A Sad Day

Warren D. McKendry

November 18, 1926 - November 28, 2008

Warren passed away this morning after a lengthy fight with cancer – he was a role model husband to his wife Isobel who previously passed away in 2001, a hard working Father to his three daughters and son, a Father-in-law who welcomed me into his family, and a loving Grandfather to our two sons.

He will be missed, but not forgotten.

 

Suitably Retro

For the past several months, I have been looking for a suitable set of turn signals to fit the 1966 Yamaha YA6  that I bought earlier this year. I haven’t had too much trouble finding other bits and pieces – original style mirrors for example – but finding NOS turn signals from that era has proved to be a challenge. What are offered either from a dealer or after market reproduction supply, are examples of plastic and chrome ugliness that are closer to the look of more modern motorcycles than the older 1960’s look. I have seen a few custom lights intended for choppers and custom HD’s, but frankly the idea of putting Harley Davidson lights on a one eighth liter Japanese two stroke just didn’t feel right, and as well most of the custom lights are either halagon or LED’s which again just don’t match the era. A large part of the problem is that signals themselves were not a factory original item, but instead were offered as a dealer equipped option. As a result, finding a part number has not been easy, and in the past six months I have only actually seen one light for sale on eBay which went very quickly, and which just shows I’m not the only person with this problem !

The other day, I was puttering about the showroom of Universal Cycle in the north of Calgary while I was waiting for some tires to be installed for my GT750 project bike, and I literally stumbled across a solution.  Buried in one of the display cabinets was a light from a company called Emgo, and while this light wasn’t the same as what would have been installed originally, it did have that pleasingly ’Flash Gordon’ retro look that I was looking for ! I’ve included a photo to the right.  The owner, Don Fergin, was able to dig up another three to go with the one in the display case, so I bought the set of four and walked away a happy person !

I’m still debating whether to paint them black as the original lights would have been done, or to leave them as chrome, mainly because at the moment the new chrome really stands out and makes the rest of the unrestored bike look a bit tired, but I’m in no particular hurry. My longer term plan is to do a ground up rebuild with new paint etc., sometime next year so I’ll decide then, and perhaps powder coat them with the rest of the parts I’ll be doing, plus of course I’ll still keep an eye open for an NOS style set as it seems everything shows up on eBay eventually !

Cancun, Chichen Itza and Pyramids

We are in transit back from our Cancun getaway, and I am pleased to report that we had a good time. While the weather was windy it was not too hot which made it perfect for doing some sight seeing, a bit of shopping and spending time perfecting how to laze about the pool. Clearly I still have to work at that last part as people did look at me in an odd fashion as I was typing things up on my Linux based eeePC by the pool. No one asked me, but of course I did have a ready made excuse at hand – that was the best place for wifi based Internet reception, so really what other choice did I have ? At any rate, it was pleasant and I managed to get a lot of writing done while SWMBO‘d caught some sun and we both sampled the occasional tequila based wobbly pop in order to remain properly hydrated in the tropic heat.  

The absolute high point of the week for me was the day trip to the ruined Mayan city of Chichen Itza which flourished in the northern part of the Yucatan peninsula roughly between 600 AD through till about 1200 AD. This visit had a special significance for me as back in the early 1960’s when I was in Grade 5, I had had a ‘difference of opinion’ with my grade 5 teacher about whether South American pyramids were the same as Egyptian ones. According to the teacher I lost that debate, and I then had to write out several hundred lines as a result. Since that time I have been lucky enough to see the pyramids in Egypt with my own eyes, and then this past week also see the central-American version. OK – I am not one to hold a grudge, so I will admit that the temples at Chichen Itza are indeed ‘pyramidal’ in shape, so my Grade 5 teacher was (perhaps) half right.  On the other hand, I think he owes me a refund of about 250 lines as they clearly were not built for the same reasons. If I see him at the 50th Anniversary event for Crosby Public School, I may ask him about that and see what he says – and then again, perhaps I won’t as based on past experience, doing so could earn me another few hundred lines !  

Cancun itself was slightly different than I had expected – Walmart was packed with locals as well as tourists all doing their regular shopping, and it was the best place we saw to buy vegetables and other odds and ends. The beach area was lovely where it could be seen, but for the most part was totally blocked out by massive resorts which stretched for miles in all directions. It is an unabashed tourist town and does not pretend to be anything else which clearly is what most visitors are looking for – and it does have its own Hard Rock Cafe which of course we did visit one evening. 

