ThumperPaul wrote on 01/11/24 at 12:17:39:


...but you are learning, and these types of annoyances are the best teachers. Keep at it, you're almost at the finish line.

Dave was right.  I installed the oil pump gear wrong.  Here's a photo of what I found.  I can't believe I did that.  Doh!

Paul....You and I are now "Blood Brothers"!

I did that once....however in my case I discovered it before I put the clutch cover back on!

I'll take it, Blood Brother!!  Glad I caught it when I did -- before I put fire in the hole!  Thanks again, Dave!

Woody started right up with the first 2 second push of the starter button using the choke.  I kept the idle up around 2,200 RPM for about 10 minutes while sitting on the bike to keep upright.  Adjusted the idle to about 1,100 RPM.  

Put on my jacket, helmet, and gloves and took a short ride in the neighborhood.  The clutch is great after the clean up and Barnett springs!  New front brakes worked great.  Performance was good in the mid-range.  Good solid pull!  No missing, backfire/afterburn, or smoking exhaust.  I didn't try any WOT to test the installation of a 200 main jet the Mikuni VM36 carb.  Save that for another day.

Got home after after about a 10 minute ride and tweaked the A/F mix and idle a bit.

It has a little rocket arm/valve tick.  I set the valve lash clearance gap on the wide side of specification between .004-.005 inch.  I'd rather have a little ticking noise than have valves that aren't closing completely.

Overall, I'm really pleased.  I did see a little smoke from up top after the ride and the motor was warmed up.  I'm hoping that's just some residual oil that I didn't get cleaned up.  I looked around the head cover as best I could and I don't see oil seeping out anywhere.  No leaking around the head gasket for sure (that looks good).

Here's a short video of the bike idling.  I had to make this and share after all the work everyone put into this ordeal!!  Special thanks to DragBikeMike for guiding me through this step-by-step!  Hope you still have some hair left, Mike!!

https://youtube.com/shorts/a_DTqdYWF-k?feature=share

And thanks for all your help too, Dave!!  

Hoping the smoke up top is just some residual oil burning off.  And I forgot to put some JBWeld on the stupid drilled out hole for the center head cover bolt that comes out by the spark plug (that's kinda where I think I see smoke coming from).  Maybe...hard to tell really...I had the fan running in the garage.  I need to pull the tank and glory covers and take a look.  I want to recheck and tighten up the valve lash clearance a smidge too.  I want to get a few more miles on it before I change anything though.  Give it a chance for everything to settle in through a few heat cycles.   For today, I'm happy though!!

Thank you for all your help and patience, Mike!!  And the encouraging words to keep me going!

Thanks Dave.  I took another slightly longer ride yesterday.  No smoke, no leak.  I suspect I dribbled some oil when I fed some oil under the cam and up top through the valve inspection covers.  Feeling relieved I sealed the head cover properly.

I do still have some dripping oil on the alternator side by the front pulley.  I replaced the oil ring on the starter before all this got started (it was a problem when I bought the bike). Och sent me a few o-rings of different sizes.  The fatter medium sized one he sent, which worked for him after tapping the starter in with a hammer, wouldn’t allow me to get the starter shoved in and I didn’t want to use a hammer.  I installed an o-ring that was the next best fit, but I think it’s still leaking a little.  They want $9 plus shipping for the OEM o-ring!  Looks like I need to cough up the money and buy it.  It has a 34.7mm ID and it’s 2.1mm fat.  Try finding that on the internet or your local hardware store!  I played around with a couple standard SAE sizes, but I didn’t like how those fit or again, I couldn’t shove the starter in.  You can find 34.7mm ID that are 3.5mm thick, but that 1.4mm difference makes a difference.  Taking a hammer to is tempting, but I’m not lucky or brave enough to try it.