[mtrue77]

In today's mail

[zisforzephyr]

In today's mail

Good things! I opted for the HTML version which is good but hard to tell if I have flipped all the pages (without greasy fingerprints)

[tooseevee]

Since I'm pulling apart the float bowl a fair amount, both of the seals I bought new have swelled larger than the original size making them difficult to replace and seal, is this the wrong rubber or normal behavior for o ring seals + gas. (see image) these gaskets are from Hitchcock's.

Can't seem to get the idle to be in a happy spot from initial cold -> warm, is the choke valve popping on its own back to its "off" state normal behavior or does that indicate that there is too much of a vacuum?

Tooseevee can you elaborate on this anecdote  does that pertain to putting the float valve under the microscope? I wish I had my grandfathers illuminated magnifying glass on a stand for this one!

Thanks as always

           Whatever that gasket is made of it surely is allergic to gasoline. That's strange coming from Hitchcocks. I found out once (restoring a car) that you must NEVER put Fluid Film on real rubber gaskets. It was an expensive mistake. Your carb gasket looks like it's the victim of similar chemistry.

           The Q-Tip trick is to put a Q-Tip in your 'lecktrick drill, put a little toothpaste on the Q-Tip and use it like a Mini Mother's Buffing Ball to burnish up your float valve's seating surface. Rinse and repeat. Then assure that the Viton tip is as smyoooth as a baby's butt. The tiniest thing will allow gas (oline) to come out of your overflow tube over time.

            You'll work out your idle over time. Mine starts at a very low idle (it does not want ANY throttle) no matter how much tweaking I've done. It slowly increases in RPM over 20 or 30 seconds (only THEN do I dare touch the throttle) and then it just sits there and thumps & purrs.

[AzCal Retred]

Looks like progress! 

My 10 micron filters are acquired at the hardware store & auto supply as I find them. I agree that info is sadly lacking on the 'net for particle size.

That float bowl gasket/O-ring looks like it was dipped in brake fluid! I'd advise Hitchcock's that they may have issues with those, that O-ring can't possibly be supposed to respond that way to normal fuel. Looks like a defective batch. There are various "gasket maker" compounds out there, I'd try one if I couldn't get a factory float bowl O-ring that survives gasoline. "Thet jest hain't raht"...
Possibly you could cut it up to remove the surplus length, then use some Moto-Seal to bond the cut bits together in the float bowl groove as an interim "get-by" measure...?

Good float bowl video. Intermittent flooding is dirt/crud. The needle & seat either work or they don't. Olde Tyme folks used to rap on the float bowl to shake the chunks off the float needle seat - sometimes it works.

For fuel line I end up using whatever size just fits the largest fitting, then put a tiny hose clamp on the smaller fitting to seal the larger tube to it.

Oil - anything you buy is better that anything this motor was originally designed around. As you have gear pumps, that solves a lot of issues anyway. If you have the needle big end, it matters even less. Multigrades are great for air-cooled engines. 5W-50, 15W-50, 15W-40, all wonderful stuff. Change oil & filter about every 2K miles or more, these engines throw a lot of shavings/swarf. Cheap insurance.

IRC HD Tubes - the theoretical issues here are wheel balance & unsprung weight, none of which matters on a machine running steel rims, steel fenders, street tires and will spend 99% of its life at about 55-60 MPH. I had to laugh when I saw the PO had carefully balanced the wheels on my new-to-me 350ES. Thick tubes are harder to create "pinch flats" on when mounting new tires, a REAL plus. Possibly they resist certain tiny thorns (goatheads) and thumbtacks, but as a "Land 'o the Cactus" expat, nothing really works for real puncture-makers but "Green Slime" or similar fiber-bearing fluids. ( https://nazinvasiveplants.org/goathead )

Cables - it's a waste of shipping to order factory cables. Opt for the Hitchcock's HT versions. Especially important on front brake & clutch; better feel, way more durable.

