Chuck

I was just taking a trip down memory lane.. btw, when I stopped in the Duck dealer to get Ohlins fork seals and oil this spring, there was a Rosso sitting in the parking lot. I thought, "Oh, Conners must be here." Went over and looked, and it wasn't Rosie. Pristine, low mileage. When I asked about why it was there, the manager just said some guy dropped it off for service. (!)

It should be ok on your Coppa, but the shaft was 1mm oversized on the earlier bikes. This would cause coil binding when the ID of the torsion spring became smaller as the legs rotated. In this thread, we've discovered that the Guzzi design puts the spring into over travel. That is what we are trying to cure.. either by a different torsion spring or a coil spring. To be determined..

Well, it's not like Scud is running out of LeMans any time soon. My last Duck was an ST2, and once I rode a Centauro, I went with Guzzi. I understand the ST3 is the best of the lot. Oh, BTW Scud.. back in the day, I made a billet setup to put conventional bars on the ST2-3-4 bikes, so if you want to put apes on it, I'm your man.

The Ohlins are a hand job, too.

My pleasure, Docc.. I like making stuff. It's what I do..

Alrighty, proof of concept worked out, now it's time to make a spring. We need a bending jig, though.. so draw it on the cad 2017-11-17_05-16-13 by Charles Stottlemyer, on Flickr The green represents the spring, the blue some dowels, and the brown will be the lever that bends the wire. The numbers on the right are code to drive the cnc. Found a piece of aluminum in my good junk pile, and drilled and reamed the three holes for pins and tapped the bigger one for a bolt to hold a mandrel that just fits the ID of the spring. 2017-11-17_05-16-01 by Charles Stottlemyer, on Flickr I was a mold maker in a previous lifetime, and this is a hardened ejector pin.. used to eject parts off of a mold. IMG_20171117_163040512 by Charles Stottlemyer, on Flickr My aluminum piece is 1/2 inch thick, so cut 2 pins 3/4" long, and one 1" long with a fiber wheel in a die grinder. 2017-11-17_05-15-38 by Charles Stottlemyer, on Flickr Put the pins in the plate, and we're about done. The lever that will bend the spring is also shown. Forgot to take a picture while making it. It'll be turned over and pivot on the long pin on the right to bend the wire. IMG_20171117_170230229 by Charles Stottlemyer, on Flickr All that's left is to turn the mandrel, so chucked up a piece of mild steel I found in the good junk box.. and.. Tweeeet. Quitting whistle. It's beer o'clock. 2017-11-17_05-15-15 by Charles Stottlemyer, on Flickr More tomorrow, with any luck at all..

That would be no. I'm doing good just remembering to shoot an occasional still with my cell fone. Takes two hands to do this stuff.. Dark is much faster.

The Kid.. being an aircraft mechanic thought he'd like to know what the oil temp was, so he called MG cycle. Gordon said, " I'll sell you one, but you won't like what you see. Then, what are you going to do about it?" That Gordon is a salesman, now.. The Kid decided he was probably right.

Wanderer Maybe the valves got stuck in the guides. You have to pull the heads to check... Uhh, it's a little late, but no you don't.

Thanks. I'll show how to make a spring when I get the tooling finished. Scud said.. I'll also try the .071" dia. spring at 890 and 895 degrees. The brass piece has a groove for that wire on the other side. I'm doing a little thinking about how to make a test fixture as we type. I have a low speed electric motor..

^^^^I'm making the short leg of the spring a little longer (about .050") so it doesn't ride up quite so far in that radius, too.

Ahh, Dang! Caught me.. I screwed up a $10000 taillight reflex pin bundle when I was an apprentice *many* years ago, and don't do math in my head. Period. If I write it down, I'll see the error.. even (or maybe especially) simple stuff.

I wonder if drugs were involved?

Ok, lets get started on this problem. Austin was late this morning, so I borrowed the CNC for a few minutes to make a wire guide for the lathe. 2017-11-16_04-13-12 by Charles Stottlemyer, on Flickr This will get capped with a piece of 1/8" delrin and will fit in the lathe tool post. I'd previously made this tool that fits in the lathe chuck. The music wire and Scud's preselector magically appeared on my porch last night, too, so it's time to see what we can do. IMG_20171116_125939454 by Charles Stottlemyer, on Flickr Scud had already done a really nice job of cleaning up the preselector, and had installed a new spring. Before I took anything apart, I pulled on the pawl with a fish scale and got 2 1/2 lbs to pull it to the pin. Notice in the center of the picture how the hooked end rides on the shifter thingy. (technical term) It would probably be good to put a matching radius on that sharp corner the hook rides on. It's a little hard to see, but right in the center of the picture. IMG_20171116_132909160 by Charles Stottlemyer, on Flickr Tim had checked the total travel of the spring using (ahem) a plastic protractor, and got 38 degrees. Using my really expensive machinist's stuff, I measured 39. Nice work, Scud. Luigi apparently didn't look at his machinery handbook when he designed the spring. It has a safe travel of 30.48 degrees. (!) Previously in this thread, I had mentioned that the spring I took out of the Mighty Scura was bent 12 degrees from over travel. So. I installed the old spring, and it tests 2 lbs. on my fish scale. It's what I have.. Everyone "knows" that the spring works until it doesn't, so I'm going to experiment with a spring with 10 degrees more of an initial bend and see how it works. Time to make a proof of concept spring. IMG_20171116_160325599 by Charles Stottlemyer, on Flickr It's the one on the top. No attempt was made to make the legs the right length. I was just checking whether this tooling would work, and if the ID of the spring was correct. Right on the money. The Machinerys Handbook predicted the arbor diameter within .003". I love it when a plan comes together.. I still need to make a wire bending jig before I can make springs, so I'll have to wait until Austin is done with the mill. Probably early next week.

