Chores, Learning Correct Ways with Connectors and Small Repairs

Amidst rather nice weather, I've been catching up on household chores.  

I also realized finally and youtube'd some lessons on the correct way to use butt and crimp connectors for low voltage wires.  I'd been doing it with the wrong tools and methodology you see; now I have new wire crimpers which should lead to better repairs in the future.

Changed the oil on both the Onan 4KW generator on the VRRV and also the Predator 2K Generator.  I've lost track of the hours on the Predator so I just change its oil when I do the Onan generator, which is at least every 50 hours of operation.

Changed the engine oil and filter on the VRRV, she's now over 119K miles.  I bought her with 22,240 miles on the odometer back in 2016.  That works out to an average of about 12,095 per year.

Received a replacement for the Chicology Blinds that broke in the VRRV.  Gotta like a company that stands behind their product!  It's installed and hopefully will last a while.

Paused briefly to shoot a pic of my neighbor's tree as it steadily begins to lose its leaves:

The trees in the neighborhood are also in the final stages of Fall Colors but not finding the motivation to go get those pics.  It's not the same with houses in the background.

Fixed the Aluma trailer's wire connection to the VRRV, again.  Though I'd done a good enough job last time but a bare wire on the right rear light had grounded and caused lots of current to flow and generated enough heat to burn things up!

Scarlett, my 2014 Ural Patrol Sidecar Rig's front brakes had felt "mushy" when I last rode her.  Today I checked the pads (close but still good) and then discovered a failed speed-bleeder valve.  The rubber cap had come off a while ago it seems, dirt got into the opening and air got in.

Luckily I had a spare in stock, installed it, bled the brakes and all good now.

Normally, you'd see a small ball bearing sealing

the opening above

I keep rotating through the motorcycles as I run chores and such, no riding for pleasure since I got back from camping.  Mostly though, working on regaining trust in Yagi, my recently repaired TW200.

A neighborhood friend, Chip C., who's a pretty good handyman/mechanic has agreed to swap the wiring harness on the stators so that I have a good "spare" for Yagi.  My soldering skills remain crappy but I bought a "helping hands" tool based on Chip's suggestion for the next time I try soldering wires:

It's been a series of nice and warm afternoons with cool mornings in the 40s-50s.  Snow is rumored for the latter half of this coming week, we shall see.

Load Exercise: Getting a "Deadlined" Ural Sidecar Rig onto a Trailer by Myself

Lately, self-recovery has become a topic of much interest to me, due mostly to the problems I had with my TW200: Yagi, a couple of weeks ago.  LINK.

This morning, I decided to actually try and use the "Come Along Tool" or Cable Winch Puller Tool that I've been carrying in the VRRV for years.  Simple tool, lots of finger pinching potential and I'd never used it till today.  In fact, had to Youtube the procedure to get it to "lock" and be ready to winch!

It took me some time to figure out how to lay out and adjust the two ratchet straps and one cam buckle strap used in conjunction with the come along tool.  

As this was practice (The Ural is working just fine for a change), the straps I used were the ones I normally tie down the rig onto the trailer.  I think I need to use heavy duty locking carabiners for safer operations in the future.  Open hooks aren't safe if they fail!

As I was by myself, there wasn't someone holding the front tire pointing straight, so the third cam-buckled strap was used.  First on the left side of the handle bar to keep the front tire from turning right as it negotiates the ramp hinge; then on the left side of the handle bar to keep it from drifting right.   (you'll see in the video)

All in all, the first attempt took a bit of time, the second and third attempts went much faster.  Practice makes perfect right?

The come along required little effort to winch the rig along, up the ramp and onto the trailer.  Way less effort than using the z-drag system I'd recently bought for use with Yagi, my TW200.  (more on this z-drag system in future post).

The z-drag system actually worked to drag the Ural up onto the trailer as well though, just requires more muscle and time.

The video is run at 4x normal speed to hopefully prevent boredom on your part.

