started on my brake light mod just this week

things are looking prommising

the basics ......i thought of adding some extra lamps in the external part of the taillight housing  ...just to the outside of the lens assembly area ...the main globes kinda fit in a boxed section in the centre of the lens base ....and i have been noticing that at wilst mooving any help to get extra illumination would make sence to me



so i got some 4000 mcd 10 mm red leds (some while ago ) but got bored and decided to make them up

i mounted them in some vero board ....to line up with the lense high spots



a diode and a current limit resistor was employed with the leds in series

soldered up ok and coated with clear acrylic laquer to protect the connections



man these things are bright for just 20 milli amp of current



more to come as i get them mounted up

well the fan issue turned out to be just the connections at the fan /loom interface

whilst in there, with the radiator out ,,i thought to go a little further with the temp sensor ....

i had filed the aluminium washer so there was a good mating surface between the brass sensor and the water stub .....today i found a copper belville washer of the right size ....tinned it and attached a lead to further earth out the sensor to the frame .....( the theory being that i was looking for an alternative that wasnt so reactive to the dissimilar metals brass and aluminium ) my thoughts were the tinned copper washer wouldnt be as reactive and pit as easy as the aluminum one ....now looking quite a poor state ...and only after a few months of use .

the day was really overcast with rain all through the afternoon ,,,so work in my little "side cover- awning" finished for the day .

sunday presented as dry but overcast ...reassembly went well ,,,but being an inquisitve type ...decided to go for a ride to check it all out ...and clear the head of issues at home ...

off to albys ....440 ks there and back ....

old gerty ran extreemly well .

alby and i attempted a throttle idle bypass adjustment with his fantastic new "vacume sticks" tool ...all went well but the "number one" was almost impossible to acheive adjustment on ......hmm vacume leaks in the throttle body rubbers ....yes i think so .....i better get those ones i bought, stuck in there next oportunity ... it was amazing as the tbs were synced how ..um ...smooth the idle became ,,,with no prenounced "lope" of the motor whilst in idle mode ....a nice tool to have indeed .

we also inspected the modifications to ricks old k .....alby has added engine protector bars with lamps and done all the right things to make it all work great additional fuse circuits for accessories and lots more ...but the output of the altenator was rather low ...but not unexpected ...13.8 v was the max it would go with minimum running load .

we even resurfaced the lugs/connections to the altenator as they really looked dismal with corrosion observed all over ...im sure the current carrying abilty was severly resticted by losses



i recently monitored my altenator charge voltage after reading of "cols" thread about his charge light indicator and found mine to be exactly the same .

i have seen the links to bosch regulators suitable for our altenators and will do some more research on the issue ...im sure there is different models that will keep the battery in a higher voltage range .

mounted up the leds in the tail section ...not a bad result ..

the brake lights as now



ok i guess for $20..... and a little time

Nice work mate! I was looking at bespoke led tail lights for the old girl and they wanted over $300... I'm thinking I've got to give this a whack...


OG

LEDS look really good charlie good mod mate
Halo

Charlie, inspired by your led brake light mod, I decided to have a go myself. I got the leds and resistors from a damaged truck tail light unit. Surface mounted on two pieces of strip board, glued to two bits of angled plastic scavenged from an LCD TV and bolted in place. They are wired to work with the tail light through a half watt 100 ohm resistor, and with the brake light through a diode, to prevent earthing through the brake light bulb. The poor old resistor wouldn't like that!!






This is with tail light.

This is with tail and brake lights. Hard to tell from the picture but they are a lot brighter.

Fantastic work GT!!

You've gotsome skills Avenger GT. Nice effect
88KE

wow ....great mod gt .!!

a verry resourcefull reuse of old bits for sure .



i might just go a little further with my mod in the future ,

the extra leds at the moment illuminate with the brake light ...but i thought to put in some smaller 5 mm leds in between the larger 10mm ones ....so that i have 2 light sources the 5 mm leds would run at lower illumination and illuminate at the same time as the running - night lamp ..

my reasoning for this is that it is quite important to discriminate the different function to the driver behind me ..

i really want to add additional lamps outside the tail lamp assembly as well ...probably in the turn indicator stalks ....what i want to do is present a wider view of light to the driver behind ....at the moment it seems quite deceptive just having one lamp at the back of the bike ....by deceptive i mean its hard to judge distance of closeness to the bike from behind ...especially on country roads where its pretty dark ...

i thought of these mods atfer following "gith" home from rides many times now ....the illumination at night is really woefull ....especially in inclement weather

i also want to get some of that "black reflection tape " that is applied to the panieers ...just to make a bigger target area perhaps ...giggle

I had 2 sets of LEDs in my tail light but I removed the set dedicated to the tail light.
From my observation (and others following me), The stop light (LEDs) doesn't have the same eye catching effect if the tail light is already illuminated.

