Service
SERVICE
Paul Deam
Milwaukee watercraft
My 1987 H-D Sportster got submerged in fresh water for about 5 minutes, and no, I’m not going to tell you how it happened. When the bike dried off, I drained all the fluids, removed the battery, pulled the plugs and squirted WD-40 in the cylinders. Then the bike sat unused for six months. Now I want to get it up and running again. What should I do? Ross Teigen
Posted on www.cycleworld.com
After your, urn, "incident,” you had the right idea but stopped far short of completing the job. Then there was that letting-it-sit-for-6-months thing, which was a huge mistake. Before draining the fluids, you should have removed the plugs and the air filter, then cranked the engine over to pump out any water that had gotten into the cylinders. The fresh gas and oil then could go into the bike, along with a new oil filter and a new or cleaned air-filter element. The next step would have been to start the engine and let it run until it reached full operating temperature. Any water that was still in the engine would have gotten swept up by the new oil, eventually evaporating as the engine heated up. As a further precaution, you could have changed the oil once again to remove any contaminants it might have picked up while "flushing” the lubrication system.
But you didn’t do most of that, then allowed the bike to sit unused for half a year, so there is no telling what kind of damage has ensued. If there was any water remaining on critical internal engine components when the bike was left parked for 6 months, those parts may have rusted or corroded so badly that they cannot be rescued.
Here ’s what I suggest: Remove the sparkplugs, squirt a small amount of WD-40 into the cylinders, put the transmission into fourth (top) gear and, with the ignition off, push the bike forward very slowly to see if the engine will rotate. If it seems willing to turn over normally, perform a simple compression test, using the electric starter to spin the engine. If it has at least 85 to 90 psi of compression in both cylinders, you ’re ready to reinstall the plugs and try starting the engine-after, of course, you have installed all the requisite fluids. If the engine starts, remove the oil filler cap to determine if oil is returning to the tank; if it is not, shut off the engine immediately, because one of the oil lines or galleys is clogged. If oil is returning to the tank and the engine runs without smoking, emitting unusual noises or exhibiting any other operational problems, you ’re home-free, a lucky man who apparently has escaped major repair bills. But if the engine fails any of the previous tests, you re in for a repair bill. I have no way of knowing just how extensive any repairs might be, but they surely would at least involve having the cylinders bored and new pistons and rings installed.
Big-bang theory
Can you explain why the dry weights of recent twin-cylinder sportbikes (Honda RC51, Suzuki TL1000R, Ducati 998 and 999, Aprilia RSV Mille) exceed those of four-cylinder sportbikes of roughly the same displacement (Honda 954, Yamaha Rl, Suzuki GSX-R1000)? One would think that the addition of two cylinders would entail more weight (more pistons, injectors, etc.). If the extra weight is not in the engine, why would it be in the chassis if the four-cylinder bikes generally produce more horsepower and torque?
Jesse Quinsaat San Diego, California
You have made a couple of incorrect assumptions, Jesse, which could be distorting your perceptions. Most of the extra weight of a V-Twin sportbike is in the engine, and four-cylinder motors do not produce more torque than V-Twins of comparable displacement.
Instead, what we ’re dealing with here is a matter of more versus bigger. Obviously, a four-cylinder engine has more pistons, valves, connecting rods and such than a V-Twin, but the Vee-motor’s corresponding components are bigger. A typical four-cylinder liter-class sportbike has pistons of around 72 to 74mm sweeping through a 58 to 60mm stroke, whereas V-Twin supersport bikes tend to have 97-100mm pistons and 6368mm strokes. The larger-diameter pistons of the V-Twin yield much bigger "bangs ” than those of the Four; plus, those larger pistons have to travel farther and work through larger connecting rods, bearings, etc. The greater mass of the V-Twin ’s reciprocating components means they have more inertia that has to be stopped and started at the top and bottom of each stroke. What’s more, those bigger bangs occur only half as often as a Four’s and at uneven intervals, so the V-Twin needs more flywheel inertia (i.e., heavier flywheels) to help smooth out the power pulses. Add to all those factors the need for stronger engine cases, a bigger clutch, a beefier primary drive and a more-rugged transmission to cope with those bigger bangs, along with a second camshaft drive and tensioner system, and you end up with a V-Twin engine that weighs more than a Four of the same displacement, even though it has fewer multiples of components.
