first buffalo - questions and more questions

[78whiteorbs]

OK picked up a 75 that looked in pretty good shape overall but every new bike is a new mystery/challenge.
First thing I did was order a new sealed battery, carb kit , and set to waking her up.
had good spark and got her to run some off of spraying some two stroke gas in the carb throats with a spray bottle- that give me some good steam to build on-

So I broke down the carbs and set to ultrasonically clean them and for good measure gave them a good dunk in carb cleaner as well . Reassembled and installed new gaskets making sure to reset floats .

re-installled tank and filled with two stroke gas and the fun begins

[78whiteorbs]

After installing new battery and installing carbs I pushed the magic button and she roared to life.
Killed it and though hey , this is a liquid cooled bike ( typically I have stuck to aircooled with the exception of one cx500) so I better check the coolant! Bone dry..... filled her up and looked for any leaks ... found a small one ffrom the hose that goes into where the starter housing is so I will need to replace. everthing else seemed water tight, no leaks.
cranked and idled well and revved out good . Definately need a petcock kit, gas was seeping pretty good .

observed no flow with radiator cap off....what now?

Cylinders felt pretty warm . Not to hot to touch or anything but pretty warm. Temp gauge never moved
Could it be a bad thermostat? The radiator never got warm .
suggestions welcomed!

[Coyote]

You won't see any flow until the water temperature reaches 190 degrees. That's when the thermostat opens and water begins to flow. On average, the temp gauge only gets to about the middle, even after riding for hours on a good hot day. The early ones had a fan. Suzuki ditched that after they realized the fan never ran. You will have the run the bike for 15 - 20 minutes before you will see any movement on the temp gauge.

[78whiteorbs]

Coyote- thanks for the reply . That is very encouraging.
I am gonna boil the thermostat today and make sure it opens. Need to replace some hoses anyway.
Any idea what temp the actual head gets to? I have a laser temp gauge I can through on it ,was just curious.

thanks again-

on a seperate issue I have found that with the oil pump cover off the three lines that are coming from the back of the pump towards the back tire are fine where as it looks like air in the lines for the front three lines. How do you bleed this out? Probably a stupid question I know -

I did check the inlet from the hose connected to the oil bag and there is plenty of flow from that banjo that goes into the pump-

[78whiteorbs]

Here is a vid of progress/ concerns

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7aaCzLezq8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[tz375]

That baffle on the floor is only half a baffle. The front section is probably broken off inside a pipe.

Thermostat opens at 185 degrees or so and up to that point, flow is through the bypass hose and not the radiator. Next issue is that the filler cap is on top of a long tube and it's difficult to see water flowing even when it's hot.

Check the head temp with a digital pyrometer and if it's too hot, pull the thermostat and check it.

[78whiteorbs]

removed the thermo housing and that third bolt is a mofo to get at as the frame is right in the way of my impact driver...definately replacing with hexhead for future ..

Boiled the thermostat and it opened and closed at proper time so the thermo is good.
Next with the thermo removed I pulled one end of the top horizontal house and topped ehr off and fired her up and what a fountain of joy she spewed So I have confirmed that pump is circulating water and I will now replace all the hoses with the hvccycle kit. Trying to find a source for the thermogasket but may have to do one of those cut your own jobs .

I have a temp gun to check the head temp and I will do that tomorrow.How hot should it be getting? From all the old articles I read from a friend who was kind enough to send me a disc containing everything I ever wanted to know and then some on the old buffalos , the testers stated that for one they couldnt get it hot enough in the desert heat of california to get the fan to kick on ( and I know my 74 doesnt even have one) and two the head or radiator never actually got hot enough that you couldnt rest your hand on it ...not my experience so something weird there. I was using water and not coolant though and it could have been low as there were some leaks from old hose cracks that I am going to replace but just wanted to see how deep in it I was gonna get first.


far as the baffles those seem to be hard to find and I may have to either A) just remove them all and let the freedom ring or B) fab up some replicas from the good ones. Do any other model baffles fit this bike from other GT's?

[78whiteorbs]

@tz375-

just realized you are the dude that sent me the disk from DTT-

thanks ,big help and interesting reading.

is my project - after grinding the tabs I dont need it is off to be powdered if I can decide on a color...

and here is a photoshop mockup -

Basically a stock bike with the electrics and oil tank relocated under the seatpan (might have to put oiltank in the huge gastank, so as to open up the center. Want to jack up the rear with possible some cb900 shocks- getting rid of the seat, rear fender and the other knick knack stuff ought shave some weight. That will be version 1.0 at least
The frame is blasted and ready for some color - Just wanted to make sure everything was fit before I started switching everything over.

Do tell more about the cv carbs and the uni's I just saw in a pic of your bike on here- I thought that was a big no-no and had started to envision my bike with the stock airbox allbeit somewhat visually modified for aesthetics..
Back before I knew any better I slapped some pods on a cx500 which had cv carbs and it had a huge flatspot but otherwise was something I could live with - that was a four stroke though and this is the first 2 stroke with diaphram carbs I have fooled with (even the gt250 had cable slides )ever thought about running earlier model carbs ?

[Coyote]

Hogwash. This is a pic of Lane's (rngdng) bike. The pods are cheap K&N copies. Bike dynoed in at 63 horsepower as you see it. That was later increased to 75 by porting an adding a plate under the cylinders..

[78whiteorbs]

hmmmm... Aw dude dont tease me. I wonder how "streetable" that bike is.
any specs for jetting? I have seen tons of xs650's and the like with those mikes xs pods but capped pods are two stroke blasphemy so I have allways been told.

[RING_DING]

Any updates on the build?

[Barry S.]

In your video you have too much water in the radiator, it's supposed to be at the bottom of the tube in the filler neck. It may overflow when it gets hot and starts circulating.