Old red fox, rabbits and the Coney Bear

A few times this season I caught a glimpse of a red fox in the neighborhood. Got up early this morning and found it out on the neighbor's front lawn, working at rubbing off its matted fur on the grass.  Cool pictures of an old fox.

I was able to sneak up close enough to get a few really good close pictures until a truck drove down the street and spooked the fox back into the woods.  We had rabbits coming into the yard recently, maybe this explains the red fox's appearance. However, there has been a new large development going in up at the top of the hill on my street. I suspect this has been driving the animals down to our end.  Deer, rabbit, turtles, the fox and even a fishercat are now easy spotting.

  

1972 BMW R75/5

  A few weeks back I was given a call to help with this 1972 BMW R75/5. Ruth asked if I would be able to help and possibly get it running before moving it on to the next care taker. Its really quite stunning, almost everything is original with the exception of the carbs. The mileage is very low; 6,878.  It even retains the original dealer sticker on  the swingarm. I made mention to Ruth to leave the bike mostly as is so that the next caretaker can decide as to how to recommission it. 

The uploaded video show it being fired up. Prior to this I'd had lightly cleaned the carbs (pilots and mains) checked the valve clearance; which was tight. So the heads were re-torqued and valves were re adjusted. I checked the timing, it was off towards the advanced side.  On the whole, the engine sounds excellent and tight.  

After the fire up video, I drained the float bowls to keep the carbs from gumming up again. It will need a full oil service and other items attended to before it can be road worthy.

I gave the bike a quick walk around video so that you can see the overall condition. Even though it will need a cleaning, the paint is in excellent condition.  All the tools are in the kit.  Quite a stunning condition for almost 50 year old machine.

Velocette Venom, slipping clutch or camming drive? Gas cap repair.

For the past few weeks I've moved to running the Venom Clubman MkII to exercise it and to keep with the vintage british flavor of the season.  Its been running pretty darn good with the exception of a possible slipping clutch and leaky gas cap.  I spoke to Ed G. about this, which he mention that it might not be the clutch but that the primary drive shock absorber was camming over.  The solution is to add a 1/8 inch spacer in effect to keep the cam from ramping over. Since the clutch seemed to be work fine in all other arenas I figured that this was an easy go to give it a try. Here are a few pictures of my go around for making a spacer.

In my selection of bits and bobs within the shop, I found a sizable washer that would only need the i.d. bored out.  After a bit of fiddling with the chinese lathe we had a bored out washer.

Half of the cam ramp drive and spring, the shiny shouldered part is where I'll put the washer. 

Here is a view of the washer on the drive. 

Another view of the drive and washer. 

The final assembly of drive, washer and spring. 

After removing the belt cover, I pulled out the cotter key and removed the four notched nut on the end of the pulley.  The generator was left as it was adjusted. Only the pulley halves and spring would be removed. 

The washer was added, followed by the spring and then the two pulley halves with the nut. Since I left the generator as was, I installed the belt at the same time of putting on the two pulley halves.  You do have to be mindful that the pulley halves are matched up; that the notch lines up with the slot. otherwise, they will be mismatched and your belt will not be riding in the grove correctly.

I found that the whole pulley/belt/nut assembly could be turned back onto the output shaft by hand.  Then just finish up with the special four pin Velocette nut wrench. 

Don't forget to align the cotter hole with the shaft and re-install a cotter key.

As for the leaking gas cap, I only thought to deal with this just before the ride to the Gathering.  With a section of leather kicking about I just cut a new seal. Easy peasy.

The old rubber seal, cracked and leaky. 

Shaving the edge to fit under the metal retainer washer. 

Not a single leak throughout the ride even with a full tank of fuel on bumpy roads! 

Here is a picture of Mike and the bikes after we returned from the Gathering.