Gmc28

Makes sense. Getting access to the empty cup should yield a fairly straightforward task of flattening the back side.

Here’s the MGcycle cup

I’m going to start reading up more on the Veglia’s. At this early point I’m looking at this “gauge cup” for the 80mm Veglia from MGcycle, wondering if its actually a replacement for the stock Veglia housing, or if rather the whole existing gauge sits inside this cup? https://www.mgcycle.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2741 My housing is functional, but the back side (facing forward on back, back of the instrument) somehow came all bent out of shape, with the mounting studs barely hanging on, and the illumination bulb missing. The holes on the back of the MGcycle gauge cup look to mostly match what i see on the back of my Veglia speedo, though missing the two holes for the screws where the speedo cable goes (easily remedied if this is in fact a housing and not just a mounting cup). Fact that its in 2 pieces seems like its perhaps not a replacement housing, but not sure.

Wow, good catch!. Never thought to look right under my nose for that. and of course I just ordered some misc items from mgcycle, so I’ll get to pay the shipping charge yet again….

Joel Levine says he can just ship me an odometer reset knob, but wants to know if its a 2.5mm or 3mm thread. I may have to ring him and ask what he means, given how the email was written (he refers to the “length of the knob”), but does that ring a bell for anyone? I believe he’s referring to the depth of the thread, and if so thinking that’ll be fun trying to measure that, tucked back in the housing like it is. Or the actual knob itself… 2.5 vs 3mm for that would matter? I’ve never seen what was there as it was missing from day 1 for me, but I’ll go out and look at the (barely) newer V11 to compare. And my bent mounting stud on back of the speedo will require removing the bezel to get at the back of the case. Anyone know if thats a tricky process? I’ve not had any of these Veglia speedo’s apart.

That’s probably the best next step. Not bad enough yet to make me want to put her “out of service” in the middle of our short-ish riding season here, but that will be on the hot list for when the rains come.

No joy on the VHT. But in a barely relevant data gathering endeavor I tried 4 different paints that were labeled as “aluminum” in color/finish (well, 3 actually, plus the polished+clear option), and there wasn’t a significant amount of difference in the 3. The Seymour did turn out looking pretty darn good. I may get back to O’Reilly’s and seeing if that order for the VHT is still in the works, but for now am happy with the cosmetic outcome with the Seymour paint. This project is moving very slowly, which is largely by design, in part to help me keep some sanity, as i set lower personnel expectations for the project, as inevitably work and other more pressing home projects get in the way. Uh-oh, i hope I’m not growing up….. the missus has realized that there is always more work to be done on the bikes, so the excuse of “i need to work on the bikes” has played itself out i think. anyway, next is the Veglia speedo, shipping off to the fellow back east. Then finish the “decent tune”. And then i have a set of Rizoma LED turn signals coming, and will decide whether to use those on Greenie, or Red, or both if I like the outcome. Then the small amount of red paint work that needs addressing at that left side frame/motor-mount area, where moisture caused some nasty rust. Then sort out the air temp sensor, which currently goes into that water bottle the PO had under the tank (probably route that line like others have suggested). Etc…. It’ll certainly spill well into the winter.

Going to send in the Veglia to the fellow back east (US) to see if he can address the odometer trip meter reset push pin, which is missing. taking it apart looks like its been messed with, as the back light bulb is missing, and the electrical lead to it is taped to another lead (I’m thinking to address the issue with the flashers and such?), and the one mounting stud is bent and loose.

Lousy, low rez pic, but the Seymour paint yielded a good look, for now. Will see how it holds up compared to the powder coat I did on Red.