Yeah. You wouldn't think there would be this much oil in the breather system, but there is. When I arrived at the Wisconsin rally this summer, I saw my friend Chris from Texas with the tank off his Norge. Grabbed a beer (it *is* Wisconsin after all) and walked over to see if I could get in the way. He'd lost 2 quarts (!) and feared the worst. His breather hose was just loose on the air box.

Progress report. Today, while watching (ahem,supervising) the new pup Austin.. 2017-09-17_07-12-24 by Charles Stottlemyer, on FlickrI think he will be a keeper.. I made the first version of "spring winder tool 101 tooling." Still don't have any music wire.

Dorcia's in. Is Bev coming?

Excerpt from my journal.. I'll see if Dorcia wants to come. 5-1-14 Got suited up in my cold wx gear, rolled Rosie out, punched the start button, and nothing. (!) Took 4 or 5 punches before the starter turned. Got to Andy’s and asked if he had some contact cleaner. Pulled the start relay, sprayed it, put it back in and it didn’t miss the rest of the trip. Booger freezing cold. Many stops for Andy to warm up. He had on long johns, bibs, chaps and Carharts. (!) His trunk hinge broke in Mo. He was walking to a hardware store and dropped like a shot duck. I thought he’d had a stroke. He said his legs were so effing cold they quit working. Checked him for a concussion and stroke..seemed as ok as Andy gets. J Made Hermann, Mo, 425 miles today. They’d rolled up the streets, but we managed to find beer and food. 5-2-14 I woke up last night and decided if it was as cold as it was yesterday, I was turning around for home. Fortunately, it was tolerable and it looked like the sun would be out farther south. 19 was a pretty road south of Hermann. Fortunately, the Hub was booked up and we went to the Seville, a restored 1929 hotel. Gorgeous, and cheap. The staff was outstanding, too. $2.00 draft Mother’s little helper IPA.. J I’d take sweetie there in a heartbeat. Met Karen from Memphis who was here checking on her mother’s grave. Plays dobro in a bluegrass band, speech therapist. Bought us a round. Interesting conversation. 5-3-14 I led in the morning, and had a GREAT ride hooning around in the mountains, blowing by road blockers, etc. J It was the first time I’ve had Rosie where I could get rid of her chicken strips. 123 was a hoot. A memorable ride in perfect wx. Had late lunch at the Hub, sure glad we missed staying there. 5-4-14 Sent Karen on her way after (good) breakfast at the hotel. She said she’d be staying there every time she came back to visit her mother’s grave instead of the chain motels outside of town. I would, too. Took 62 across north Ar until we turned north and finally got on the slab. Hot hot ninetys (!) record heat, and here I was wearing my winter gear. Sweat some. J Stopped at Stan’s parent’s gravesite south of Effingham, and he put a rose on it. He said he was going to continue home, but Andy was flat too tired to go any farther. We ran up to Effingham and got a cheaper motel after Andy about had the big one when we inquired how much at a Holiday Inn express.. J Nice dinner at Fridays. Andy 010 by Charles Stottlemyer, on Flickr 021 by Charles Stottlemyer, on Flickr

I guess it *could* be uglier.. somehow.

You know Chuck what Footgoose discribes is not uncommon in many motorcycle transmissions and my view is its down to gearbox revolutions. In the scenario mentioned the box often isnt rotating at a speed high enough for proper reliable dog alignment and it gets balky and misses shifts. I can tip in a few bucks if necessary to help the cause. Ciao Sure, I've seen that on many transmissions where you are caught off guard in a higher gear and suddenly *need* to get down into first. Footgoose is an experienced rider, though.. and no doubt knows what is normal and what is not. At any rate, I have some .071 and .080" music wire ordered. It's cheap. With any luck at all, I'll have some test springs made this coming week.

He said..

Nice shoes..

You know.. I understand exactly what you are saying. After 50 some years in the trade, I have about every 'Merican drill, tap, reamer, etc. known to man. I think in 'Merican standards and convert it to that sissy metric stuff. Newton meters?? c'mon. Gimme Ft lbs and inch lbs. I still have very few metric tools. Just the same, I do metric on Guzzis just because..

Scud, I don't mean to sound like a know it all, but I think it's time for me to get more involved before we spend (cough cough) money. It's been uhh close to 50 years since I've made springs, and I *don't* have access to a spring winder, but can probably make some prototype springs on the lathe and test them to see whether we need to continue pursuing new torsion springs or continue developing the extension spring "kit." I need to spend some time in the shop breaking in a new pup on the cnc mill for the next 2 or 3 weeks, (yuck, work) so if you send me the preselector, I'll order some music wire and get right on it. (yay, play.)

FTFY