Enrichening experience
I have a 1992 Suzuki GSX1100G that idles rough and stalls at low speeds, but starts easily when it’s cold and seems to run fine at high speeds. 1 checked the sparkplugs and they were black with soot. The air-filter element is clean and the intake manifolds seem tight. I replaced the plugs with hotter ones, but that hasn’t made any difference. I had to turn the idle speed up so the engine will keep running without stalling. Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated. E.J. Blackham
Posted on America Online
The enrichener circuits on your G SX’s carburetors are not closing fully when the “choke ” is turned off The choke knob is connected to a cable that pulls or pushes a steel shaft linking all four enrichener valves on the carburetors. If the cable is not adjusted properly, the enricheners won’t shut off completely. That allows added fuel to be drawn up into the carburetor bores at idle and very small throttle openings, making the engine run rich and puff black smoke. As the throttle is gradually opened farther and farther, the amount of extra fuel drawn into the incoming mixture is too small to have a noticeable effect on performance.
For proof-positive that the enricheners are the problem, pull the choke knob to the full-open position and disconnect the choke cable, making sure you leave the enricheners open. Start the engine and, when it is sufficiently warm, shut it off and close the enricheners by pushing or pulling their shaft by hand. Restart the engine, which then should run properly, with no rough idling and stalling at low speeds. Reconnect the choke cable, adjusting it so the enricheners are fully closed when the knob is pushed all the way in.
O
If you have ensured that all the enricheners can close fully and the richmixture problem persists, the O-ring seals on the bottom of the enrichener plungers may be leaking. If your GSX has ever sat unused for a long period during its lifetime, the O-rings could have hardened and cracked, which would allow them to leak fuel, even when the enricheners are fully closed. If this is the case, you ’ll need to remove the enrichener plungers and replace the O-rings.
Sump-in’s wrong
I have a 1992 Harley-Davidson Softail that has undergone a few engine upgrades. About a year after I had all the high-performance equipment installed, the engine began to smoke. I had a local shop redo the top end, including replacing the rings, but it still smoked. I took it back to the same shop a second time, and they replaced the rings and the valve guides, but the smoking continued. After that, I decided not to go back to that shop. Sometimes, when I first start the bike up, it smokes like crazy; the smoking settles down after the engine warms up, but it still burns oil. My patience and my money are both wearing thin. Any suggestions about what might be causing this smoking?
Timmy Reaves Posted on www.cycleworld.com
Assuming that the shop you recently abandoned installed the top-end components properly, it’s my guess that the engine is “wet-sumping.” That’s a condition that occurs when a little check-ball in the oil pump doesn’t seat properly, allowing oil to drain from the oil tank down into the crankcase while the bike is parked. Then, when you start the engine, the scavenge side of the dual-stage oil pump can't evacuate the excess oil from the crankcase quickly enough; so, crankcase pressure forces some of the oil up past the piston rings and into the combustion chambers, where it is burned and produces those billows of smoke.
This not only explains the excessive smoking on start-up, but also likely accounts for the engine ’s ongoing smoking problem. When large amounts of oil get into the combustion chambers, the heat of combustion bakes some of that oil into a glaze on the cylinder walls. The glaze prevents the rings from seating properly, so the engine constantly burns oil.
To remedy both smoking conditions, you first have to deal with the wetsumping problem. Very often, a tiny piece of carbon or other contamination gets between the ball and its seat, preventing the ball from sealing properly. When this is the cause, the cure usually is as simple and easy as removing the check ball from the oil pump and cleaning it and the ball seat, or just replacing the ball. But if that doesn’t stop the sumping, you ’ll probably have to replace the oil pump. You ’ll also have to replace the rings and hone the cylinder walls, but that repair should be undertaken only after you are sure that the wet-sumping condition is long-gone.
