hello, been outfitting a 1985 camel 501 for my wife to ride with me in utah backcountry. Did alot of upgrades. 12v system all around. did the stator conversion. re-wired it completely and all LED lights. Had many issues with it, and previous owners seemed to do some hack jobs here and there and were unexperienced. It has Keihin PWK's, but was sorely rich jetted. Got jetting right, and removed restrictions in the airbox, and it runs much better. Was having trouble getting it to idle at 1300rpms, so I took out my infrared thermometer to compare head temps. Rear was running at 225F, while the front was only 155F, after about 10 minutes of warmup time. Removed plugs. Rear plug has nice brown tone on the insulator, and a bit of white on the tip. Front plug was sooty black with smell of fuel. Got my compression tester out. rear has just over 150psi with little effort kicking, while front is under 100psi with alot of kicking (full throttle) DARN. I should have check compression first!
Previous owner had seriously over filled the case with oil. I measured 1.25 gallons after having to be creating and rough getting the buggered up drain plug out. It now has 2.5 quarts in it of good ester synthetic. dip stick reads good now.
I'm thinking that over filling the case may have damaged the rings in the front cylinder? It looks like it had been run like that for a bit as everything behind the engine vents is blasted with oil stains.
I'm hoping someone out there my have some advice and some parts in the US? even good used. ready to get this off my lift and riding. Has new gates belt and checked and double checked timing. front and rear are exactly the same. I have some new clutch plates and wanting a spring tool to get to them.
thanks!
Rick
501 camel. low compression
Re: 501 camel. low compression
Can't help with compression problems, but the clutch nut tool is easy enough. You can go the notched screwdriver route (notch to fit over the stud diameter), the ground down socket route, or the notched heavy duty hacksaw blade route (like the screwdriver basically). The nuts should only be bottomed on the studs (held by spring pressure), but are sometimes over tightened or seized on the studs, Take it easy as if you strip out a stud you may need to strip out the clutch basket to repair. They are 7mm thread if I recall.