Post by grosours on Mar 17, 2016 12:46:08 GMT -5
Hi,
I purchased my RE5 in March 2014 to an individual who certified that it really only had the 800 miles marked on the odometer (I thought he was a liar). I can ride it since last month only! The bike was imported by a french company from Miami three years ago (all the RE5 I saw came from the US as Suzuki only sold 93 in France ...). The bike was leaking oil and gasoline and the secondary throttle valve did not open. But as it was very beautiful and almost complete, I bought it.
I first had to convince my friend Jivaro - former F1 mechanic and classic British bikes specialist (mainly Vincent and BSA) - to put it back in running condition with me. He easily admitted that a motorcycle coming from the US with a German engine, a French carburetor and a Japanese frame was perfectly British, especially considering the shape of the piston.
Jivaro is on the left side in the picture with the "Phil Read" cap and I am on the right side with the "RE5 Owners Club" cap. We are in the depth of France, populated mainly with cows, abandoned cats, tractors and motorcycles. Some say that it's possible to recognize the place because the cows are prettier there than the girls (but this is not true concerning our respective wives).
There is a link between cats and my RE5 because I decided to buy one when I learned that Felix Wankel had spent the largest part of his assets for animal welfare and that he loved cats. Obviously, Jivaro has five rescued cats (and many more motorcycles) as I have three rescued cats and three rescued bikes.
The first compression test with a cold engine gave disappointing results (picture below). But after riding a few miles and let the engine warm up to 50 Celsius degrees we discovered that the engine was really almost new (second picture); the pressure corrected for zero, temperature and altitude being 138 psi!
The first problem was the petcock, full of rust, leaking from the drain and from the diaphragm. Unfortunately - later - the new diaphragm poorly positioned led to leak into the carburetor, which led to difficult starting which in turn led me to insist too much on the starter motor which finally exploded...
During the same time we spent about 50 hours to study the functioning of that damn French carburetor. The jets had obviously been unmounted nearly a hundred times and they were very much damaged by many unsuitable screwdrivers... When we realized that the carburetor tank seal was preventing the rise of the foamy gasoline mixture into the secondary barrel and that the venturi was mounted upside down we had at least found why the secondary throttle valve did not open. The fault was vicious and only a systematic search allowed us to solve the problem. It was then sufficient to change the vacuum diaphragm of the secondary barrel and adjust everything to get a working bike (unfortunately with a small hesitation).
The engine was always cold and the thermostat housing screws were very damaged too (I had never seen Allen screw damaged like that before). after dismounting the casing we realized that the thermostat had been damaged and the coolant circulated freely, even in the worst cold. After the thermostat replacement, I finally got a perfectly running RE5!
I think retrospectively that the bad carburetor tank seal (or the upside down mounted venturi) has prevented this bike from running for nearly forty years. The successive owners dismounted the carburetor and the thermostat repeatedly, added defects and could never get the bike running properly!
Best regards.
I purchased my RE5 in March 2014 to an individual who certified that it really only had the 800 miles marked on the odometer (I thought he was a liar). I can ride it since last month only! The bike was imported by a french company from Miami three years ago (all the RE5 I saw came from the US as Suzuki only sold 93 in France ...). The bike was leaking oil and gasoline and the secondary throttle valve did not open. But as it was very beautiful and almost complete, I bought it.
I first had to convince my friend Jivaro - former F1 mechanic and classic British bikes specialist (mainly Vincent and BSA) - to put it back in running condition with me. He easily admitted that a motorcycle coming from the US with a German engine, a French carburetor and a Japanese frame was perfectly British, especially considering the shape of the piston.
Jivaro is on the left side in the picture with the "Phil Read" cap and I am on the right side with the "RE5 Owners Club" cap. We are in the depth of France, populated mainly with cows, abandoned cats, tractors and motorcycles. Some say that it's possible to recognize the place because the cows are prettier there than the girls (but this is not true concerning our respective wives).
There is a link between cats and my RE5 because I decided to buy one when I learned that Felix Wankel had spent the largest part of his assets for animal welfare and that he loved cats. Obviously, Jivaro has five rescued cats (and many more motorcycles) as I have three rescued cats and three rescued bikes.
The first compression test with a cold engine gave disappointing results (picture below). But after riding a few miles and let the engine warm up to 50 Celsius degrees we discovered that the engine was really almost new (second picture); the pressure corrected for zero, temperature and altitude being 138 psi!
The first problem was the petcock, full of rust, leaking from the drain and from the diaphragm. Unfortunately - later - the new diaphragm poorly positioned led to leak into the carburetor, which led to difficult starting which in turn led me to insist too much on the starter motor which finally exploded...
During the same time we spent about 50 hours to study the functioning of that damn French carburetor. The jets had obviously been unmounted nearly a hundred times and they were very much damaged by many unsuitable screwdrivers... When we realized that the carburetor tank seal was preventing the rise of the foamy gasoline mixture into the secondary barrel and that the venturi was mounted upside down we had at least found why the secondary throttle valve did not open. The fault was vicious and only a systematic search allowed us to solve the problem. It was then sufficient to change the vacuum diaphragm of the secondary barrel and adjust everything to get a working bike (unfortunately with a small hesitation).
The engine was always cold and the thermostat housing screws were very damaged too (I had never seen Allen screw damaged like that before). after dismounting the casing we realized that the thermostat had been damaged and the coolant circulated freely, even in the worst cold. After the thermostat replacement, I finally got a perfectly running RE5!
I think retrospectively that the bad carburetor tank seal (or the upside down mounted venturi) has prevented this bike from running for nearly forty years. The successive owners dismounted the carburetor and the thermostat repeatedly, added defects and could never get the bike running properly!
Best regards.
