From excitement to frustration in 2 short months - UPDATED

Re: From excitement to frustration in 2 short months - UPDAT

Thank goodness I or wife doesn't have video of me turning the air blue with swearing and running out in to the dark like an infant in temper tampaum. I've spent about 1/2 my life trying to practice yogic path disciplines dealing with life after death stuff as well as normal life crisis but almost nothing has un-done me like my 1st Combat hang ups that made me somewhat an authority on dealing with seeming impossible tasks all the normal ways didn't work a'tall. One mild example was the AMC gearbox, 2nd time into the bearings would not stay in once cooled, which I thought was me not seating them well as worked prior ok so finally hit the main shaft bearing so hard it blew right out the thin case shell leaving gaping hole and me a few instants of another *%I%O&^*! blank B.I. Staring State. This brings up a related issue - what do ya do with un-wanted damaged parts?
I've held on to shells and cases and bearings and rockers and valves and cogs and chains and pistons and rims etc etc kind of like some bone collecting from deer strikes, to have a good bit of them being requested by others to examine or use as templates for their own up-grades manufacture ect. Amazing karmic connections to me seeing how it all works out in the end. Btw what do you mean by you "updated" this thread?

Re: From excitement to frustration in 2 short months - UPDAT

"You are a trip" as we used to say in the old days Mr Hobot.

UPDATE as in: I added new information to the original post - thought that would be better than if it got buried in the replies.

Re: From excitement to frustration in 2 short months - UPDAT

Life has been a trip to me not expected to live 1st 3 yrs of life which was totally nothing but SEVERE PAIN head to guts yet didn't know how to kill myself or how to think of not ever being born just to squirm 24/7 to point i can remember before I could speak, which leaves me trembling some to reflect on it and a bunch of other times after wards only some glimmer of hope of recovery to better times kept me from .45 cal offing. Thank goodness the LSD suicides killed off most of the old me. I get tales of similar from patients so I don't feel unique in that regard but in awe wondering if I could of survived what they did. Motorcycles and horse riders top the list of old events that wear out to about kill em till I get a hold of em and show em how to DIY back to normal levels of life and endurance. When I hit a Norton or some other hang up it tends to flash me back into infantile states so I gain a lot of support reading what others have been through so why not me too again, eventually. So many my close buds in various life stages didn't make it so life is magical miracle to me and decided to drop out of ordinary job and home and have a second or 3rd childhood. I had zero intentions of another Norton after my P!! daze in the '70s thinking they were all in museums or slag piles by the late 90's but fate took over my life again so here I am hooting and hollering and bitching and moaning with world wide community. The occult and yogic mental practices and psychedelics allowed me to experience close to death states that allowed me to stay conscious after head bashing neck breaking crashes on cycles since '01 and not pass out and choke to death from broken neck and PAIN or freeze to death on side of Gravel path in middle of the night. I know its pure karma if I make it back alive on each trip so crossing fingers I stay ahead of my injury and have some reserves for the next time down, always a next time for me it seems, which is crazy making as I and you'al are too well aware of.

Re: From excitement to frustration in 2 short months - UPDAT

tomspro said:

UPDATE on 3/6

1up3down (John Schmidt) and his buddy Keith came over yesterday and got the old girl fired up! And what a helpful, knowledgeable and fun crew they are.
I do not think I would have made as much headway with this in weeks as they did in a few hours.

John has had the PKW flatsides on his 850 for 4 years and knows them well. They are difficult to get set up, but after you get them dialed in they work very well for him.
"It's all in the wrist". Well, not ALL but a lot. Unlike the Amal carbs, these require some throttle (along with choke) to get fuel into the cylinders when cranking. I never needed to do that before, and in fact was told NOT to turn the throttle when cranking by the previous owner. This was my primary problem with it not firing - fuel starvation!
John spent a considerable time fiddling with the idle and mixture adjusters. He believes I need a richer idle jet, so I will change it out next. I did order a set from Jim so have them on hand.

Other relevant findings:
The new Power Arc ignition was spot on. Checked the timing with a light and it was at 28 degrees at 3000 RPM.
Valves needed adjusting (done!)
My tires are not worn out, but are old (10 years) and need to be replaced ASAP.
Will follow-up with a ride over to John's place to dial in the carbs after I install the bigger jet.

THANK YOU John for all the help & information.

Click to expand...

Those are great updates for reliability. Going to be worth all the setup frustration. Your Power arc experience was different than mine, which installed like the instructions show. I didn't see it mentioned at a glance but is your bike a combat model? I'm trying to understand why you needed to reduce the size of the timing wheel, and that would explain why the bolt that comes with the kit might not fit a combat cam. Another curiosity is I asked Fred @ e Old Britts if the Power Arc would benefit from a timing light for finer tuning and he said a timing light is useless because the unit is triple spark and the light will show an erratic reading. But it worked for you?

Re: From excitement to frustration in 2 short months - UPDAT

Roadrash said:

Those are great updates for reliability. Going to be worth all the setup frustration. Your Power arc experience was different than mine, which installed like the instructions show. I didn't see it mentioned at a glance but is your bike a combat model? I'm trying to understand why you needed to reduce the size of the timing wheel, and that would explain why the bolt that comes with the kit might not fit a combat cam. Another curiosity is I asked Fred @ e Old Britts if the Power Arc would benefit from a timing light for finer tuning and he said a timing light is useless because the unit is triple spark and the light will show an erratic reading. But it worked for you?

Click to expand...

Power Arc module size was too large, not the timing wheel. I had to file down the circuit board to fit in the hole! It had nothing to do with the cam or cam bolt. Poor quality control by Power Arc.
My engine is within the combat sequence (7/72), but appears to be standard, not combat specs. Have not found a 'C' stamp on the head.
The timing light was spot on steady at 28 degrees.

Re: From excitement to frustration in 2 short months - UPDAT

Much as Iup/3dn and I rub to friction I still look up to his experience and would of loved to have him rescue me so envy you and the shared times together. Do take some photo's for the rest of us missing out on the comradely.

Re: From excitement to frustration in 2 short months - UPDAT

tomspro said:

Power Arc module size was too large, not the timing wheel. I had to file down the circuit board to fit in the hole! It had nothing to do with the cam or cam bolt. Poor quality control by Power Arc.
My engine is within the combat sequence (7/72), but appears to be standard, not combat specs. Have not found a 'C' stamp on the head.
The timing light was spot on steady at 28 degrees.

Click to expand...

Well those are fine explanations. Seems I'm always jumping to the wrong conclusions here. Enjoy your hard work

Re: From excitement to frustration in 2 short months - UPDAT

I'm really glad that I didn't have any of those problems with my power arc kit, it went right in and fired up the bike after it's long 20 + years of slumber. The Amals were another story and leaked all over the place before the floats sank, anyway I went with the single PWK that Jim offers. Thanks for posting all your trials and tribulations glad it's getting all sorted out, happy trails, Cj