Jed arrived at 9 this morning and even with a couple of breaks for coffee and lunch, we had the Ural on the road by mid-afternoon. Initially, after it was all assembled, it wouldn't crank and it turned out that one connector to the alternator wasn't plugged in. After it started, we ran it for a bit then adjusted the idle, balanced the carbs and took it out on the subdivision road. BTW, that's Jed's 2015 rig in the background.
Jed took the photo above after the first test drive. In the middle of the first test drive, the clutch cable had so much slack that I couldn't shift into second. During the assembly, we redid the linkage from the Raceway shift levers. We reverted the 2WD linkage back to the stock setup with the lever down near the parking brake. The benefit is that there is a mechanical lock preventing the lever from moving accidentally into 2WD. And the Raceway 2WD lever is now reverse/neutral. Much more convenient than reaching under the tank.
After heat cycling the engine, I pulled off both valve covers again and torqued the heads to 35 ft-lbs and adjusted the valves to 0.003" after the engine cooled down.
A big thanks go out to Bruce White for the use of his specialized Ural tools, Mickey Sherfield the Ural dealer in Delta Junction, Jed Reagle for all of his assistance removing and assembling the rig as well as hauling it down to Delta to let Mickey listen to the engine, Van Le from Soviet Steeds for his extremely helpful videos and suggestions, and many others for their advice and moral support. And especially Bridget for putting up with all this and working three jobs to keep up with Ural repairs. ;-)
You did it, Richard. With a little help of your friends. Now that everything is back in running order, where is this steed of yours going to take you?
ReplyDeleteThank you! I hadn't rebuilt an engine in a while and never a motorcycle. The Ural community seems to be all about helping others deal with these maintenance/repair intensive rigs.
DeleteNo trips planned beyond a short trip to Dawson City in June and a weekend trip to Talkeetna in May.
It is always great when a project comes to s successful conclusion. Great work Richard!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'm happy it's done as well.
DeleteExcellent! This job is surely in my future....
ReplyDeleteThank you also for your help and suggestions. There are some other tools that I learned of recently which would have simplified the installation of the crank and minimize the risk of damage. I would look for those. The 41mm socket is also hard to find.
DeletePerhaps a follow-up post on lessons learned, tools to collect for such work....that kind of thing?
DeleteGood idea. I hadn't thought of that.
DeleteCongrats on the Ural repair!
ReplyDeleteYou have some great friends helping you out. I am still having a hard time convincing mine to even have a look at at my motorcycle Haha.
Thank you! The Ural riding community is similar to the Airhead community. In both cases, providing mechanical help is an important part of both groups. Partly due to the lack of service facilities willing to work on them due to their old school design. But for me, that's part of the attraction.
DeleteWere you thinking of Young Frankenstein as you were firing it back up for the first time? It's Alive............
ReplyDeleteNo, I was just hoping that it would start right off the bat...
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