While I was in the process of moving I managed to break the end off of my old auxiliary fuel tank that had served me well for over 20 years. When I went looking for a replacement most of the top name brands were rather expensive starting at $45.99 and going up. At the other extreme were a bunch of smaller unknown brand ones from China or India with decent prices but some long shipping times & unknown quality. As a compromise I settled on this one sold by Pit Posse for 39.99 It came with a decent length of hose & a good quality brass shutoff valve. Let’s be honest here, all of these plastic auxiliary tanks cost more than what they are really worth but comparatively speaking this one is a good deal coming from a U.S. based company. The actual product is still made in China though. I’ve been using this one since June 8th 2018 and am very happy with it.
My setup for adjusting carburetors.
You might notice that in the picture above that I have my vacuum gauges and auxiliary fuel tank hanging from an I.V. pole. If you’re serious about doing carb work on motorcycles & four wheelers you need to get yourself an I.V. pole. It turns out that you can get one pretty dang cheap too, click here to see them starting as low as $23 with free shipping. Well worth every penny.
My sychronizer gauges actually come from Honda and were purchased from the inventory of a shop that went out of business. If you don’t have a set and are thinking of buying some do yourself a favor and get a set vacuum gauges, not the mercury sticks. Of course if you have the money you could go for a Carbtune Pro setup. If my gauges ever quit that’s the one I plan to get.
That’s all for today just thought I’d post a quickie product review and share a couple of tips that you might find useful. Until next time,
There are two things that are commonly found when working on old motorcycles, one is cadmium plated parts that are faded, rusted or discolored somehow, and the other is broken or cracked mounting tabs on plastic parts such as air boxes or side covers. Today we’ll learn how to do a reasonably good job of creating cheap fake cad plating with spray paint. Then we will tackle a minor repair of some ABS plastic parts. Most of the black plastic parts on motorcycles are ABS and on some such as early sport bikes such as EX250 or 500 Ninjas the bodywork is also.
Cheap Fake Cad Plating
Let’s start with this steering lock that goes on my 1982 Honda C70. In the picture it doesn’t look too terrible, but this was after washing it in the parts washer with a Scotchbrite pad to get rid of some light rust.
Once it was dry I taped off the key slot and sprayed on a couple of coats of adhesion promoter.
After giving the adhesion promoter about 8-10 minutes to dry I gave the part a couple of coats of metallic “chrome” paint. This paint doesn’t really look like chrome but it really is a very bright silver.
After allowing the chrome paint to dry thoroughly, take a can of the metallic “gold” spray paint and from 18-20 inches away lightly fog the gold paint over the chrome. Just do one or two light coats. the idea is to lightly tint the part with gold but not to completely cover up the chrome.
It’s really best to do this in a well lit place so that you can see when there’s enough gold on the part and stop spraying it.
Here you can see my cheap fake cad plating next to one of the well sheltered original cadmium plated brackets from this same motorcycle. Naturally if you plan on having a 100 point national show winning motorcycle, real cad plating is the only way to go, but for your average rider or local bike night hero this is a nice inexpensive way to get a clean authentic look to parts that should look cad plated.
ABS Plastic Repair
A major source of aggravation are cracks in plastic parts and or mounting tabs broken off of them. But since since a lot of these plastic parts are made of the same ABS material as sewer & drain pipe there really is quite a simple solution. Glue them back together with common ABS cement that you can find at any local hardware store. The air box on this little C70 that I’m working on had been reinstalled at some point in the past without the metal spacers that are normally used to secure such parts to the metal frame without damaging it. The result was that one mounting tab was split & the other one was broken completely off.
To repair the cracked side was simple enough, it jut needed cleaning up and having plenty of glue applied. For the other side that was completely broken out I put a standoff with a washer in the hole & gave it a good coat of cement, permanently attaching it to the air box. You can also buy ABS plastic sheet & use that to fabricate repair patches, replacement tabs & even custom parts that can be glued together using ABS pipe cement. Once you are done & the glue is dry it can be filed, sanded or even painted over just like any normal plastic.
Hopefully these two tips about cheap fake cad plating & abs plastic repair will help someone out, until next time.
