NGW Project in Maine - 1983 Interstate

[NotSoLilCrippseys]

Thanks for the bigger picture, Track T 2411. It's good to know these bikes need more rpm.

Never heard that knocking before - or since, thankfully. It scared the crap out of me, as the bike is a joint venture and not wholly mine to screw up.

With the Blue Phoenix, I get that chain rattle/hum on launch if I don't get the revs up. And I get it even with revs up if starting on a steeper incline, as I must at several stops on my regular commute. I don't push up to 2k while I release the clutch, as it feels wrong. I'll give it a try.

I did recently check the carb sync again, and they're as close to spot on as I can get them. The Cabernet, in contrast, has none of that funny business. I can get a hint/whisper of that chain hum if I give no throttle coming out of the clutch friction zone, say when I'm easing out of a parking spot and need to peek around a van before going. All around, that bike runs better right now.

I'll pull the carbs from the Blue Phoenix this winter and give them a working over. We did the in situ cleaning type thing last winter and the bike starts, runs on all 4, has good throttle response, etc. But now that I feel what a Wing can be like without the glitchy launch, I know the Phoenix is lacking.

[robjordan406]

I have heard that chain slack noise on mine...wasnt sure what it was until now...My carbs are out of sync too..waiting on my vacuum gauges.....My does it as its revving upward....

Rob in Winnsboro Texas

[NotSoLilCrippseys]

Rob: Not sure what you mean by revving upward, but I think you're saying as you give it gas coming through the friction zone - and maybe up to about 2000 rpm - you're getting that rattle/shake/buzz just as the bike rolls out.

Sync will help. I know because the Blue Phoenix is better than it was back before we synced the carbs. (You can read a good bit about that noise and GoldWing carbs out of tune.) I still get the rattle if the rpms drop on launch, even after a re-sync following my valve clearance adjustment after 5k.

Following Track T's advice, today I was quite intentional about getting the revs up around 1500-1800 coming through the friction zone. I mostly avoided the buzz/rattle noise, which I take to mean I'm now learning to ride that particular bike a bit better.

[NotSoLilCrippseys]

I sorta knew the carbs would eventually need to come off. Looks like eventually has arrived after something over 5k.

My wife and I were set to take a late PM ride by the beach, just as we did last weekend, and the Blue Phoenix is set for two-up. (The Cabernet has a solo seat.)

I fired up the Phoenix. Immediately, fuel starts leaking out of #4. First, I think maybe drain screw and o-ring. Nope. It looks like it's a leaky bowl gasket, but I'm not entirely sure. It seems to be dripping down from the "front" of the bowl. I tried rapping on the bowl to see if I might shake loose the cutoff and stop the leak. No dice. And I don't seem to be getting gas backing up into the plenum. Not sure the cutoff is the issue, but the Phoenix is grounded until she stops dripping gas onto the head and exhaust - unless I want to burn her to a crisp.

So I swapped the king/queen seat I had on the Phoenix for my wife over onto the Cabernet, and we went for a ride. Frustrating, but no biggie. It's good to have a spare Wing.

[Whiskerfish]

Check this out!!

page/Welcome

[DUGG]

[gltriker]

[NotSoLilCrippseys]

Thanks, all!

I really, truly appreciate the honor.

I will immediately call my son to deliver the news. That bike is a shared labor of love.

I guess it's time to back make room to back her out of the shed and put her on the road for the season.

[wingrider]

Congrats on BOTM!

[NotSoLilCrippseys]

Branding and reforming the seat.

I don't know if any of this info will be helpful to someone else, but some of it could have helped me.

I had picked up an inexpensive GL1100 saddle over winter, with a plan to reshape it as I had done back in winter '20-1 for Cabernet.

It turned out that the seat foam had already been "reshaped" to make a king/queen, and things weren't in such great shape. I shaved things down and bought some of the carpet padding known as a decent foam for seats, ran out to the fabric store, and scored some very high-quality vinyl fabric - much thicker than what I used on the first seat I covered.

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Good news: My wife's old sewing machine works, and I easily sewed on the NGW patch to the vinyl, right where I wanted it.