FREEDBACK LOOP
Your answer to Steven Blunden (“Head games") in the March issue about the handling of his H-D Electra Glide was quite good, but I wish to add something. The reason the steering head of the original FLT was moved so far forward was so the steering axis would pass through the center-of-gravity of the combined front-fork assembly (fork, wheel, fender, handlebar, etc ). It thus became a balanced front end with minimized inertia. Unlike other motorcycles, the fork assembly on an FL will not fall to the fork stop when the front wheel is off the ground and turned slightly off-center. This allows a large motorcycle like the FL to have the light and neutral feel that Mr. Blunden reported.
Dick Huebner Retired H-D Engineer New Berlin, Wisconsin
Where were you in 1980? I attended the press introduction of that first FLT back then, and discussed the steering design with several of Harley s tech people in the months following, but until now, I’ve never heard this sensible explanation of the rationale behind the bike s unusual geometry. Thank you very much for the input.
Say, you wouldn’t happen to know anything about the Softail’s...on second thought, never mind.
Tick, tick, rattle, rattle
Several months ago, I bought a 2001 Kawasaki Vulcan 1500FI. It runs and rides great but has some engine noises that concern me. First, a hydraulic lifter hangs up when the engine is cold. Is there any way to correct this without having to pull the engine and replace the lifter, which could involve hundreds of dollars in labor? Second, the engine emits a hammering noise that sounds like it is coming from the clutch basket. When I pull in the clutch, the sound changes somewhat but is still there. I previously owned a 1996 Kawasaki 1500 Classic and it didn’t make this hammering noise. The dealer says the noise is normal and is just power pulses in the clutch basket, but I’m not convinced.
Robert Kelley Oxnard, California
As 1 have stated on numerous occasions in Service. I cannot accurately diagnose engine noises I can’t hear. The pitch of a sound, its frequency and its tonal quality all are pieces of information critical in assessing its cause; without those, all I can offer is an educated guess. And in my opinion, what your dealer has told you about the hammering noise emanating from the clutch basket is true.
V-Twin engines only deliver two power pulses every 720 degrees, pulses that are large and unevenly staggered; on the 1500 Vulcan, which has a 52-degree Vee-spread, the engine fires at 308and 412-degree intervals. As a result, the speed of the crankshaft changes fairly dramatically as it rotates throughout the duration of any given revolution, especially down around idle. When the engine fires, the crank speeds up, then it gradually slows as it rotates the required number of degrees to the next firing, which speeds it up again.
At idle, these abrupt, uneven changes in crank rpm often are made audible, thanks to the small amount of freeplay between the meshing teeth of the primary drive gears and between the tabs on the clutch plates and their mating slots in the clutch basket. The gear freeplay is necessary for proper tooth engagement, and the clutch-plate freeplay is necessary to prevent the plates from hanging up; but these clearances also can allow the gears and plates to rattle back-andforth slightly as crank rpm fluctuates. When you squeeze the clutch lever and disengage the clutch, the inner (driven) plates are separated from the outer (drive) plates, so the pitch of the noise changes accordingly.
There are sufficient manufacturing variations between different models of the same bike to allow the primary gears and clutch plates in any one bike to have more or less freeplay than those in another. Thus, some bikes will make more of this kind of noise than others of the same make and model. Your '96 Vul-> can 1500 may have had less of this freeplay than your 2001, so it was quieter at idle. Sometimes, you can reduce the amount of noise by making sure the engine idles as smoothly as possible and no slower than at the prescribed rpm.
As far as the noisy lifter is concerned (technically, it’s a stationary hydraulic zero-valve-lash adjuster, not a “lifter”), replacement is your only sure recourse. As a desperation move, you might try one of those motor-oil additives that claims to un-stick sticky lifters, but 1 really don’t have much faith in them. The cause of the noise could be a small piece of contamination between the adjuster’s check ball and ball seat, preventing the ball from seating and allowing the lifter to bleed down after the engine is shut off. If that’s the problem, an additive might flush it away. But I wouldn ’t count on it.
Recall Roaster
NHTSA Recall No. 02V311 Indian Spirit, Scout, Scout Centennial Model year: 2001-2003 Number of units involved: 5464 Dates of Manufacture: June ’01 to November ’02 Problem: The fasteners that bolt the windshield to its mounting clamps can break, allowing the windshield to fall partially or completely off the motorcycle. If this occurs while the motorcycle is moving, the rider could be injured by the windshield. Remedy: Indian dealers will replace the windshield. Owners who do not receive this free remedy within a reasonable time should contact Indian at 408/846-7228.