If I have to do it again, I will contain the LEDs for the tail light in the middle section and the stop lights in the 2 outside sections.
A lot of new cars have distinct tail lights and stop lights. Why?

I have LEDs on my bikes for the last 12 years. Check the picture of my K75. At the time (2000) I found a great place to mount them: on the back of the side reflectors
This was my first attempt to play with LEDs.

nice ...havent noticed the side reflectors before on any of the bikes in the neighbourhood

youve just given me another idea bert .....an extension outside the number plate by an inch each side ...neat !!!

this will give a little dissassociation from the main assembly and allow some more ...low intensity light around the area for running lamps and i wont have to hack around with the styling

thanks

hmm big drip of oil on the wooden parking place this morning ....about the right hand "riders foot peg" ...or a little behind .

dang resoviour tube is leaking ....more fun tommorrow ....weekend is here ...!!!

Yes, common problem. The plastic of the reservoir is crumbling. Blame the UVs.
I always wondered if a coat of white paint would protect it.

CF

could be bert ...just when i needed it too !!! ......(old man muttering )

well as predicted, the old plastic on the resevoir has had it

a big crack around outlet flange -threaded section ....the rubber seal was brittle and busted too

i have little choice but to order another somewhere ... i guess it will be one of the newer types that mounts in a different location as well

but i might just see if my soldering iron can remelt the plastic and i can form up a bond around the area ...hey i got nothing to loose ...and will be a couple of weeks before i can get another

more investigation shows that the battery carrier has mooved off its mounts and along with the resevoir has started rubbing on the side plate for the foot pegs ...must have been that huge pothole i hit the other day

anyhow repairs are in progress .

You mean this resivo recisvior thing?

it seems to be made of polly propolene and really hard to manage the run away from the heat source ...

yes mate thats the one ....but mine had been repaired already ....they had tapped the plastic with a 6mm hollow screw dodat thingy as a take off

quite week mounting now ...oh well !!!

its only 14 pounds out of blighty ....but my credit card is maxed out ....giggle

I'll PM you.

You could try this Charlie. Inline fuel filter filled with brake fluid, and a long tube tied up to the frame. Somebody did this on my spares bike.

try this http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz

briliant idea gt ..!!!



thanks greecek ..... that link is a good calculator for leds currents and current limit resistors



the folks around here a fantastic lot ...aparently ...i have one on the way to me, which should arrive by mail

that blakey guy ....hes a genuine god send ...

i thought of albys spare yesterday .....but the economics of driving up there just didnt make sence , icould have bought one locally (at exhaubetent prices ) for around the same money ... thanks alby and halo for the messages

i have the spare parts (rubber bumpers ) for the battery frame sourced from rs components , and in preparation have retapped the mount threads ontop of the gearbox ....three of which are quite deep 20-25 mm and go all the way throught the gearbox metalwork ....so it wont be happening again ...

the standard rubber bumpers had vibrated around enough to strip out the first 10mm of 6mm thread in the housing ....eventually letting the battery frame float around unknowingly to me ...just waiting for a big pothole .

i have left a piece of rubber tube on the bike filled with brake fluid so that the master cylinger wont wick itself dry ..and cause further problems whilst dissasembled .

so started cleaning up some secondhand front brake disks , in preparation for a swapover with new ebc pads to go in as well ....care of "gith" some time ago now .

also while bike is apart might look to swaping out that regulator on the altenator or at least finding a local auto sparky with the right one ...(i have a good one near me )

Top Bloke that young Blakey.

