My Johnny Cash bike ( one piece at a time)

Okay went out after letting bike sit for a few hours , completely cold crossed my fingers a little choke and started up took choke off and it idled perfect at 1100 rpm . happy dance . Synch is not perfect with my Morgan pro but it runs good , so still need to check valve clearance so will check after I do the deed. Now my turn signals won't work unless you hold button down , well that is for another day.

 

So got a little time to look at turn signals , had a spare flasher , no luck will work if you hold left or right ,but shuts off if you let off button. Took the control apart , I think every spider had taken up residence in there. Cleaned out tweaked the contacts and got it to work , put cover on ...and it would not work again . I had two sets of spare controls , plugged in and these did not work either . Plugged back in original unit worked, but noticed the slide is stiff looks like there was lube that dried up ages ago . Out of time will look tomorrow.

 

Think I got it working, put controls back in ,will see , now this weekend going to check valve clearance.

 

I'd have grabbed the closest piece of paper and filled out a BOS on the spot.....scribble a Johnny Hancock and Bob's your uncle!

 

Oh boy tore into valve clearance, number four intake.000 clearance. All the clearances were out , had spare shims was able to get most as close as I can , but need two 260 and a 265 . I really don't want to tear into my yellow Secas original engine , but as I recall a couple of these shims are in there . Will think about it, this answers why bike has not ran as well it should . I think I cleaned my local yamaha dealer out of shims on my spare engine last summer , but I'm on good terms with the owner .

 

Put back together, put valve cover on and rode around the block and was leaking , think I lost all the oil...had not noticed a small section was cracked . I had a new gasket , so installed and took care of the leak . Looks like this was why it felt like it was only running on three cylinders , why synch was never quite right . I still need to recheck synch but idles perfectly.

 

Whoo got bike titled and plated , spent less than 20 minutes at BMV a new record. This has been a real hoot nice to be legal .

 

So bummed now that I can get to ride at high speed back to seeming like running on three cylinders...and the valve cover started leaking...BAD . Pulled cover off my spare engine so fixed that . Pulled carbs back off and put spare set on and this looks like that has solved problem. The carbs that were on there has been to church and has new butterfly seals , just can't figure out why .

 

Did some more trouble shooting, the set of carbs I've been using , number two slide would not go all the way up , and number four when I tried the clunck test just dropped with no resistance. Pulled hat and when I put it in a corner was rolled . Swapped two slides out of spare carb set , crossed my fingers, took it our pulls as well as my other Seca . I will not call it 100% still have to hook up airbox . I just ordered from Chacal new butterfly seals for my spare set of carbs .

 

Hooked up airbox boots ...Wow is all I can say ...runs fantastic hit 70 with no problems. Synch is almost perfect , decided DO NOT mess with it anymore . Now I need to order new braided brake lines , and upgrade to the spin on oil filter .

 

Took bike out rode 20 miles , wanted to keep close to home . Only problem I have is ATARI will cycle sometimes going down the road . This just started , a couple of days ago I swapped TCI to trouble shoot running issue. The plug is in bad shape so not sure if that is cause or not. So happy bike runs so well.

 

What'd you do to get the airbox boots back on? I'm having a hell of a time getting mine on with the carbs and motor in the frame. There's not enough clearance to squish them back out of the airbox and onto the carbs at the same time, it seems.

 

Put a little silicone grease on the boot lip ,pull boot out lightly , I use a Craftsman hook tool and work it around till boot seats in airbox , use hook tool and run it around carb bell mouth . I start with the inboard boots first, I remove the 10mm bolt at the top of the airbox this allows box to move back a little more .

 

I took bike out to the gas station , got alot of looks, and one guy asked me about the bike talked to him for 20 minutes. Made me feel good .

 

I ordered the braided steel lines and spin on oil filter kit ...got it today from xj4ever , got lines mounted up . Ran out of time to bleed try tomorrow.

 

Went to try to bleed ...no joy ...had to do the deed ...swap out master cylinder...I had a spare to do it on the Seca 750 , if you've never done this it is not real easy. The headlight has to be pulled out of bracket , I pulled the cluster up.and out , the headlight bracket has to have fasteners removed . The brake cable has to be removed from arm on master cylinder , the low float wires have to be removed to the headlight bucket . Installed "new" master cylinder, used my Myty Vac and have a nice firm brake lever . I was never able to get a real good lever before , I think it was a combination master cylinder and original rubber lines from 1982 lol . Ran out of time tonight have to put it all back together. Yuge shout out to xj4ever for brake lines very nice , I have these on my yellow seca as well. I have also bought the spin on oil conversion, I have this on my yellow seca as well ...highly recommended!!!

 

Got it all put back together, a firm brake lever , ran out of time . Tomorrow I think I will change oil and mount my spin on oil filter conversion from xj4ever. I have this on my yellow seca definitely a great upgrade.

 

Just curious, at what point in the MC piston stroke l would you say it gets "firm"? Half-stroke?, 3/4s? (I'm referring to how far the piston actuator arm is actually traveling - not the brake lever travel (it's adjustable).

 

I can tell you mine engages the brake almost immediately with only minor lever travel. It was this way before changing brake lines and rebuilding the calipers and after doing the work and bleeding. Sometimes I wish it had more travel.

 

Almost right away , same on my yellow seca.