One Airhead tool you couldn’t live without..

… OMG, at least one Inquiring Mind 🤣A’yup: first image is a set of “Shortin’ Stix” I’ve made: spark plug extenders; insulated handles with fine stranded wire leads to handle the voltage, probe; and serious alligator clips that attach to the cylinder fins ! Never seemed to have long enough screw drivers to short extenders; didn’t like the Cardiac Defibrillator affect when the spark uses me for ground, as finger got tooooo close to screw driver shank 🤪

Next up: both six-point sockets are 1/2” drive; some hefty torques involved. Left one is 27mm across flats; O.D. turned down to +/- 34mm by +/- 25mm length with squared/flat end (for max engagement)… swing arm pivot nuts !

Other socket is 30mm across flats, again squared/flat end for… at the moment I can’t recall, but will think of it ?

Behind door number three: a Spezial straight tip screw driver bit, secured into a knurled barrel for adjusting the Idle Mixture Screw, in the ‘gawd awful’ location right above a HOT exhaust header… lotta lost ‘religion’, new words there 🥴 It’s self-piloting over the cast O.D. of the carb body Idle Mixture Screw housing.

Ah… my “Many in One” tool is alongside it 🙂 The overall length from up-turned end to the straight end is… 201mm ! Base setting for clutch throw-out lever at transmission ! The worn-out Needle Jet provides a way to hold it; diameter of brass rod is 2mm (great for setting throttle cable free-play at carbs); the minor diameter of the Needle Jet is 4mm, perfect for setting clutch hand lever free-play at the perch.

But, but, there is more ! The major diameter of the Needle Jet is 6mm: perfect for eye-balling the movement of the front drum brake levers at the wheel ! Instead of using ‘blue language’ to extract the Oil Filter from the depth of the bottomless pit, use the right-angle hook down the inside of the canister, to pull it out !

Another use of the “Many in One” tool, is as a pointer to educate folks during Tech Days. And, when in ‘mixed company’, you can use it to scratch that annoying itch ‘where the sun doesn’t shine’, ahem, discretely ☺️

Rounding this out: last image shows the tools I’ve made for servicing the front forks. The combination wrench just happened to have a largest enough box end; to press in a 14mm X 1/4” drive, six-point socket; which I tack-welding fast. The socket fits the 14mm nut, securing the damper rod to the bottom cap of the fork slider; you must use the 4mm hex wrench to actually hold the damper rod from turning inside the stanchion. The wrench/socket is fitting over the nut, the hex wrench thru the socket to engage the damper rod. Firmly holding the hex wrench from rotating, loosen the nut… there is no need for more than 200 inlb/23 nm torque on that damper rod nut. You will languish in the Pit of Despair should the internal 4mm hex strip-out or, the damper rod check valve breaks 😬

Speaking of breaks, er, I mean BRAKES 😎 The “Crucifix of Salvation” for servicing the Alfred Teves Entwicklung (ATE) calipers on disc front brakes, is another Spezial tool I fabricated. Let alone extracting the caliper eccentric from the caliper body, more religion is lost when setting the eccentric to align the friction pads in perfect contact with the disc !

Couple M6 bolts welded head-to-head on another section of bolt; one end with threads exposed, other end slotted with a hardened piece of flat stock steel brazed in, parallel to turning handle. After removing the lower cap with concealed spring inside it, screw the tool’s threaded end into the eccentric and pull the part out. There’s a slot machined into one end of the eccentric, which the “t” end of the tool engages for adjusting the alignment of pads to disc.

By the way “pormuchu1”, you ever get that 🦨 of your’s sorted out; burn the E.P.O. house down for the ‘71 R 75/5 “ran when parked” moto he stuck you with ? 😲

Thanks for “inquiring”…

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