My mechanical odyssey

[Tyrroneous]

Interesting stuff - keep the reports coming.
 

True.

[sleazy rider]

Which campus are you on?  My work schedule would easily allow me to do this too.  I'd love to learn some more stuff and formalize what I do know.

Ann Arbor, eh?  First class is offered on Friday evening and Saturday morning for winter term.  Hmm, time to run this up the flagpole and see if the wife wouldn't mind me back in school again.  I could crash on my son's couch Friday evening after class and save two hours of driving home and back.  See what you started?  

Just applied for admission.  

[Meemuh]

Which campus are you on?  My work schedule would easily allow me to do this too.  I'd love to learn some more stuff and formalize what I do know.

Ann Arbor, eh?  First class is offered on Friday evening and Saturday morning for winter term.  Hmm, time to run this up the flagpole and see if the wife wouldn't mind me back in school again.  I could crash on my son's couch Friday evening after class and save two hours of driving home and back.  See what you started?  

Just applied for admission.  

Very nice.  Learnin is better when it's fun.

[D-Mac]

It figures. I was about to set off on a beautiful ride this morning (likely the warmest day we'll have until next March) and I discovered a flat tire on my bike. 11lbs of air isn't quite gonna cut it....

Still, I got 16,000+ miles out of this set of Pilot Road 3s so I can't complain (last set went 12K before I got a flat and I replaced both).

I pulled the wheels off, which is super easy on the RT with the "special aftermarket tool" for the front axle and ordered another set of PR3s. We're covering tire changing in class on Tuesday, but the new tires won't arrive until at least Wednesday. With the rest of the work week being crappy, it'll probably be a couple of weeks before I get around to changing them. I still gotta find a good way to balance the rear (BMW rear wheels are very strange and need a special adapter for balancing).

[D-Mac]

Which campus are you on?  My work schedule would easily allow me to do this too.  I'd love to learn some more stuff and formalize what I do know.

Ann Arbor, eh?  First class is offered on Friday evening and Saturday morning for winter term.  Hmm, time to run this up the flagpole and see if the wife wouldn't mind me back in school again.  I could crash on my son's couch Friday evening after class and save two hours of driving home and back.  See what you started?  

Just applied for admission.  

Tom,

Very cool! I think you'd enjoy the class. You cover a lot of basic background stuff for the first 5-6 weeks, but it's still good stuff to know. What I like about the class is that the instructors really know what goes into making a bike run well (and what makes one go fast). The other students in the class are great too - all ages and backgrounds but with a common obsession about bikes. You also get killer discounts on tools.  

[sleazy rider]

Killer discounts on tools.    You should see my garage now.  Two rollaways of various and assorted shiny things.  A bit of background - 4 years as auto mech in the 70s, 21 years aircraft mech ('77-'98), do all my own home repairs for the past 29 years and  do my own maintenance on all the bikes I've owned.

I should know something about admission on Monday.  If it's anything like OCC, I'll just be rubber stamped and contribute tuition fees when I register for the first class.  

[Reddog*]

I still gotta find a good way to balance the rear (BMW rear wheels are very strange and need a special adapter for balancing).

Airsoft pellets or Ride Rite.

[D-Mac]

Killer discounts on tools.    You should see my garage now.  Two rollaways of various and assorted shiny things.  A bit of background - 4 years as auto mech in the 70s, 21 years aircraft mech ('77-'98), do all my own home repairs for the past 29 years and  do my own maintenance on all the bikes I've owned.

I should know something about admission on Monday.  If it's anything like OCC, I'll just be rubber stamped and contribute tuition fees when I register for the first class.  

It's pretty basic. I had to do the online orientation (takes about 10 minutes), but they waived the the in-person orientation session for me since I'd already had about 20 years of college-level experience.   They will likely do it for you too (anyone with a course beyond high school can likely have it waived). You will still have to go to campus once to get your ID card and do a couple of other things. I had the extra complication of not being a US citizen, so I had to show them my Green Card as well.

