Old Car and Bike rambling

I've never labeled myself a mechanic so perhaps the title is a bit misleading. In January, I posted about the OBD2 problems with my van and the past few weeks I've been struggling with a thermostat replacement. At some point, I came to the conclusion that I needed to change the thermostat on my van since it's been running cool for several months. I reasoned that the drive cycle could not activate if the coolant temperature was not getting into the expected operating range. This should not have been a big deal, I've changed a thermostat before in the 200. For some reason, I could not get it to stop leaking when I put it back together. After 5 reinstall and start tries, changing the position of the gasket and using sealants and gasket makers, I found that I had cracked the thermostat housing likely during my first reinstall attempt. Not a huge deal, I found a used housing on ebay and it had all the attached hoses on it for $65 including free shipping. After a few days, th...

The family van is now approaching what some would consider old car status. Though it's a 2002 MPV and reasonably high tech, she has not treated me very well the past few months. 118k miles for the first tune-up is really very nice until you have to find the spark plugs hidden under the intake manifold. The OBD2 system is a great idea on the surface. I was getting a check engine light and an error code that told me I had a misfire on cylinder 6 even though I had changed the spark plugs and another error code pointing to a bad O2 sensor that was not heating up properly. A new ignition coil on plug part, 1 new O2 sensor and a clearing of the offending check engine light resulted in a failed emissions inspection a week later. Note to self: don't change your battery or reset your OBD2 diagnostics right before you get your car inspected if you can help it. There are "drive cycles" that happen automatically as you drive your car that eventually reset the sensors that are rea...

After spending the 2011 riding season with the GSXR750 carbs on my cb750 I'm planning on going back to the stock carbs and airbox. I have also returned the bike to the OEM oil filter after it seemed like I needed more oil cooling capacity in the original finned oil filter cover. I've already written about the advantages of the bst36ss carbs and now I will provide a summary of the dis-advantages of the carbs for me and why I'm going back to stock. After spending a few weeks tweaking the fuel mix, the insulators and the lines, I found that the carbs would get rich after the bike warmed up on hot days, but would run just fine on cooler days. After a nice run on the highway she would start idling lower at stop lights and then die out without throttle or choke (but only on the warm days). I was a bit surprised to find in the last ride I took in cold weather, she wasn't running right either. I don't want to spend much more on this bike in 2012 so I can save a few...

We humans actually need very little to keep going. Food, a warm place to sleep, clean water and clothes. For just about everything else in our lives, there are marketing departments that exist for the purpose of getting people to move items from the "Want" list to the "Need" list. Many years ago, the United States of America was a manufacturing country. Most everyone who worked played a part in making something. Somewhere along the way, it was determined that for the economy to continue to grow (remember that continued growth is unsustainable ), the workers would have to be convinced to buy the products they helped to manufacture. This same phenomenon is happening in China today because they are getting to the point where they are manufacturing more than they can export. Today, media and entertainment are just vehicles for delivering marketing to the masses. Commercials between songs, product placement in movies all help in generating desire for both low and high do...

After years of waffling on the sale of my 200 20v, I finally decided that I wanted a new motorcycle more than I loved the Audi. Roughly 6 months up for sale and nearly 30 inquiries about the condition of the car, and she is gone. In the end, my walk around on youtube worked better than the for sale ads. Despite the number of inquiries about the car, only 2 people actually came to test drive it. The person who bought the car ultimately decided he would buy it before he actually drove the car to confirm his decision. In seeing his excitement, I knew my decision to sell the car was the right one and that she was going to the right owner. My wife and I always thought I would have a hard time parting with her but I've moved on with hardly a hitch in my step, though hardly a day goes by that I don't think about the 200. In the last 3 years I've been toying with the idea of a motorcycle purchase. First I wanted a Kawasaki Versys and then my friend gave me his 1980 Honda CB750c to ...

An interesting thought popped into my head while shopping for a new tire stem valve on the Internet. (I found a very nice set of 83 degree valve stems for my cb750  https://www.jpcycles.com/product/zz21730/k-l-supply-co-right-angle-valve-stem?v=2 ) In browsing the vast selection of tire stem valves, I thought about the government folks talking about providing tax breaks to companies so they could generate jobs and stimulate the economy. This is considered supply side economics and might also be known as "trickle down economics" in another era. The basic idea is you enable a company to have the money to buy, build, and hire... eventually stimulating the economy. All the politicians preaching this surely must know something I don't, but I can't help wondering why a store or company would keep manufacturing if no one is buying. These days, the more likely scenario is the company manufactures in China, sells their goods here at a hefty profit, pocket the tax breaks ...

I witnessed a friend take a high side around a curve last week during a ride in the curvy mountain roads about 30 minutes from work during a lunch time ride. We weren't traveling super fast and I'm still not quite sure how it happened but the repurcussions of that 1 second crash are still being felt 1 week later. I was the 3rd and last rider in our group on my cb750, the 2nd rider borrowed my wife's 2009 Kawasaki Vulcan 500 and the 1st rider was on his Yamaha FZ6. Over the last week all 3 of us reviewed the accident in our minds many hundreds of times. We failed to properly manage the risk on an activity that is already risky. he was riding an unfamiliar bike the injured rider did not wear a jacket or gloves he was on an unfamiliar road it was his first ride of the season he was the youngest of the 3 riders Although the bike was totalled and my friend was badly injured, he luckily will heal in a few months and can already walk around. It could have been much worse because h...