Now I feel more confident in being able to load a non-functioning Ural sidecar rig (estimated weight 800 lbs +) onto a trailer by myself.  Sure, a powered winch would make it even easier of course but it's what I have for now.  

A manual boat trailer winch would work as well but would have to be anchored permanently, as is a powered winch.  The come along tool allows some flexibility in other scenarios.  Not to mention, I've been spending too much money lately on stuff.

And, as you probably noted in the video, I need new tires for the sidecar rig!

July has not been a good month for me so far.

First there was the ignition system wiring issue with Yagi, my Yamaha TW200.  (See previous post)

Monday of this week, on day one of a camping trip near Vail, CO, my cell phone died. I thought it had been my fault for carrying it in the trunk of the sidecar but it turned out to be a swollen battery which caused the screen to bow out from the inside!  

I canceled the trip and returned home:

I have device protection on all the phones in the family so replacing it, though somewhat an arduous ordeal, resulted in an exact replacement and I am back online.  

Truly amazing how one's phone has become such an important thing in proving you are who you say you are to anyone out on the internet.

Then on Wednesday of this week, as I was tying down Scarlett, my Ural Patrol sidecar rig onto the trailer, I found the front tire flat!  I re-inflated it before I departed the house but yeah, there's a slow leak in the inner tube.

Of course, I left the spare inner tubes at the house.  So I'll be limiting my rides to short ones with frequent checks on the air pressure of the front tire during the current camping trip.  

The nearby motorcycle shop in Woodland Park isn't licensed to work on "street" tires so while they had the inner tube, they couldn't swap it in for me.  Yeah, I could do it, even have the tools but the fact I've several spares at home make the cheapskate in me wait.  After all, it isn't like I haven't explored the surrounding area quite extensively both on Scarlett and Yagi during previous stays.

I'm back near the site I occupied in the last post near Rampart Range Road a few miles north of Woodland Park, CO.

The vrrv had been hard to start this morning so I stopped at an Advanced Auto Parts Store to have them check the chassis battery. Their tester declared the battery bad so I had to spend some money to buy a new one right then.  I guess 8 years is a good run for a truck battery.

One last thing, the left side light on the front cargo rack on the VRRV broke off again, luckily it stayed with the RV via it's wire connections.  It happened as I drove down to the campsite apparently.  I've applied JB Weld for plastic and it should be OK by Saturday.

Here's sunset on Wednesday night:

The next thing to go wrong was something I'd fixed two camping trips ago.  The accumulator for the water pump started cycling on/off when no water was being used at a faucet.  The last time, charging the accumulator's air reservoir to 30 PSI did the trick.  This time, that is not working.  I've ordered a replacement.

So why Rampart Range again you might ask?  There's a "tentative" plan to have Thing Two and friend meet up at my campsite, and we'll do some target shooting in the Pike National Forest sites nearby.

One thing that has gone right, the side shade panels for the VRRV's awning are working quite nicely:

Side panels is temporary storage mode

when awning is stowed

It's like having an enclosed patio....

So, I guess I'll just have to relax in the warm temperatures and sunny conditions.  It's warm but not as hot as back home where it's about 10-15 degrees hotter!

More Snow is "Mo Better"

Hope everyone had a great Christmas Day yesterday!

I recall the weather forecast calling for little to no snow overnight.  So of course, we got like 4-5 inches of the white stuff and woke to snow-covered conditions.

Of course, this led to Scarlett and I motoring out after clearing off the driveway and the neighborhood sidewalk.

At Eaglecrest High School:

At the Plains Conservation Center:

Near the Saddle Rock Golf Course:

Back to the ranching neighborhood near Blackstone Country Club:

Almost got stuck turning Scarlett around at the bottom of the hill pictured below:

In the Travois neighborhood:

Zoom in to see the peak on Mount Blue Sky

formerly Mount Evans

Scarlett had pretty good traction throughout though some spots were deep enough with snow to cause me to engage 2WD.  

I did experience a possible serious issue with the throttle not lowering on left hand turns; this turned out to be a mis-routed throttle cable when I mounted the windshield back on this morning.  Easy fix by the roadside.