Please let me know about the regulator $$. Also please ask him about a rewind to 50amp. if he can do them. Got two alts here I want to do.

my attempted soldering iron fix yesturday

i guess its worth trying ...to see if it leaks

will do alby ...sounds like an idea to me .

spares are in ...woohoo

the rubber bumpers i chose compared to the oem .....you will notice there is quite a bit of reduction of the thread on the old one ...as its been wobbling around inside for a bit ...

the new ones will be getting a cutt off on one of the threads to accomodate the nut in the cradle .

the extra shaft length will be good for the threads i have retapped in the gearbox housing

Those rubbers are available from a Holden Commodore (local GM car) air filter box. The car wreckers have them by the hundreds.
Or Google Bareco and they sell them as well.

thanks rick ....but i need the longer threads ....there is no metal for them to bind to for the first 10 mm unless i go and put helicoils in

see what i mean ?

mounted up the new bumpers ...after a little cut and clean ...

then dummied up a fit with the battery carrier ...looks good

removed it all and installed some antisieze in the threads everywhere , cleaned up the top of the gear box ...mounted the BRAND NEW master cylinder reseviour



went back again and painted up the new nuts as well

thanks blakey ....i ride again.....yipee!!!!

Nice work mate & a great find on the alternative part!

thanks og .....the rubber actually mooves too ....instead of the old and hardened former rubber in those bumpers i removed ....the ratings for the new parts are for 30kilo load and about 2- 3 mm on moovement ...which will deal with the vibrations that we all feel comming through the rev range .

Whilst tearing into my bike this morning I noticed the battery tray's rubber mounts have rounded out most of the threads in their holes as well. I have a 6mmx1.0 Helicoil kit in my toolbox, or I'd be looking for those longer studs as well. Good work.

My battery tray is aluminium though. Musta been a change along the way sometime.

sorry i must have been confusing again ...the tray is in fact aluminium .....just spray painted by yours trully last year ....good greif ...did it look as though there was something new ? giggle

workshop day up in kingaroy

did water pump and throttle body rubbers

wow interesting experience both refurbishments

for some no biggie but the water pump refurbishment was an interesting excersize ...firstly , because i have a pre 86 version i wasnt quite sure what would await me as far as impellers and drive shaft ...seems natural to assume that i had the old type of threaded section projecting out of the pump drive gears rather than the socketed version ...yep indeed this was so ...

upon opening the housing cover plate ..it all looked ok ...right first to get the nut off .....doink ..yep it came off ok ...nut and threaded shaft spun right off ...without more than a 1/4 turn . the shaft had corroded right through ...by what looked like a fracture in the metal , and now corroded entirely ..all but about a sixtenth of an inch square of metal in the centre core ...bugga





what to do ?

fortunatly "alby" our mate had dissassembled a couple of water pumps from old engines and stuff previously and had a more recent type of shaft assembly for use ....it looked good . with some typical wear and corrosion divots around the seal areas ...so i linished it up some and finished with not a bad result ...the main wear marks for the oil pump seal being the most relevant area i worked on to rid it of a quite sharp groove through the seal area ...turned out ok



i pulled all the parts and dissassembled the seals out of the housing ....wow what a complex water seal ...of a bout 3 distinct rubbery sections ...all quite easy but complicated to work out of the seal portal ...without causing any damage .

good observing skills were required to clean it all out properly ...and i can show you what it is supposed to look like when cleaned up





there should be 3 distinct areas along the recess for housing of the seals the oil seal ar the deepest section ...dome side out ....the "void" path - breather area had been blocked by coagulation of decrepid rubber and dirt ...and was quite difficult to clean out fully , but with a 2.5 mm drill and some brazing rod and degreaser ..it all cleared out pretty well

use a 16 mm nut socket for instalation of the oil seal, it fitts up nicely to the edges of the seal and allows presuring it in without drama .

the "new water seal " provided a fear factor of ruining it (after reading many posts on the subject ) but with the right nut socket of 27mm which fitted nicely around the circumference (without binding on anything else ) i punched it in to its home location ...besides advice from everybody else about working it in with the nut draw principle .. this was important ..because once the assembly is "home " the next process of drawing the shaft throught the seal was made far more easily than anticipated











almost there

using the new impeller adaptor allowed final draw of the shaft to the home position with only about less than a millameter of gear drive at the rear of the housing , but importanly , the right load on the front part of the ceramic water seal





finally the impeller went on ...looks to me about 1.5mm of clearance ...but a good fit in the end



i had made use of albys fantastic ultrasonic bath and it allowed for complete removal of old cruddy paint ...and dirt from the internal recesses ....a scotchbright pad was used for cleaning up the seal faces within the housing ..and a good layer of fresh paint covered the pump cover and housing external bits ..

the housing faces i worked on methodically to acheive a clean surface for housing to engine and housing to cover plate ..

i had used the old flat piece of timber and wet and dry to acheive this before any seals came near the housing parts /.and a good rinse afterwards to remove any left over granules of abrasive product



"drei bond" sealant was used varry sparingly on both sides of the mating surfaces with about 10 minutes to let it go "off" before face to face contact was applied .

i left the housing torqued up but dry overnight to allow it to cure .

next day ...water was added ...woohoo no leaks ...and later in the day a start process was achieved after doing the throttle body rubbers .

i ran the engine to temperature and then went for a ride around the block to prove the system under load ...

a good result and after another 200 killometer ride home ...im pleased to say it all works well

Nice work mate! This is the best explanation with photos of this procedure I have seen thus far.