Finally started the repairs & upgrades to the old TS185. It was in dire need of new steering head bearings and brakes. A set of matching dual sport tires wouldn’t hurt either, along with a thousand other little things. So the day before yesterday I pulled it all the way down to a bare frame.
This is not going to be a show quality restoration by any stretch of the imagination. You may have noticed that the title of this post is The 20 Foot Restoration. If you’ve never heard that term before it describes a vehicle that looks really good from a distance of 20 feet or more, but when you get up close you can still see the dings & other imperfections.
If the skid plate had been removable I probably would have left the engine in the frame for all of this as it runs excellent. But the skid plate is an integral part of the frame, and the area between it and the engine was packed with a mixture of red clay mud & two stroke oil. Plus there was some damage to repair.
After getting it cleaned up reasonably well, I took some body hammers to it, straightened it up some, and the welded all of the broken bits back together. Then I hit it with the wire brush & sandblaster before shooting a coat of rattle can primer.
All of the frame bits & pieces are painted with some some cheap spray on truck bed liner, while parts such as the shock bodies etc. are being done in brake caliper paint. I disassembled the shocks & dropped the springs into a bucket of metal rescue to soak overnight. they’re not perfect but they look a lot better.
After 2 days of hard work this was my stopping point last night, this morning I am going out to detail the engine as much as I can without actually taking it apart. and will continue the reassembly of this poor old thing.
Hi there,
My name is Floyd Finch III and I am the owner of this little motorcycle blog. Motorcycling has been one of two passions that I have consistently kept in my life since my childhood.
I believe every biker should have a little bit of outlaw in them.
At sometime early this morning in the hours just after midnight on March 23rd 2015 this little blog of mine passed the 100,000 all-time page view mark. While this may not seem all that significant compared to some of the mega-bloggers out there it makes me very happy. Hearing from readers in the comment sections or by email is a joy as well and hopefully I have helped a couple of people out.
Since founding this blog in February of 2011, my goal has been to help as many of my fellow motorcycling do it yourselfer home mechanics as I can, and to share the experiences that I have with those not fortunate enough to get out & do even the few shows & events that I take in.
Of course let’s not forget the occasional product reviews as well, I really am honest in my opinions of the products reviewed here whether for good or bad. This will continue to be my policy in the years to come.
This little motorcycle blog is beginning to exceed anything I dreamed of when I first started it. Although it was started as a hobby a good informative blog does incur some serious expenses so you may notice a few ads around the site. You know you’re going to shop online sooner or later and if you click on an ad here to start it would be a great boost for the blog without costing you a dime that you weren’t going to spend already!
Every year since 2011 the readership of this blog has shown serious solid growth, starting in 2011 I had 1982 page views, 2012 brought in 12,173 views, a huge jump in 2013 pushed readership up to 31,706 for the year, in 2014 there were 43,227 page views on this blog. My goal for this year is to push that number up to over 50,000 for the year with more to come in the years afterward.
So this is my most sincere & hearty thanks to all of the readers, and to those of you who have made products available for review. At this time I would like to encourage everyone who would like to keep up with all that is happening around here and to always have notification of my latest tutorials, tips & reviews please scroll down and sign up for my email list at the very bottom of the page below.
If you have a question that you would like to ask me directly or a product that you would like to have reviewed or if you are interested in advertising on this site please shoot me a line to: motopsyco@motopsyco.com
Thank you,
Floyd Finch III aka Motopsyco
Since I first posted this a couple of days ago it was pointed out to me that this article was not quite as beginner friendly as my normal do it yourself articles about explaining WHY you do some things. So if you don’t know the difference between a single leading shoe brake & a twin leading shoe brake or even how to identify which one you have or just to learn how they work please go to More About Vintage Motorcycle Drum Brakes and then come back to this page.
Twin leading shoe drum brakes are the ultimate development of motorcycle drum brakes. By using two lever arms and two cams to raise the leading edge of the brake shoes into the rotating drum they were able to generate a greater stopping force than a standard drum brake which pushes the leading edge of one brake shoe & the trailing edge of the other shoe into the drum. It was discovered early on that the shoe with the leading edge being forced into the drum generated much more friction than the trailing shoe. So until the development of powerful reliable disc brakes in the 1970s the twin leading shoe motorcycle brakes were pretty much the ultimate performance set up. Even after their performance was eclipsed by hydraulic disc brakes they were still considered adequate for small & medium sized machines right up into the early 1980s. Today there are still a few low end bikes fitted with drum brakes on the rear, but they are of the standard type, as even the low buck machines rely on powerful front discs for most of their stopping power. As far as I know today twin leading shoe motorcycle brakes are only found on antique, vintage, and custom bikes.