[CLAY]

This looks very cool.  As a teacher I need to take continuing Ed as well.  I'm wondering if I can take them outside my major study area...

[sleazy rider]

FYI, Dean, I have the BMW adapter that fits my static balancer if you need one.    Harbor Freight had a screaming deal on the whole kit a while back.

[D-Mac]

I just ordered an adapter that I *THINK* will work (at least for a static balancer). If not, I'll let you know.

[D-Mac]

I got to use the tire machine tonight! Very cool. I still need lots of practice, but it was a lot easier than I thought it would be (although that puppy is plenty dangerous if you get your hands in the wrong places).

My new tires are supposed to arrive tomorrow, so I'm hoping to install them during my class on Thursday (hopefully my balancer adapter will show up by then as well or I'll have to wait until next week to do it).

Edit: Almost forgot. If anyone out there owns a Harley, I now know how to change your wheel bearings (either the sealed ones on the 2000 and newer bikes or the old tapered ones that require much hammering, shimming, and dial gauge to achieve the 0.004-0.008 "free play" required). Special tools are needed for the newer ones and metric bikes (the dealer cost on the Harley tool is $350), but they make a very tough job very, very simple.

If there's one thing I've learned from this course it's that the right tools make ALL the difference. Working on my bike at home - sitting on the floor and using misc cheap tools has become downright painful.

[Meemuh]

Sounds like an excuse I can use on my wife when I go tool shopping.
Sounds better when it comes from a soon-to-be expert.

[Ack535]

We had a small test on Tuesday. My 100% average is still intact   Our midterm is next Tuesday, and that will be tougher. After that it's back to the lab to tear down a Suzuki 2-stroke and a Kawasaki V-twin. Once that's done I think we're starting in on wheels/tires. I hope so because I've got 16,000+ miles on my tires and I want to change/balance them!

Hmnn, I would expect nothing less that 100% from a Biology College Professor. You could never show your face on campus and admit you got a 2.0 in a motorcycle mechanics class... All of your students would tease the crap out of you! I can see it now "really professor, you got a 2.0 on a mechanics class, really"?

On a serois note, I would freaking love to take the class if I had time. Too many bad guys, and not enough free time. Damn it all!

[D-Mac]

I emptied my "motorcycle savings account" and ordered a toolbox this morning from Snap On. I've never owned a toolbox and I'm getting tired to hanging all of my tools on various surfaces in the the garage. With my student discount I was able to get it for about $1100 (instead of $2565). I'll get $100 gift card for more tools as well. I also get the FULL retail value of the box toward any upgrade I buy over the next three years. Hard to beat that I think. Hell, the savings on the toolbox alone has already paid for my first two classes!

http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item.asp?P65=&tool=storage&item_ID=78851&group_ID=20546&store=snapon-store&dir=catalog

Then I phoned the rep and ordered a torque wrench (the one that vibrates and beeps when you hit the torque spec - it does angle tracking as well and covers 5-100 ftlbs within 2% accuracy - crazy).

http://www.torqueinlesstime.com/

It's a disease. I see myself replacing some of my Harbor Freight/Craftsman stuff over the next couple of years. I can't wait to have "real" tools in my garage.

UPDATE: Both items are on BACKORDER. Ugh.

[D-Mac]

Hmnn, I would expect nothing less that 100% from a Biology College Professor. You could never show your face on campus and admit you got a 2.0 in a motorcycle mechanics class... All of your students would tease the crap out of you! I can see it now "really professor, you got a 2.0 on a mechanics class, really"?

On a serois note, I would freaking love to take the class if I had time. Too many bad guys, and not enough free time. Damn it all!

I get teased from my lab instructor about this (he often calls out "PROFESSOR!!" when he wants my attention - he can do it in about 1000 funny voices too). On Tuesday I tried to pass off an incomplete shop report for his signature (sometimes they 'sign off' on training of various things) and he made me re-write it. His excuse? I probably wouldn't have taken it from my students (he was right - I wouldn't  ).