A few times, Scarlett's rear end swung to the right when coming to a stop on slick spots or accelerating from such.  No big deal and easily dealt with through steering and throttle inputs.

The lower right mounting point I'd "fixed" with some JBWeld for plastics seems to be holding, hopefully a long term solution for Scarlett's big windshield.

Though I had a set of tire chains with me for Scarlett, no need to use them in the conditions encountered.

Scarlett has a New Clutch and Swing Arm

During most of the past two days or so:

Well, it took way, way, way longer than I expected but Scarlett now has a new clutch pack and is once again drivable.

I'd received some time ago, a replacement swing arm from IMWA (Ural).  It had been sent to me after I reported that mine had broken apart while in Utah.  Link.

I'd taken such a long time to replace the swing arm since the welded version did work, though it was slightly misaligned.  It necessitated more work to change out the pusher wheel for instance, to allow for the misalignment but it was something I got used to.

Now, since I had to push the swing arm to the rear to remove Scarlett's gearbox to access the clutch, I thought I might as well change out the swing arm.  No, I didn't want to remove the engine from the frame to work on it.  Looking back, it probably would have been easier but since I had the replacement swing arm....

Things were taken apart without any major issues.  The swing arm took a bit of creative maneuvering but nothing too complicated.

I was presented with lots of clutch material in the form of black dust all over the clutch components and flywheel:

The flywheel, where the clutch disks reside,

prior to cleanup.

The clutch pad disk closest to engine.

Of the two clutch pad disks that comprise the Ural's clutch pack; the front one was basically destroyed.  As you can see above, it had broken apart.  I could lift the thin sheet of remaining material off the disk backing, easily.  The second disk, closer to gearbox, seemed in OK shape.  I'll be keeping that one but not the other metal plates/rings as they were heat damaged at the very least.

Here's the flywheel after I cleaned it up:

Took me a few tries at least to get the new clutch components lined up and screwed down.  Before I could even start, one trip to the hardware store was required to get two 60mm long M8 x 1.25 bolts and nuts to uncompress the old components and compress the new ones into place.  The ones I'd used before over the years?  Burnt up/lost during the fire that caused me the loss of Fiona, my BMW engine Ural.

After the second attempt, I had to take it all apart because I had placed the cover plate backwards!  Doh.

An old transmission input spline gear is used to line up the two new clutch plates center hub gears:

Next two pics show the clutch pack in place, and you can see the center hub gear teeth are aligned.  Note the square hole onto which the clutch actuating rod is inserted.

I used red Loctite on the six screws

The next day, I started work on re-assembling all the components.  Took me quite a bit of time and some calls to RichardM and Darrel S. to talk over ways to fit the clutch actuating rod through the rear of the mated to engine gear box, and onto the little square hole shown above.

There's at least three methods now known to me, but it was RichardM's method that ended up working for me after many attempts with forceps.  I didn't even try the small rubber tube method!  

It took me many attempts because the square hole in the new pressure plate was tight.  In frustration, I took the gearbox off the engine again and checked to make sure the rod would even go in!  In fact, the first attempt to do so directly failed!  The square was very tight.  I got the rod in and out several times until it was easier to slide the square end of the clutch actuating rod into the pressure plate!

Note: you can tell when you've successfully inserted the rod, the thrust washer assembly goes into the gearbox deeper than when the rod isn't in the right spot on the pressure plate in the clutch!  Trust me, I thought I had it in the right spot, twice, and after fiddling with clutch cable found it too tight both times.

I hung the gearbox on the two mounting screws coming out of the engine case, leaving enough of a gap to be able to see the rod as I once again tried to push it in through the gearbox.  Success!  

Following RichardM's advice, I used a thin flat tip screwdriver to hold/put tension on the rod visible between the clutch pack and the input spline on the gearbox to prevent it from moving backwards when I withdrew the small nut drive on a magnetic extension that I used per RichardM's suggestion.

