650 Mod's 78 Fighter Build

So since the look of the bike has changed a little with the shorter headlight stems and the mini windshield over the light, I figured it was time to update some pictures. That windshield makes a huge difference, even being just a 7". I also changed the ride height of the rear suspension around a bit (lifted) to clear my collector from meeting the highway so much. Adjustable dog bones make this nice and easy With the more aggressive steering angle, she eats corners even more now, and is really responsive in that sense.













Devin

Hey Devin!
Such a cool looking bike man!
I hope KZombie comes out half a good looking as yours.

Actually, it was Steve that turned me onto these Viton valve stem seals.
After reading up on the different compounds used in seals in general, they sure made sense to use if possible. It's not like they cost a whole lot more or less just seems like good logic but ultimately, it still comes down to your machinist having been extra careful during the first few seconds of those new seals life...
My fingers are crossed that my machine shop's guy was careful with my seals in those first few seconds. Time will tell.

wrenchmonkey wrote: Hey Devin!
Such a cool looking bike man!
I hope KZombie comes out half a good looking as yours.

Actually, it was Steve that turned me onto these Viton valve stem seals.
After reading up on the different compounds used in seals in general, they sure made sense to use if possible. It's not like they cost a whole lot more or less just seems like good logic but ultimately, it still comes down to your machinist having been extra careful during the first few seconds of those new seals life...
My fingers are crossed that my machine shop's guy was careful with my seals in those first few seconds. Time will tell.

Thanks, Wrench! I think the raised rear looks pretty good, and it's interesting to see just how fast the handling of the bike can change with a 1" lift in the rear. I'm sure the KZombie will come out even better! Everyone always has killer ideas on how to make the bike theirs, and tunes things up to suit that. I'll be watching your post closely. I read up on that article you posted, and it sure sounds like my issue was a poorly installed valve and/or crappy material to start and it just gave out. I'll be ordering a full gasket kit (of better quality) this winter and also re-doing the valve seals up with some viton ones! Fingers crossed after that she's all sorted out. Fingers crossed the seals on yours hold up and you have no issues. Chasing your tail like I was is a big pain.

Devin

wrenchmonkey wrote: It's a little bit of a read but this sure seems to reflect some of the issues you are seeing:
[ speaks to Viton seals applications ]

Hope this helps shed some light...

I just bought Viton seals for the KZombie's head rebuild going on as we type...

Excellent article. I'll give it it's own thread with your permission. He should have proof read it though. :whistle:
Steve

So it's been too cold up in my end of the world to ride lately... highs of 8-12 celsius. So I decided that this would be the perfect time to finally wire in the Dyna ignition and get rid of the points. Everything has gone smoothly so far with the conversion, I'm just waiting to borrow a timing light off a friend to get it all set up and ready to run.

The new Dyna plate installed, with the oil pressure sensor wire and the main wiring harness passed through some shrink tube to keep it all together. I'll shrink it all together once I for sure know that what I've done is proper and will work.




All of the clips pushed together and secured in place. This bundle of wires will get tidied up later. They sure make the kit with an excess of wire...




The switched power line to power up the Dyna spliced into the switched power from the ignition to the coils. All taped up and ready to roll.



I checked primary winding resistance at the coils to make sure I wasn't going to fry the unit, and I'm reading between 4.6-4.8 ohms. I know this is on the upper end of the spectrum as the FSM states 3.2-4.8 is the safe zone. Am I going to run into any issues here?

Also- now that I have the Dyna installed, I'd like to run my tach pickup off of it to give me a smoother tach read out. Right now I just have the tach pick up for my Acewell unit wrapped around a plug wire, and it's not the most sensitive reading as it tends to fluctuate lots. My question here is what line to I splice in to in order to get a steady tach signal? I also took the opportunity to adjust a float as cyl #4 was over fueling in the bowl and would dump fuel out of the overflow line when I stood the bike up vertically off the side stand. So the floats were re-checked and adjusted as needed, which should stop my overfueling on cyl #4 when it sits. This didn't affect running performance at all which is good.

More pictures and updates will come after I get it all timed in and running. That should be the project for tomorrow. Any tips on setting the timing? This is the first time I've done anything like this. Static timing seems easy enough to do, but what about the dynamic timing when it's at idle?

Thanks guys.

Devin

Wow Dev !
She looks nice, well done ! :woohoo:

MOD to mod question:

Where did you get the bug gut collector? I've been thinking of doing something similar but not transparent.

Right on Dev!
I'm interested to know what you think of the electronic ignition after it's been running a while.
I like to keep the old points system as a back-up but way prefer the maintenance ease of electronic.
Still totally diggin' your bike man!

No eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configurationNo eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configurationNo eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configuration

Arnold wrote: Wow Dev !
She looks nice, well done ! :woohoo:

Thanks Arnold! Coming from a mechanical master mind like you, that says alot!

"MOD to mod question:

Where did you get the bug gut collector? I've been thinking of doing something similar but not transparent."
GPZ- I got this one off eBay, there were a few different options but I liked this one the most. Since I was running the Buell front end, I contemplated running the stock Lightning flyscreen, but decided against it as it was too rounded for my likes. This is like the one I got, and I think from this supplier too:

Or, depending on if you're running twin 5" lights, there's something like this:

Or something with a little more curvy-ness to it, like this:

I'm not associated with these stores at all, just giving you an idea of what's out there. All I typed in to search was "motorcycle flyscreen" and it brings up a big list like this. It's amazing how much of a difference a little 7-9" flyscreen can make in a sense of how much wind is broken around you. The wind hits my middle helmet now instead of smack dab in the middle of my rib cage. As these are all "universal fit" applications, you'll have some grinding, cutting, and bending to do in order to get it to fit up properly. I spent maybe two hours on this process but she's all secured now. In regards to getting a screen of different colors- you can do this as well. The one that I have on my bike comes in light smoke, clear, dark smoke (what I have) or dark smoke with a mirror coat.

"Right on Dev!
I'm interested to know what you think of the electronic ignition after it's been running a while.
I like to keep the old points system as a back-up but way prefer the maintenance ease of electronic.
Still totally diggin' your bike man! "
Wrench:

I'll be sure to post up once I get some mileage on the Dyna as to what I think. But just from doing a crank test the other day to make sure I had my wires hooked up right and see if I had spark, the cold spark is MUCH hotter than the points spark is. The spark was an even nice blue across the board, where with the points I noticed some of the spark could be edging to purpley-orange at times (colder), so I'm sure this will help cold starts and help it pull a bit harder when cold. I also like the nuclear bomb proofy-ness of the points, so of course I've held on to them in case I have issues or anything goes wrong with the Dyna. Fingers crossed I won't have any of that... Thanks for the kind words!

Off to the garage to try and get this sucker timed up and hopefully fire her up for a dynamic time

Devin

No eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configurationThanks 650. Good price too.

I'm thinking very hard about his one. Not so much to break up the wind but to give the front end a cleaner look and protect everything that runs into and around the headlight bucket. I've even messaged the seller for more detailed dimensions.



I actually prefer to ride "naked". I had a BMW R100GS and had to take the windscreen off because the wind hit me right in the mid helmet. Between the noise and neck strain I'd get the worst headaches. Road wind isn't necessarily a bad thing, it depends on the flow and lack of turbulence. I took the standard mirrors off my GPz and put on bar ends and it was night and day.

No problem! Yeah, all are reasonably priced too. There used to be a company called Aztec8 that made fly screens like this, but I think they've since gone out of business. Yeah I hear you there, it's always nice to have the gauges and wire ends sheltered as much as possible. That's a slick flyscreen, I like how it wraps down far. Plus, ypu could paint it whatever colour ypu wanted as well. Good find! I do as well, but the way I have the bike set up, I needed a bit more of a wind break. I'd get hit too hard by wind off vehicles and get thrown around. The flyscreen diverts lots of the wind away from me, so it's really only high winds that i'll get the head shake effect and get a somewhat tired neck. I totally understand what you're saying with how the wind affects the ride at different times, it's so true. With those bar ends- do you have a picture? Do you like them more than the standard? I'm in the process of deciding if i'll put bar ends on mine or put the bar end mirrors on.

I got the ignition timed up and the bike fired up way quicker and runs smoother. I'll get some pictures up when i'm home and show you guys how I timed the dyna in.

Devin

These are the mirrors I have.

www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0083SL82A?psc...i_detailpage_o02_s00

I see them on ebay all the time too.

The reason I first got them was because I'm so tall and broad shouldered, my shoulder armor doesn't help any, about the only thing I could see with original mirrors while I was riding was my upper arms and shoulders. I was constantly surprised by drivers coming up to close then pulling around me. Once I got them installed i realized that it was much quieter and my helmet wasn't acting like an ultrasonic cleaner for my head. Not to mention that they are about 6" further out on each side and I can more easily see anyone trying to get up close and personal. Now that I've changed over to drag bars there is no way i could see anything with the factory mirrors. The only thing I wish is that they were just tiny bit taller, otherwise I've been more than happy with them.






I'm going to be modifying them a bit soon. I'm going to be replacing the rubber inserts that retain them in the bars to split bushings since I'm going to mount a second set of dual element signals on the stems. This will help keep them from sagging down with the additional weight and allow me to cut a pathway for the wires that wont crush them.