As always don’t forget that you can enlarge any picture on this blog by clicking on it.
What we are going to look at today is an example of what may be the last of the of the factory installed twin leading shoe motorcycle brakes. The nasty cruddy looking part you see above is from an 81 Honda CM400E. The “E” stood for economy. The CB & CM variants of this bike got disc brakes on the front. By 1981 these were considered obsolete and were used on this model as a bit of parts bin engineering to meet a price point. This particular front wheel & brake backing plate had been painted at least 3 times in different colors What you see in the picture above is after using some aircraft peeler & some light soda blasting to clean it off a bit. Then I disassembled it and and dropped all of the chrome bits in the Metal Rescuetub and put the rest of it in the parts washer before wire brushing the backing plate. Please note, if you are doing a restoration you do not want to wire brush aluminum parts like this but this one is going on a rough edged custom and the brushed finish will be perfect for it.
This is an exploded view giving you a look at the typical parts of a front hub using this style of brake.
On this one I will not be reinstalling the speedometer gear as my plans call for a custom electronic speedometer. The first thing to do is apply a light coating of high quality grease to the shafts of the brake cams and push them into the backing plates.
Second part is to put the clean, lightly oiled felt seals into place as illustrated below. While I am sure there is probably a specified oil for this I’ve always just used whatever was handy in my oil can and have never had any trouble. That being said I am not responsible for any trouble you may have if you do not research and use the factory recommended oil.
Third step here is to slide the washer with the wear indicator tab back down onto the brake cam over the felt on the side that you removed it from which should have a pointer cast into it like in the picture below. This little part has splines and has an alignment groove so that it will only fit one way. It it doesn’t just just slide back on you have it turned the wrong way and need to move it around the until the wide spline lines up with the wide groove.
A plain thin washer slides down to cover the felt on the other side of the axle hole.
The external return spring is dropped into place next.
On of the really nice thing about most old Japanese bikes are the presence of dots on the brake cams & arms to help you line them up correctly the first time.
Put the arms on one at the time aligning the dots. I normally have brake rod loosely installed between the two arms before assembly just because I think it is easier than connecting the two brake arms afterward. If it is easier for you to do it the other way then that is fine too.
Do not tighten the lock nut on the brake arm yet! Install the brake shoes first!
Adjust the brake rod as necessary to get both shoes to move at as close to the exact same time as possible. If you are a real demanding performance nut build yourself a jig and use a couple of dial indicators to ensure that the pads are moving together exactly. For the vast majority of us eye-balling it will work fine and any teeny little mismatch that occurs will be wiped out within a couple of stops
Now you can tighten down that lock nut. Here’s a little video to show you how the cams move the shoes when the brakes are actuated.
Now its time to get to work on the rest of the front wheel so that it can be installed on the front of Project wAmmo!
D.I.Y. motorcycle head service is possible for the home mechanic at times, under the right circumstances. Of course if you are one of those fortunate individuals who happens to have a fully equipped machine shop and know how to use it you can do anything. But for the ordinary person restoring an older motorcycle or atv that wants to save a buck or two it is still possible to do an acceptable job provided certain conditions are met.
My patient for this job will be the CM400 that I used for the valve adjustment tutorial a couple of weeks ago. After adjusting the valves and putting oil in the cylinders it still had about a 45-50 psi difference in compression from the left to right sides so I pulled it apart for a top end overhaul. It turns out that the right cylinder had oil rings that were stuck from sitting and that the gaps were aligned on the other two rings.
Before disassembling it, I cleaned the head fairly well and removed the carbon from the combustion chambers. This makes handling the parts much nicer and inspection much easier. No matter what method you use to remove the carbon do not allow any type of abrasive or wire brush or scraper to contact the flat sealing surface of the head. Yes I know you may have to use some type of scraper to remove the gasket residue from the head but be very careful not to scratch or gouge it in any way. I actually used soda blasting to clean this head but made sure not to hit the mating surfaces with it.
