| Author | Message | ||
     Buellrobot |
Thanks again for sharing photos and updates – very fun to see this come together! Hey, if you don't mind sharing, I'm curious what a fresh ceramic coat on the headers cost you? | ||
| Falloutnl |
Thanks! And not at all: the coating was a bit pricey. 200 euro for just the headers. Twin Motorcycles (here in the Netherlands) has a place in Germany where they outsource that work. I think you can knock ten or twenty percent off that price if you work with the painter directly (though the price did include shipping and all that), but I didn't really feel searching for someone that offers the quality I'm looking for, so I didn't mind paying a little extra to just get it done right the first time. (Message edited by falloutnl on April 03, 2019) | ||
| Buellrobot |
Gotcha, that's at least helpful as a ballpark. Thanks! | ||
| Williamscottrobertson |
JetHot here in the States is about $150-200, plus to/from shipping for a header. They have excellent customer service, lifetime warranty, and will re-coat if needed for about half price. Their “chrome” coat looks very nice. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
It always boggled my mind that they were able to assemble these things on an assembly line. (And get more than one done a week!) | ||
| Falloutnl |
Yeah, I would have loved to be able to see that. Though I think Court already remarked that 'assembly line' was entirely too kind a description. I suppose the practice of doing more than one helps speed things up eventually. And the parts weren't yet rusty and ill fitting back then. I hope... | ||
| Williamscottrobertson |
I love the primary tension setting in the service manual. I wonder what the specialized assembly equipment was that allowed them to find the tight spot on the chain and set the right tension with the cover on without using the window. Possibly all the tensioners were turned in to a spec off the boss to the bottom of the tensioner bolt as they were all new components of reliably the same specifications.  | ||
| Falloutnl |
Yeah, that's interesting. I have no idea, if there's mention of special equipment, they're probably not relying on the fact that specs and tolerances of new components are similar, but who knows? Would be cool to see the equipment though :P. Another project update is coming later today! We worked on the bike from 9am to 2am yesterday. Tired now :P | ||
| Falloutnl |
Alright, after a very long day, we went from this:  to this:  Like I said, we started at 9 (ish) in the morning and kept going until somewhere between 1 and 2 in the morning. Couldn't see straight anymore at some point, but I'm very happy we got as far as we did. Getting it to this stage was a lot of work. As Nate remarked, one wonders how they could do multiple of these in such a short time frame at the factory. Though the difference is probably that they knew the answers to all of the things we were constantly scratching our heads at. Like, why is there so much space between the bottom fixture of the oil tank and the bracket where it goes on the frame? (And where do we find a spacer that has the size we need?). Another thing that we had to mess with was the front tie bar. Though we'll have to check whether that hasn't messed up the alignment entirely. The bolt we extracted from that tie bar during disassembly (the one that goes in the engine) was bent (there's a new bolt in there now), so it's likely it's had a bit of a spill at some point in its life... Anyway, things we did yesterday: - fix front isolator - fix rear isolators - clean and lubricate old school speed sensor thing - clean and lubricate head stock bearings - change wavey disc for the better looking stock disc - mount front forks and wheels - clean out oil tank - clean and refit oil tank plugs using liquid gasket stuff - cut new oil lines - fit to oil tank and oil pump - route oil lines - mount oil pump + new gasket - front shock mount and exhaust hanger - mount shiny refurbished AST rear shock absorber That last bit means it can now stand on its own two feet again! More pics here:                       (Message edited by falloutnl on April 07, 2019) | ||
| Williamscottrobertson |
Looks great! Put a Jim’s meganut on that pulley and get one of Jolly’s renthal fatbar handlebar cradles    | ||
| Johnod |
Looks very good. Can you provide details on the rear shock? Model, dealer that sort of thing. Thanks | ||
| Falloutnl |
Haha, I'll put the items on the list William. Looks very good. Can you provide details on the rear shock? Model, dealer that sort of thing. Thanks A company in The Netherlands actually makes them I think. We were able to bring my old shock in for service at their shop somewhere near here, but they have a worldwide network of dealers it looks like. You can find one through their website. This is the info page for the shock itself. http://www.ast-suspension.com/shop/shockabsorbers/ bikes/buell-520-detail I think when my dad bought an entirely new shock for his M2 (the orange one in the pictures) that set him back around 8 or 900 euro (that was around two years ago)? They don't have them on the shelf anymore, so that's probably why they have the price request button instead of an order button on their website. It's a great shock absorber though. This one came off my (now sold) M2 and it worked great on there. | ||
