Impressions of the Eldorado
Impressions of the Eldorado by Ron Bishop:
I purchased this bike from a pawnshop a couple of years ago, it had sat out in the weather for well over a year and was covered with snow the day I bought it [notice that I refer to the bike as an 'it'] Rust coming through the paint and with Kentucky chrome spray can paint on the side covers. [over decals and all] And I'm guilty of some neglect also, but at least I tarped
the beast. When I had room in the garage for a closer look, the carbs were toast, the main jets were rotted and one broke off with just using my fingers, didn't try the other one. Took the carbs off the G-5, put in fresh oil, eye balled the points, couldn't get one spark plug out so left that problem for later. Jumped a battery to it [had to jump around the starter relay] and be
damned if it didn't start up, in fact too quick, don't think the oil had time to circulate. Had put Marvel oil down the plug hole on one side and shot it into the intake port on the other, took the carb off to do this. Now this is winter and I hadn't opened the doors, Big mistake, after I'd opened the door someone driving by called the fire department. Heard the fire trucks coming down the street so went out to see where they were going and almost got
ran over in my own drive way. Got a warning ticket and was told my wood stove wasn't legal. Duh,it was a barrel stove, how much better can it get?.
So after the smoke and fire engines cleared the premises I started it up again and it didn't sound that good, didn't want to fool with the carbs as they were set for the G-5. Lots of top end noise, I had ran a feeler gauge through the valves, didn't know what they were supposed to be but whatever they were they were almost the same so I just wrote the excess noise off as valve train thrashing. Quit smoking and the exhaust note sounded great, I
think it has Ram Flo's. Put some panther pee on the frozen spark plug, smelled bad on the hot engine but got the plug out with no thread damage. Checked the compression, in the 140s and almost no difference between cylinders. It has some hokey floor boards and hokier foot controls. Well, anyway the shifter lever was sort of flopping around so figured that it was just
loose on the shaft and worn pivots, no such luck, it had a broken selector spring in the transmission. So put the carbs back on the G-5 and to the back wall of the garage it went. That was over 1 1/2 years ago. Had a little medical problem and also needed to collect up some parts so it sat there until a week or so ago.
I pulled the G-5 down for maint & repair. Thats another story, so why not try and get the Eldo up and running so I can do the ABATE end of the summer sun run over in N. Idaho.
Thanks to MI, Classic Cycles and ebay, I've got everything that I needed at the time, Plus a few things I didn't need, well you know my wife has to have something to hold over me.
My son in law used to work at a MG dealership and I have to admit I let him do the Transmission spring job,[ hid all the long handled hammers] I did the R&R part of it.
With that part done I put the 'new' rebuilt carbs on, new hoses and gas in the tank and the battery out of the G-5.Now by this time I have this feeling like I have to go to the bath room real bad, that is to say I was getting excited and ready to ride this thing.
Well, straddled it and hit the starter button and-----nothing. Well anyway it was getting late and had run out of beer a long time ago so put it to bed for the night.
So yesterday after church let out, [that is to give a time frame, I live next door to a church] I went out and pulled wires and checked for continuity and really put some deep thought into this thing. Wasn't getting anything beyond the relay, starter worked when jumped, switches and buttons doing what they should. anyway the last time I jumped it the back wheel turned so tried to find neutral, it was hard to find the first time too, thought maybe the
gear grease hadn't got all through it yet, the 'N' light didn't work. So low and behold the N- light came on. Things are now looking up, tried the button and be darned if the starter didn't work, a few turns and it fires up and will almost idle without touching anything. Good rough setting for a beginner:}.
This is the first Eldo I've been around and the shift pattern is just A-- backwards with 1 up and 4 down, DUH. Pretty lame excuse huh, somebody should have told me that.
With the rocker shafts turned over and the valves set right it still is making bad noises, its got to be a wrist pin, or heaven forbid a loose circlip, but to my way of thinking it has to be a wrist pin, no smoke at all and great compression.
I figured the damage has already been done before I acquired this machine so took it out for a test ride. I kept the RPM's about midrange and it ran fine, the noise never got any worse, I put about 60 miles on 'Her.' This bike really surprised me, it feels so light & tight, of course
there is no fairing or bags but it makes my G-5 feel like a Mack truck. I think I'm going to really like this old girl. The gear ratio must be a lot different from the G-5,in fact I even stopped, and then counted the shifts as I felt there ought to be one more gear to go.
Seems to handle pretty well too, I'm not used to the wide Flanders handle bars or the floorboards,[ BTW-I put a stock shifter and brake pedal back on] . But did touch the side stand a couple of times and think I may have to teach her a bit more before I touch down her right side, I took her down to 'scary' a couple of times and nothing dragged on the pavement.
I was told in Europe that Americans couldn't do right-handers anyway. Is this a
paranoid or what? So this week I will pull the one loud jug off and see what's going on in
there. If can repair it to a dependable state I'll do it now, if not, I'll just do the new cylinder route on both sides later. Now for a get sick type goof up. The tool boxes were locked and no key, I went to every lock shop in Spokane and was told by all that it would be
impossible to find a key blank to fit, so I went home and drilled them out, Dumb-Dumb!! I called Classic Cycle in California and told him I needed a set of locks. He ask me if I still had the originals and I said yes, but they are destroyed, then he tells me that he can have keys made for them. And damn they were nice locks too.
But I do think she is a keeper, maybe not NOS, but nice. The only thing I would like to do is get some better brakes on her, may have been good in their time but now in the age of disc brakes the feel like old Ford mechanicals, I know, as I've bent and stretched a few brake rods in my day. When I get a few miles on her maybe I'll give you another report.
Cheers,
Ron Bishop