Next major issue was installing the new swingarm.  Took me a bit of time to figure out the way to twist the sucker onto the frame.  Lost a lot of time trying to thread it through the wrong part of the frame mind you!  Sigh.

I had to enlist my next door neighbor's assistance to remount the two shock absorbers onto the new swing arm as one has to fight the shock's compressing springs, so that took a bit of time as well.

That joyful task done with, the rest of the components went on without too many tears and cursing on my part.

The new major issue was the rear wheel's brake calipers.  Though I wasn't replacing the pads, I couldn't put them back onto the caliper when mounting it to the rear disc!  The brake piston you see, I couldn't compress it to allow room for the old brake pads!

At least two joyful hours and extreme exhaustion on my part, I gave up and just hung the caliper out of the way for another day.

Finally got most everything installed and after some adjustment of the clutch cable to prevent Scarlett from creeping forward with clutch engaged, I went for a short test drive.

I'm happy to report the new clutch works fine!

Today, I rested and did other chores about the house.  In the late afternoon, I used a brake pad separator tool and damn if the piston didn't start moving inwards finally!  Of course, in my efforts previously, all brake fluid had been leaked out so I must get more DOT4 fluid to fill then bleed the brake caliper.  Perhaps Wednesday after I get the new speed bleeders for Scarlett's brake calipers to make thigs easier.

Yep, I'd installed speed bleeders before according to my maintenance spreadsheet but the one on the stubborn bake caliper sure seemed to be sucking air back in!

Such are the vicissitudes of a Uralista's life, that and I really shouldn't be allowed near tools some days.

Still, the job is done, soon Scarlett will be close to 100% and we can move on to other things.

Update: June 27 - Got the piston to retract using a different tool, remounted the caliper and oriented it so the bleed valve was pointing up and tried to bleed the air out of the system.  Over an hour of pumping later, realized something wasn't right.  A quick call to RichardM provided the answer, when one is refilling a caliper, the caliper itself must be the highest point from the brake cylinder!  Doh.

So I raised the pusher wheel above the cylinder, a few more pumps and no more bubbles!  Sigh and Yay.  Got Scarlett buttoned up, went for a successful test drive and cleaned her up.  Must rest.

Scarlett needs a new clutch

June 19, Monday

A very windy day today!

Here's yesterday's sunset:

We set off on Scarlet after breakfast, to go find the Flaming Gorge Rock formation.

Once we got on Utah 44 the winds got really strong, to the point where a couple of times I was barely in control of the rig it seemed. Martha reports at one time the sidecar seemed to be in the air!

To top it all off, there was a series of steep uphill climbs which eventually forced me to go into second gear in order to maintain any kind of momentum forward!  I rarely have to go into second gear so this was confirming to me the clutch needed replacing soon.

After a rather rough downshift into second at one hill, I pulled over to take a look at stuff. It was at that point that we agreed that perhaps it was too windy to be riding today as well.

I had to adjust the clutch cable in order to get some working performance from the clutch. I think the clutch pads are now worn to the point where shifting requires more effort than usual.

Still, got Scarlett turned around and back down the hills, through the town of Manila and back to the campsite with no issues.  Both Martha and I complimented Scarlett on being a good girl and getting us home safe.  I got Scarlett loaded up on the trailer and secured with only minor issues.

Clutch pack has been ordered, it should be close to home by the time we are home later this week.

To calm my nerves down afterwards, I rode Yagi, my TW200 around the State Line Cove Campground area...once again checking out the rock formations.  Temperatures were in the mid-70s but it felt much warmer under the sun!

The first pic is of a couple of hilltops visible from the swim beach, it looks like a flat grassy patch of grass between the rocky hill tops.  Weird.

A very much more sedate version of the Vermillion Cliffs:

Edge on, the same rock formation as previous pic

We hung out at the VRRV the rest of the day; the strong wind gusts occasionally shaking the VRRV.

As I chipped away at a large clump of mud under the camper's left rear corner, I realized the extension rod for the gray water tank valve was gone!

A little stub of the valve's control rod remains so I can use vise grips to open the valve when dumping tanks.

