Charlie O'Neal's Voyager project

[cushman eagle]

We are glad you had a safe trip home and we wish you a very Merry Christmas.

[hank43]

Happy to hear that you had a safe trip and wish you a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Our cold up here in Michigan is supposed to be a "high" of 18 degrees on Christmas day with 3 inches of snow. UPDATE ------ 5 inches of snow on the ground with another 5 possible today -------- what happened to global warming ????????????

It was a a typo, it should have read "Global Warning"

It's cold in Sacramento too, low mid 30's - But still cold to me

hank43

[Mr Jensee]

My Christmas was spent in bed. Slept most of the day between doses of medicine. I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas. I have dialysis in the morning. Maybe by then I will see some improvement in my condition. I have had my flu shot this year so I don't know what has gotten into my system. When I am better I plan to tackle my coolant leak, then work on restoring Charlie's bike. On Carl's recommendation i need to find me some hemostats to use for reattaching the cables to the carbs. I wont attempt it till I do. Ok, now back to bed. Peace to you all.

[cranky]

... Askin' for the Best for Ya, get well and on to '18!!!!!!!!!

[Mr Jensee]

The weather was warm enough, at 50 degrees to get out there and go through Charlie's Voyager. The radio works but the handlebar controls don't so it is running at max volume when I turn it on. Looks like I am going to need a left side handlebar control and the levers are old pitted chrome. Pitted badly, so much so that using sand paper and a wire wheel wont take the pitting out of them. Somebody buying this bike is not going to want to feel these things without gloves on. Contacted Carl and he says the same freezing weather we have been experiencing is hitting his area now as well. Waiting to see if he has these parts before decide to whether or not to order new stuff from Bikebandit.com.

[cushman eagle]

Mr.Jensee,I occasionally see those left handle bar controls on ebay

[Mr Jensee]

I do too but I am checking with Carl first. Thanks though.

[Mr Jensee]

Today I repaired my cruise control which wasn't working down in Florida. Also addressed the coolant leak. It has been raining now 3 days so I cant get out and test anything. This afternoon I installed the air box on Charlie's bike and tomorrow the weather may be warm enough that I can take a stab at installing the carbs. I am so glad I have a shop manual. All these hoses are intimidating.

[Mr Jensee]

It is Tuesday January 9 and I managed to get the carburetors installed on the Charlie Voyager. Unfortunately that is all I succeeded at. I cannot get the air box mounted onto the carbs no matter how I try. If anyone has a suggestion I would appreciate hearing from you. Today i limp inside defeated. Fortunately I have my ibuprofen and tramadol to ease the pain. Will try again tomorrow. On a positive and happy note. Carl came through again. Shipped me a new set of handlebar radio controls and both levers which surprised me are even chrome! As soon as this weather gets above 50 degrees i will once again tackle the carburetors. I have an open garage and no heat in it so trying to work in the cold is just too much for me. I don't know how you guys in north stand it below freezing for 2 months straight.

[doug of so fla]

Mr Jensee: Air box hook-up should not be a problem. I think in tech tips there is a answer to it, maybe with photos, but maybe not ..

Anyway the little trick is to: 1. lube them with a good lube 2. get a string like a leather boot lace and feed it through the airbox holes and double loop it around the notch on the rubber connection and pull them thru. the lace must be small enough to fit in groove and allow enough room to pull the lace or string out of the connection when you get it in position .

It is very simple to do this way . The air connections are probably very hard due to age so it won't be as easy as it used to be .

But if you have a problem, Just remember you can call our friend, Carl and I am sure he has a very good way to do them.

[Mr Jensee]

Doug could you put this in a little greater detail because I have trouble picturing what you posted. I lubed them with silicone spray and heated them with a hair dryer. They seem pliable enough but there is a 1/8" gap between the air box and the carbs. What notch are you referring to? And where are you looping the shoelace? I hate to pull the carbs off again because it took me the better part of a day to get them on. I still haven't got all the hoses reattached. Right now I cannot remember where the 2 3/8" clear plastic hoses are supposed to go. Also I wish I had connected the fuel hose because once in position the secondary air box is blocking access. Thanks for responding though.

[Mr Jensee]

Thanks Doug for calling me back. I am so tired of this damned weather. For Louisiana it is intolerable. Since January 1st we have had almost no days of weather above 45 degrees and I am sick of the rain. This cold front needs to go back to Canada where the people there are used to it.

[alta drifter]

thanks but we don't really want it back either
and if it makes you feel better, we sent you the good weather, here in Alberta it has consistently been -20 t0 -35 Celsius all week

[Mr Jensee]

I'm feeling for you drifter.

[Mr Jensee]

Weather is so cold today it snowed last night. It never got above 32 degrees today so very little of the snow melted. Hard freeze expected tonight down to 13 degrees expected. Cannot work on either bike in this weather. Cannot heat my garage. This is the coldest January in my recollection. I also want to install a new panel with USB, Accessory socket and voltage monitor I purchased on Amazon and install it on my Voyager. It will cover the CB door on the left fairing and has an on off switch which means after fusing I can run it directly to the battery. Just cant install anything till it warms up enough to where my hands don't freeze. Dialysis in the morning. I hope the roads are passable at 6am.

[Mr Jensee]

Yesterday though the humidity had the floor of my garage soaking wet, I made another attempt at installing the bike's carburetors. After several hours I got the accelerator cable installed and functioning. Still, even after following Doug and Carl's advice I cannot get the damn air box attached to them. And the most perplexing part of it I have the two inner air box manifolds attached and even got the springs put on. But the left and right outter manifolds wont go on no matter what I try to do. I don't remember the ZRX being this difficult to get the air box back on. I would love to have seen how they ran this machine through the assembly line. Just getting the fuel line back on was an adventure. I am going to give it a rest and try again when the weather is warm again. I hope after all this the bike starts and runs. It would be a shame to go through all this pain and agony and not run.

[voyager55]

Keep a stick of dynamite handy if all else fails. Be sure to insure it to the max first!

[sheiserman]

Keep a stick of dynamite handy if all else fails. Be sure to insure it to the max first!

Two sticks. All the humidity may ruin the first one.

[Mr Jensee]

I don't think trying to insure someone else's bike is going to play well with my insurance. However this thing has fought me left and right since I started on it. Yesterday I reinstalled successfully the carbs, the air boxes and went to test start it. Suddenly once again fuel has poured unabated out of the bottoms of the overflow tubes. I want to cry. It has taken me the better part of 2 days to get all the cables and hoses on and especially that damn fuel line and this is what I get? So now there is no other choice but to tear everything down once again and open the carbs one by one to see what kind of trash might be in there blocking the float valves. My hands are beat up my back and leg muscles ache and now I have to build up the patience to pull these things and reinstall them. Scott, thank you for the offer but Carl Leo sent me everything I need to finish up the bike once I get it running.

I may be in over my head on this thing but I am NOT making another trip to Florida to get it right. The only positive aspect is that once completed I will know more about MY bike than I ever thought possible. I may need that knowledge someday down the road.

[HarryL]

Having had lots of old carbureted cars, I learned quickly that I could lightly tap the carb bowl to free up debris to get me back on the road.
Before pulling everything apart, I would drain each carb and measure the amount of gas to maybe determine which carb has debris. And then lightly tap on it and hopefully free it up.
Also, if it happened to be one of the outside carbs, are the bowls accessable to get them off and clean out the debris without removing the carbs.
Others may chime in here if that can be done.

Good Luck
Harry