Rather than start another thread on this, I’ll bump this one and add to it: (I’ve alluded to this mildly annoying issue in other threads..) Red LeMans has always run pretty sweet. As I’ve noted elsewhere, this season for the first time I’ve got an issue with idle and low rpm that’s characterized by: 1) might be hard to get it to keep running at idle, after it initially fires off during start. Idles, then stumbles and quits. 2) idle speed seems to vary more than it ever used to, on its own. Due to that rough cold idle, I’ve messed with air screws and TB sync a bit more (after full descent tune up) to try some different fine tuning, with no real change. But when I’ll turn up the idle a bit to around 1250, when its warmed up, then next ride it will idle back at 1000, then a week later will idle at 1300. Some variation was normal, but she never did this much. 3) seems to run great on the road, but in neutral in the shop at 4,000rpm, checking the TB sync, it will stumble a bit, and i can feel the throttle tension release momentarily when that happens (I’m thinking thats a solid clue). And before this riding season, she used to actually remarkably well even between 2500-4000 rpm, where some MG’s of this vintage commonly have some burbles. But now I’ve got a solid burble most of the time in that rpm range. throttle linkage “tunnel” is all clear, TPS was all dialed in, requiring very little adjustment on the last tune up (early summer, about 100miles ago), valves were good needing no adjustment. Only new thing I’ve done this year is I usually will adjust the right throttle body idle screw in till its just touching the lever, once all the tuning and idle adjustments (left side) are done. I left it all the way out this time. Shouldn’t make any difference, but its a change. I’ll just be messing with this issue during this late-starting riding season, but curious if others have thoughts. Cheers

Rizoma responded to my inquiry saying they don’t have any incandescents. So wouldn’t be from them. I’ll order a singe set of LED’s for now.

Has anyone found an incandescent signal replacement that looks like something from Rizoma? So far looks like all the Rizoma stuff is LED, but I’m still looking. I may convert 2 to LED, then look for a matching, or nearly matching set of non-LED’s to complete the set, and call that a good band-aid solution.

Makes sense. So the resistors like i have on my other older bikes for the LED’s may or may not help, but the flasher unit addresses the speed of the flash. I’m fine with idea of a good set of LED’s paired up with a decent looking set of incandescents like what footgoose shows. I’m assuming my 2002’s will have the “old” set up you’re speaking of, but I’ll check. For sure the greenie will.

Gotcha - thx all. is there a preferred flasher unit folks are preferring, or are they all about the same?

bump...

i'll look more at the other threads on this, but takeaway seems to be that the flasher unit is the ticket for the LED turn signals? is there a tried-and-true flasher unit folks have come to like? was looking at that conversion for a long time for the V11's, as i'm personally not a fan of what i'll call the "ugly" (ya, eye of the beholder...) stock signals. such a cool bike with nice lines and nifty looking instruments, then with those cheap, oversized plastic blinkers... But had a depressing string of events in the shop the other day, where I tipped over red (dammit!!), damaging a few things including the right front blinker, so pulled the lens from goldie, only to have the inner attachment tab break right off. so stole one from greenie-on-the-stand just to get red back to ride-able condition (but still wounded). Best to have never gone near the shop that day. So all of a sudden i'm in the market for a blinker assembly and two lenses (easy, but annoying). So figured now's the time to do the LED thing. I Like the Revival and Rizoma options, so will just work out the flasher unit i need, and then pay too much for some slightly upgraded bling.

I’ve also been eye-balling my throttle linkages, poking around for causes for my idle stumble during the warm-up period in cold or warm weather. Throttle linkage shouldn’t be the cause of that symptom, but just looking things over. She purrs like a kitten and runs sweet when warmed up, but starts hard (catches, then stumbles and quits, and a quick throttle blip kills it), and then stumbles every 5-ish seconds during those first “4000 revolutions”. Didn’t used to do that, and after a couple of tune-ups last couple of springs (post winter) she runs as good or better than ever except for that initial start period. I do now keep that right side idle adjust screw most of the way out. I used to adjust it back in to where its just almost touching the fuel lever on the TB, but I’ve started just leaving it out. Shouldnt’ make a difference, and makes it easier to do TB sync next time, but its a change. My eyes must have been deceiving me, but the other day i was looking over the left side idle adjust, looking to adjust the idle just a smidge higher, and after turning the screw in a little, could have sworn i saw some daylight between the adjustment screw and the lever….. how could that be? Looked around for linkage getting snagged somewhere (was idling just around 1000rpm), then finished double checking TB sync at idle and making just a slight adjustment on the air bypass screws, then looked again and the daylight i thought i had seen on that idle adjustment was gone. Hmm. Probably seeing things. Or was something actually hung up that i cleared from messing around down there (?). By that time, it was warmed up and idling and running fine, with the stumble gone. To be clear, she’s well tuned in accordance with “decent tune-up”, and when warm is idling around 1150 (slightly high by choice), has the minor and typical stumble in the mid 3’s rpm, but otherwise runs/idles/rides sweet once warmed. Just that hard starting and stumble, where even “idle lever” all the way up may barely keep it from quitting for the few couple minutes. Not sure I should bother with all my ramblings on this little issue of my persistent idle stumble during warm up, but maybe someone has some thoughts, and writing it down helps my brain sort through things, so here you go… some tedious reading material if you’re so inclined :-> cheers