Fear not the falcon
I finally purchased the bike I have been dreaming about for three years: a 1999 Suzuki 1300 Hay abusa. Ever since Cycle World's, “Birds of Pray” article in the June, 1999, issue, the vision of that Hayabusa has replaced my desire for a Ducati SS or any other two-wheeled powerhouse. But I’m a little intimidated by the bike’s reputation, even though I’ve ridden a Suzuki GS 1100 for the past 6 years, so I plan to take an MSF “advanced” refresher riding course.
I have two questions to ask: What do you suggest are the first things a buyer should do after taking possession of this kind of used bike? And if I wanted to make the ’Busa more D.C. metrofriendly, would a beefier flywheel be > the way to go? I don’t mind sacrificing some of that 194-mph top end to avoid revving high and stalling in traffic.
Techtips
Here’s learned a while neat installing trick I snaps once along the bottom edge of a custom seat on a dirt-track bike. I wanted the snaps to be evenly spaced, five on each side, but calculating the math to achieve perfect spacing was pissing me off. I kept coming up with goofy intervals like 11%4-inch between snaps, and the only tape measure I had with me at the time was graduated in eighths.
A friend who once worked in a sheet-metal fabrication shop watched me for a while before asking what I was attempting to do. When I explained, he showed me a much easier way. He found a piece of elastic material that was considerably shorter than the side of the seat, then, using a ruler and a finepoint pen, made five evenly spaced marks on the elastic. As I recall, the marks were exactly a half-inch apart, but any easy-to-determine increment would have worked just as well. He then stretched the elastic alongside the seat base until the first and last marks were aligned with the locations where I wanted the first and last snaps to be positioned. Then, as he held the elastic in place, he had me make a mark on the seat base perfectly adjacent to each mark on the elastic. Even though the elastic had expanded, it did so uniformly, so the marks remained equally spaced as the elastic strip grew longer.
Since then, I think I’ve only used this technique once on another seat, but I’ve employed it on countless other occasions to space holes evenly on all kinds of projects, some of them motorcycle-related, some of them not. -Paul Dean
Rob Grant
Washington, D.C.
My friend, I fear you have fallen victim to all the hype and old wives ’ tales surrounding the Hayabusa-hype, I might add, that motorcycle magazines, this one included, have unintentionally helped create and perpetuate. Whatever the cause, if you somehow have come to believe a Hayabusa is a bucking bronco in stop-and-go traffic and a raging openroad beast that is likely to get away from its rider at any given moment, you are highly mistaken. Yes, at 194 mph, it is the fastest production motorcycle ever built, and yes, it can accelerate like something fired from God’s own slingshot, but it only performs those tricks if and when the rider so desires. Despite its stupendous performance potential, the Hayabusa is a pussycat, as mildmannered and manageable as any other all-around streetbike, whether putt-putting along at parking-lot speeds or cruising the open highway. It only goes as fast as you make it go.
Taking an MSF course is a good idea in any event, but the purchase of a used Hayabusa doesn’t call for the installation of a heavier flywheel or any other special “adjustment.’’ All you have to do is remember what legendary roadracer Mike Hailwood once said about managing the behavior of high-powered motorcycles: “The throttle works both ways.” □
Got a mechanical or technical problem with your beloved ride? Can’t seem to find reasonable solutions in your area? Maybe we can help. If you think we can, either: 1) Mail your inquiry, along with your full name, address and phone number, to Cycle World Service, 1499 Monrovia Ave., Newport Beach, CA 92663; 2) fax it to Paul Dean at 949/631-0651; 3) e-mail it to CW1Dean@aol.com, or 4) log onto www.cycleworld.com and click on the Feedback button. Please, always include your name, city and state of residence. Don’t write a 10page essay, but do include enough information about the problem to permit a rational diagnosis. And please understand that due to the enormous volume of inquiries we receive, we can’t guarantee a reply to every question.
