For the first time in a long time, I wasn't the only bike at the coffee shop this morning. That's Brett, the owner, with George Rahn looking at the rig. It's an R69S with a leading link front end which two settings. One setting moves the front wheel forward about an inch to reduce the trail for use with a sidecar. The bike comes with sidecar mounts from the factory. The sidecar is a Jawa but he has the body off and a flatbed installed. Yesterday, he used it to haul an engine stand and now it's setup to haul sheets of plywood.
This is the same R69S that I had seen
last October at the auto parts store. He has been riding on/off all winter but with barely enough alternator capacity to run the headlight, heated gear is out of the question. So even today in the mid-20s was a cold ride. Since this is the high horsepower "S" model, it was rated at 42 hp compared to the 35 hp of the non-"S" model.
Most of the dirt and caked on grease on the frame has been cleaned off. Still not spotless but a lot better than it was. I was thinking about removing the sidecar tomorrow thinking that it might make it easier to install the engine. The bike has the final drive removed so it isn't going anywhere but I did leave a little room next to the sidecar. I think that it should be pretty straight forward.
I ended up removing the heads again today as I found two locating pins in the bin with all of the old parts. I was wondering why the locating pin wasn't on the new cylinder or the old ones. It turned out that they just popped out. Anyway, removed the heads, installed the pins, retorqued the heads to 28 ft-lbs and adjusted the valve clearance to 0.003". It's so easy with the engine sitting on the workbench. Installed the transmission after greasing the input spline with a mixture of Union 76 arctic grease mixed with Honda Moly 60.
Tomorrow, Thursday, I'm judging science fair projects. But on Friday, Jed is coming by to help muscle the engine/transmission into the frame. The Ural may be on the road this week!
Looking forward to seeing the ural rig on the road again! Been talking to BURAL re the '99 rig...he's not a fan of greasing the splines, just FYI. Randy, the URAL dealer here always separates the sidecar from the tug when working on my rig, says that as long as you only loosen the clovis mounts on the bottom and the upper support mounts, the alignment is not affected. He's done it twice to my rig (two clutch replacements) and the alignment felt fine both times.
ReplyDeleteI've removed the lower mount bolts before but it doesn't seem to want to move. But I figure that it's worth another try...
DeleteAs far as greasing the splines, as long as it's not overdone then I think it's fine. The splines on mine were dry as a bone and there is no appreciable wear on either the splines on the old friction plates or the input shaft. So either way it's probably fine. I choose to add a little bit of grease. The arctic grease mixed with the moly makes a really tacky substance.
yep, his argument is that grease attracts dirt/grit and in the case of the transmission input spline, clutch dust which is highly abrasive. once it's there, it acts like sandpaper.
DeleteI can understand that reasoning but I'd rather grease the splines and redo it on a regular basis. The splines on my transmission and friction discs looked almost brand new. No perceptible wear.
DeleteLooking forward to reading your Ural adventures. My love for motorcycle brought me here. Love how dedicated you are to your bike! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by and commenting. I don't think that it's dedication at all. It needs fixing and I'd rather learn to repair it myself. After all, it's a pretty straightforward bike.
DeleteCommitted Ural riders are saints in my estimation. I have never seen a spline, much less debated whether they take to grease well or not.
ReplyDeleteThat said I may yet tackle replacing my rollers (child's play, mechanically speaking) before my grand departure. If I do, it will be the first time I use a torque wrench. Pathetic, right?
saints or suckers for punishment David? I sometimes wonder....torque wrenches are all very well for BMW work but with URALs, at least in my case, torque wrenches rarely come into play...it's more of using either the German "gudntite" form of measurement or its Russian equivalent: "gudenov"....
Delete:)
I think you meant that Ural riders need to be committed. If you were ever to look into the BMW airhead community, you will see hundreds of such posts about splines, slides, oil, etc. You name it. I don't think I've ever seen a group argue about everything. Everyone has an opinion especially those that believe that BMW engineers are infallible.
DeleteOn a Ural, you just tighten everything "enough" or what feels right. There aren't very many torque specs listed and even those that are listed, you need to think about whether it seems reasonable or not. For example, the head bolt torque is so high that there is a very high risk of the bolts tearing the threads out of the aluminum block. So most follow the BMW recommendation which is lower than what the factory manual originally recommended. I think that the Vespa may be more cut and dry. Good luck on replacing the rollers.