The Tomahto!

[TominMO]

The ignition locks in both bikes are a bit long in the tooth, and the keys look kinda frail too. Amazon came again today, so I changed out The Tomahto's lock for a new Chinese one ($12). Keeping the old keys because they also work the fork lock, which seems barely if ever used. Gonna do the same on The Carrot. The fork locks were frozen but a few squirts of penetrant took care of that, inside the lock and also down the locking shaft.

Yeah I know, fork locks are practically useless. But still.

[TominMO]

Three good products.
-- Rust Reformer is sprayed directly onto rust to bond with it and make a paintable surface.
-- Rust Dissolver (generic name: naval jelly) does what the name says.
-- Corrosion Inhibitor keeps it from coming back, supposedly for a year.

Lowes only had the Reformer and Dissolver; Home Depot only had Reformer and Inhibitor.

Pics 2 and 3 are of The Carrot's kickstarter, after treating with the dissolver. The Carrot was left outside for a long time, at the mercy of the elements. The rust had eaten through the chrome, but it does look a lot better than before. Basically it was mostly rust, very little chrome. Because of the depth of the rust, it was not a simple squirt, wait 30 minutes, wipe off and have perfection. For surface rust that would probably work. I used several applications and some rubbing with a green scrubby pad. I will probably hit the kickstarter with Rust Reformer and have a flat black kickstarter. I like this style better than the one on The Tomahto, so on it goes. I hit the very stiff foot pivot with penetrant, then sprayed white lithium grease in there. Works nice.

[TominMO]

Got some work done today. Cleaned it up a bit, swapped the left side covers over from The Carrot's motor, fixed the sticky throttle cable, added a footpeg rubber, installed a few SS allen head screws.

Pic 1: I did paint and install The Carrot's kickstarter after all.
Pic 2: Left side of bike. New and more convenient screws. Waiting on my JIS screwdriver set for the rest.
Pic 3: Wider view. Storage tube is just ziptied on for now. Downtube cover protects the pod air filter.

I just stuck some of the body parts on for pic 3. Coming off again so I can address my wiring routing issue.

[TominMO]

Today I pulled the motor sufficiently to get at the wiring harness, for a little rerouting. I also painted the interior of the frame white, to make it easier to see in there, and organized the wiring a bit with a 1/4" wiring loom, zip ties and electrical tape. Won't have that rat's-nest look about it any more. Also painted white the inside of The Carrot's frame, which I had previously hit with Rust Reformer.

My JIS screwdrivers came in today, but by that time I was elbow-deep inside the frame, so reinstalling the motor and swapping out the case screws will wait until tmw.

[2LZ]

Lookin' awesome Tom! I've found wire loom routing to be completely inconsistent from bike to bike. It's almost maddening. Did the guy at the assembly line throw these in like this, or some shade-tree, ham-fisted mutant when he installed the custom air filter?

[TominMO]

Actually I was the ham-fisted mutant who installed the custom air filter. The wiring looks like it had never been touched since installation at the factory. It looks this way now because I have it all out. Once I reinstall it tmw, it should look far tidyer. The annoying part was a clump of wiring bunched up against the fuel lines, right next to the carb. Now they are up on the downtube, as they were on The Carrot.

I was thinking of your black Suzuki while I was painting the interior white. I used blue painter's tape to cover any holes. That large round hole on the left side is for the air cleaner horn--it gets intake from inside the frame! (The bottom of the frame is open.) This design was only for 1969.

[TominMO]

Rerouted the wiring, installed the motor, installed the SS Allen case screws on the left side. In the process of doing that, I learned two things:
1. your garden-variety claw hammer is not the best tool for the job, used with an impact screwdriver. Get a BFH (pictured below--it came with the garage).
b. the screws that stuck out were easy to get off with a pair of vise grips.

Whilst I was laboring away in the garage, my new rear sprocket came. JT Sprockets model JTR809/2.45. They come in black or silver. Black was available.

[dirtbkr188]

[TominMO]

Decided to get it running today. Long story short: nope.

Got the tank and fuel lines on, installed the carb, added gas, and immediately fuel started leaking fairly aggressively out the petcock. Swapped on the carb from The Carrot--overall a much better design BTW, in terms of convenience. Same issue!

