Some rebuild questions

[tlanders]

Hi everyone,

Can anyone help with these items:

1. Lining fiberglass tanks. What is the best procedure to coat the inside of our fiberglass tanks so they don't bleed gas (mixed with race fuel) to the outside? My Mint 400 tank started leaking in a couple spots. I am now emptying the tanks after every race weekend. A lot of extra work I wish I didn't have to do.
2. Plastic side panels. What is the best procedure for preparing and painting plastic side panels white? I have some beat up looking original side plastic that could be salvaged if I could paint them.
3. Degree wheel. On Piners and 495s the spark plug hole is not in the middle and is on an angle so you can't use a dial indicator to determine the advance when timing an engine. Has anyone used a degree wheel on the crank and if so where did you get it?

Thanks for your help.

For those of you who have heard rumors of broken ribs, I have joined Doug Wilford's Broken Rib Club. He made me honorary secretary, but now I have type minutes when we talk!!! I happened to be in Phoenix on the way back from a business trip in California, so I stayed over two days instead of two hours for the AHRMA national on Feb 5-6. Three people generously volunteered to loan me bikes for the weekend. For Saturday's post vintage race I was riding a 1984 250 KTM. What a SWEET bike!!! However, the quality control guys at KTM missed a trick ( or maybe it's because the bike is 20 years old). After clearing a tabletop jump, when I came down, the rear brake stay weld broke and I had no brakes for the upcoming 180 degree corner and I sailed off the course first hitting about a 3 foot tall berm. Unfortunately there were no trophies given for the guy who jumped the farthest without a bike. My motionless body lying on the ground concerned a number of folks, but I wasn't moving because I couldn't breathe. My butt is still purple/yellow/black and I can only sleep in one position, but I thank GOD for protecting me from what could have happened.

Teddy

[firstturn]

Teddy,
  You have been in my Prayers.  At least you have good company with DDW.
Answers;
1.  I send all my tanks to Ed James in Kerrville Texas 830.634.7504.  He is a real pro with fiberglass since he does a lot of Bultacos tanks and side covers.
2.  Same as #1.
3.  I normally have someone pick one up at a tool store or at one of the on line hot rod tool stores.
  Teddy I hope this helps and as always you can email me directly.
Your Friend,

Ron Carbaugh

[scott brogan]

Teddy thank goodness you are alright. Belinda and I hope you get well soon. I've been told pain is temporary trophies last forever!!
Scott

[Tommy_V]

Teddy,

I feel your pain, I broke a rib at Monster Mountain in November.  Only took about 6 weeks to heal, oh and then I sneeze over some shrimp boil on New Year's Eve, that addded another 2 weeks.

I coated my Jackpiner tank with some stuff from Hugh's Bultaco.  I had several people recommend it and it was pretty simple.

I painted a plastic number plate with that Krylon plastic paint (I'm pretty sure it's called Fusion, at any hardware store) and it worked great!  Hard to believe it was a spray bomp.



Tommy

[Lew Mayer]

Teddy,
I hope you feel better soon. You not goin' to Gainesville now? We'll miss you, if you can't make it.

Lew Mayer

[KTOOM]

Teddy,  I use a G.E.M. degree wheel that I ordered from a karting parts place called American Power Sports. You can order on-line @ apskarting.com.  The part # is G4498. It lists for $18 and change. It is aluminum and very durable. To attatch the wheel to my engines, I install my Motoplat puller minus the long jack bolt. In place of the jack bolt i use a short bolt with washer fitted through the hole in the degree wheel and onto the puller.  The puller helps extend the wheel far enough away from the flywheel that you can still get to the timing lineup holes in the flywheel.  For a pointer I use a piece of 1/16th welding wire held stationary with a C-clamp. You can still use your dial indicator to find T.D.C. and adjust your wheel/pointer to zero, are use the positive stop method as instructed with your degree wheel instructions. The posi-stop method is most accurate.           Hope your wounds quickly,    Joe Wright

[KTOOM]

Teddy I meant to say hope your wounds HEAL soon.     Back to the degree wheel , I also use this set up with a timing light and the engine running to test the advance/retard on the auto advance Motoplats. These came on the '79through-? 125"s.  if they fail to retard at r.p.m. you just bought a piston.  These are internal rotor igns. and are rare. To find out if an internal rotor Moto P. is auto advance, you have to send Dane the part # and he can tell you. These are the hot set-up on one two fives  but hard to come by.  Joe Wright

[tlanders]

You guys are great!!! Thank you so much for your words of healing and concern. Thank you also for the great technical help. I called Ed James and he was great. He was backed up on jobs so I ordered the Caswell tank lining kit from Hugh's Bultaco to do it myself. I also ordered the degree wheel from American Power Sports. I ordered 2 of them to get over their minimum order amount. Does anyone want to buy the 2nd one from me? They are $18.81 each.

Thanks again POGGERS!!!

Teddy

[Tommy_V]

Teddy,

I'll take the second one.  Email me and address and I'll send you a check.

Tommy

[tomale]

Ted, I have set the timing on my bike with a dial indicator with the head off. I use a couple extra nuts to make sure that the cylinder is seated. I made a bracket to mount the indictor on. It worked great. I like this method because I can actually see the piston moving and getting everything set us is pretty easy. What started me thinking of doing it this way was I did not have to have a adapter to screw into the head that would fit the indicator that I bought. so I tried to think of other ways of accomplishing the same goal. I have used this method on a couple of bikes. By the way, If you have to set the deck height you need to have the head off and once it is set it is easy to check and set the timing.