Now I must make a couple of quick disclaimers here. First there are some defects that if discovered during the inspection process that will mean you need to take your head to a machine shop to be repaired anyway. Second, unless you own a set ball micrometers to check them with, you will basically be guessing that the valve guides are okay based on the condition of the valve stems. Chances are that if like me, you are working on something old but with relatively low mileage they are okay BUT it is not guaranteed and excessively worn valve guides can cause oil consumption & smoking even with new seals. Third, this is not the high performance option, if you are building a hotrod and looking to squeeze every last drop of performance out of it you can then I suggest you contact a reputable high performance machine shop for a good 5 angle valve job and new valve guides. This is to get your old heap running as good as possible for the least amount of dough you can spend. The fourth and last disclaimer is to always put safety first in the shop. You will be dealing with strong springs under compression. There is a chance that a tool could slip releasing a spring to go flying out at high speed and hit you or to pinch your fingers between the spring & the tool. Only use a good quality valve spring compressor
in good condition, make sure you read the instructions that come with it, & wear some eye protection too.
Even so there are some specialty tools you will need to get if you do not have them. In the picture above at the bottom center the thing with the two suction cups on it is a valve lapper with 2 tubes of grinding compound one coarse & one fine. Moving clockwise around the head are the valve spring compressor, a caliper dial or digital whatever you have, a light rubber or plastic hammer just in case something needs a tiny bit of extra persuasion, a micrometer (if you don’t know how to read a micrometer you can either learn how or just buy a digital one.) Next item to the right is a pick up magnet and a flat screwdriver, a few pertinent pages photocopied from the service manual and a new gasket set with valve seals. If you want to learn to use a micrometer watch the 2 videos below.
Set your valve spring compressor into place over the first valve you wish to remove and turn the compression screw inward until the spring is compress enough that the valve keepers either fall out or you can reach in with a magnetized screwdriver and pull them out.
It is very important that you keep your valves, springs, & other parts together so that they can be reinstalled in the same opening from which you removed them. This is especially critical for the valves as they wear into their valve guides and seats as the engine is operating. If any of the valves do not come out, or if removal is difficult you may have a bent or seized valve, put everything back together and find a good machinist. The cure for a damaged valve requires replacing the valve & seat as a unit. The valve guide drivers and reamers required for this job are really a bit much to purchase & learn to use for just one head.
Once you get all the valves out give the head a good visual inspection looking for anything that looks galled, burnt, or cracked
Be sure you check inside the ports to especially around the valve guides. Next check the valve seats which are the hardened steel inserts around the outside of the large holes in the combustion chamber. If any of valve seats 0r guides are burnt, badly scored or pitted , have cracks in them or easily visible excess wear then you need to put it back together & take it to a competent machinist
If all looks good make sure the head is not warped beyond acceptable limits. for this you’ll need a good straight edge and a feeler gauge in whatever size your service manual specifies
Place the straightedge firmly across the head in several locations and try to insert the feeler gauge between it and the heads gasket mating surface. If it goes between the two anywhere then a machinist will need to shave the head to level it back out.
Now it’s time to grab the micrometer and check the diameter of every valve stem in several places up & around each one. If any of them are worn beyond the service limit, chances are the valve guides are shot too and this is no longer a normal do it yourself job. Double check them for straightness at this time also,
After that get a caliper and measure the extended length of all of your valve springs. Replace any that do not fall into the specified range for your motorcycle.
Once the inspection process is complete and you are satisfied that all of your parts are in good condition & can be reused go ahead & clean the valves & guides thoroughly. Most of the time you can just scrub the intake valves clean in the parts washer, but the exhaust valves usually have a hardened scale stuck to them so I use a brass wire brush to clean them with. For the valve guides I use a gun cleaning brush, but any small round brush with plastic or brass bristles that fits through them will do. I try to avoid using brushes with steel or stainless steel bristles on parts like these because I only want to remove the grease, carbon, and scale without affecting the base metal.
