Captain Obvious

Hmmm. If I have appropriate sized stock, I could make that. Does it have to be hex on the outside? Would something with just two flats on opposing sides work? Or square? You wouldn't be able to use a socket on it. You'd need to use a large open end. Would that be good enough? I'm thinking that since the application is to unstick a motor, you might be putting considerable torque on it and a hex would be better. But thought I would ask to see what you thought.

I found it easy to remove the clip, but yes... You should unload it first. Doesn't take a lot of force. (Alone) I found the easiest way was to place the column against the ground and grab the column housing (outside) with one hand and press down against the ground, thereby compressing the spring a little. Been a while since I've been in there, but I probably braced the whole thing against a hip or something? Anyway, at that point you can remove the clip as soon as it's unloaded. Of course, if you have a helper with a second pair of hands, it's even easier. Some pics because we all like pics:

Yes, I am confirming that there should be no binding between the needle and the nozzle, regardless of piston position. I'm thinking that the mixing and matching didn't do good things for you. If the carb body still has it's nubbies, then you need to run the original dome and piston. If the nubbies are busted off, then you'll have to do the alignment manually, so in theory you could mix parts together if you do it right. And yes... Nubbies. It's in the manual.

Boing boing boing boing. I see that the cabin fever has really started to take hold. So I've taken a steering column apart down to it's molecular level, so if you have questions about that, let me know. I may have pics.

The three screw round tops are supposed to have little conical shaped alignment pin nubbies on the top of the carb body that establish alignment with the suction chamber. Sometimes they are broken off as part of a carb rebuild process. Are you alignment nubbies intact, or are they broken off? If they are broken off, you'll need to manually align the suction chambers. If your alignment posts are NOT broken off, then I would suggest that maybe you swapped the suction chamber covers between the two carbs. Any ideas about the probability that happened?

Ummm. For me, it would take more than one finger?

Nice bikes guys! I don't have any pics of my old crop duster in electronic form. I'm sure I've got a bunch on film squirreled away in a box somewhere. If I turn something up, I'll post up a pic. It was a rocket in it's time. I think the only thing faster was that wacky Kawasaki triple thing.

Haha! Thanks for the insights. And I hope it's not all placebo effect. At least the oil cleanliness couldn't have been placebo! If this were a "build" instead of a "refresh", I'd probably go that route. Maybe on the next one!

My build buddy bought one. I don't know if they have different "quality" levels, but it was the bottom of the line. We used it once and after that unbelievably frustrating and dangerous episode of thread galling and smashed knuckles trying to turn the handle... He told me it was my decision, I could either make it better, or throw the piece of shite out. I replaced the threaded rod with some all thread I had laying around, made all the wallowed out oval holes round again, and added additional lock-nuts all over the place to keep things where they belonged. We've subsequently used it to remove and install three motors and it's waaaaaaaay better. Sorry I don't have any pics.

The Duke!!

Well don't beat yourself up about it. The differences in length are really not much. In fact, I'm really wondering why they didn't standardize on the same length bolt in all four positions in the first place. I'm guessing there was a miscalculation or design change somewhere along the way that they worked around using the two different lengths. I wasn't there when they designed it. but I don't see any functional reason for it. And hope you can find some enjoyable way to pass the layover time. No junkyards in the area?

Mine was a Suzuki, but, me too! And me too! Suzuki T-350 with Wisecos!!

I've heard good things about those total seals. If I were doing a more in-depth rebuild on this motor, I would have considered those. But for this motor, I'm just honing and throwing stock rings back in. How did they work for you? You like the way it turned out? And yes, I'm with you. I would still stagger the gaps too. Even though it seems to matter even less. Haha!

As for the additional smaller holes. they're for carb manifolds. Very convenient for people who want to run carbs with the later heads. All the holes are already there. Drilled and tapped.

If you're planning to put an older non-webbed intake manifold onto your F54 (like the one you showed above), then yes... They used two different bolt lengths. 77 FSM page EM-26. Longs on the outsides, shorts on the inner two. As a side note, you can even see the difference in thickness of the bosses on the intake manifold. If you're planning to put your webbed later manifold on, it might be the same bolt length across the board. I took a quick look at the 83 intake I have here (webbed), and the bosses do not appear to be any difference across the board, so it wouldn't really need different length bolts. So maybe they stopped doing that when they went to the webbed manifold? I've got my uses 83 intake manifold bolts here somewhere, but can't put my fingers on them instantly. Give me a little bit to find those and I'll check them. Or maybe someone else will chime in who already knows.

Haha!! Good thinking!

Got it. Hoover sent me some used condoms along with the other stuff in the care package. They look good, so I'll use them again.