Bottom line – I’m not sure we will be back, as there are so many interesting things still to be seen in other parts of the world – but if all you need is nice weather with a nice pool to sit beside, with good wifi service and a decent means of keeping you properly hydrated, along side a happy SWMBO’d, then its quite tolerable ! And seeing the Mayan ruins fulfilled the childhood dream I’ve had since I was about 10 years of age, of seeing both old and new world pyramids so I am returning home happy.

Still on the list of places to be seen are Easter Island and Moscow. An observant person will note that they aren’t very close to each other, so it will be tricky to work them into one trip, and of course I’m not at all sure what the wifi Internet access is like in either place !

Stuff That Works

Every once and a while, you come across something that works even better than advertised , and as this just doesn’t happen very often these days, one really does have to celebrate the event !! The other day, we were on an Air Canada flight to Houston, and somehow or other red wine ended up all over ‘She Who Must Be Obeyed” (yes – I admit that I enjoy Rumpole of the Bailey) – it was not a pretty sight. While one could take the view that the dark red blobs contrasted nicely with the pale yellow jacket, she was not at all happy The flight attendant provided some soda water, but it really had no effect and the red wine stains seemed destined to be a permanent part of my wife’s jacket decor.

Once we had arrived at the hotel where we were over-nighting between flights, and had checked out the cleaning options that were available to us (none within the timeframe we needed), we figured we had nothing to lose and so we pulled out a couple of the ‘Tide to Go‘ sticks made by the folks at Procter and Gamble which we happened to have with us. As the stains were starting to dry and set, it looked as if the jacket most probably was ruined, and so it was difficult to see how it could be made any worse. I must admit that frankly I was amazed. I have no idea what chemicals they have in these things, but the wine stains just seemed to evaporate leaving no trace at all – you could actually see the stains change colour as you daubed them with the applicator, and after a few minutes work, the jacket looked as good as new. Needless to say, “She who Must Be Obeyed” was quite relieved, as was I as the Tide sticks cost much less than the cost of a new coat ! On arrival in Cancun one of the first things we did was buy a few more ‘Tide to Go’ sticks to replace the ones we had used, and you can be sure we will always have a couple with us on future travels also !

Tide to Go sticks – highly recommended

GT750 Speedometer Drive

In the process of putting together the front wheel for my GT750 project bike, I noticed that the speedometer drive housing had a problem. Basically the output shaft to the speedometer cable would not turn when the wheel was spun. These drive units are not intended to be repaired, and no parts are available for order to repair them – they were available only as assemblies. The specific part for the GT750 (54600-34000 or 54600-34001) is no longer be available from Suzuki and has been superceded by a new part number 54600-08C00, and can be bought new for about $84 USD in the USA. This speedometer drive asesembly was used on about 25 different models of Suzuki motorcycle between 1973 through till 1982 so used ones should also be readily available on eBay.

At any rate, I’ve had this problem before and I also had a few spare drives so I thought it worth the time to try to overhaul the drive assembly that I had, rather than try and find another one.

The components of the drive assembly are shown in the  photo.

Taking it apart is not difficult – remove the snap ring on the back, then the space washer and (if it is fitted) the thrust washer – and then what I do is just carefully pull the main gear through the seal. For the speedometer drive itself, the bush and seal unscrew and the output shaft then is free to be removed. Don’t lose the small thrust washer on the output shaft ! There is a seal on the back of the drive housing facing the wheel, as well as a small one in the bush. As yet I have not had to look for a replacement for these.

Referring to the photo – the main gear and output shaft are machined steel and as yet, I have not seen them fail (although I’m sure it could happen). On any of the units I’ve looked at, the problem area always seems to be the two small tabs on the inside of the driven gear which is really just a mild steel washer and that was the case with this one also. The inner tabs mesh with the harder steel of the main gear and eventually just rub away. I was lucky to have a spare part, although I’m also sure a couple of small welds which would then need to be ground down and squared up would work just as well.

When reassembling, I repacked the drive housing with a bit of wheel bearing grease, taking care to ensure the bottom end of the output shaft is greased as it is a blind hole. Some units have the small thrust washer on the back between the drive gear and washer, and some don’t – basically if the snap ring seems loose such that the driven gear does not engage properly, then it needs the additional shim.

Now that its all back together and installed, it seems to work fine – so on the the next item ……