Pick out whichever valve you want to start with and put a small amount of valve grinding compound around the head of the valve on the surface that contacts the valve seat in the head, and place that valve back into the hole that it was originally removed from. Grab the valve lapping tool & stick one of the suction cups on it to the valve like this and then rotate it back & forth to clean the mating surface. The most efficient way to do this is to hold the lapping stick between your palms and pretend you are trying to start a fire with it. Stop occasionally to check on your progress and replenish the lapping compound if needed. I use a coarse compound to start with & then switch to fine grit, but it is possible to make do with just the fine grit if that is what you have.
Stop and inspect rather frequently, you are not trying the grind the entire surface of the valve & seat flat. What you want is a uniform,well polished shiny ring all the way around the valve & seat at the point where the two meet. Once you have that, to keep polishing is just putting unnecessary wear on your engine parts. It should only take you a few minutes per valve to accomplish this, so keep going until you have all of the valves done.
With all of the valves lapped you now need to wash them and the head again and completely remove all of the valve grinding compound so that it doesn’t make its way into your freshly overhauled engine and grind up parts that don’t need it. Then open up your gasket set and find the valve seals. I have the seals for this engine laid out above.
The two larger one are for the exhaust valves and the four smaller ones are for the intake valves.
Once you have all of the seals into place it is time to start reinstalling the valves remembering to put each valve back into the hole that you removed it from to start with. First push the valve back into the hole.
It should go in smoothly, make sure that it doesn’t push the new seal off of the valve guide. Put the matching valve spring(s) and retainer back into place over the valve stem.
You will have to carefully hold the retainer while you put the valve spring compressor into place to compress the valve spring(s).
Compress the springs until you can see the grooves for the valve keepers well enough to reinstall the keepers.
Put a thick coat of grease on each retainer to stick it to the valve stem when you put it into place.
If at all possible use a pair of tweezers or needle nose pliers to put the keepers on the valve stem. If you find that you must use your fingers to get them both into place be extremely careful and make sure that the compressor is securely clamped and not going to suddenly pop loose and crush your fingers while you are positioning the keepers. You have been warned.
When you have the keepers in place on the valve stem then slowly unscrew the clamping screw and if necessary keep the springs and retainer straight as you release the pressure. Remember if your compressor has a release handle on it like mine does, do not use it to clamp & release the valve springs. Always use the clamp screw. The release handle is there to allow you to move it from one valve to another without having to fully unscrew the clamp every time. When you have fully released the pressure & moved the clamp your vale should look like the picture below with both keepers trapped securely between the retainer & the valve holding the whole lot securely together.
Repeat these steps until all of your valves are securely reinstalled in the head.
I have tried to be as honest as possible with you about the possible pitfalls and risks of D.I.Y. motorcycle head service, but if you are willing to take your time, check everything carefully, and work in a meticulous fashion there’s no reason that you cannot give it a shot. Just be willing to take the risk of trying on your next restoration or overhaul and you’ll find yourself having that much more satisfaction with your handiwork once the engine is up and running.
Of course since I want this one to look as good as it works I covered up all of the mating surfaces & plugged all the ports before spraying my favorite ceramic filled engine paint on it. If you need tools and supplies just visit my webstore’s tool sections and search for what you need. If you can’t find something there let me know & I will point you in the right direction even if it means sending you to someone else.
I love cheap tools sometimes. My own personal collection is a mixture of top name brands and some of the cheapest shit you can find that actually works. Surprisingly sometimes the cheap stuff is better than the expensive stuff in some applications. It doesn’t happen often but occasionally it does. Most of the time you get what you pay for though and here in a tale of 2 valve spring compressors I’m going to show you a great example of this principle in action. As I started to tear down the head for the CM400 I am overhauling I realized that none of the valve spring compressors that I already own would work, 2 or 3 of them were for side valve engines, one was your typical auto parts store V8 compressor & the last one is a homemade thing especially made to work on old Honda 50-200cc dirtbike engines. Of course none of them would work, what I needed was one of the large C-clamp style tools with multiple adapters like all the shops that I used to work at had. So I came inside, fired up the computer and went shopping.
Of course I did not start out looking for the cheap stuff, my first search was for a genuine Motion Pro Valve Spring Compressor
but it is a bit pricey at around 100 bucks or so not including the Motion Pro Adapter and Bore Protector Set That being said if you got the money to throw around or if you are running a full time professional shop it is the best one to get.
