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So… yeah. I tore down the top end. I re-ringed. I honed. I timed. I reassembled. I attempted to fire. No dice.

A friend who has been absorbing most of my frustration about this project told me a rather involved story about another Japanese bike with similar issues. In the end, it was the ignition controller – what I call the ECU or knock box.

In the Super Sherpa, the ECU controls ignition retard and advance. If the plug is firing at the wrong time, the engine won’t actually produce power, even if it does light off. As I’m getting mixture out of the exhaust, I now know the carb is working. But the funny whooshing noise the bike is making when I take the exhaust off is definitely weird and could be the result of faulty ignition timing. If the mixture is lighting off and blowing out the open exhaust valves…

Next up – check all of the ignition system components.

I already know the ECU is suspect – the pinout fails about 60% of the tests required.

Anyone have a spare Sherpa ECU?

Yeah, I should have posted this earlier, but Thanksgiving was a drawn out affair this year. Also, anyone who says that turkey is dry and boring has never had a properly prepared one.

Anyway, here goes, recipes included.

Brine a turkey in the following….

4c water
1/4c Kosher or other large crystal salt
1 T rosemary leaves
20 sage leaves
1 T herbs de Provence
1/4c dark brown sugar
1/2c maple syrup
1 t olive oil

Boil brine mixture until oil is absorbed by herbs. Cool. Add turkey and water to cover.
Place in fridge and let soak for 1-5 days. Longer means stronger flavor. Five days is realistically the limit.
Turn turkey over in brine daily.
Prior to roasting, remove from brine.
Strain brine and tuck strainings under turkey skin.
Roast turkey at 400F for 15 min, then reduce temp to 325F and roast until done.

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Gluten-free crust – modified AHA

2c Pamela’s Artisan Flour Blend
3t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 to 3/4c water
1/2c oil
Mix drys, add water and oil and blend. Add water as neede for texture.
Makes three crusts

Apple Pie
Oil crust as above
6 Ida Red apples, peeled and sliced thin
Cinnamon
Flour as needed.

Layer apples into lower crust with flour and cinnamon. Top with upper crust.Bake at 350 until done.

Pumpkin Pies

Filling – use the Libby recipe, it rocks

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Cambric GF stuffing/dressing (You’ll figure out the name if you’re over 40)
2 loaves Schär multi-grain bread, cubed and dried
2 sticks butter
1.5# mushrooms, chopped small
1 head celery, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped small
1 clove garlic, diced (add as many as you want, really)
2 apples, chopped small
Fresh sage, rosemary, and thyme
1 qt chicken stock
a shot of Sriracha for the stock if you are so inclined
1T mushroom base for stock

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Melt butter in bottom of large stock pot.
Add mushrooms and sauté until soft.
Add vegetables and sauté until clear.
Add apples and sauté until aromatic.
Add herbs and sauté until aromatic.
Add stock and additions and cook until warm.
Spray a casserole with cooking spray.
Evenly spread out bread cubes in casserole.
Pour stock/veggie mix over bread cubes and mix up well.
Add water as needed to wet out all bread.

Cover with foil and bake until the texture is where you like it. Hotter oven (400°F) for more crispies. Remove the foil to improve crispies, leave it on for squishies

The stock/veggie mix can be made up ahead of time and kept cold until needed. But be prepared to reheat it first. The butter solidifies things and you need it in the bread, not in the veggies. Otherwise the texture of the final product will be crap.

Cranberry sauce

1 bag cranberries
1 orange
Water
Sugar to taste ~1T

Zest orange and reserve zest.
Peel orange and peel sections.
Place cranberries and orange sections into saucepan.
Barely cover with water.
Simmer until cranberries have burst.
Add orange zest and stir well.
Taste test and add sugar to taste.
Remove from heat and chill.

Sweet potatoes

Peel and slice in 1.5cm thick slices.
Boil until soft.
Fry in butter until browned.

White potatoes (as opposed to yellow)

Idaho russets
Chop and boil until soft.
Mash with sour cream and butter.
Salt to taste.

Green beans

Parboil green beans until color has just barely turned, about 5 minutes at boil.
Fry in butter left over from sweet potatoes until beginning to brown.

Serve the whole mess with a nice Malbec.

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It’s all about the flour.

Some time ago, I grabbed a bag of Pamela’s Artisan Flour Blend, simply because it came in a big bag. I was rewarded with a flour that bakes pretty well, including things like pie crust. I modified the old American Heart Association oil crust recipe to handle the Pamela’s flour, and it bakes up fantastically.

2 cups Pamela’s Artisan Flour Blend

1 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

1/2 to 3/4 cup water

1/2 cup oil

Blend the dry ingredients. Add water to oil in a measuring cup and add to dry ingredient mix. Add water as needed to get texture right. The texture and general behaviour of the crust are uniquely GF as it is not as short as one would like, but overall, it is a serviceable crust that will not let you down. The baking powder is the secret and makes the crust flaky and fun.