Not so good news: I didn't know enough to use batting over the rebonded foam, so I have lumps showing through. Unfortunately, I didn't pick up on that problem until AFTER I had trimmed back much of my extra vinyl under the pan. I don't think I can pull it off, add batting, and get it back on with the same vinyl. And (this is big!) the vinyl is so heavyweight that I'm not able to get all the folds/wrinkles out around the sides/bottom.

Armed with all I learned from this recover, I decided to sew a NGW patch onto the solo seat on Cabernet and add rebond foam over the wafer-thin padding I rode all winter. I used my leftover thinner vinyl, bought and added some batting, and had at it.

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[Track T 2411]

If I may make a suggestion (for future reference) on the upholstery... to minimize/ eliminate wrinkles, think of the seat as a box. Sewing a 'box end' seam on the back will get rid of the wrinkles and give the seat more shape, especially when the seat is so thick.

[NotSoLilCrippseys]

Track T. Thanks. I'm not quite sure what a box-end seam is, but I'm interested. My upholstery skills are, well, you see what they are.

What I know I learned from a Youtube and real-world practice on about 6 seats. FWIW, I just covered a seat for my son's CB cafe project, and I didn't get the corner wrinkles. Maybe I'm improving.

That Wing recover has thicker marine vinyl than I've used before, and it just had a lot more bulk to try to manage under the lip. I like the thicker vinyl, but it comes with that drawback.

I'm about to recover a 90s Yamaha seat and hope to do a better job on the corners.

[NotSoLilCrippseys]

Happens. Right side head gasket went on my son's Blue Phoenix after 12k since we brought her back to life. My son trailered her home (2.5 hours) for the holiday.

First, the thermostat failed about 6 weeks ago, which led to some overheating. He did that job but probably not in time.

Today, we took a little time to get into it and pull the heads. At first, I thought we'd button it all up over a couple days on/off. Unfortunately, I don't have all the parts needed for a replacement. I have some Vesrah head gaskets but not any of the assorted other bits. Alas.

The pictures tell the story. Head gasket around #4 failed, washing the piston clean.

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[robin1731]

Which one are calling #4? Number 3 looks pretty clean.

[NotSoLilCrippseys]

Yup. 3 and 4 are right next to each other on the keyboard. It's cylinder 3 that suffered the gasket failure. Fun.

Here's a lesson for those who might need one: WATCH THE BELTS and TIMING!!!

I've now done a half dozen belt replacements on Wings - all with zero issues. I think I know what I'm doing. I do use the shop manual to help keep me honest. Still, knowing what to do can be a problem. Check thrice, or even four times. It takes a minute and can save hours and $.

Our head gasket replacement went just fine and included replacing valve seals. It was a good lesson for my son to be in there and doing it - while I offered assistance, encouragement, advice, and maybe more.

Then the belts went on. My side (2&4) went swimmingly. He struggled a bit to get the hash marks lined up. I helped. We reset a bit. All seemed fine.

Setting the valve lash, we naturally had to rotate the motor. I noticed a little hitch coming around the T1 mark to adjust the 4 valves coming around on rotation. I thought it was compression. It did feel a little weird. A valve was hitting a cylinder. I noticed it a couple times as I turned the motor by hand. Again CHECK BELT POSITION.

We added fluids and, YOUCH! Bang, Bang, Bang on the right bank of cylinders. Not good.

And here's the deal:

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We were literally 1 tooth off on the hash marks.

After finding the one-tooth-off scenario, I reset the belt and made sure we were spot on. I then pulled out the compression tester, hoping against hope that we'd get through it. No luck.

Cylinder 3 returns about 150psi. Cylinder 1 returns 0.

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And there you have it. 1 tooth on the timing marks sure can ruin a day. Interference motor means "interference."

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My son had to return north and was unable to take the bike with him, which stunk. And I feel like a complete idiot.

To flip to the positive, we have a spare, parts GL1100 with what we think is a good head.

Early and late on Tuesday, I pulled the damaged head and the spare head, then got to work cleaning mating surfaces again.

I expect to mount the replacement head this week and get a heat cycle, re-torque the head bolts, and hatch a plan to get him his bike.

I'm reminded of a sign on the wall of the trades shop where I did my field work for my dissertation: Why is there always enough time to do it again and never enough time to do it right the first time?