Being in an experimental state of mind (okay that’s bullshit I am just a cheap bastard sometimes) I decided to try out this one that is all over ebay & Amazon for around $30 dollars shipped. It came in a nice molded plastic box with plenty of adapters for different size valve springs.
…
Unfortunately the cheap thin wall tubing that it was made of almost immediately began to flex and fail without budging the valve spring in the slightest. All of the compressors of this style & price range had very mixed reviews on the various merchant websites where they are sold apparently they work on some engines with weaker springs but on this head it did not work at all and was in fact a complete & total failure.
Have your balls ever fallen out?
To add insult to injury one of the balls that retains the adapters to the tools popped out of its socket
As you can see here this Stark valve spring compressor is now permanently bent and no longer fits back into it’s slot in the case. Back for a refund it went!
Enter the $46 OTC 4572 Large Valve Spring Compressor in it’s no frills cardboard box. Fancy blow molded plastic cases are nice, but really don’t make much difference if the tools inside don’t work. In this case the manufacturer decided to save money on the packaging and not the tool.
When I opened up the box there was a surprisingly heavy well made tool inside. It was very similar in style, metal thickness, and finish to the more expensive tools I have used in the past at various shops where I have worked. There were two other cost cutting measures one being that it only comes with two adapters for different size springs and that it only had a cup style tip for the clamping screw instead of including an interchangeable ball style tip, which actually works for better in most valve spring removal applications Below it is laid out with the rest of the tools that I normally use when it’s time to lap a set of valves.
Here is a shot of it in place ready to compress a valve spring. At this time I’d like to point out that you do NOT compress the valve springs by pushing on the large handle with the rubber hand grip. To get your initial setup pull the handle open to get the tool in place around the head and then push it closed. Then you adjust the adapter and the clamping screw until the tool is in the correct place. Then you turn the t-handle on the clamping screw to compress and release the springs. To move on to the next valve spring, first release the tension on the spring by retracting the clamping screw, and next you release the handle, move the tool to the next valve, close the handle, and once again use the clamping screw to compress the spring.
Repeat as needed until you have removed & reinstalled all of the valves as needed.
Below you can see a fully compressed valve spring with the valve keepers removed.
The bottom line? The OTC 4572 Large Valve Spring Compressor is worth the money. It may lack a full range of spring adapters and accessories, but if you don’t need all of those things this is a solid well made tool that will get the job done.
Today I’m going to show you how to perform a Honda CM400 valve adjustment. This basic procedure covers 1978-81 CM & CB400T Honda twins. This engine is from a 1980 CM400. Please refer to a proper CB/CM400 service manual to verify the exact procedures & specifications for your motorcycle. I will give the valve lash & misc. other tune up specs at the bottom of the page.
Gather up the tools you will need along with a copy of the appropriate service manual. Please note that it is not necessary to remove the engine from the motorcycle to perform this procedure, I already have this engine out so that I could do some some fabrication work & painting to the frame. This is the long delayed Project wAmmo bobber that I should have finished months ago, but now I am back on it with a vengeance. You will need to remove the fuel tank, gear shifter, and whatever other parts are necessary so that you can remove the valve cover & the left side crankcase cover. Once all of that is done then remove both sparkplugs.
After you remove the spark plugs, switch sockets & turn the engine in the direction indicated by the arrow on the alternator rotor. The big rusty flywheel looking thingy you see in these pictures for those of you who have never seen one before. This one had to have some of the rust sanded off so that I could see the markings on it.
Turn the engine and watch for the intake valve rocker arm on the side you are adjusting to move down and then back up. These little Honda twins have a 3 valve per cylinder layout with 2 intake valves & 1 exhaust valve per cylinder.
Once the intake rocker arm returns to the top continue to turn the engine slowly and line up the next “T” mark on the flywheel with the pointer on the engine case, as it comes around. If the exhaust rocker arm starts to move you have gone to far & must circle the engine all the way back around & start over. Do not turn the engine backwards to get to the timing mark if you miss it.
Then verify that the piston is indeed at top dead center. On this engine it is fairly easy to do just by looking into the spark plug hole.
