A rider ...

[pd]

I wish it was Matt .
And , I guess it really was , on me .

[bill marcum]

Glad you are  OK , Do they make goviners for Simplexs need one for yours , you supose to slow down before you get into the turns. Ride safe to ride another day! Bill Marcum

[pd]

Thanks Bill .

If I'd been going much slower , I'd have been walking the bike or falling over for lack of inertia . Maybe that was my problem .
I only slide about 10 - 12 feet . So , I couldn't have been going very fast , but I don't have a speedometer for verification .
And , I was going fairly straight  , or so I thought .

[pd]

 Dang , I left my bike out for an hour or so and now it has a pretty fair layer of yellowish pollen all over it .
I need a bike bubble ...

[pd]

Almost two years in storage did little good to my bike

Too much moisture was the main culprit . I have it half apart trying to bring it back , again .
I can pinpoint every nut or bolt that I did not treat ( rusted ) . The brake and clutch bells have surface rust .

I finally threw the towel in on the old carbs I have . Just today , I received a brand spankin new Chinese Carpenter carb . It'll be a day or two before I can see if that makes any difference .

Pete .

[Sonrisers]

Hope to see you in Portland pd, make sure you stop by the kettle korn stand and say hi. We are also doing the group photo on Sunday at 3 pm. I have been doing some tinkering on mine here lately also, but it looks like it will be in running order by Portland.

[pd]

I'm gonna keep my fingers crossed , except when working on the bike .

I tell myself that it's not as bad as it looks .

Pete .

[pd]

I rode it a couple of miles yesterday .

What caused that ?

Well , I ordered a Cushman ignition coil from Carpenter , in the morning . An hour later I tore my OEM coil apart to see what was what and how it was constructed .
 FYI : I had destroyed that coil about 10 years ago with cleaning chemicals and could never get a spark out of it again .
Anyway , after removing 97% of the exterior protective coating , what ever that was , I noticed a very fine wire . My hair is likely thicker . That wire wasn't attached to anything . It had to go somewhere and I figured it had to connect to ground as the other end of the coil connected to the high tension 'ring' ( normally exposed outside the exterior insulation ) .
I dug my multimeter out and set it to 20K ? . One lead to the ring and one to the wire . I got a reading of 14.11K? .
That was too good . I pulled the flywheel and then the marine coil I had mounted . Then I replaced the marine coil with the stripped OEM coil , making sure the loose wire was well grounded . Installed the flywheel ; kicked the motor over and wonders of wonders , it started and ran for a minute . After a bit of tweaking the carb adjustments , the bike wanted to take off . I had to back the idle down and then it kind of purred . Purred good enough I dared take it for a short ride as a test . A bit more tweaking and I took it for a longer test ride . It even climbed a fair hill , albeit slowly .

I'm wondering what the Carpenter coil Ohms out at . The marine coils I have measure only about 4K? .
 Ernie told me , this past weekend , that he had a coil that measured about 6K? and it did about what my bike was doing . He then tried a coil that measure about 9K? , which had the bike running much better .

I drew from that^ talk that any coil 9K? or above should be fine .

The OEM coil measuring 14K? is not surprising as it needed enough 'push' to fire 2 plugs .

Ad so , I think I'm headed in the right direction to get my '57 on the road , running reliably , under it's own power .

Pete .

[Ricks]

Awesome Pete!  Ernie and Bob are fountains of information, I always pay attention when they are speaking.  As a matter of fact, Ernie showed me a needle bearing that he uses in place of the ball bearing on the connecting rod.  Both Bob and Ernie claim that the ball bearing will fail, it is just a matter of time and how much damage is done to the rest of the motor.  I ordered one and will put it in my blue bike, as I want to inspect the inside of the motor after I locked it up doing high speed passes at Portland.  I pulled the side cover and didn't see anything wrong, the bike runs and sounds fine.

[pd]

The motor locked up ?

Do you have the bearing # ?

Pete .

[Ricks]

The motor locked up ?

Do you have the bearing # ?

Pete .

Yeah, at the end of a top speed run, I braked hard, and closed the throttle immediately, to speak with James.  That is a no no on a 2 stroke, as no more lube reaches the piston, and overheats it.  After the motor cooled for 15 minutes, it was free, and fired no problem. 

[pd]

I'd have a look at the piston dome and skirts and pay attention to the rings and landings .

Not a cheap bearing . But then , motor destruction usually isn't too cheap either .

Pete .

[Ricks]

I'd have a look at the piston dome and skirts and pay attention to the rings and landings .

Not a cheap bearing . But then , motor destruction usually isn't too cheap either .

Pete .

That is why I am going to tear it down.  I was surprised how expensive that bearing is, but, if it saves a motor, it is cheap insurance.

[pd]

I rode it a couple of miles yesterday .

What caused that ?

Well , I ordered a Cushman ignition coil from Carpenter , in the morning . An hour later I tore my OEM coil apart to see what was what and how it was constructed .
 FYI : I had destroyed that coil about 10 years ago with cleaning chemicals and could never get a spark out of it again .
Anyway , after removing 97% of the exterior protective coating , what ever that was , I noticed a very fine wire . My hair is likely thicker . That wire wasn't attached to anything . It had to go somewhere and I figured it had to connect to ground as the other end of the coil connected to the high tension 'ring' ( normally exposed outside the exterior insulation ) .
I dug my multimeter out and set it to 20K ? . One lead to the ring and one to the wire . I got a reading of 14.11K? .
That was too good . I pulled the flywheel and then the marine coil I had mounted . Then I replaced the marine coil with the stripped OEM coil , making sure the loose wire was well grounded . Installed the flywheel ; kicked the motor over and wonders of wonders , it started and ran for a minute . After a bit of tweaking the carb adjustments , the bike wanted to take off . I had to back the idle down and then it kind of purred . Purred good enough I dared take it for a short ride as a test . A bit more tweaking and I took it for a longer test ride . It even climbed a fair hill , albeit slowly .

I'm wondering what the Carpenter coil Ohms out at . The marine coils I have measure only about 4K? .
 Ernie told me , this past weekend , that he had a coil that measured about 6K? and it did about what my bike was doing . He then tried a coil that measure about 9K? , which had the bike running much better .

I drew from that^ talk that any coil 9K? or above should be fine .

The OEM coil measuring 14K? is not surprising as it needed enough 'push' to fire 2 plugs .

Ad so , I think I'm headed in the right direction to get my '57 on the road , running reliably , under it's own power .

Pete .

I just rec'd my Cushman ignition coil from Carpenter and after bitching about Chinese crap and reading the enclosed note about not bending the black wire at it's base or risk cracking it off , I measured the coils resistance .
Amazingly , it measured 17.7K ? . That's a lot better than I'd expected . Hopefully the black wire won't crack off due to motor vibration .

I'm still wondering if these coils come through measuring close to the same or if I just got lucky .

Maybe a few of you fellows could do a quick measure of the secondary coil output , for the record .

Measuring that is a simple procedure : Turn your multimeter on and set it to 20K ? . Pull the plug wire free of the plug . Insert one multimeter lead so it contacts the metal clip inside the plug cap , then ground the other lead to the motor block .

[pd]

So far , the Cushman coil has produced as much as maybe 20 seconds of run time . Disappointing .

Or , is that what the rest of you have experienced ? Maybe I'm doing something wrong ? It would be the very first time in my life .

Pete .