Yup. That's the one I was going to buy before I decided I would try my hand at building a better mousetrap. Cheapest I found was on ebay for just under $40 shipped. So it may depend on how much Summit wants for shipping.

!! Actually Mr.J, you're either 0% wrong or 100% wrong. There is no timer in the defroster circuit. But there IS a timer in the 77 seat belt warning circuit. So it depends on which circuit you're talking about. Or we could split the difference and you can join The Half club. It's exclusive.

Glad to hear that I nailed it. Woot. And BTW... From a distance with no meter measurements, I've diagnosed and identified a problem with your car that you have unable to fix yourself, and the reaction is "kudos, you're half wrong". I've identified the problem that has been confusing you to the point where you needed to ask for help, and your reaction is to make sure that I know I wasn't 100% correct when I said "Your defogger indicator bulb IS burned out" because the REAL story is "Your defogger bulb is not installed". Well maybe it's just me, but that kind of response makes it difficult to want to help in the future. Just like last time with your other thread. So feel free to now spend a whole bunch of words* telling me why my reaction is wrong. Or just don't. And keep it in mind for the future instead. * A whoooooolle bunch. And make sure you include one or two words that make mere mortals reach for their dictionary because they don't have as awesome as a vocabulary as you do.

I agree. I've not actually used those, but knowing what I know now about the "overlapping band" style, I believe those pliers would be easier to use with a higher probability of success. The modification I mentioned earlier about removing excess material from my overlapping band would essentially make them more like that pliers style. I think if I removed enough of the band such that there was no overlap, it would be a lot better. Limits the range it works for, but I'm not planning to do a whole bunch of this. You certainly don't want to buy or make a tapered collar for every size piston in the world.

How it's made - NASCAR episode. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3_UQcnHB1E - At approx. 3:50, they use a tapered ring that looks just like mine. Might be the spark that made me make my tool...

Haha!! Since I have two of these band styles, I may try modifying one (the one that isn't borrowed) to make it a little easier to use and work a little better. And I thankfully found the sharp edge burr on that thing before it found me. So stupid. For the fifteen second quick wipe across a band sander is all it would take to dress that burr off. That kind of stuff drives me nuts. So if you do spin one of those up in the winter, let me know if you want any input when the project comes around.

Namerow, Funny you ask that. I first saw that kind of tapered ring compressor tool on TV. Don't remember exactly what show it was, but probably something like "How It's Made". which is one I watch a lot. I took a quick look through some of the episodes I could find on youtube and didn't find exactly the one I remember, but I did find all sorts of piston installation techniques. Here's some quick clips with some examples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0clb7aTYn5o - At approx. 2:15, they use a tapered ring, and the neat thing is that due to the way they attach the piston to the crank first, their tapered ring has a slot in it so they can slip it out of the way past the rod after the cylinder has been slipped over the piston, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ub0xP9tUzr8 - At approx. 1:30 they use a funky pliers style clamp in one hand while pushing the piston into place with the other. Not a tapered ring, but pretty cool. Looks like it works great. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUo7qOVycvs - At approx. 3:25 they use a tapered collar style. I can't remember where I first saw that tapered collar style, but it was a production facility. I think I saw a whole bank of pistons being inserted at once through multiple tapered holes in a jig. I couldn't find that one, but that's what I remember. So IMHO, the whole drawback to the tapered ring style is that it only works for one piston diameter. If you're only planning to do one or two sizes most of the time, it would be worth it, but if you have no idea what's coming in the door next week, you'd probably just get to be an expert with the spring steel band style.

I have a lathe and I'm not afraid to use it. So about the band style... I actually have two of them. First one I am borrowing from the super-generous hoover @240260280. It uses an infinitely adjustable friction based holding "latch" to keep the size you crank it to. I have a hard time with it though because the latch is quite stiff and it takes a lot of force to crank it down and a lot of force to release the latch. I find it cumbersome and needs three hands to use. The second one I have uses a ratchet-gear based latch. It's easy to turn, but the problem is I get it tight to the piston, and I really need ONE MORE CLICK. But I can't GET one more click. So when I relax on the tightener, the clamp relaxes a tiny bit and I think that's why I kept snagging oil rings on the deck. And the other problem with both of them is the area where the spring band overlaps. It's never completely round. I was thinking I could cut off some of the extra metal band to take care of that, but wasn't sure if it would be that much better. Anyway, after all the futzing with both band style tools, I remembered seeing the tapered style and figured I would give that a try. It took three hours to make, and if I can get six straight shots out of it without worrying about snagging an oil ring, then I'll be satisfied.