With the piston at top dead center for the cylinder you are adjusting both the intake & exhaust valves should a little bit of play in them unless the engine has severe wear or improper maintenance that has caused valve recession which will close up the gap. Too much lash is also detrimental to your engines performance and will cause your engine to tap very loudly. Too little lash will eventually lead to a burned valve if it doesn’t close completely.
Loosen up the lock nut for whichever adjuster you choose to start with, here I am starting on the exhaust side.
Then insert the proper size feeler gauge, loosening the adjuster with a flat screwdriver if needed.
Then carefully tighten the adjuster screw & lock nut until the feeler gauge is able to be removed & re-inserted with just a little bit of drag, but the next size larger feeler gauge should not fit. It will be necessary to hold the adjuster screw with the screwdriver as shown below while you are tightening the lock nut. Be sure to recheck your lash after you tighten down the lock nut for good, sometimes you may have to readjust to compensate for the adjustment screw moving when you torque the lock nuts.
Once you have all of the valves adjusted properly replace the engine covers being sure to inspect & replace all gaskets & seals as needed.
Valve lash and some miscellaneous tune up specs are below:
Here’s what came in the box. I ordered it from GoKarts USA mainly because it was listed as being a direct bolt on fit to directly replace the cheesy jackshaft plate & tensioner that this minibike came with. Despite what is said on some of the forums around the internet, this is a good quality unit that is made right here in the good old U.S.A. Yeah sure it’s got a couple of imported components in it, but suck it up sunshine that’s just the way the world is, we’re all on one rapidly shrinking planet and the market place is making it smaller everyday despite the best attempts by idiot politicians and knuckle dragging nationalists to stop it. Still it’s nice to see something made here that is of good quality and is price competitive. The backing plate is especially well machined & finished to the point that it is almost a shame to cover it up with a belt guard.
Now this is not going to be a full complete step by step set of installation instructions, just an overview with a few tips. If have lost your kit instructions or have purchased a second hand unit without instructions please click here to get a set from the GTC website. As always you may click on any picture here for a larger view.
First you have to remove the original plate with the factory clutch & intermediate sprocket.
Make sure you remove all of the spacers from the end of the crankshaft, if you are doing this to an older engine oxidation may cause the spacer to look like an integral part of the crankshaft. If you don’t remove it the drive pulley won’t line up and you’ll be scratching your head for a few minutes like I was.
This tab is no longer used and will have to be flattened or removed for the torque converter to fit.
The kit comes with longer bolts to mount the plate if needed.
This particular installation just reused the stock bolts
A picture of the driven shaft with the snap ring and washer installed.
Here it has been started through back of the mounting plate.
Next get the chain sprocket, key & spacer,
sprocket,spacer, & key
and slide them onto the driven shaft as shown here.
The next shot shows the driven pulley with it’s associated hardware, slide it all into place and install the nut finger tight at this time.
Here is the driving pulley & the belt. When you cut the tie wrap to install it take not of how the various parts & pieces fit together so you can re-install them correctly.
I should have cleaned up the screw threads in this hole before I got this far, be sure to learn from my mistakes. BTW your engine must have an existing tapped hole in he end of the crankshaft or you cannot install a torque convertor. Be sure to check this before you spend your money as a few of the Honda clone engines are missing this feature.
The other drive pulley parts
Stick the belt into place & begin assembling the drive pulley onto the end of the crankshaft.
Now that you’ve gotten everything assembled it is time to tighten it all down.
You really need to use a torque wrench and tighten the bolts & nuts to the torque specified in the instructions. Even a cheap one is more than good enough for everything the average home mechanic will ever do. If you over tighten the nut on the driven shaft it will pop the snap ring loose from the other side. Sure GTC could redesign the shaft to eliminate the snap ring but are you prepared to pay an additional 20 or 30 dollars for the kit to cover the cost of the additional machining and wasted material? Just use a torque wrench and you won’t have to worry about it.
I did this install several months ago and have been driving this thing around the farm at least two or three times a week. While it did not transform my otherwise nearly stock MB165 into a 50 mph speed demon it did bump the top speed up enough to be much faster than a stock Baja minibike. Perhaps on a smooth surface with the governor removed it would but it is already able to outrun it’s own steering and stability out here in the deep soft sand & mud where I live.
