Cleaning the Carbs

I can't get the bike to idle right. No matter what adjustments I would make it wouldn't make any difference. After some consulting I decided to clean the carbs. I have a small ultrasonic cleaner I got my wife for Christmas a while ago. Of course she's never used it. But it's too small and unheated so I sprung for the bigger one. It was on sale for $75 and I had a 20% off coupon so it cost me $60. I also got a gallon of Simple Green HD. Apparently the original Simple Green can dissolve some alloys if you leave them in too long. HD is not suppose to have that problem. I had to go to Home Depot for the Simple Green. I mixed it about 50/50 with some distilled water.

I took plenty of reference photos to know where the parts came off of and so I knew what they looked like before the cleaning. Of course there's a second carb I can also look at but I'm trying to only work on one carb at a time.

My dad bought rebuild kits for his 860GT which conveniently are the exact same carbs as the Ally. I ordered gasket kits so I can replace any parts I steal from the rebuild kits. Of course at some point I need to rebuild the 860 carbs too.

More pictures of the cleaned parts soon.

Fuse Box Part Three

I picked up a 4 fuse panel from Amazon. I'm not sure if its the same one as previously mentioned. Only one of the mounting holes lined up but I was about to get the screw tight enough it shouldn't go anywhere. Just having decent fuses should be a big win.

New Rear Tire... the hard way

The old rear tire was a little worn, especially in the middle. As there was a Bridgestone on the front the decision was to replace the rear with Bridgestone BT-45. The bike has a O-Ring chain (530) with a riveted masterlink. By loosening the axle and sliding the wheel forward I couldn't get the chain off. If I had thought about it a little more (note: this is where hindsight would come in handy beforehand) I should have slipped the axle out and then the chain should have came off. But no. I ground the rivet pin down and pushed it out. At least the wheel was off and the tire could be replaced. The tire on there was a 130 so that's what I replaced it with. I believe the stock size is 120, but I don't think the wider tire will be any problem. (The caliper on the stool is for the 860GT which is getting dual front discs)

Picure of cush drive. Much nicer than the ones on a Norton.

Sprocket still looks ok.

Here's the new tire. Nice, eh? If you look carefully you can see the missing pin from the chain. Not so nice. Apparently it's not easy to find replacement master links for riveted chains.  There is no standard. And this one was several years old, but still very serviceable so I didn't want to drop another $130 for a new chain. I learned this from a local bike wizard, Dr. Brown. He lectured me for an hour about not using the wrong master link. This is not the first time he's lectured to me and I hope not the last. He went through his collection of master links and couldn't find any that worked. Discouraged I left and later went to Cycle Gear. I had no hope that they had one but that day I was out riding and it was an excuse to stop. Plus the kids there like looking at the Norton. They just happened to have the right master link, but in the removable style with a clip. There are theories as to why the chain manufacturers went to a riveted style, one being the high horsepower bikes might pop the master link clips off. Needless to say this 650 isn't in that class and so off I went with my little prize. Link fit perfectly and now I'm off to the next disaster. The Norton and other Ducati have been getting all my attention. Maybe I'll find some time for the Ally next. It's like having three kids...