Friday, October 14, 2016

Back to the Old Routine

Rode to College Coffeehouse this morning enjoying another beautiful day. In the background is Ballaine Lake with rocks and logs on the surface that people had thrown out to see how thick the ice was. A friend mentioned that he saw a couple of students running around on the ice a few days ago and from his vantage point, he could see the ice flexing. He suggested that they carefully make their way towards the shore.

I went ahead and added two more LED shop lights in the garage replacing three fluorescent fixtures. Now there is plenty of light when working in the garage. In fact, it feels more like a shop than a garage. I wanted to recheck the alternator gear lash as I occasionally hear a whine from the front of the engine. After checking that the marks I made during the rebuild still lined up, I went ahead and removed the alternator leaving the cush drive still attached to the engine. At the time that I rebuilt the engine, I didn't know how to adjust the alternator gear lash without removing the timing cover. I now know that I could simply remove the alternator and measure the lash at the drive.


I don't have a dial indicator but the lash feels like it's in the neighborhood of 0.002" which is what I had set it to while the engine was on the bench. That's when I made the marks.

Since the rig no longer creeps forward in first gear with the clutch disengaged, I'm not going to bother removing the transmission to check for abnormal wear on the clutch. In other words, the Ural seems to be running fine.

10 comments:

  1. Seems you did outstanding work on that rebuild Richard. Green grass and ice on the lake seem an odd pairing. Great picture.

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    1. That ics should be getting thicker every day. 18°F (-8°C) this clear, sunny morning.

      I'm hoping that the rebuild will last longer than the original.

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  2. I used to adjust gear mesh in industrial equipment. A couple of things that will create a whine (gear mesh frequency) are: 1. too close a tolerance of the meshing gears. 2. When one gear is new and the other is used.
    Usually in the case of number 2 it goes away with usage. In the case of number 1 it causes premature wear of the gears. Monitoring over time for wear or increase in noise level are recommended.

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    1. The specs call for 0.002" of lash in the timing gears and alternator drive. The gears are all the original ones. They didn't "seem" worn at the time.

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  3. +1 on the comments by AZ HD on the rebuild....I don't think I've ever adjusted the gear lash on the alternator on my 2014....I just look for seepage and listen for the usual whine. As to the rig no longer creeping forward, congrats! Mine required a rebuild of the gearbox by Sergey at the mothership.

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    1. I readjusted the clutch so the play at the lever is around 1/4". In the past, I liked more play as I was then confident that the throwout bearing was completely disengaged. Once I did that, no more tendency to creep at stops. I was then also able to drop the idle speed.

      I wasn't aware that the alternator came off the gear drive so easily. When assembling the engine, the only way I could think of doing it was before the timing cover was installed. It is an easy way to check the lash of the alternator gear.

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  4. Testing the thickness of the ice? I am so not there yet, Richard. I was out on a little walk today and it had a balmy 16°C (61F).

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    1. There has been a lot of discussion about the lack of snow and what impact that was going to have on the ground freezing. The snow is normally a good insulator to prevent the ground from freezing too far (and freeze water and sewer pipes).

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  5. I am glad the Ural seems to be running well.

    I'd be very reluctant to run around on ice this early in the year. Your temps seems chilly, but I imagine are average for you. We are seeing temps in the 50-60's right now with all this rain.

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    1. The temps are about normal, maybe a little warm. Did you get hit by the storm that was supposed to hit the PNW?

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