Parts Trickle In...Part II

Well, parts trickle in and little stuff gets done.
I now have the Inboard and Outboard Exhaust hooked up as well as the new Pekar K68 carbs mounted and cables run...


As well as my supercool new Red Star Grips. Represent!!


One of these days the new rockers I ordered will show up, and I can get the valves set...mount the new tank up and get back to adding to the clock.
Today I will be redoing a couple of electrical connections between the bike and sidecar, I am going to add some molex plugs to make it easier the remove the car in the future.

Parts are trickling in...

Well, some stuff is starting to show up!!

So far, I have received
A brand new in the box set of Pekar K68 carbs...the kind used back at the Russian factory.

NOS fuel tank

'New' header pipes
'New' Fishtail Mufflers

Granted both of the last items are manufactured in China for the Chinese copy of the Russian copy of a German sidecar rig...so they kinda-sorta fit.
After a quick check I established the fuel tank mounting tabs line up perfectly, so off to hang from my basement shop ceiling it goes to get a new coat of rattlecan paint. (Chalkboard paint...makes it easy to record start/end odometer readings...directions  yada yada)

The bad news is so far confined to the intake/exhaust side of things.
First I found that my heads didn't line up with the carbs...even using the aftermarket mounting plates where no help. So did I what I often do in these situations.
I screamed.
I cursed.
Maybe I cried a lil bit.

Then I got to thinking..."What would Ivan Do?"
So, since Ivan is a smart guy....I asked Melee(da wife) for help. She and I(mostly she) figured at way to get the carbs lined up and mounted with only having to tap ONE new mounting stud in the head.
Of course....I have no pics of that in process...but here it is all mounted up like it goes there.

Next thing I discovered is that while the headers fit the jugs fine...the frame mounting tabs on them are off by about an inch or so (2.5ish centimeters). So I did the only reasonable thing I could think of...I sawed the tabs off and plan to make do with clamping them to the frame.

Again...no good pics of the mocking up process...but here are a few shots of what I managed to do to the inboard side.

This pic has a bonus shot of the inboard carb!

Hoping to get the last parts...mostly the rocker arms I need to complete the top end rehab...this week.

If I do, Crawler should be back on the road by me and Melee's Spring Break.

Just need the rockers....

and rewire the fender on the sidecar.

and rebuild the throttle housing.

and run new throttle cables that I hope match up to the carbs.

and replace a couple of bodge connections with molex clips.

crap i got a lot to do.

BTW>>If anyone cares to see larger copies of any pics...Melee is hosting them in her Flickr account.

Second World Problems

Well...maybe Second World is a bit harsh.
There are a few things I like a great deal about owning and wrenching on a Ural 650 from the 'Dark Years'.
Everything is pretty straight forward...no complex computer controlled Dyno-tuning chipsets that require me to use the odd skill I have of being able to read machine code/binary.
When all else fails...quite often enough cussing and hitting it with hammer has a [usually] positive result.
For those times it doesn't...replacement parts are surprising available for a nearly 20 year old, no longer manufacture supported machine, based on a 70 year old design.
I mean...have you tried to source parts for a Shovelhead lately?
Parts are easy to find through the wonders of the Interlink.
Some are NOS[New Old Stock: means stuff we found in the warehouse left over from back-in-the-day], some are Breaker parts[meaning someone bought a wreck/non-live bike to part it out],
and some are currently manufactured parts.
Regardless of their pedigree...here is a surprising fact about this Smörgåsbord of Ural 650 parts.
There are all affordable.
I mean...I can get my digits on a full top end for around $300-400US.
This includes:

• Cylinders, 2pc.
• Heads w/valves & springs
• Head Covers
• Pistons
• Ring set
• Wrist pins (2) and Circ-Clips (4)
• Push Rod Tubes and sealing caps
• as well as gaskets for all three mating surfaces at the cover, head and cylinder base.

So...what you ask is the Second World Problem I am referring to?

Shipping.

Most of these parts are in the Ukraine and Russian Federation, with a smattering coming from China.

Shipping cost are at times a bit steep, so it is best to try and get everything ya need from one shop in one big order. The shipping actually gets easier to stomach when you are looking at a pretty good haul.

That's not the worst part though....

Shipping is S L O W.

To be fair, I don't hold this against of the retailers/sellers, and I understand I am ordering parts often from the other side of the globe from me.

Still nothing is worse that thinking you know what parts you need, to fix what you figure is wrong with a rig, laying out the funds....and then waiting 3.5 to 5 weeks for your goodies.

Especially when for the first time in months, the weather forecast calls for 50 degrees (F) and sunny rather than mid-20s and sky-slush this coming weekend.

GRRRRRRRRR!