OG

Good, practical feedback, on a job that instills fear in many a K owner!

Mike

on the workshop days ...i also rejuvenated the throttle body rubbers .

some history ...on a recent trip to albys , we attempted to do an idle bypass .syncronisation

but for me the number 1 wouldnt come into range without excessivly winding out the adjustment needle ...hmm

in addition at times i have noticed a wet area around the head /intake area ...more behind the tb rubbers ...towards the centre of the engine ...(a wiff of fuel has always been present after a ride or even comming to a stop in traffic )

so armed with topside rubbers and clips acordingly , we removed the plenum and throttle bodies ...

its quite a neat fit in there and a few things had to be manouvered out of the way to gain access .

if your doing a strip of the bike ....doing the rubbers before mouning up to the frame would be highly recomended ... along with removing the fuel rail and injectors , which we did also .

what i found ...

in most reports the throttle body rubbers had perished to the state of large cracks ..even tares in the rubber ...this is what i was expecting to see ...but not this time .

the lowwer rubbers to the head seemed to be still flexable and in mostly a good state ..

with movement of the rubber no cracks could be observed .(could this have already been addressed at some stage before my purchase ?)

in any case ..looking at the mountings to the head , i noticed small corrosion ./ wet spots in the seal area between the 2 parts as i disassembled each one .

i also noticed a small distortion in the moulding rubber of the head surface contact area . a bit like a ridge or raised section that might line up with the casting of the intake flange area just inside the bolt mounting points .

this didnt seem to be right to me ...so i got a sharp knife and relieved those bumps out of the rubber so a flat surface could be realised .

i cleaned up the head side of the casting/finished surface and applied the fabulous "drie bond "sealant to take up any gaps in the seal surface to each of the intakes .

with the plenum in my hands i distorted the top side rubber to check for cracks etc ...but none could be found in the main body of the rubber at all ..(some minor cracks existed around the edges of the flange interfaces but nothing to worry about ...and certainly not deep enought ot cause any great effect )

armed with adjustable hose clips (thanks again alby ) not quite the right width (6 + mm rather than possibly the 5mm crimp types ) but good enough to do the job .

we tried in vain to reassemble the plenum to the throttle bodies ..(now in place on the lower rubbers )

crikey !!! there is a small retaining ridge built into the throttle body intake stacks ...these ridges proved most difficult to expand the tightish rubbers over ...so we pulled the plenum out and replaced those rubber with the new ones at hand (thinking that the newer rubber would easily creep over the retainer ridges )

the top most clips i used were the one use only types ....a good set of sidecutters is usefull for both removal of the clips (by shearing off the metal ....and also to clamp the expanded section to crimp the clips in place )

we greased the mating rubbers to help the reassembly process .....but still enormously difficult to get a push fitt done ...albys mighty strength acheived this feat for me .

after reassembly of the air filter housing and induction pipe , fixing rubbers etc ...the fuel tank was thrown on and the injectors and fuel rail replaced ....the ambition, to attempt a start .

after a few turns the old girl lit up and a roar was acheived ....idle altough was rough and would die ....(that dang crankcase breather i suspect .....yep hadnt fitted it off properly .

idle acheived ...yay

albys "carb sticks " synchronising tool was employed ...and wow we were able to pull the relative vacumes into line with minor adjustments to the needles ... a verry smooth idle purr resulted aferwards

we locked off the adjusters with some blue locktight to hold them in place .

a susequent ride test showed a smooth and improved acceleration from all revs ...i havent noticed any backfiring ..on running little flutters that are normally present durring backoff at all ..

wow what a result ....!!!

thanks again alby and blokes

ok lets see if this works ...attempt 2 at the oil-water pump

on arival home there was an oil leak apparent seems to be comming from the top side of the oil section and weeping out the connectors hole .

on disassembly i couldnt see exactly where it has gone wrong ...

