Reading Assignment
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: Chapter 3-4
- Shop Class As Soulcraft: Chapter 1
Groups
- Top End and Carburetor: Bear, George, Monica
- Bottom End and Clutch: Sharon, Ben, Jordan, Kirk, Mac
- Electrical and Distributer: Manbir, Daniel
- Frames, Forks, and Wheels: Haydn, Eliza, Emma, Adam, Hillary, Mariana
How to edit the website
- Go to www-dept-edit.princeton.edu/ssp
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Enter Edit Mode”
- Go to the part of site you want to edit and add.
In-Class Discussion
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- Narrator, Son (Chris), and friends (Sylvia and John) taking a motorcycle trip in order to experience the open road. Sylvia and John are also working on mending their marriage.
- Theme: Art vs. Science/Romantic vs. Classic: Narrator finds himself more of the scientist while John and Sylvia are more of the artists. This manifests itself in their difference of opinion on fixing motorcycles. The narrator likes the hands on aspect of fixing it himself, while John and Sylvia choose to separate themselves from the technology, almost fear it.
- Theme: “What’s Best:” We have lots of new information which is much wider than our old knowledge but not necessarily as deep.
- Good mechanics are thoughtful, careful, deliberate, not sloppy. Many mechanics are not invested in their jobs, which means they often miss things, and don’t do the job right.
- Cylinders and Pistons: Pistons move up and down in the cylinder and have an airtight seal between them. Detonation occurs right above the piston increasing pressure and allowing the piston to move. Our bike will have 1 piston and 1 cylinder.
- Choke: Helps start the motorcycle. Restricts the amount of air that can enter the cylinder so that the gas to air ratio is higher. In order to get a cold engine started you want more gasoline: a richer amount of fuel. Problems occur when choking the engine too much, or choking a hot engine because they the gas floods the engine. If the engine is flooded you have to take the plug out and let the gas evaporate.
- Kick starter: Ratchet with a spring which starts the fly wheel/piston moving.
- Plugs: Spark plugs produce sparks. Need a certain amount of voltage and gap to produce an optimal spark. Can burn or melt.
- Points: Low voltage circuit involving the battery connected by points. They constantly open and close and when they are open they get a spark. If they get carbonized (too large gap) their is not enough space for a strong electric spark and if they have too small of a gap the timing of the spark is off.
- Tappets: Caps on the rods which open and close the valves. If they expand the valve will never close all the way, or they will make a clicking noise.
- Seizure: When pistons (or other parts) expand more than the cylinder and gets stuck. In extreme circumstances can melt to the cylinder. Oil lubricates and keeps pistons cool to avoid this problem.
- Cooling Fins: Allow air to take away heat from the engine.
- Open-Ended Wrench: adjustable wrench. Problem is that if you use the wrong size you can round bolts really easily. Better to use a Spanner Wrench.
- Overhaul: Rebuild
- Sheared pin: Horizontal force cuts of the bolt. To avoid this problem don’t tighten bolts too much.
Shop Class as Soulcraft
- Office work vs. mechanical work: Finds that there is an internal reward with mechanical work because you are actually creating something. This goes back to the idea of Classic vs. Romantic. As a mechanic you are being an engineer instead of just crafting a product.
- Theme: Value of Labor
- Theme: Self-Reliance. We need to become more involved in the stuff that we have and learn how it works. We need to get away from the “call someone” mindset as more and more becomes automatic.
What we did in Lab
- Began sorting through parts and taking inventory
- Started cleaning some of the parts
- Started taking apart the engine
Notes by ED