Inside the petcock, both carbs have one of these. The '69 has 4 holes, the '72 has eight.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/12183168904...Bk9SR5Ke6LS0YQ

Apparently they go bad, Now these are low-mileage bikes, but maybe they went bad from just being old. The '72 was also leaking at the fuel strainer/screen, at the rear of the petcock. IIRC it's just an O-ring in there. I'm probably gonna get an OEM rebuild kit off eBay. You have to make sure that it has the rubber petcock part because many do not.

The other plan is to get a Chinese carb off Amazon. Generally about the same price as the rebuild kit. I would prefer to get the Honda carb running right, but if a rebuild kit doesn't cut it then I will just get a Chinese carb.

[TominMO]

Weather was in the high 50s today, so I went out and tackled the case screws again. Got all the old ones removed, on both motors. I didn't do the ones that actually join the case halves, just the side cover ones.

LESSONS LEARNED
1. The JIS screwdrivers I bought were a waste of money. When it came to getting the old phillips screws out after I broke them free, the Milwaukee #2 did a better job than the JIS #2, especially if the phillips head was a bit damaged.
2. Two things actually mattered, (a) and (b) below:
a. Pre-soak the screws at least twice with penetrant. They've been untouched for 50+ years! Imagine the corrosion. It only needs to soak for a few minutes, not hours or overnight.
b. Use a #3 tip on your impact screwdriver. It bites in there better than the #2.
c. Oh yeah, use a BFH, not a normal little claw hammer, on the impact driver. So three things.
d. Used anti-seize for the new screws
e. Some of the screws I was able to get the tip of a vise grip on, and those broke free really easy. Only my Irwin worked; the tip on it is much better than a Craftsman's.

Once I figured out the proper procedures, the spare motor (The Carrot's) went really easy. Need to order an allen screw set for it.

I was short two of the shortest screws. Possibly I used them on the other side where I was supposed to use a longer one, so I'll check. If not, they are available in black at Ace Hardware, in various lengths. If necessary, I will buy a couple and put them on the bottom of the cases where no one will notice them. All are 5mm Allen wrench.

[TominMO]

New parts and tools showed up, mostly today. I'll get on the ultrasonic cleaning tmw. Horn is for The Tomahto. Chain, sprocket, and SS case screws are for The Carrot, so both bikes have the same new good parts. Carrot motor is actually a spare for The Tomahto. Plus I got a cable luber.

[TominMO]

Fooled around with the Vevor ultrasonic (US) cleaner today. Watched a YT vid on a guy trying out inexpensive cleaning solutions. Best one was Pine Sol, but has a strong odor. He also discovered that the heating elements in these cleaners are not all that powerful, so his workaround was to boil water and add it slowly to the cleaning solution until he got to the desired temp. So that is what I will do tmw. And I will do this on my porch, where there is an outdoor outlet, to avoid the fumes issue. I expect that once I get it to the right temp, I will probably have to alternate boiling and colder water to get it up to the right fluid level.

He was using a larger model than mine, probably 5 liters. He used it for automobile carbs. He was also in a cold garage, so ambient air temp was probably a factor too. Mine is 3 liters, which has a 100W heating element. His was probably a 200W. The smallest is 1.3 liters, but that seems fairly useless for our needs. I think I got the best bang-for-buck size. Picked up some Pine Sol and distilled water today. Planning on a 50/50 mix.

[XLsior]

I found putting smaller items in sandwich zip bags with the cleaning solution and then filling the vat with plain hot water makes things a bit easier to manage with sonic cleaning.

i purchased a cheap 3litre unit and the driver board failed after a couple of runs, got my money back and kept the dead unit...found a replacement board at aliexpress and got it running again. So i'll say those Sonic cleaners are a bit hit and miss sometimes.

I only got as far as using 2x dishwash detergent and hot water with decent results on carburetors...

[TominMO]

OK, results of using the US cleaner with 50/50 Pine Sol/water mix. It didn't magically make everything look like new. Perhaps it would have done a better job if I had used a solution specific for removing corrosion on aluminum, but being a noob to this, IDK what that would be. Pulled it out of the soup, rinsed it off, and gave it a quick and light scrub with a green scrubbie pad. It also works pretty well at getting off gaskets. At least this gives me a good base for polishing.

Before and after pics. Pic 2 also shows the basket and the tea ball thingy that comes with the cleaner.

[TominMO]

After some polishing. 400/800 grit on the valve cover, 800/2000 grit on the larger covers.