Today, a bit sad and depressed about my airhead

[Norm T R100T R1150RT]

Messaged you Major - 1 1/2" freeze plug fits the Oilhead oil level view port

[bbelk]

[quote="Major Softie" the one on my Oilhead has just begun seeping a tiny bit. ....[/quote]

Somehow I just can't picture a Japanise bike doing this

[chasbmw]

When I was growing up airheads were considered to be the bike that many people aspired to own.....

I was living in Perth WA when I managed to save enough cash to replace a noisy vibratory and I'll handling Suzuki T500 with a 75/6.
The first time I rode that bike, I really did wonder what I had got myself into, clonking gearchange, heavy handling, awful brakes. I then took the bike on a 2 week trip around the south of western Australia, including dirt roads and really fell in love with it.

[montmil]

As mentioned, checking gear oil level in the final drive can be a deceptive PITA. Far easier to simply drain the final drive and refill with the spec'ed amount. Yes, that "domed" element on top of the final drive case is a vent and it should be clear so it will, well, vent the drive case. Easy to remove and confirm venting. Do not re-fit as your PO did the drain plug Snug is good.

You are not alone is the occasional feeling of being "overwhelmed" as it's something we all experience from time to time. For me, I focus on just one job at a time and before too long, there's nothing left on the list. Remain calm and Charlie Mike.

[Jean]

Ok, so it's Wednesday afternoon already.
Lifebeat where are you? Thought you were going away for the WEEKEND!!

[Lifebeat]

Hellooooooooooooooooo!!!!

The forum is back!!!! I was afraid to check everyday because of the deception feeling of getting a blank page

So next week I'm on vacation, and building a shed for the bike and my two old Vespas (need to put them all somewhere).

I ordered the Auxiliary catalogue (waiting for it), in order to help me feel more confident in ordering a bunch of parts without taking them appart and measuring beforehand.

I will then do a large order on Motobin to get all the other bits and pieces to get the full tune-up I want to do. Most important are the master cylinder and caliper rebuild kits, and all control cables. ALready on hand are Bing rebuild kits and complete electrical spark chain (points, condendser, coils, spark wires, etc...)

So before having to take the final drive off, I think I would try the less intrusive rubber plug option on the drive shaft fill hole. But I'm still wondering what this would look like? Just a plug that fits in tightly without the threads?

And Jean, thanks a bunch for the contacts in PM. I will get around to calling when I'm setup properly. I also got a work colleague that has an old airhead, and he's offered some moral support, and offered that I try his to compare the feeling.

Thanks for being here everyone! I'll report as I go along.

Luc

[boocephus]

I have a 74 R75/6 and the front brake does indeed suck. That bike is taken down right now and when I put it back together I am going to put /5 lowers and drum brake on it. The fork brace is cooler on the /5 too. But, I did go through the operation of setting that "eccentric adjuster" one time. It did improve things. Bleeding it is a bummer, too. I bought one of those vacuum things to do it because I don't think you can just pump the lever and crack the valve unless you take the caliper off and turn the thing upside down. I also bought extra squeaky ferodo pads and a new cable, neither of which improved anything. Oh, yeah. The disc is also stainless or something and smaller than a 45. So, it has a bunch of stuff working against it.

I recall spending alot of stomach acid worrying about final drive and drive shaft oil levels. Now, I just change them once a year and wouldn't ever bother checking it unless I could clearly see some had escaped.

My '73 had the spacer and wide rear tire. In the shed, I had a nearly brand new stock rear tire mounted on a wheel and its mated final drive on the shelf. When the wide tire on the bike got squared off, I decided that I should use up that stock rear tire before it got to old. So I swapped the rear end and wheel. That rear end must have some grit in the drain plug or something because it appears to leak alot based on the mess. But when I checked the level, it must have only lost a teaspoon. So, it looks worse than it is. BTW, the wide tire doesn't make any difference that I can tell except it's way harder to take the wheel off. I think it is a 120 and stock is 110. the 110 is fine.

[Ken in Oklahoma]

I have a 74 R75/6 and the front brake does indeed suck. That bike is taken down right now and when I put it back together I am going to put /5 lowers and drum brake on it. The fork brace is cooler on the /5 too. But, I did go through the operation of setting that "eccentric adjuster" one time. It did improve things. Bleeding it is a bummer, too. I bought one of those vacuum things to do it because I don't think you can just pump the lever and crack the valve unless you take the caliper off and turn the thing upside down. I also bought extra squeaky ferodo pads and a new cable, neither of which improved anything. Oh, yeah. The disc is also stainless or something and smaller than a 45. So, it has a bunch of stuff working against it.