Thom Green,Still crazy after all these years!
76' 250 MC5 (orginal owner)
78' 400 MC5

[firstturn]

Teddy,
  Thanks for the kind words for Ed.  At least he will tell you when is swamped with work.  I find he is one Guy that trys to please and is truthful.

Ron Carbaugh

[peter kane]

Hi Teddy, Sleeping sitting up stinks, huh! If it's any consolation - I feel your pain. On 8/29 I was in an accident where I received 13 broken ribs, both lungs punctured and all sorts of organ and soft tissue damage. The folks at Mass. General told me that I wouldn't feel any real relief for about 14-18 weeks. Yeah, right! Stuff popping and snapping in my back and chest and it's only been in the past few weeks that I have been able to lay flat. DON'T SNEEZE, DON'T CAUGH, and ask for help putting your boots on. And, a hot bath is really good on those really bad days. Do physical therapy if you're able, it's helped me. Geesh, I can now walk a whole mile! Welcome back!

Peter Kane
V3442
Plainville, Massachusetts
[email protected]

[tlanders]

Thom,

I hate taking the head off because you then need to take the pipe off, etc. and I always feel I should use a new head gasket when I do remove a head even though it probably isn't necessary. I basically want to check the timing on the 495 I bought last summer to try to figure out why it is so hard to start and almost impossible to start after it warms up. I haven't even had a chance to check the compression which may be part of the problem. With El Broko Ribo I won't be able to even try to start it for a while.

Thanks for the input,

Teddy

[tofriedel]

Teddy,

You are living large with your 495.  KTM was thinking of you, since they do not use head gaskets, at least not on the 81 thru 83 models.

You can find a lot of info on these monsters on "The Unofficial KTM 495 Site".  A number of riders have installed a compression release to assist in starting.  Also the timing has to be spot on for easier starting and less damage to your kicking leg, foot, kickstarter lever & shaft, etc.  Once set, you can pretty much forget about it.

Good Luck & heal fast.

Tony

[tlanders]

I can't wait to start playing with the 495. There never seems to be enough time or I am trying to maintain too many Pentons, I can't seem to figure out which!!! As of today, ready to race this season, I am blessed to have:

1974 Piner (back up Vintage machine and pit bike). Won two Cross Country national championships on this bike in 2001, 2002.
1973 Hare Scrambler - set up for Vintage Cross Country. Won the +60 Intermediate Cross Country national championship last year and the 2002 MX national championship on this bike.
1978 MC5 250 - set up for Post Vintage Cross Country. Won third place nationally last year in the +50 Intermediate class.
1980 MC80 400 with reed valve - set up for Post Vintage Motocross. Second place nationally last year +60 Intermediate.

Needing to finish for this years racing season:
1971 (low breather frame) 400 with reed valve - set up for Vintage MX. Got a second place nationally last year in the +60 Intermediate class with the 1974 framed 400 without reed valve. Had lots of problems with this bike all induced by me, not John Penton/KTM. I made a bad Mikuni conversion and it couldn't breathe through the airbox boot. The cases on the engine I started with had to be epoxied in the engine mounting areas and they let fly all year long, so I was plagued with vibration problems. I ended up using my Hare scrambler in many races where I started with the 400, and when it failed I would do much better with the hare scrambler. I am hoping not to make the same mistakes with this build, but then, I may find new mistakes to make. It is fun building your own racing machine to see what is really important and what is not and to realize how little I actually know about what I am trying to do. But then, mistakes are the best teacher!!! You guys are GREAT and have helped me immeasurably with technical information. My problem is, I don't know enough to know what to ask??

Wanting to finish for the fun of it, have all the parts, just need the time:
1981 495 - set up for Post Vintage MX if I dare race it, back up for MC80, wanted to own the fastest 2 stroke motorcycle ever built, etc!!!
1980 420 - set up for Post Vintage Cross Country, back up for MC5 or may be main machine. I LOVE my MC5!!!!
1975 D engine Six day - set up for Classic MX, I agree with Tom Benoklin, this bike is SOOOOOO much fun to race as long as you take the time to deliberatly shift it. Doug, when are you coming to Missouri to help me with this bike?? Just need to put the engine back together again but it's been apart so long that I forget how I took it apart!!!!
1971 B engine Steel Tanker Six Day - I need to rebuild this engine and restore it as close as possible to original specs. I bought this bike in 1971 and ran the Bershire International 2 day and the Jack pine on it that year.

This started out as a simple reply about the 495 and turned into too much bragging. I am sorry. I am going to post it anyway because it might be of some interest to some of you but please excuse the lack of humility. The funny thing is that after not racing for 30 years, and then getting back into it for the last four years, my understanding of what is important bike wise has changed dramatically. ( I know that what is really important to me is my relationship to the Lord ). Four years ago when I was getting smoked by guys on bigger bikes I was sure that I needed more power - hence my evolution all the way to the 495 from my original 1971 steel tanker Six Day which I . Even as late as last summer I felt I had to have a more powerful bike than my 400 MC80 and hence the search for a 420/495. I now realise that I only want the power to make up for my poor riding ability. Mess up the corners and win the race on the straights. Just watching Tom Benolkin ride on the 125 proves the point, you don't need a big bike to win, you just need to be a good rider. Anyway, the fun and fellowship is what is really the most important part of this new fun experience with bikes for Rosemary and me.

Teddy