Other little projects that take up my time

Other little projects that take up my time

I am purchasing a Honda Rebel Motorcycle. I did not want to get another trailer just to haul the motorcycle around so I had this unit built by a local welder. It weighs just 17 lbs. It is welded to a 1 1/4 receiver bar. The receiver and hitch is rated at 200 lbs. The front of the motorcycle is about 125 to 150 lbs so there shouldn't be any problem. Cost was $162.50 including tax.

Click on photos to enlarge

My little motorcycle carrier

At least I don't have to register it each year and pack the bearings

Stable set up with four tie-downs

Handlebar straps added stability, only snugged them up.

I finally got a 2004 Rebel with 122 miles on it. Great bike! I hooked it up to the carrier to see if it tows it okay. Took it for a spin and no problems. I compressed the forks all the way down by connecting the tie-downs to a U-shaped piece of metal I made that straddled the upper frame tube. Worked great. I connected two more tie-downs to the handlebars that were tied to the frame under the car. These were only snugged up as I didn't want to bend my handlebars. I tied the loose ends of the tie-downs around the tire and hitch. It made for a stable set up. Set in neutral and tied the clutch handle down. The Honda owner's manual says on one page not to tow the bike as it might cause transmission problems. Then in another place in the same manual it says not to tow it for long distances. I probably won't leave the city limits on my bike. So, if my wife needs to come get me, it won't be a long tow. And the dealership is only about 12 miles away. Don't forsee any of that long distance towing.

Forks compressed all the way using this connection

1 inch wide metal strap bent to shape and padding

Click photos to enlarge

Attached units to the license plate bracket

The lights show up nicely during the day

They are really noticable at night

Installed a set of Hyper-Lites to make me more visible. I had previously added a luggage rack that obscured the tail/brake light somewhat when there was something strapped to it. These little lights have solved the problem. Installation was fairly easy. I connected to the brake light wires underneath the rear seat. Green/yellow wire is hot and the plain green wire is ground on my 2004 Rebel. You can lace the Hyper-Lite wires pretty much right along the wiring harness under the fender and through the same hole in the fender as the brake light wires. Easy. I made a couple of little aluminum mounting brackets that I bolted to the license plate bracket and painted them black. The Hyper-Lites come with some powerful sticky tape already on them which I used to stick them to the aluminum brackets I made. You can purchase a bracket from the company that will attach the lights to your license plate for about 10 bucks. At night the lights are awesome, during the day they are pretty impressive too. I took umpteen photos trying to show how bright they are. None of the photos really show how intense they are. They do the job and I highly recommend them. I got the set of 16 LEDs on each module. They aren't cheap. I paid $71.45 including shipping. The next smaller size that has eight LEDs in each module would work as well I think for night time but for daytime they might be not enough. I got the non-flashing STOP light units (BLS2-16). They come on only when you hit your brakes and do not function as running lights. Shipping was pretty quick. I got them here.

Just so's I will know what time it is

I bought a ladies size watch from Target for about 12 bucks. Cut off the band and the arms with a dremel tool. Used a flat piece of aluminum to make the bracket. The hole saw that I had turned out to be just a hair larger than the watch so when I ground off the watch arms I left just a tiny bit of the arm so that it would wedge into the hole. Then ground out a little trough on the back side that allows the watch stem to be pulled out to set the time. I epoxied the watch in place in the hole. The back of the watch can still be removed to change the battery. I had considered the digital dash clocks that Walmart sells but was skeerd that the buttons on the front of it would allow water in. I reasoned that wrist watches are more water resistant and I think my old brain recognizes the watch hand positions faster than it can assimulate the digital readout....I think.

Judder Spring Installation (my 2 cents worth on the Honda Rebel 2004 clutch issue)

Judder Spring Installation

This is my little drawing of the Judder Spring installation according to the new 2006 Honda Service Manual. It is a bit different from the old Clymer's drawing. Both show the correct installation. The Honda manual shows the center clutch to have an overhang which gives the judder spring more room to hide under. This makes a difference when trying to figure how a judder spring installed backwards would effect the clutch operation. You can see by my drawing I added the outline of a clutch plate and its relative postion to the judder spring. In its correct position the clutch plate is held away from the upper face of the center clutch. In the incorrect postition it is not held away and contact is made with the upper face of the center clutch. I am not sure how much difference in distance of the positions of the clutch plates would be but it would not have to be much. The difference in a brand new stack of clutch friction plates and a totally worn out stack is about 2.4 millimeters. So you have about 2.4mm of usable life on your clutch friction disks. That too is a small distance. So in effect you could say that if the judder spring was installed backwards then it would have no effect at all on the adjacent clutch plate as it cannot touch it (no effective back pressure on the stack of clutch disks). I figure this would make the clutch spring pressure less effective. The difference in the correct and incorrect position could easily come close to be the same as the total 2.4 mm wear limit of the clutch friction disks. This would explain the very early clutch inconsistent operation and failure due to premature clutch friction disk slipping even with the clutch cable properly adjusted. I have never been inside a Honda clutch housing. I am just offering an opinion based on the drawing in the Honda service manual.

BTW. I checked my clutch assembly out and found that the Judder Spring was installed correctly.

Finding TDC (top dead center)

Click photo to enlarge

Turned the crank clockwise to locate the "T" mark

Made sure slot on the end of the rocker arm shaft was pointing to right

I decided to check my valve clearances at 587 miles. Found them to all be set at .08 mm, right where they should be according to the Honda Service Manual. TDC was pretty easy to find for cylinder #1. I just turned the crankshaft clockwise as per the manual until I lined up the "T" mark with the slot at the top of the timing hole. This is TDC, but for which cylinder? I had previous information, not in the manual, that there was a slot at the exposed end of the rocker arm shaft that would be pointing to the right when TDC was for the #1 cylinder. Sure enough, when aligned this way the rocker arms of #1 cylinder had a discernable amount of looseness that indicated that those valves were indeed closed. The other two rocker arms on the #2 cylinder were tight indicating the valves were open. After inspecting the clearance I rotated the crankshaft again, this time, "counterclockwise", as per the manual, 360 degrees again to the "T" mark. The #2 cylinder was then at TDC and those two rocker arms were discernably loose. Easy little task. Did have to take the gas tank bolts out so's I could slide the tank back enough to have access the the rearward valve stems. FYI, when sitting on the bike, the #1 cylinder is under your left leg.


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