The Plight of the Bumble Bee

[norton73]

Members from Bama Rides 1.0 may remember this old thread.

I have owned this poor old '1992 R100GS since 2000. The PO was an elderly guy (I guess I am now too  :'( ) who only rode it on the street. I got it in a convoluted trade involving a VW bus, a Honda Accord and an Audi from his widow. It was at a friend's german auto repair shop, he was trying to fix a leaking oil pan gasket and was having no luck after two tries. I took a chance an got the bike, only to discover the leak was from the "$2000 o-ring", aka a o-ring that seals the oil filter housing. It was pinched, but no damage was done. As aquired, the bike had Metzler street ties front and rear, and was otherwise dead stock. It probably had an easy life till I got my hands on it with 20k miles on it.

Once I got it, I put knobbies on it, and proceeded to explore a bunch of the back roads and trails in western MD and WV.

Then I moved to AL in 2004 and used it to explore the south east.

[norton73]

On a trip up to WV in 2013 the speedo turned over;





Then, on a trip up to Huntsville for work, it made a horrible noise for a second, then went back to normal. I pulled over to check it out.



Found a valve out of adjustment, other wise nothing unusual.

[norton73]

In the preceding months, when I had gone to adjust the valves, the exhausts where tight, so I decided to pull the heads when I got home and check things out.

[norton73]

The heads went off to Memphis Motor Works http://www.memphismotorwerks.com/shop for new valves, guides, seats, etc The machinist there is Leo Goff, one time holder of national drag racing records on a Norton, and an awesome blues bass player.
I got the heads back in 10 days.

Pistons were on backorder, took almost 6 weeks.

In the meantime, I replaced the timing chain and the tensioners.



I also pulled the driveshaft and sent it off to a guy in California to have the damper in the center replaced.



Compare the triangular points, the orange one lines up, the black one is "out of phase". This causes a vibration and can also make the joints wear faster. The orange one is the new one, I had the joints replaced with rebuildable ones, and a new urethane damper.  However, it took almost 4 months to get the work done.

[lostinbama]

yes, please keep going!

[norton73]

Finally, come September, I had the parts to do the top end,

New valves;



nice instructions on where the rings go;



I installed the pistons into the cylinders, then slipped the wrist pin in afterwards;









Nice jugs, baby !

[norton73]

I rode it around last spring a little, but really didn't get a lot of miles on it.



Come Memorial Day weekend, I rode up to Dunlap TN with Chitza and Argh Go to "The Chickenshit Rally". Actually, it was "the Great Chicken Rally" put on by the local BMW club, but mostly it reminded my why I don't spend much time with other BMW owners. But not for the reason I am about to relate.

We stopped for gas just over the TN line, and when we went to leave, I couldn't get the bike in first gear. I hunted around for one, finally got it in second, then back to first. Took off, rode about 20 miles to Dunlap, and when I downshifted to turn, it went to second, and stayed there. The lever would move, but nothing was engaging. Fortunately, it was all second gear riding to the rally site, so I at least made it there.

[Fencejumper09]

Beauty of a bike!

[Nice Goat]

Mud baths are good for the complexion ... or so I've heard.  :D

[Argh Oh]

Nice to see The Bumbee Bee back! Yup on the rally assessment too.

[norton73]

Thanks Guys. Actually, I generally consider it the world's most butt ugly bike, but it does do it's job well.


Back to the story...

So now it's Friday night and I am in Dunlap TN with a bike that is stuck in 2nd gear. I call my wife to see if she can hook up the trailer and come rescue my ass, while wondering what this gonna cost me  ;)

She has plans in the morning, but will think about coming up Saturday afternoon.
While sitting around with a few beers in the evening, one of my kayaking and riding friends shows up trailering his F650GS and his kayak on the roof. He plans to ride the offroad ride the next day, then meet some friends to go kayaking Sunday and Monday. He offers to let me take his truck into town while he is riding if I need to go get beer or anything. After a couple minutes of thought, I ask if I could trailer my bike back home and return with another. I figure it will take me 6-7 hours round trip, he may not even be back from the ride by then. Rundell agrees and in the morning I take back the broken GS and return with my Ducati ST2, a full tank of gas in the truck, and a case of beer for Rundell.

Sunday I have a nice ride looping north into central TN and then back home.

[norton73]

The bike gets shoved in the corner of the garage while other projects take priority, such as preparing 2 Nortons for the International Norton Owners Rally in Asheville NC in July (another future thread).
Then it's kayaking the Ocoee to whip my ass in shape to paddle the Gauley and Upper Yough rivers in September for 9 days straight of class V whitewater.

Finally, week before last I pulled the transmission out.



I was pretty sure it was a simple fix, probably a broken spring in the shifter mechanism.

Trans on the bench;



Back cover off;

[norton73]

What broke was #7, the spring holds the shift pawl #8  up against the shift cam #9 and engages some pins to push it around and change gears.

[Nice Goat]

Looks easy enough to get to ....  ::)

[norton73]

I had already ordered gaskets and seals.

And I had another transmission in parts up in the attic.



These two bolts hold the shifter mechanism in place;



And this is a whole assembly, rather than tear it apart, I just dropped it in;