Adventure biking in the Yukon this week, on the “beast”. South end of Kluane Lake, a small detour on the way to Haines, AK. (It’s sideways… sigh)

+1 - lets see a pic of the silver sport with the nifty turn signals!

Took red out for a spin, with the sun showing itself this weekend, but just rode 4 miles down the local clear-premium gas station. She runs sweet, but she’s wanting to idle at about 800-900 rpm, so i may bump it up. Shop tune vs road test… Adjusted the valves on Greenie. Was musing about why all the locks nut were so brutally tight, then remembered that despite her age she’s only got about 1500 miles, so thats got to be the 23yr old factory valve setting/torque. Not surprisingly they were not that far off. If i was going to ride it hard I’d account/hedge just a little for the break-in, but I just set them to normal specs as it won’t be getting a lot of miles in the near or longer term. Old valve cover gaskets came off in pieces, much of it staying adhered to the cover, requiring some effort and time to get it all cleaned up. And rounded up some replacement M6 bolts for the generator cover. Between work, broken arms, and remodeling projects, she’s coming along slowly but surely… anyone know a good wheel cleaner product? Old topic, but the S100 wheel stuff i have isn’t working on the Duc spoked wheel rims (black rims), and arguably is making it worse. The spoke spacing makes them a real chore to clean and an ideal candidate for a spray on miracle product, if there’s one that will work for that kind of surface, an almost eggshell black.

Mostly had to work on other house projects yesterday, but fwiw did compare several aluminum gray paints sprayed on some scrap aluminum to the original alt cover and the turn signal cover, and this Seymour “original non smudge aluminum finish” looked to be a very close match. And it says its good for engine blocks and such. Will see how it really looks later on the actual items that need the paint, and next to the VHT if it ever arrives.

Many thanks. I put that on order last week with a local auto store, as no one around had it in stock, but “supply chain” and other issues make it several weeks away. All fine, but i was looking around at other options, and sure enough the aluminum paint that i picked up did seem more shiny than i prefer, so i grabbed a can of satin finish clear, and thats the next experiment i was going to try. But all while awaiting the VHT. I did grab a bit of “tool box red”, for the little area of nasty rust that I’ll be cleaning up and prepping on the frame. Low risk of issue there, for while its visible, its somewhat tucked in under things and not as obvious, and will have a weld joint as a border.

Has anyone stripped and cleaned the turn signal dash aluminum cover piece and then just clear coated it? I’ve got some aluminum paint, but wondered about how a clear would look, if I can get a nice enough surface prep and etch.

Just strip some of the aluminum bits, mostly cosmetic, but including “dash” light cover, generator/coil cover up front, and probably some other areas here or there that may not be removed from the bike (small, less visible area on block toward the front) but which I’d work on in-place (maybe). Haven’t tried acetone alone. If i can get piece off using one of those “scotch-brite type” wheels you can put on a 4” grinder, though i’ve only used those on steel in the past… not sure for aluminum.

Mjolnir went missing a long, long time ago. The other hammers don’t deserve the exposure, though I’m still fond of them… On the paint topic, appears I’m going to have to mooch some Methylene chloride based stripper from the stash at the shop at work, as apparently only the environmentally friendly version is not available any more. I’ll only be a wee little bit environmentally naughty.