In my quest for a cooler engine I checked out the timing of the car and it turns out my damn harmonic dampener timing marks have shifted throughout the years. You can adjust timing by ear and listen to the engines performance but you can’t use a timing light because the marks are about 180 degrees out of view!
One lesson learned is I should have changed out the dampener when I had the radiator out as there is not enough room to remove it now and install a new one. The timing is done by ear and the carb has been adjusted for idle.
My daily rider a 2007 GL1800 Goldwing had a master cylinder recall issued. This was a significant case as the rear wheel would lock and seize while at higher temperatures.
Since the sled was getting serviced and the wheels would be off I had the shop install new brake pads (I thought all three sets) but it turned out to be the left front and rear. I also had the oil and oil filter changed. This all happened approximately at 39,500 miles.
The Alpine R Series wasn’t getting enough power from the Alpine MV500 500 watt amp. I installed a Quantum 2000 watt amp and with the trunk volume it shakes the garage. This is with a single subwoofer.
I had converted the third car garage into a room/studio. The motorcycles typically stayed in this spot but was a pain to get out since the garage door was sealed shut and a wall put in place.
I asked my son to help me (he did all the work) remove the wall and haul the material to the dump. My son is a one man wrecking crew. It’s best to just stay out of the way and help by cleaning up 🙂
I’ve must have changed out the thermostat at least a half dozen times trying different configurations of 160, 180 and 195 temperature T-Stats. The last configuration and the current one installed is a 160F thermostat with three 1/8″ holes drilled into the flange to allow air to pass through (burping the system of air).
During the last change out one of the threads in the intake manifold gave out. I had to drill an oversize hole and add a Helicoil inside. This also made it more robust. I also changed out the bolts with new ones I got from NAPA Auto Stores.
I’ve been riding around listening to my tunes through a very small rear speaker setup. The original set was a pair of J4″ JVC’s that looked as if they were tossed in to cover a hole. Even though they were functioning both were mounted very loosely.
I decided to replace both of them with something a little larger and more aesthetically pleasing but still matched that era of sound systems. After a visit to the local car stereo shop I found a set of ARC Audio 5.25″ that sounded good but also had the perfect brushed metal vibe going for it. Both the speaker grill and base plate matched the interiors theme.
Next I added an Alpine 12″ R Series subwoofer and an Alpine 500W amp.
It doesn’t always work out as planned. It turned out the Alpine amp had a bad remote sense wire connection. I had to open the case up and do a modification.
I got most of the engine bay and front driver/passenger wiring cleaned up. The next step was to clean up the rear seat and feed the 4AWG power cables and RCA audio cables for the amplifiers.
I began tracing the various harnesses and wiring inside the panels, under the seats and in the engine bay. The goal was to remove any non-stock or functional wires. This is a tedious and careful task as you can really mess up something that was once working.
I’m going to trace back the origin of the small red button under my rightside dashboard. I forgotten about it until I read about some guys tying there electronic choke to a manual button setup. I can’t figure out any other reason why a button would be placed there and for what purpose.