[Cheddarhead]

...My lab instructor ... calls out "PROFESSOR!!" when he wants my attention -

I would be inclined to respond "Yes, Gilligan?" or some other such a response...

[JSharp]

Good week. I got lots more practice measuring cylinders   I discovered after measuring about 20 of them that my micrometer was bent. Dial gauge was fine, so all my measurements were off by exactly the same amount. Lovely. Good thing none of them were being re-bored!

Something I was taught years ago and I'm not sure why they didn't mention it. When a mic comes out of the box it's checked with a standard before it's ever used to measure anything.  The last guy may have been the one that used it for a c-clamp.  

Your course so far sounds like a lot of fun!  

[D-Mac]

Didn't post last week, so here's a short update.

Last week we spent a full class discussing repair order procedures.   Lots of crazy stories from dealer service departments were told. You'll all be pleased that the emphasis was on honesty and communicating effectively with customers (despite what many service departments seem to do in actual practice). We spent hours discussing what makes a tech efficient and proficient, and what makes a service department productive. It was interesting stuff, although I was dying to go back to the shop by the end of it.

On Thursday I pulled the wheels off a 2000 Buell Cyclone M2 and changed the tires (our last tire changing class). I gotta say that I'm getting pretty good at tires, although chance hasn't given me the opportunity to change a tire with tubes yet. I had to do a full inspection of the bike as well, and fill out lots of repair order forms (the bike had all sorts of problems, which I think was part of the exercise). It went quite smoothly, although I didn't beat the book rate. I'm finally getting the belt adjustment procedure on Harleys sorted out, but it's a bit of a pain. It seems like every manufacturer does certain things well, yet does other badly when it comes to making their bikes easy to service. Harleys are generally pretty good, but it's a pain that they mix and match so many US and metric fasteners on them. I'm also getting tired of trying to back Harleys up onto the lift (who designed the steering lock on the older Buells anyway? An RV has a better turning radius!)

We also had one-on-one meetings with the lead instructor on Thursday. I was a bit bummed to learn that his records showed that I had missed two classes, so he had deducted 10 points from my grade. I didn't want to make a big deal over it, but I've never missed a class, and I know I've turned in all my time cards and signed in each week (I'm really picky about this stuff as I require my own students to do it). Anyway, he seemed to accept my excuse. I'll just have to make my sign in more obvious each week.

Most importantly, I booked myself in for extra lab time last week and changed the tires on my RT. I rode to class on Tuesday and Thursday and nothing fell off, so I'm calling it good. My new Snap On toolbox arrived too, so I spent several hours drooling at that.

I also register for spring classes this week.

[D-Mac]

I registered for the Winter semester today!

I'm taking the second Motorcycle Service course next semester along with a welding class.

My only dilemma was between taking the welding class versus a machine shop class. Both are required before I can take the final motorcycle service course next fall (the 4th one), and I'd been told that the machine shop class is tougher to get into, so I figured I'd try for it first. However, when I checked right before my registration time the welding classes actually looked a lot more full. Since I'm more excited about welding and it fit my schedule better, I opted for it over the machine shop one (I also got a section with an instructor that everyone raves about; apparently she's a brilliant welder and has helped train numerous national champions - the welding awards/trophies are everywhere at school). I snagged a spot within seconds of my allotted registration time. Woot! I can't wait! Welding is something I really want to know how to do. It's a basic course, but I'm also planning to take a heli-arc course at some point down the road.

If things go according to plan I'll be able to complete the basic motorcycle program by December 2012 and start the advanced certificate that same semester. I should be able to finish the advanced course work by July 2013. I'm planning to take some fabrication classes beyond the basic requirements of my program so that I (hopefully!) will be able to build some fun bikes at the end of it all.