Pegboard

I started getting these, here and there, back when you dig one out of the bottom of a milkcrate at a swapmeet for a $1. Now everyone seems to think they are chopper gold, even if it doesn't say Anderson on it.

I managed to get them up on the wall this week. I'll be adding as I find them on the cheap. I'm looking for some with star shaped holes, some that have Japanese brands on them, or anything else interesting. I'm not real keen on paying $10 a peg these days though.

Linkert Carb for sale

Helping a friend sell some of his spares. Freshly rebuilt Linkert M-88. Was mounted up and ran briefly on a 45 Solo. $250 plus $12.65 Priority Mail. Cash and carry in OKC or Paypal. Click here to email me if you're interested.

Vulcan Master Cylinder Rebuild

The hydraulic clutch master cylinder on my 2003 1500 Classic quit pushing fluid to the slave cylinder. That's not good. Rebuilding a master cylinder is not unusual in general, but I haven't run across any accounts of a Vulcan M/C quitting or how to do a rebuild on one, so here goes.

I bought the parts from the local Kawasaki dealer. This kit fits a bunch of brake master cylinders, too, so they actually had it in stock. Looking at the Clymer manual already has me concerned. The parts look a bit different from the picture so we will see how this goes.


I already had the MC off the bike on the bench. Here's the next difference of note between the book and what's in my hand. This MC is marked 14, I assume for a 14mm bore.


The book picture shows marked as 1/2. I assume that's a 1/2 inch bore. The books says remove the clutch switch, but I'm going to see if I can perform the rebuild with the switch still on the housing.


Remove this nut on the lever pivot bolt.


After the nut is off you'll still need to unscrew the lever pivot bolt.


Bolt and lever come off. Kind of a mess from the DOT 4 leaking everywhere.


Dust boot and rod pulled out.


Remove this snap ring.


Washer, piston with seal, cup, and spring come out. Luckily these parts look exactly like the parts I bought.


The piston seal is kind of a u-ring with the u part toward the spiral part of the piston.


Lube the new parts with DOT 4.


Spring and cup go back first.


Work the seal on to the piston.


Yeah, that's a tight fit and a lot work for something so simple.


Piston and seal go back in.


Washer next. Then the snap-ring. It's hard to get a picture of the snap ring going in. You have to push it all down and use snap ring pliers. I don't have a third hand to hold the camera.


Dust boot and rod next. This picture is backwards, the rounded end of the rod goes toward the piston and the flatter end goes to the lever side.


This piece goes into the lever and rod goes into in it.


My picture taking didn't keep up at this point. Install the lever, lever pivot, and jam nut. Put the MC back on the bike and connect the banjo bolt with new sealing o-ring. Then you need to fill and bleed the clutch line. I tried to pump the lever enough to bleed it, but that would have taken days, so just pull the left floorboard and engine cover and bleed it properly.

More on 4th gear seal drivers - George's Garage Tool

So I need to put the seal between 4th gear and mainshaft again. Last time, an internet friend lent me his. I figure by the time you need a special tool a second time, you need to own it. I really didn't quite have tooling and stock to make building one worth it.  So I decided to buy a similarly listed tool from George's Garage. I have always heard good things about George's tool and it was about $30 less than the JIMS and still made in the USA.

The funny thing about the George's tool is that its not the same as the JIMS tool. It has a smaller inner diameter. I thought maybe I had gotten one that had been misboxed or something. So I called George's number and left a message. I got a call back pretty quickly and talked to George himself. He is very friendly, knowledgeable and helpful. I told him about the situation. I knew it "wasn't for 4 speeds", but I thought it would work. He told me that his was different than JIMS for a specific reason. JIMS was designed to drive the seal over the seal protector sleeve while still on the mainshaft. George had heard reports of the seal protector sleeve getting jammed in the driver, so he build his differently. Use the seal protector sleeve to get the seal mostly in place and remove the sleeve before using the driver.

All that to say, George's Garage is great place for tools, but you really need to know what tool you need.

So I could send it back for refund, pay shipping again, spend the extra money to buy a JIMS tool and wait another week on it, or get the George's tool to work.

I can make it work with some help from a friend. Here's the tool and a spare mainshaft for fit checking.


See too small.


About 0.085 inch and it needs to be 1.035 inch.


Lummie's all-in-one machine should be able to punch this out no problem


Square the tool to the head.


I need to go about two inches deep, but instead of a travel gauge we just pencil marked 2 one inch marks on the boring bar.


The bottom relief of this boring tool wasn't made for this tight of hole, so we had to turn this far to clear correctly. Ideally cutting would be just a tick under horizontal center line. Not by the book, but it should work for taking 0.005 inch passes in aluminum.


Cut, measure, cut, pass again. Once the calipers say you're there, double check with the spare shaft. Good to go.


Not OSHA approved, but some emery cloth and wooden dowel will clean up the cuts.


Hopefully the tool gets the seal installed and it stays put this time.