All in all, we got of lucky so far from our mudfest incident.

T'Dubing at the Imperial Sand Dunes

This morning's sunrise was pretty good:

The morning was spent charging up Scarlett's battery.  She wouldn't start on her own this morning, but started just fine when I jump started her using the VRRV's house battery.

I think the battery is toast, as it's almost 5 years old, having been installed November of 2018.  I also noticed, while it was charging, that the charger went down to 3.4 Amps but then started climbing?  I stopped charging it when the amps reported were at 5.5 as that isn't normal charging behavior.

I would end up, at the end of the day, starting her with her own battery (which read 12.9V) and parking her up on the trailer.  I'll see if she holds a charge and starts tomorrow morning.

I rode Yagi, my TW200, towards I-8 along Ogilby Road, and spent some time wandering the near dunes, never did find an established trail to the big dunes this time.  Lots of loose sand and the fact I was riding solo led me to be conservative in my explorations.  

Yagi did great, negotiating the dunes at low speed, never going above second gear.

Trying to get to the big dunes I could see off in the distance, I got on I-8 and the TW200 made it to 60 mph as I rode the couple miles or so to the next exit: Grays Well Road.

Got off at the exit, and cruised along the highway and got these shots using the telephoto lens to crop in.

I got back on I-8 heading back towards Ogilby Road.  The TW was doing fine until perhaps a mile out and she started slowing down.  Hmmmm.   I switched to reserve thinking perhaps I was running low on fuel, no change.

I got off at the Ogilby Road exit and promptly forgot about the seeming loss of top end power as I tried the dunes once again. 

Again, I didn't get very far, so I gave it up for today.  I noticed now, as I rode along Ogilby Road towards camp that I couldn't get above 30 mph, even with the throttle wide open!  Dammit.

I got back to camp, cleaned the air filter, which was filthy.  While the filter dried, I tried a test run with no filter...nope, still no top end power.  Checked fuel flow, at Chris Z's suggestion, but there was good flow.

I checked the spark plug, which seemed a little loose, reinstalled it and tried another test run, no luck, still not able to attain speeds above 30 mph!  

I'll check the carburetor bowl tomorrow since it was by now getting dark.  If Scarlett starts ok tomorrow morning, I might take her the 15 miles or so into Yuma and get a new spark plug for Yagi.  If that doesn't do it, not sure what the next step will be.  Sigh.

Tonight's sunset was OK:

A Ride on Tanque Road

 Tanque: Spanish for Tank, in this case a water tank I believe.

This morning, three motorcycles went out, and I'm happy to report, three came back.

Lori rode Chris' TW200, Chris rode Yagi, my TW200 and I was riding Scarlett to give her a longer test ride after the sidecar shaft repairs recently.

I led the trio north on Haekel Road to the junction with Tanque Road.  At that point, Lori took the lead and we rode for a few miles with Mount Graham in the distant background.

I think soon after the above picture, we turned around and headed back towards Haekel Road, enough sand and dirt riding for the day.

As we returned towards camp, we stopped where Lori Z. had spotted an amusing addition to the humdrum cattle crossing sign:

From the sign, we decided to check out the nearby abandoned farm house, wind vane and water tank:

While Chris and I explored the old house and surrounding structures, Lori stayed with the motorcycles and produced these B&W studies of Scarlett:

During the riding, Scarlett had exhibited issues that I managed to quickly associate with a loose connection with the battery ground cable.  Once I got back to camp, and after some effort getting tools to get at the grounding screw, this is what I saw:

The wire was loose within the eyelet's clamp, causing sporadic grounding connectivity issues which led to to no power when turning the ignition key!  I got things cleaned up, bare metal once again exposed and in contact.  

Both Lori and Chris say Scarlett sounds much better now.  I'm not sure I hear a difference but at least she seems to start reliably now.

Sitting on Scarlett after a brief test ride

I went for a walk in the afternoon, hoping to find wind carved patters in the nearby dune areas but this is all I got: