ural paint

More painting from this past summer...

 

ural

 

It just seemed like a good time to repost this Ural video. I found it when I first bought my Ural. Hoping to have the old Ural back on the road in the coming month. Maybe it will happen in time for first snowfall! I have so many things to get done before the new semester starts next week.

ural redo

I've had my Ural torn apart for quite sometime. When we moved to North Carolina, I ended up driving it to work some but I had severe carb problems (which just turned out to be a simple issue), the tub was rusting, the sidecar fender was rusted out, and parts of the frame were looking really rough with exposed steel. I loved riding the Ural in Milwaukee and it was my main mode of transportation for many years. The mountain roads and tourists here in the area made me a bit nervous about being on the road on the Ural so it hasn't seen much action. 

The Milwaukee winters killed the Ural with all the salt and so when I got it to North Carolina it was in need of a redo. At first I thought I would just repair the rust in the sidecar. When I got into it, it was way worse than I thought. I had to cut a ton of rusted sheetmetal from it. I found a new sidecar fender to replace the rusted out one as it was too far gone. The Ural sat with the sidecar tub off, but fully assembled for a year or two. I was going to try and just touch up the main frame and sidecar frame, bit after further inspection, I just stripped it down. I was glad I did. I discovered that the front Earls fork was seized and so I had no front suspension movement. I did a paint job on the frame and swingarm a few weeks ago and started assembling things a few days ago. I have the final drive on (not shown here) and I've been able to go through things thoroughly. I'm hoping to get the sidecar frame painted in the next day or two so I can get it into a full rolling chassis. Shock rebuild is next on the agenda.

ural sheetmetal repair

I've had the Ural down for far too long. I discovered a ton of rust in the sidecar fender and in the sidecar tub a few months ago. Undoubtedly is is from riding in Milwaukee for all of those salt filled winters. It was my main mode of transportation year round when I lived in Milwaukee. Since moving to Boone, I've not had as much interest in riding for some reason. Maybe it's due to the blind corners and the rock littered corners from summer rainy season wash-outs, but I'm starting to get the fever to ride again. The Ural will require a full paint job on all sheetmetal (except the gas tank) before I can get it back on the road. The way these are constructed and not sealed make for serious rust traps. All overlapped seams were just filled with bondo from the factory; no seam sealer or anything. I'm trying to fix all of the bad areas before getting it back in paint. I've worked on patching the tub these last couple days and getting it prepped for some epoxy coating. The sidecar fender needs major reconstructive surgery or a complete new/used fender. I may have to change up the color from black to something else when I paint it.

ural sidecar custom

ural tries, bearings, and me-pi tool

This weekend I replaced, repacked, and set preload on new wheel bearings on the Ural. The drawback of having a sidecar is having to buy more than two tires and bearings for more wheels for one bike. I had mounted new tires all the way around a week or two ago and while I was at it I decided to check the wheel bearings. One of the wheels had bearings that were toast so I just went ahead and sprung for new bearings all the way around. Today I made a simple tool for measuring brake shoe adjustment. Each shoe has an adjustment for setting the gap between drum and shoe. Most Ural owners used to recommend chalking the brake shoe, then mounting the wheel and checking for drag, and then taking the wheel and making fine adjustment until the chalk is just rubbed off. Gobium on Soviet Steeds website had made a tool called the me-pi tool. I made a modified version out of an old caliper that my Dad had given me years ago. I turned a piece of steel on my lathe and bored the I.D. to 20mm to fit the Ural axel. I cut the end off the caliper and welded the caliper to the steel bushing. It worked like a charm and I should now be able to sit the gap easily without removing the wheel multiple times. It rained all afternoon, so I wasn't able to get the wheels remounted, but hopefully I can do it this week.

I also did a job for Jimmy at Tsuga today. He's doing a job for the NFL so I fabbed up a simple aluminum piece for him. Sorry no pics on this, as I don't know if I can release the details yet.

ural off-road and twisty video

I know I've posted this before, but I've just been loving riding here in the mountains and it had me thinking of this video.

new ural air filter

I bought a new oil filter and diesel air cleaner while I was ordering parts. I hate the stock air cleaner on the early Urals. It's next to impossible to remove the air filter without removing the gas tank. The diesel air cleaner will need to be modified to fit, but it will make filter changes easier. The filter is like this one: but I ordered from a different source that was cheaper. It's obvious that Ural thought the old filter housing was a problem as they changed the design of the stock housing a while ago. 

ural 1WD in snow

I worked on the Ural a few weeks ago. I've been having carb trouble ever since I moved to the mountains. It turns out that I had a needle with a broken tip and some dirty jets. I think the ride from Milwaukee to Boone maybe shook the living daylights out of the bike. I ordered two new titanium needles that have adjustable heights (as most needles do). The stock needles are fixed height. I got the carbs back together and I now have a strong running Ural again. I was able to ride all week and even rode in the snow at the start of the week. The commute to work is very different from my Milwaukee commute; twisty and steep roads. I'll have make a video sometime so you cam all get a sense of things. I also got four new tires to install on the Ural. I really liked these Duro tires the last time. The were good in to snow and had strong sidewalls that work well with the weight of the sidehack. I'm trying to decide if I try to make it through summer before swapping or if I should change now. I probably could get away with a tire rotation with the existing tires so I may do that and prolong the life. Just hoping we don't get any more snow...