Matchless G-15CS...Get it Running!

That's a major milestone.

Hope your friend is recuperating well...

Thanks, Grandpaul! He is doing amazingly well. It was slow going until they decided to do surgery to clean out the clot in his skull. Since then, he's been on the rebound and is now walking with a cane from his bed to the wheelchair...sounds terrible until you realize he was bed-bound and pretty much unable to do anything two weeks ago.

[video]http://vid6.photobucket.com/albums/y218/MikesBikes/14416458_1220860967955233_494839535_n_zpswvvfcogk.mp4[/video]

This was the second start up. I richened the mix and upped the idle speed after this. But really, it was just proof that it'll run--not much time to do much more. Any tips on determining whether the ignition advance is in the ballpark? Just find a hill and see if it pings too easily? It started super-easy, for sure...perhaps so easily it's a tad retarded? I'm used to a points setup (and Boyer digital replacement) where altering advance was simple. With the magneto, it's such an ordeal...

The sound is much mellower than I'd expected from the open headers.

I need to re-do compression tests now that it's been run and see if the left side is still significantly lower. My guess is that it won't be.


Edit: Oh, and what breaks tach cables? I had a brand new Venhill on there, and it broke in the exact same place the old one had broken...the cable twisted off near the drive end. I can get a pic.

Don't let it idle so slow, and get some mufflers on there.

Tach cables break when the tach itself is corroded, not allowing the magnetic drum to spin freely.

My guess is that the timing is "close enough" if you didn't get glowing red pipes. Mags are pretty good about keeping the timing if they stay clean. Yes, they are a royal pain to re-set with degree wheel, chocked advance, etc. Big chore.

I fully understand about the progress your friend has made; my father-in-law has been bedridden and in serious condition with pneumonia, blood clots, fluid on the lungs, etc. He was already in advanced Alzheimer's, but able to ramble around with a walking frame, and he could "chat" pretty well and eat. Now, after the pneumonia, he's been in specialty care and 2 surgeries and doesn't even open his eyes most of the time. We would be most appreciative of him being able to mumble and sit up slightly at this point...

Yep, first thing I did was turn up the idle and richened the pilot screw a bit; ran much better. Just didn't have time to make any video of that. (By the way, turning the adjuster screws on the left-side carb is a ridiculous pain in the ass...!) Does the slow idle lead to inadequate head oiling on this engine?

Regarding mufflers, however, the bike never had any; the original owner had two tiny ones he used for getting it inspected, he said, but it didn't have them from the factory and he never used them. I know that open headers lead aren't optimal on most bikes for most purposes, but I figured since it was this way from the factory, it was OK... Obviously you don't share the opinion. What would your recommend?

I'd probably go for the cheapo Emgo shorties if I did it...

http://www.lowbrowcustoms.com/shorty-mu ... pipes.html

After sitting a few weeks, the oil tank is bone dry...small seep of oil coming from under the tach drive. Any suggestions on how to proceed? Thanks!

Ed: bike had wet-sumped severely, explaining the dry tank. pulled timing cover, seeing nothing unusual about the tach drive inner. Turning it, I can feel a slight notchiness. Normal? Thx again.

Wow, looks like Photobucket is now holding photos hostage. That sucks. I'll take some new pics and find somewhere to host all of them...

In any case, updates are:

-Had the ceriani shocks rebuilt by a guy who does that sort of thing

-Still need the tach fixed and a new tach drive cable, too.

-Got the transmission apart and the new reversing cam plate in there, but need to figure out what size the spindle bolt on the replacement cam plate is. Any ideas? Did this change between model years? (Will call Norvil tomorrow and try to sort that out...) Once that's together, the primary and timing cover both need to go back on. Will be installing a 19t engine sprocket as it goes back together.

Assuming it will still fire up and shift properly once that's all running, all that remains is putting the footrests and stuff back on before it's ready to ride.

So been a while since I posted...

I've been traveling heavily over the past year and not much time to make progress, but over the winter, I got the transmission reversing cam plate in, fitted a 19t sprocket installed for better road gearing, had the Ceriani shocks rebuilt, and today I got things buttoned up enough to start it up again. Obviously I have some throttle and air idle mix settings to get straight, but nothing too daunting.

Very unfortunately, though, I was stupid enough to assemble the inner chaincase and major primary components before putting the footrests on. The manual mostly covers the Dominator frame/chaincase, so I learn some hard lessons like this every time I work on the thing. Now it's time to take it down and put it all back together in the proper order.

Question 1: As I tore it down, though, I did notice a slight wobble in the clutch backplate. It's a few mm off true for about 3-4 cm. Is this common? Is it something I should try to correct before replacing with a new one?

Question 2: The previous (original) owner stated the forks bottomed/topped out quite badly, and pointed me towards the several resources to fix this for the Roadholder forks. However, the manual says the G15-CS forks had different damping, both compression and rebound, and I'm not sure what I'll find when I dig into it, or how the traditional Roadholder fixes might apply to the differing damping arrangement of the G15-CS. Any advice?

Normal for the clutch drum to wobble but too much will allow edges of plates to rub inside of drum and drag.Fixed mine with set of 1 thou oversize race rollers. Important to get clutch to lift evenly ,I use a dial guage!.A slightly loose chain is better than tight(which will mess up the clutch action.Truly flat plain plates essential.