RETURN OF THE REDNECK DONOR BIKE!!!!!! IT LIVES!

Greetings, I finally got the wheels and tires back in late august, but work and family and everything else got in the way of the first ride, but on Thanksgiving day, My son, son in law's and I rolled out the Redneck Donor bike from the cellar.

put gas in, tickled the carbs, kisked it only FOUR times and it sprang to life!!!!!!!!!!everything sounds WONDERFUL . That wonderful throaty exhaust note, the whirr of the primary chain, Awesome! I only went up the street a bit but it shifts great, feels STRONG!!!!!!(It should with new jugs and pistons)

here was my starting point:



and here are my 'firing day' pix:









as for 'to do's for the spring, :
1. I have a pretty good leak around the left side tickler valve (which I kind of suspected because it was pretty rusty) and a weepy leak from the right side petcock...
2. I need new shocks on the back.

3. I need to install a horn

4. the riders' pegs were bent and need replacing in order to fit rubbers on them......

5. This bike came with a chopper style kickstand (bolts to the frame) and it wants to rotate on the frame, so I have to find a better solution . The original welded-on lug for the side stand was trashed and I had to grind it off. I also want a centerstand. I don't want to find my bike laying on it's side

Other than that, he feels pretty damned good! My only regret is that my dear friend, who hooked me up with the bike, passed away before he could see it run again. But his nickname was Strunzo Pazzo (crazy sh*t) so I'm going to get a vanity plate that says 'strnzo' in his honor (if I can get away with it) ......

I feel like a little kid with a new toy he's always wanted!

Karl

That is bittersweet.

That bike should be fun for a long time.

Haven't you been told about the horn. It's the first part you put on the bike. Oh well just a bit more practice. Seriously man well done that was a ruff example for sure. I am sire you went through the stage of thinking gee if I just spend more time and more money... I am just sure a bike will come out the other end. Good job man.

you know, Norbsa, I seem to recall you telling me way back when to jack up the horn and put a bike under it 8)

I'm seriously thinking about blanking off the tickler valve on the left side: drilling it out and putting a tapped plug in: My theory is if I have one tickler, I'll get enough juice to get -er kicked over... anyone see problems with this solution? I haven't found parts for rebuilding a tickler valve, wo I figured that I'd just get gas on my righ index finger rather than both!

thanks for the nice commentary. I haven't done the accounting on this one yet, but i think I 'only ' spent around 3 grand to get it to the point it's in now..... I did all the work with the exception of a professional valvejob/chemical cleaning of the heads.

of course, If my wife asks, it was around 1500 bucks

Well Done ! It always cheers me up to see a thoroughbred saved from the breakers or worse.

Here's to many miles - and lots of smiles per miles !

I don't think mine would start well on one tickler. A tickler can be drifted out of any old concentric. Someone close-by must have one - If not I'll post you one across the Atlantic

Don't worry about the horn, just blip the throttle.

Love the 1st. pic. As scruffy as it is it musta made your heart race the 1st. time you laid eyes on it.

Nice work, happy riding!

great story - i love it!

Looks great. Congratulations.

Nice job, and beautiful color!

Don't get me going about those blasted horns...when I rewired my 850, the connections to the horn wires were the absolute worst part of the job.... couldn't get at the horn, had a little bit of the original wires to work with, upside down with the soldering iron, etc. Miserable.

If the bloody thing goes, I'm putting a bicycle bell ('zhing zhing!') on my handlebar and hope I pass inspection....

That has me feeling like getting out in the garage, You have shown that there is hope for any bike and to do it with your friend in mind makes it more special. Thanks for sharing it with us, I am sure you have him with you as you ride. Great work, Chuck.

thanks, all. The problem is that I am itching to get everything finished up and RIDE IT but I have the small matter of 4 months of wind, rain, snow, and crud to contend with: Here on Cape Cod, we really don't have a spring: it's 40 degrees, 30 MPH winds from march to memorial day. BUT we have glorious falls in which the weather is mild right until around Dec1st.

as for the horn, I wired everything point to point and there is about a 1 foot leader (you can see the coiled wired hanging down forward of the engine. do once I find a mounting place, I have plenty of wire to work with.

yes, the build is special because of my dear friend's passing......

for you tech-heads: here's the partial list of work I did

*strip everything and paint it indigo blue with a valspar clearcoat on most of it.

*complete teardown of the engine: cleaning/polishing inspecting everything. There was a red clay and oil sludge in the bottom end which i think preserved everything. The odometer said 4500 miles when I got the bike and the bearings and general engine wear seemed to confirm that.

*new jugs and pistons

*professionally rebuilt heads.... new valves all the way round rather than regrind 30 year old ones.....

*dyno coil, boyer ignition, K&N filter on the carby's, complete rebuild of carbys,

* install fuse block and re-wire top to bottom
*halogen lamps
*relace new(ish) rims on rebuilt hubs: new brake shoes all the way around and LOTS of new parts in the front brake drum.......
* replaced most engine bolts (covers etc) with stainless allen fittings


This was my first complete ruibuild of anything mechanical since I hopped up a VW engine in the early 70's.... so I was pleasantly surprised when it kicked on the 4th kick!!!!! Happy to be alive after around a 25 year sleep

since then it's two kicks to bring this snarling beast to life!

sign me 'still elated!'

thanks again, all

Burlen fuel systems tickler valve rebuild kits?

I'm waiting for the holidays to get over (and my bank account to recover) to fix the fuel leak in my carby.....

anyone use the tickler valve upgrade used by burlen fuel systems in England?

it is supposedly easy to re-do but i haven't really studied it yet....

thanks again:

sign me itchy to ride this around... winter be damned 8)

kfh

I haven't used the Burlen thingies, but your project sounds like good, clean, winter fun.

New tickler kits with a slightly larger alloy button (supposedly more water-proof than the originals) are available from a number of sources. I have fitted a couple to one of my restorations and they work fine , although they are a bit fiddly to fit.

71basketcase said:

so I'm going to get a vanity plate that says 'strnzo' in his honor (if I can get away with it) ......

Click to expand...

Not too many people know what strunzo mean, so you may get away with it. Nice job, looks real good.

Jean

thanks, all

Tickler valve disassembly?????

O.K....... I can't find ANY information on how to disassemble the tickler valve...... anyone know how to do it? It's a Nor-easter here in new england and I figure it's a good time to sort out the tickler valve leak

thanks in advance

The tickler vents to atmosphere so if it's leaking your float is not working. The tickler is supposed to leak so leave it be.
Now if you insist you can take it apart you need a thin wood or plastic shim to protect the gasket surface and a very good set of dikes. Push in on the top of the button exposing the roll pin. Grab the roll pin with the dikes lever against the shim the roll pin will slip out of the button. Under the button is a spring it will fly loose be aware.
But as I warned it's not the problem, too high of a fuel level is the problem. Do a thread search for setting float levels and or gaskets hanging up floats or Viton tipped nettles or such.

thanks very much, Norbsa.....

now that you mention it, it didn't seem to leak (other than the little spritz you get from ticklers) when I first sent gas to the carb. after 20-30 minutes it was really leaking (maybe 1/4 cup a minute) . The other one is dry as a bone. This was the carb in which the tickler was completely rusty. I want to remove it to at least be sure that the valve seat isn't corroded or pitted badly..... I will check the float levels too!

thanks for the info

kfh

Norbsa is correct the tickler is merely a device for manually holding down the float in order to allow the overfilling of the float bowl for temporary enrichment, it does not have a sealing seat as such, it doesn't need one since the tickler position is above the normal fuel level. It is also allows the float bowl to vent to atmospheric pressure. Unless the tickler button is physically remaining in after a tickle, then the leaking of fuel is probably due to float height or a sticky float valve.