Let me know how you do with it.

It wasn’t the carb. It was the piston. I had an overheat a while back, and the rings decided to stick themselves into the lands. I lifted the head, which was fine, and then pulled the cylinder. Once I got the cylinder off, I looked at the piston and thought, doggone it, it’s ringbound. I really did overheat the stupid thing.

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The old Narda unit came back out and went to work for a while. Both rings sproinged loose, the lower after about 10 minutes, and the upper after about 30 minutes. The oil scraper was just nasty crunky. As the cylinder is clean and the piston is not damaged to the fingernail test, I’m simply going to wait for my gaskets and rings to arrive and will assemble it and check compression.

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I am quite impressed that the oil scraper held 5bar. That is just awesome.

I remember when I was first confronted with Bosch K-Jetronic, the first functional and emissions-compliant mechanical fuel injection system. I was working on my Golf I Cabriolet, tearing it down for a cleanup, and realized that Bosch had simply taken a carb apart and scattered the parts around the engine bay. That was the primary reason K-Jet has always been super-confusing to people who only know EFI: they don’t know carbs.

I used to think I knew carbs.

This Mikuni is killing me. It has more jets than a four-barrel Holley. It has more vacuum hoses and little passageways than a 1970s Jag. Who came up with this thing? And why is it killing my poor Sherpa?

Which is still not running. Poor thing is trying to fire. It is trying so hard to fire. It almost ran last night. Today, I will tear out the pilot screw (the what?), which is the buried part that controls the idle air mixture. Why not just call it that? You know, the idle air mixture screw. Ugh.

Oh, well. Here goes nothing. At least now, I know how to get the carb in and out without killing myself.

Time to bust out the old sonicator – a 1960s Narda SonBlaster 600 that my dad trashpicked about 35 years ago. It’s still going 60W strong. One of the cooler features is a limited tuning function that allows you to max the coupling constant for a given group of parts. It has two tanks and will drive one at a time.

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The carb parts cleaned up very nicely in a 40/60 mix of Simple Green and water.

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Although I ordered up some new jets for it, I likely won’t use them. The OE ones are in good shape, and I’d rather re-jet for a slightly richer mix.

The culprit was the air filter – it had a bad day. As far as I can tell, the mess is limited to the intake horn and the carb. I’ll get out the boroscope to check the intake valves tonight. And try to find a new air filter. A paper one would be better, I hate foam filters for exactly this reason.

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My Sherpa decided to no longer fire. I was getting air and spark, but possibly no fuel. Petcock (what magic is this vacuum thing?) is ok.

This little Mikuni is not an SU. Or a Holley. Or a Weber, or a Stromberg, or any other carb I am familiar with.

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Slide diaphragm is ok…

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Hmmm, was that my air filter?

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More to come.

I joined an ADVrider group ride yesterday and rode some two-track that Michigan calls a road. I mean, it’s got to be a road if it has a “road closed” sign, right?

Today, my hips are killing me from the new seat. I imagine it will take a while to aclimate to the higher seating position. The width of the seat is the issue. This happened with my CBR, to. I think it is just a new bike thing.

I’m looking forward to more dirt on my Sherpa. The F was a bit big, even though it handled everything with aplomb.

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I found some pictures from a day trip to Luxembourg. I went because I wanted to check Luxembourg off my countries I have ridden in list. I also wanted to check out Spa. Turns out that some 25 years ago, I was at Spa. I rode around most of Spa when it was a public road and not fenced off yet. As we were driving over the main straight, I looked at the grey/red garages and the checked line on the road and said to my sister “I think we just crossed the finish line of the Belgian Grand Prix”. Now I know that we did. It was no where near as developed then. Unfortunately there was a private track day and I could not buy a lap to ride it. Also, no stickers. Disappointing!

Some pics, in no particular order. I appear to be missing a side case. Hmmm.

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I got a Dakar seat for my F650GS!! Several failed attempts resulted in more low/normal seats, one of which I purchased and received before I figured out that it was not a Dak seat. This time, I was able to verify the seat first, and then trade my extra low/normal one for a real Dakar seat. The other rider needed and loves the low/normal seat, thank goodness. The difference between the two seats is amazing. I like my low seat and find it plenty comfy, but the Dakar seat is a completely different animal. The only word for this seat is PLUSH.

Interestingly enough, it does not put me on my toes. It only puts me less towering over the bike. I still have about 1cm of clearance and my feet are flat on the ground with a slight bend in my knees. So the new suspension will be the big event, and I will likely end up with both the new rig and this seat after a bit of acclimation. I love this seat. It is really comfy. Really really comfy. It changes the ergos of the bike slightly, and I like the riding position a lot. Make that – I LOVE the new riding position.

The difference between the low/normal seat and the Dakar seat: Dakar on top, low/normal on bottom. Both pans are identical, with the same part number. This makes identifying the seat kind of difficult.

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