough.

Known problems:

• Shock eye at swingarm has some play
• Torsion bar rubber jobbies are shot
• Right muffler mount bent
• Torsion bar has been eroded at the connection to frame (I suspect one of the frame tabs was bent inward at some point and it since ate slowly away at the torsion bar where it's pinched
• Also, the most rearward part of the fairing (above the cylinder heads) is not a tight fit to the fuel tank.  I suspect that, in the fall on the right, one or more mounting brackets were bent, and then bent back, but not quite to original shape.  I have a half inch or so of daylight.  In the outdoor light, it sure seemed to me that the fairing was a different color (a bit less gold) that the tank and the seat surround.  I suspect that the fairing had either been replaced or repainted at some point; and that there was a second accident in which the fairing got a little minor road rash.  Yes, I think this bike has been down a couple times. 

Moving on to the front:

I took Bubbles down from laundry room suspension and wheeled it outside.  Started right up.  Runs a little rough.  A bit more (valve train?) noise than the Tenni.  I let it warm up a couple minutes; did not ride it.  Began leaking fuel from the right throttle body.  I noticed this after I shut it down, so I don't know if it was leaking while running.  Also after shut down, I noticed that the right muffler only smoked for a while.  This is where I will be most happy for your thoughts. 

One other gremlin to note:  Neutral light does not come on and dropping the kickstand in neutral results in engine cut-off.

It's a good thing I'm having fun wrenching and learning about V11s, because I'm feeling like I made a pretty poor, sight unseen, Covid Times, boredom purchase.  This may end up being the rat bike I always wanted. 

 

[docc]

Progress!

Regarding the Neutral Light: This is illuminated by the Neutral Switch on the left side of the gearbox ("shift plate") just below the starter motor.  It is common that the crimp connector comes loose or looses connection due to corrosion. Locate, clean, crimp, connect, and use copious amount of Vaseline® or equivalent as it is down in the road spray. 

Most everyone would expect (especially me) to say "relay #3", but the light is triggered by the switch before the relay. It is also possible to be a stuck (or faulty) Neutral Switch. Some have removed it, cleaned and replaced along with a gearoil change with success.  Find the end if the wire and ground it. If the light comes on, the fault is the connection or the switch itself.

"C" in this image (Left of the red circle):

                                                          

[FreyZI]

39 minutes ago, docc said:

Progress!

The most encouraging thing is that I didn't have any parts left over after it went back together. 

Thanks for the nice pic, Docc.  Per instructions, grounded wire and got neutral light.  Filed connector, put on some dielectric grease.  Neutral light all good. 

 

 

[docc]

Bravo!

As for the torsion bar bushes, I believe we have a known replacement source for those to press in.

As for the leaking throttle body, the fuel system remains under pressure after shutdown. Carefully check tightness and integrity of all of the fuel line connections.

So many suspicious foibles will dissolve into a bit of run-in, some fettling, and a couple "Decent Tune-ups" . . . 

Remember, the V11 ECU richens the start-up mixture the first 6,000 rpm (IIRC) every time it is started. This aspect certainly can drizzle raw fuel out the throttle body shafts. 

[FreyZI]

I did notice a bit of a stumble on acceleration, too. Maybe engine vacuum leak from the throttle-body base gasket?

[docc]

4 minutes ago, FreyZI said:

I did notice a bit of a stumble on acceleration, too. Maybe engine vacuum leak from the throttle-body base gasket?

Any vacuum leaks are going to fuss with her. Try spraying an evaporative (not oily) solvent around all of the junctions and joints and connections of the intakes while idling. If the idle is affected, you have located a culprit.

Here is a link to Torque Reaction Rod bushes, courtesy of member @Steve S:

 

[docc]

8 minutes ago, FreyZI said:

I did notice a bit of a stumble on acceleration, too. Maybe engine vacuum leak from the throttle-body base gasket?

I mean, maybe she just needs a Decent Tune-up and some riding to settle in . . .

 

[Scud]

Hey nice progress. And damn quick fix on the neutral light. One problem down... a few more to go.

Torsion bar and shock mount need to be addressed no matter what you do with the bike cosmetically. 

The tank and fairing are centered on the frame but the engine is offset a bit to the right. The fairing has two brackets from the heads that look deceptively similar, but are not the same. The longer bracket should go on the LH side to compensate for the engine offset. If the brackets are in the wrong sides, spacing around the tank will be too tight on the left and overly wide on the right.

Fuel leak - try turning key (or kill switch) several times and check your fuel lines. The pump will keep priming and hopefully you can find what is wrong.

Smoke - since it didn't run long, we can't rule out a bit of condensation in one pipe. Something to keep an eye on after it runs longer without leaking fuel.

 

[FreyZI]

Okay, I have the decent tune up bookmarked. 

12 minutes ago, Scud said:

Fuel leak - try turning key (or kill switch) several times and check your fuel lines. The pump will keep priming and hopefully you can find what is wrong

@Scud, what to look for?

[Scud]

^ Like Docc said. Every fuel line and fitting. Start with the puddle and work your way up. Extra attention to anything you removed and reinstalled.

It's also possible that you just sloshed a little gas around while installing the tank and that some ran down a drain hose. In that case, your problem will not re-occur. Maybe shake those vent lines to see if another drop of fuel comes out. 

[FreyZI]

1 hour ago, Scud said:

The tank and fairing are centered on the frame but the engine is offset a bit to the right. The fairing has two brackets from the heads that look deceptively similar, but are not the same. The longer bracket should go on the LH side to compensate for the engine offset. If the brackets are in the wrong sides, spacing around the tank will be too tight on the left and overly wide on the right.

Yep, that did the trick. PO missed that when installing the fairing after the first crash.

I always knew one cylinder was forward and one aft, but never knew they were no on longitudinal center.

[docc]

More progress! 

Welldone, @FreyZI !