anyhow i got some new screws for the housing incase there was an issue with tightness ...lucky i did there 2 of those critters really hard to turn off (rounded head stuff)

i noticed that the gearface of the oil pump was now sitting flush with the housing and just in case put another turn and a bit on the preload of the water pump seal, as its spring loaded .

just waiting for paint to dry before cleaning up the surfaces a little more

Bugger!! At least you know the drain works now! I am sure it will be fine!!

think i found it

a closer inspection showed me some crud wedged in what apears to be a casting releif ..could this have been holding it out a little more than usuall ?

well... sanded back a little and now there doesnt seem to be any flaws that i can see

Hey Charlie...have a look at this.

yep sounds about right inge ....hard old sealant, thanks for that link .

it just flicked out of there ...i didnt probe it ...but what ever was there is now gone

there was a slight ridge between the two halves as well which i polished off a bit

well definatly found another issue

the oil presure sensor leaks like a sieve ...hmmmm

after just a few seconds of running it drips from the electrical connector which of corse was hidden by the rubber boot over it ...i guess it gets a bung in there till i can source another .

Ahh, yes the joys of getting our water/oil pumps to seal properly... Keep after it mate!

OG

happy with the result og ....at least i have it pinpointed exactly to where the issue is ..

water pump and oil pump are ok after a bit of a run stationary ...although with that leak from the sensor i hope it comes up to presure ok.

ok sump plug installed (12mm x 1.5 thread x 15mm) pretty common item at most auto places

oils look ok

radiator and pump and fluids ok

new plugs go in ...the old ones look good for 20,000 odd ks ...nice brown colour on all , after the throttle body rubbers , injectors clean up.

the shinko is past it at 183600 round about... from 164000 or something ..with no central groove anymore ...noticed some slipage durring torential rainfall on the way home from kingaroy last week ....it has served me well ..

still some meat on the front sport demon ....

new big tyre comming soon

charlie99 wrote: still some meat on the front sport demon ....
new big tyre comming soon

As it all comes together there's a front Pirelli radial to go along with that back end 'new big tyre coming soon', if you want it. I'm gunna whack on that set of Continental Road Attack II's front and rear this week, see how they go (and stop, and last) compared to the Pireli Angel STs, which I really really liked.

I've just taken time to do a proper read through of your water pump overhaul from Alby's Charlie. Cracking write up and pictures. Thanks for taking the time to do that - judging by the crud under the draind hole on my engine I've a feeling it will be on my agenda before not too long.

88KE

indeed 88 ...thanks for the comment

there is a sharp direction change as the "breather tube " exits the main sump and goes into the water-oil pump housing ..

without removal i cant see how to clean it up ....i had probed the verticle portion of the breather previously with a drill and a few bendy things, desgreaser and all the rest ...and found it full of road grime, small chips of road pebbles and basically a glutoneous mass of nasties .

the pump exit ...nearly at right angles to the down tube ..seemed to contain perished rubber ( i guess from the oil pump section ...and possibly from the "old style seal " of the water pump ) coagulated oil etc .

i hope this detail helps someone ...and demysifies the refurbishment process ...it really is quite simple , given that care is taken throughout the refurbishment .

after doing the mods /refurb ...+ new plugs the bike aboslutly purrs at idle something i have never heard before

cheers

just playing around

hey its a public holiday here ...no money till payday

thought i would fit up the bottom fairings and do a little modificatin to the rt setup

i cut off the feet protection lowers on the fairings ,,,as im looking to leave the crankcases more visible

hey it was fun ...







bit of paint to splash around soon and make it look finished ..as well as fitting up the pockets and heat guards



gets mighty warm without airflow around the knees ....maybe its just different

You going for The RS Look????????

not realy alby ...i love my rt type windshield ....it is so classic and what i fell "in love" with many years ago ...(and keeps the rain off..mostly ,,,well untill you stop ) ..yeah yeah ...we all have different dreams and desires

i guess its just my way of making things ... "different" but not hard to replicate ..should the need arise .

i have thought of taking the straight line of the underside a little further and "folding it in" to line up with the top of the crankcase ...fibreglassing required ..

but that can wait , i guess im at the stage of "confidence" in the old bird ..to put the lowers on .. after the workshop days knowing that i have to go in there for all those seals bearings etc ...that i have to do ..one day soon

but the queensland chapter meet, greet and local tour is comming up ...i should make it, i guess.. looking acheiveable at least