Four months ago when I installed this it was purely out of curiosity to see if it would really be an improvement, and it really is. The initial low speed engagement is much smoother than with a factory clutch allowing it to be driven at a lower speed than was possible with the clutch, while still increasing the top speed. The belt has proven durable and still looks fine after four months of hauling my big 200+ pound ass around the farm, down the dirt road, through the woods. And when it does eventually wear out the belt is a little over half the price of a factory clutch. So is this worth spending the extra $200 buck on? If you are serious about actually riding your minibike, the answer is yes especially since the GTC TC2 is a direct bolt on that does not require engine mounting spacers to fit a stock Baja frame. Granted at this price it should come with the plastic belt guard but that really is my only complaint. At this time I’m running mine without the guard for a cool but possibly dangerous open primary look, but I don’t let kids ride it either.
Here’s a little video of the completed minibike so you can see how it works.
Peace Y’all
If you really enjoyed The GTC Torque Converter for Minibikes & Go Karts Installation and Review please visit our sponsor by clicking an ad below.
Let’s jump into another “how to” post! Above is today’s patient a 1997 Honda Shadow, a great riding 1100cc v-twin that while still running very well, needed a little tweaking. These motorcycles came from the factory with the carburetors set up toward the lean end of the spectrum for emissions reasons. This led to some drivability issues on some of them, when you combine the original lean jetting with a set of drag pipes, and 17 years of ethanol contamination it was running mighty lean indeed. The engine had a tendency to run hot, hesitate on acceleration, and frequent backfiring on deceleration. So I am going to pull the carbs off, clean them up a bit and install a Dynojet Research jet kit in them. To hear what this bike sounds like before the carb tuning click here go to my youtube channel.
First get the bolt out of the rear of the passenger seat.
Then remove the 2 from beneath the drivers seat one on either side
Lift it up and set it out of the way.
Locate the petcock and shut off the fuel.
Remove the bolt at the rear of the tank,
and the other one at the front of the tank.
Disconnect the fuel line from the petcock.
afterwards lift the tank high enough to remove this vent hose from the bottom
After you have removed the gas tank and placed it in a safe location this is what you should see.
The yellow plastic container is there to catch any oil that happens to emanate from the crankcase ventilation system, so unbolt it,
pull the hoses loose, and set it out of the way.
Next loosen the hose clamps on the rubber piping that leads from the frame to the inlet of the carburetors.
Now we can finally see the carbs!
Time to remove the throttle cables, remove the 2 screws (indicated by arrows) and you will be able to get the cables out of the pulley on the end of the butterfly shaft.
The cold start enrichener is next. These 2 little plungers take the place of choke flaps on the most of the last production carbureted motorcycles. Instead of blocking the air they just add more gas. It works well but is a bit more aggravating to remove. I used to have a special home made tool for getting these out but it has been at least 10 years since I saw it last so I just you whatever combination of open wrench & needle nose pliers that allows me to remove & reinstall them without boogering them up.
Here I am holding one of the enrichment plungers so you can see what it looks like on the inside.
Go around to the right side of the bike and pull the hoses in this tee junction that was connected to the crankcase vent reservoir and fold them back out of the way.
The rear spark plug wire runs through a loom that is attached to the right carburetor so remove it and the enrichener on this side.
You can reach under the carbs now & loosen the clamps holding the carbs to the spigots.
With a rocking and twisting motion you should be able to pop the carburetors loose, but dont rush to pull them up out of the frame just yet.
Before you try to pull them all the way out remove all of the fuel lines and vent hoses, being sure to note which hose goes to which barb.
These carbs come out of the top, just tilt them up sideways and turn them as needed, this is actually much easier than most Japanese cruisers of the same time period that require you to remove the carbs from the side.
Here are the carbs sitting on the workbench ready for cleaning. The next step is into the parts washer to get all of the exterior crud off for dis-assembly.
Keep checking back as I will be posting part 2 of this series very soon.
& use that to fabricate repair patches, replacement tabs & even custom parts that can be glued together using ABS pipe cement. Once you are done & the glue is dry it can be filed, sanded or even painted over just like any normal plastic.
That being said if you got the money to throw around or if you are running a full time professional shop it is the best one to get.
Welcome to the Asylum 