A Good Ride Spoiled

Great to hear you up and running very well , good for you Torry ! Not sure what to say bout grease zerk that is an uncommon thing , good luck next time , eh

Craig said:

Great to hear you up and running very well , good for you Torry ! Not sure what to say bout grease zerk that is an uncommon thing , good luck next time , eh

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I've since been enlightened from the internets that one trick for a zerk stuck in a grease gun, is to rotate the gun fitting around zerk while pulling away. Somehow this makes it "unthread" from the zerk. Who knew!

Another more extended test ride today. Very easy, single kick starts all day. I guess having good compression helps here. Some forty miles, non-highway speeds. All seems great. Virtually no trace of oil leaving engine, where as pre-headgasket replacement I always seemed to have seepage at third cooling fin down barrel on left side.
Upon arriving home, took plugs out and did a hot compression test, both sides coming in at 145 psi with throttle wide open. Might have got a bit more if ii could have torqued the compression fitting a little more but it was too hot to do by hand and was hearing some pressure squeaking past the thin rubber o-ring when kicking.

Both plugs looked much cleaner than they did when I fit them two rides ago, light tan at most, previously dark and some blackness.
Next step is to swap in the other single carb to confirm if it is a good one and get it dialed in. If all good, another round of head bolt torquing I think will be in order, and return to dual carbies.

Tornado said:

I've since been enlightened from the internets that one trick for a zerk stuck in a grease gun, is to rotate the gun fitting around zerk while pulling away. Somehow this makes it "unthread" from the zerk. Who knew!

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The top piece of the fitting on a grease gun screws onto the rest of the fitting. By rotating just the top piece it will unscrew from the remaining part of the gun fitting, and at the same time reduce the clamping force on the zerk fitting. This allows you to uncouple the zerk from the gun.
Take care when installing a regular zerk fitting into the drive body. The ones I have (which are pretty standard) are longer than the original fitting and could possibly jam up against the horizontal drive gear in the speedo drive. I had to make a small washer to space it out enough.

Deets55 said:

The top piece of the fitting on a grease gun screws onto the rest of the fitting. By rotating just the top piece it will unscrew from the remaining part of the gun fitting, and at the same time reduce the clamping force on the zerk fitting. This allows you to uncouple the zerk from the gun.
Take care when installing a regular zerk fitting into the drive body. The ones I have (which are pretty standard) are longer than the original fitting and could possibly jam up against the horizontal drive gear in the speedo drive. I had to make a small washer to space it out enough.

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I did come across some net wisdom that stated part of the issue is the gun fittings typically have a check ball valve in the end section which hold pressure at the zerk. This can be removed/drilled out to eliminate that pressure, making removing the fitting easier. Other wisdom was to rotate fitting/whole gun about the zerk while pulling back to 'unthread' from zerk.

Never really had any success with removing the check ball and/or spring. I find that just loosening up the end piece works fine and doesn't’ ruin the grease gun. I think the check valve prevents the grease from oozing out when not in use.
I have been using a push grease gun filled with 00 grease. Still makes a mess though.

Deets55 said:

Never really had any success with removing the check ball and/or spring. I find that just loosening up the end piece works fine and doesn't’ ruin the grease gun. I think the check valve prevents the grease from oozing out when not in use.
I have been using a push grease gun filled with 00 grease. Still makes a mess though.

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I just picked up some fresh zerks and a "quick release" gun end fitting which has a trigger/lever to release the zerk. Will need that on my repaired speedo drive zerk as it will likely need epoxying into place as threads ripped out. Might be able to re-tap at a larger size....regardless the quick release end will be best going forward on my other uses of this gun (like on my classic mini suspension grease points).

OK, other carb swapped on to my rolling single carb test rig ;-)
Short test ride around neighbourhood, seems just fine....cannot find any performance difference from the first one. I'll do a bit more distance maybe tomorrow and then prep for second re-torque and move back to dual carbies.

Welp, I'm bummed out!
Spent past few days doing the second retorque of head at 100 miles on clock. Fitted back dual amals as promised after running each singly with good running. Test riding today and I'm back to having misfires which I cannot seem to dial out using air screw or idle adjusters. Can get it reasonably nice at idle, both sides giving similar pressure pulses. But on slight, 1/8 throttle roll on and holding steady riding along flat road, I get occasional chuffs, herky jerky power. Ignition, plugs All same as they were with single setup good results. So looks like two carb setup not playing well. Air leak at a manifold or connector balance pipe or poor idle circuit one side or both?
Thinking about going back to one carb and get some enjoyable riding in.

Been on single VM34 since ‘04 , had some Boyer pickup troubles , other than that smooth sailing ...

Is it misfiring on one cylinder or both?

maylar said:

Is it misfiring on one cylinder or both?

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Seems one side, i'd say left, though hard to know for sure while moving along.

Think I asked earlier , have you tried running bike on Centre stand and pulling plug wires in turn to see which side is acting up , wear gloves ....

Tornado said:

Seems one side, i'd say left, though hard to know for sure while moving along.

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The herky-jerky at off idle is a classic symptom of a clogged pilot jet.

Update:
I went ahead and paid out for a pair of new Premiers, kindly offered up from Mr. G. Marsh of this forum for a very attractive $-point.
First day testing didn't go so well. Lots of LS popping, misfiring going up gentle hills etc. RS carb didn't want to respond well to air screw changes, even fully closed down no real change to running. Also noted needles on richest clip position (highest needle position) as carbs came out of box. Moving them to middle seemed to reduce some of the popping, not all.
Took a strategic retreat and came back at it another day. After a fair bit of futzing, doing the float bowl fluid level checking with homemade drain cap and tubing etc. Found one side had fluid more than spec'd 5mm down from bowl flange. Gave the float tangs a wee bend and got it setting better. Also found one side tiniest pilot hole not giving a spray jet when hitting larger hole with carb cleaner. More like a dribble. Could not clear it with lots and lots of spraying, gave it a poke with very fine piano wire and then she clearer. Nice misting jet.
New day test riding and things able to get dialed in much better. Both sides responding to air screw turns.
After more dialing in, popping (usually only Left side) on throttle roll off is now a rare event. Also a rare misfire around 1/4 throttle position, usually on up hills.

But generally very happy with todays runs. I later noted at home after shutdown Left side silencer exit too hot to touch while right side just warm. Found Right side silencer clamp not tight enough, letting small movement at joint. Can this give the cooler temp and maybe the other niggles (popping on other side, some misfiring)?
More testing runs tomorrow.

Check right side plug for fouling. If not, swap plugs around.to see if issue moves.with it.

Check other side carb to manifold and manifold to head joins for air leaks.

Bugger .

When overidulgeing , BOTH fuel taps OPEN can be vital .

Oh, and check your exhaust nuts are tight (when hot) on popping side.

" There has been oil seepage at front fins for a while now. "

Mightve just spat the dummy , er; GASKET .

Clean the barrel scrupulously ! the face .
Lap the head on glass .

Copper Coat is to avoid such irregularities & to allow skinflints to reuse gaskets .
Wash in petrol & reaply kopper Koat .



Dunno if this is the REAL DEAL . A gallon can of " Copper / Graphite " blend was labled such .
" Pressue Sealing - Anti Sieze compound "


PLIOBOND for other gasket cement ,

Steam Pipe gasket jointing paper . Black . Gasket . for clean machines .

Copper Coat was used on supercharged & Nitro Burning TRIUMPHS for Bonneville Runs .
Its even suitable for Cortinas where you drop & catch the tourque wrench so the bolts
are at 98 Lb Ft .

Run it IN THE DARK . See if its spiting flame outa the gasket where its leaked oil ! .