Two quesitons: Carby oil and Trans grindy

[glankford]

Hello everyone,
I've just finished restoring a '75 and I've had a chance to put about 100 miles on it.

First question:
I get anywhere between a few drops of oil and a small puddle of oil that drips off of the carburetor. I'm 99% sure it isn't gas/oil mix. I seems to be working its way near banjo bolt where the injection oil comes in and dripping off the bottom of the carb. I've checked the banjo bolt tightness and it is snug. I've also looked a the mating surfaces and they seem fine. I've tried searching on the forum, but no luck. Has anyone experienced this?

Second question:
The bike runs good and shifts through all the gears. I get good cluch engagement (around the middle of the handle travel). When I'm in neutral and I let the clutch out, i get this weird grindy lumpy feeling coming from the . It goes away completely when you pull in the clutch. It seems to be getting worse, but maybe I'm just being paranoid. I'm assuming it has something to do with a bearing at the input shaft of the trans, or somewhere close to it. Are there any bearings that are known failure points? Keep in mind that this bike sat for about 12 years in a field under a tarp, and about a year outside. It's got 11k miles on the clock.

Thanks in advance.

[tom93gts]

Does your banjo bolt have the little aluminum crush washers on it? They may need replacing.

[glankford]

It does have them, and they looked ok (no deep gouges or dents. I'll re-check tonight and I'll also confirm that they are aluminum and not steel when I get home.

[ap951]

I would try to isolate the noise from the transmission. Try this:

Warm up the bike so you can hear the noise & verify that it goes away when you put some pressure on the clutch

Turn the bike off, remove the gear shift lever & the engine sprocket cover. This will expose the clutch rod but you will not be able to remove it.

With the bike still in neutral, start it up and see if it still makes the noise. If the noise is gone then the rattling sound must be coming from the clutch release bearing/mechanism


Bill

[glankford]

Carby oil update:
I took off the oil line from the injection pump and hooked it to a valve with compressed air. I carefully (and slowly) started to add air while spraying the carby down with soapy water. I found air coming from this:




Transmission:
Bill, thanks for the advice on the clutch release mechanism. Let's say, hypothetically of course, that I already took off the engine sprocket cover before posting on this forum..... Hypothetically. Not that I would do that, of course, because that would be hasty and stuipd to do so.

I did take off the clutch release mechanism, and everything looked ok. No loose or rattly parts in there.

Thanks,
Garrick

[ap951]

Hi Garrick,

When I was trying to run down the noise that my bike was making one of the first things I noticed was that if I put any kind of pressure on the clutch lever a lot of noise would go away. Interesting because if my clutch cable was improperly adjusted (to tight) then any pressure on the release mechanism would make some noise go away. I took apart the mechanism and cleaned the 3-ball bearings (they were totally dry) and I added a light coating of grease to these & the ball guides. The noise went away. Those bearings must have been vibrating around in there when they were totally dry.

I don't think it's likely that you have a bad bearing in the transmission. (although I don't know what made mine go bad, anything is possible) I think it's more likely that your clutch basket is loose. There have been other members on this board that reported the nut holding the clutch basket on to the main input shaft was loose. I was hoping that would be my problem but no such luck..

On the carby: I think you need either a new float valve or possibly your float is improperly set. I believe the small hole you point our is the overflow for the float chamber.

Bill

[goandy]

Re clutch rattle- my input shaft bearing was shot, the nut was loose and the band around the ourside of the basket had been rattling judging by the wear on the inside of the dimples which are supposed to hold it in place. So everything really!

[glankford]

Bill & andynogo, I did look the release mechanism (with the 3 ball bearings). I had greased them when I was reassembling things, and those were all good. I'm 99% sure the clutch was properly adjusted. I followed the manual, and I had some free travel on the handle. I'll look the clutch basket, bearing, and band over carefully. I can wiggle the band back and forth some, so I'll take a look at the basket for wear as well.

I'll also take a look at the float and make sure I didn't miss a washer or gasket that goes on the float valve.

Thanks!

[ap951]

until I read gerryggg' s comments under "Ignition Module Capacitor Replacement" & then clicked on your pictures I did not know just how much work you have done on this RE5. You've done a great job

[glankford]

Thanks! I've never worked on a motorcycle before, and I had never actually ridden one when I got the bike. In fact, it was given to me by a friend who was going to scrap it. I had planned to do the same, when I found that the engine turned over (he thought it was siezed). I actually had no idea what a cool rare bike it was.

On a separate note, I pulled the clutch basket off. The nut was tight but I pulled off the basket to check the bearing. I was able to move the trans input shaft up and down a little (probably < 0.25mm). It spins freely and there's no bad sounds. The fact that the clutch is that far away, it would't take much movement in the bearing to make fair amount of movement at the end where all the weight is.
The band on the outside of the basket is somewhat loose, but not rattly loose. I can move it up and down freely. Is this something I should consider welding?

Thanks,
Garrick

[goandy]

As a precaution, why not replace the input bearing while you're there. They're easy enough to find on ebay or local bearing places. You need a couple of levers that can locate in the circlip groove to inch it out.

As for welding- who knows. I welded mine because I'm just that kinda guy- I'll weld anything! I've heard of people doing it so I thought why not, especially as it had such obvious signs of rattling forwards and backwards which would certainly have made some of the noise. I'd post a picture up of the wear but for some weird reason no matter how many times I upload the photos, photobucket refuses to show them- and only those two clutch photos.

I just did one little spot type weld on the band for each finger.

[goandy]

Got it working... Here it is.

[glankford]

I brought the bearing to work and inspected it under the microscope. There was definitely an area of the race that was worn (due to the serious side loading). It was $30USD and I'll have it tomorrow.

Wow, that band on the clutch basket has seen a hard life. Mine looks nothing like that, but I'll go ahead and weld it up.

I'll post this on the 3800rpm vibration thread, but has anyone considered fabricating a guide for the chain? Every other car I've worked on has had a guide that the chain rides on. There are enough bolts and screws to use for attachment. I think you'd be limited on what you could do with the slack side of the chain, but it's a straight shot on the other side.

[ap951]

I've never worked on a motorcycle before, and I had never actually ridden one when I got the bike

and you picked an RE5 to be your first. All I can say is wow, you're a brave soul Garrick. You really have done a great job

I think you'll find (may have found) classic motorycles are addictive

Bill

[glankford]

Bill, thanks for the kind words. It certainly has been an interesting and educational journey. I can't decide whether I prefer working on cars or motorcycles. They each have their good and bad points.

On the carby oil, I'm thinking it is related to a leaky petcock on the fuel tank, which slowly keeps filling the carb up with fuel, and the float valve must leak a little. The volatile gasoline evaporates and only the oil remains. I've been running at 50:1 premix until I'm certain the injection pump is a-ok. I'll cap the lines from the tank to the carb after the next time I go for a spin. We'll see what happens.

On the trans grindy, I've welded the clutch basket and put the new input bearing in but ran out of time last night to fire it up.