I recall spending alot of stomach acid worrying about final drive and drive shaft oil levels. Now, I just change them once a year and wouldn't ever bother checking it unless I could clearly see some had escaped.

My '73 had the spacer and wide rear tire. In the shed, I had a nearly brand new stock rear tire mounted on a wheel and its mated final drive on the shelf. When the wide tire on the bike got squared off, I decided that I should use up that stock rear tire before it got to old. So I swapped the rear end and wheel. That rear end must have some grit in the drain plug or something because it appears to leak alot based on the mess. But when I checked the level, it must have only lost a teaspoon. So, it looks worse than it is. BTW, the wide tire doesn't make any difference that I can tell except it's way harder to take the wheel off. I think it is a 120 and stock is 110. the 110 is fine.

A few comments:

Yes, the single caliper "swinging" ATE brake setup does suck. My take (no direct experience) is that the /5 front brake sucks less. There are some things that can be done to optimize the single disk system. One would be to ensure that the disk pads are square against the disk. I invented a technique for adjusting the pads to the disk (turns out that other people had invented it before me) When ready to adjust the fit of the pads to the disk I squeeze the brake lever and hold it that way with some rubber bands made from an old inner tube. Then I go down and turn the adjuster until I feel the null point, that is the place where the adjuster "wants to be". That is "square" to the disc. Works a treat.

Your front disk brake will work much better if you get rid of that under the tank master cylinder and use a later handlebar mounted master cylinder from a later airhead. With a single disc I would go for the smallest bore diameter available, which I believe to be 13mm. Going this route is expensive since you have to buy more than just the master cylinder, since your present twist grip assembly is incompatible.

And you probably know that dual disk conversions are very popular--and expensive. That hard to find R/H slider is priced according to its rarity. I did this conversion on my '77 R100/7 and I now have enough power to barely lock up the front wheel in a panic stop.

I also have a '76 R75/6 currently with the single disk setup which I will be converting to dual disks and a handlebar mounted master cylinder, hopefully this summer.

About your bleeding problems. I have never had a large problem bleeding my swinging ATE calipers, let alone having to take off the caliper to do it. Is your bleeder screw in the top of two holes in the caliper and the brake line in the bottom as they should be? If your problem is of getting the "spongy" feel to go away I've heard of a trick that, incredibly, worked for me despite my skepticism. You bleed the brakes as best you can then squeezing the brake lever hard you wrap an inner tube rubber band around the brake lever and handlebar. Then you go away and come back the next morning. For me the feel of the brake lever has "hardened" up nicely. The "theory" as I understand it is that compressing the brake fluid squeezes the air bubbles to a smaller diameter such that they can work their way and escape into the brake fluid reservoir.

The stainless disks that come on the bike are generally thought to be inferior to cast iron disks. I've come to that conclusion myself, but I'm not prepared to back it up. It is expensive though.

About that spacer for the wider rear tire. Most of the people around here (including me) question any benefit from a larger than stock tire. But there is a problem with the spacer that I haven't heard anything about. That taller "top hat" spacer reduces the area of contact between the final drive and rear wheel splines. Those splines wear and are expensive to repair. I regard the splines as something that one should strive to maintain in good condition as well as they can.

Ken

[Jean]

"So before having to take the final drive off, I think I would try the less intrusive rubber plug option on the drive shaft fill hole. But I'm still wondering what this would look like? Just a plug that fits in tightly without the threads?"

Yes, that's it. A tapered plug that fits tightly in the hole, without threads. You can measure how much plug you need to not have any part of it hanging down to hit anything INSIDE the drive-shaft housing. Hardware stores around here sell various sizes of tapered "rubber" plugs - not actually rubber - they are hard neoprene so as not to be affected by oil.

[To Ken: how come we are now discussing brakes on Bo's bike in this thread?? Whad'd I miss?}

[Ken in Oklahoma]

[To Ken: how come we are now discussing brakes on Bo's bike in this thread?? Whad'd I miss?}

Jean, it was because of what boocephus talked about (which I quoted). I was very aware at the time that this was a shift or diversion of the topic. But what he talked about was something important to him, and something which I thought I knew something about. So I addressed it.

As a moderator I suppose I could have "moved" what he said to a new topic. But for me, personally, that smacks of highhanded-ness, and not at all consistent with my own take of forum values (to coin a phrase). (Ref: Major Softie's "Manifesto" which was his take on forum values--and was, in effect, silently ratified.)

YMMV


Ken