Keep plugging away & keep up the pictures! - ACR -

[zisforzephyr]

Toodled around for about 100 miles over the last couple days just feeling her out,

New quirks
- rear brake light is sticky, running light is out,  front lever needs new cable / adjuster nut.
- Gearbox woe's, is it normal behavior to pop it into neutral on a downshift? A couple of times the gearbox has jumped to a much higher gear especially when coming out of 5th. Waiting on a new plunger for the "neutral" light so it's all guessing at this point.

The exhaust pipe touches where the oil filter is, how much is too much in terms of bending it back into place? guessing this is best done warm?

Anyway more fiddling to have - the tappets are pretty loud - "nails in a paint can" as the previous owner described.

55mph has me almost vibrating off the seat, may be my tall chest frame.

[mtrue77]

 "A couple of times the gearbox has jumped to a much higher gear especially when coming out of 5th."

I don't understand that.  Is it worded the way you mean?  I don't have any gears much higher than 5th. 

Would an extra gasket at the exhaust connection move the pipe away from the oil filter?

Re: my picture.  I'd call that a 1/8",  maybe 5/32"

On pg 10, Snidal describes the "ratchet mechanism in the gearbox stops the linkage at the next gear each time you change..."  followed by "gearbox may need adjustment" and "dealt with in detail in a later chapter" which I won't reach for a while.

[zisforzephyr]

ahem* lower gear - ie I've had it jump to neutral and potentially 1st or 2nd, it was a bit of a quagmire that I had to adjust for and didn't think to count the shifts in the moment.

[tooseevee]

The exhaust pipe touches where the oil filter is, how much is too much in terms of bending it back into place? guessing this is best done warm?

      I've tried every trick in the book (believe it) to get my header pipe to not just barely touch the oil filter cap the way yours does and still be able to tighten the two nuts at the head without the pipe being under tension. You want the head end to make a good seal under no stress and then shim up the rear connection so that it, too, doesn't put the head end under stress. Had no luck.

      So all I do is remove the oil filter cover nut, then I just tweak the header pipe outboard a hair, 0.010" or so, with a screwdriver and remove the cap. It's really no problem at all in the overall scale of things.
 
      You don't want to try to bend that header pipe with it bolted to the head (that's a double wall pipe BTW). And you can only add just so many washers to that rear header pipe anchor point to kick the pipe outboard. You run out of threads and can't get the nut on. Only when that rear point is secured should you put the muffler on and then adjust the muffler hanger as necessary so that the muffler isn't being pulled or pushed under stress. Then tighten the muffler to pipe clamp.

[heloego]

Exhaust pipe: Any time I need to install the header pipe I place a 1/8" / 3mm thick piece of lath between the header pipe and the oil filter cap before tightening everything down. That, and a few washers at the rear mounting point have worked well for me. Once everything has been snugged up removal of the lath allows for a 1mm decrease in the gap, but it's sufficient to clear the oil filter cap. If you are unable to maintain any gap, it's just not that big of a deal. The most it will do is slightly ear down a little of the aluminum on the edge of the cap.

Rocker noise: Manuals say to adjust the clearance cold. You should adjust at TDC so the rods have no up/down slop but are easily rotated in their seat. This should get rid of most of the noise. It's still gonna be noisy, but that's about the most you can do to reduce it.
Gear box: Sounds like it's not properly adjusted or the clutch cable is stretching on ya. Refer to the Snidal or OEM manual for adjustment. If the cable is original replace it ASAP, preferably with a good cable like a Barnett. You can get good one's from our host or Tim at Western Cycle Supply.
   As for the adjustment, the manuals mentioned only get you to a nominal adjustment. Take it for a scoot and see how it acts. You may need to tighten the gear box end by half flat or one flat to put a very slight pre-load on it. That's what worked for me. I have very few false neutrals, and shifting improved greatly overall.
   Vibration: With the bike on center stand and engine idling, SLIGHTLY loosen ALL engine mounting bolts (including both Head Steady bolts), give it a few minutes to settle in place and then re-tighten all of them to spec. Many of us have done this and received a notable reduction in vibration.

   Also keep in mind that what works well for one person doesn't necessarily work well for others due to the "nature" of the RE.