| Johnod |
Thanks, I'll be curious to know how well it works when you get the bike on the road. | ||
| Williamscottrobertson |
AST makes a great shock but ive heard they are expensive with the exchange rate and shipping to the States. They are a great option for our European brothers. Same with the Ohlins. | ||
| Upthemaiden |
I think that's the first time I've seen someone want to replace the wave rotor for the OEM version forb the sake of appearance. I think those wave rotors look great. Seeing you rebuild this is making me jealous that my bike is in one peice. Looking forward to doing the same to mine eventually. The new shock looks awesome on there. | ||
| Falloutnl |
Thanks! With regards to the rotor, the wave rotor is fine on its own, but I guess I've always preferred the classic disc design, especially on an iconic piece of American motorcycling heritage like this :P. Plus, I've got this hang-up on keeping things looking as stock as possible, unless it's a really good looking, functional upgrade, like this AST shock absorber, or a fancy metmachex swingarm. Sadly the latter is a little too rich for my blood. (Message edited by falloutnl on April 08, 2019) | ||
| Mike_lee |
Oh man....gettin closer and lookin damn good. Finally got to get mine out and start the break-in. Only 450 easy miles to go.  | ||
| Falloutnl |
That's doable. What is that, three tanks of gas? After that just an oil change and you're set. Was it difficult to get your carb setup right for the new kit? | ||
| Guell |
I just got a quote on an ast shock, 1,349 and 90 dollars to ship it. | ||
| Falloutnl |
Ooof yeah. Prices have gone up then it seems. Really glad I took mine off the M2 when I traded it in. Wouldn't have added a penny to what they gave me for it had it been on there... (Message edited by falloutnl on April 09, 2019) | ||
| Mike_lee |
Was it difficult to get your carb setup right for the new kit? as it stands now, she's running ok. cant open it up to really see what's happening as I cant go above 4k but, I do know she sputters a bit under 2k. ill know more later.... are you upgrading the ignition system too? (Message edited by mike lee on April 09, 2019) | ||
| Falloutnl |
I hadn't planned on that, but if turns out I can't get it running nicely without upgrading the ignition, I will look into it. | ||
| Buellrobot |
Possibly contentious, but this video might be worth a watch if you're trying to decide how to break in a fresh engine: https://youtu.be/xpoglovyy_8 | ||
| Falloutnl |
Thanks, I'll give that a watch. That's a gnarly looking injury by the way. | ||
| Mike_lee |
I have seen this vid before, and while he makes some good points, why would you not follow the manufacturer of the kits procedure? I would love nothing more than to hop on the bike and open her up right now, but... | ||
| Falloutnl |
Yeah, does feel like kind of a risk if you had to go through all of the trouble of installing that stuff yourself :P | ||
| Mike_lee |
Not to mention cost | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
Hint: there's more to an engine than rings. ALL of it has to break in at the same time. | ||
| Falloutnl |
Did a couple of small things last Friday. Finalized the routing of the new oil lines:  Made sure the final drive bearing was lubricated after being parked at an angle for 9 years:  Opened up the carburetor a second time to change a few more o-rings and gaskets:  This is what we could replace. There's a 190 main jet in there right now:  And removed the bubbled logo from the tank with a dull knife:  After an hour or two:  Now it's just a matter of figuring out how to remove that thick layer of glue to get the new letters on there. All that's left now is a minor tear down of the front brake caliper in terms of dirty jobs. The rest is just putting it back together again. Hopefully it's not too much of a hassle to tune the thing properly now that it has a 1250 kit. | ||
| Mike_lee |
a "safe" tune is all that is required to break in. backing off the timing is a bit important. I'm sure you know all that. I think I have a 190 and a 45 and am 100 miles into it. going to check the plugs/pistons before next ride just to make sure nothing is happening that shouldn't be happening. on a side note, our trip to the dragon was pushed back to 7/6 so I now have plenty of time to break in/dyno. on an even side(r) note.... is your tank sitting on a cat? haha bet ya cant wait to push that button for the first time and the cringe expecting something to go pop. at least I did hahaha (Message edited by mike lee on April 15, 2019) |
