Rebuild...

[Scott]

Jeff,

totally understood... 

Scott

[Rob B]

Hello Jeff,

I am with you entirely on this topic. The forum is potentially ten times better than the "Sock" so given that only about twenty of us use the forum, then I have to assume that 90% of "Socks" delivered by snail mail actually go straight to the wastepaper bin without being read.

Keep up the good work.

RB

[MICK]

Hi Jeff,
Just to encourage you in your endeavors I thought I would post my own rebuild to show you the big hammer method.
I might be longer working on mine as most parts are a bit special and one off.
To be serious it is the first time I have looked inside the engine for a long time and don't now know how many miles its done from the engine build. I would guess 12 years and about 30,000 miles of careful riding, I did see 8500 revs on the clock once.
One screw loose and two completely missing, I hope to find them in the oil tank.
I am hoping some of the steel parts are reusable and am trying to save the crank and cams ( steel long stroke crank and rally cam profile ).
At the moment I am stuck with trying to get the cams out of the heads but while I removed the nuts very easy, because I used alloy cam sprocket carriers to save weight,  I am afraid they have melted to the camshafts.
No idea if it will work but hayho!

First problem the photo files are way to big , how do you make them smaller???

[Miti]

Thanks Rob... I would say at least 10 times, and at a fraction of the cost too... 

Hi Mick... As with most forums, the photo size is drastically limited to prevent the webspace being rammed full with photos...  I use a gallery site for my own photos.  The site re-sizes the massive files from my camera for quick download speeds...  Being a complete anorak myself, I also use "MS Paint" to resize the photos as "thumbnails"

The Club has a similar site and I'd be happy to upload your photos if you e-mail me:  webmaster@heskethownersclub.org.uk  The Club Gallery site is here:

Hope that helps... I'm also happy to help "editing" posts to ensure photos are correctly linked...

It'll be interesting to see what you're faced with Mick... You gonna call it "The Phoenix..?"

Jeff

[Miti]

Back to the job in hand....

Steady progress this week... I finished refurbishing the switchgear... What a job..! Must be two full days invested in them... Every contact has been cleaned, the "kill" switch has been replaced - the old one was in very poor condition, the shells have been powder coated and the legends re-painted in... The end product is not 100% what I had hoped for cosmetically, but they're about 200% better than before, so can't complain...





Once the switches were finished, I could install them and complete the electrical installation... Whilst I was working on this, the postie arrived with a "cheap and cheerful" voltmeter I ordered via Ebay... It's a moving armature type and took three days to come over from Hong Kong (£10 and P&P free..!!) Looks pretty good all connected up and won't drain the battery like the old electro-mechanical clock did... I'll see how I get on with this one and judge whether or not to take the £70 plunge for a posh VDO one...



So, with every connection checked, cleaned and tested, it was time to get the new battery filled and charged, then fitted... That went fine, but, of course, if something can go wrong, it will... I have a very bright tail-light and a dim brake light and no indicators at all... Tail-light taken apart (again) and bulb-holder internals rotated to correct position... That's sorted the stop and tail-light situation... 

I whipped off the indicator relay and connected a wire link in place... Both pairs of indicators work perfectly, as does the cancelling unit - just no flashing... So, I pulled the cover off the indicator relay. It's a simple electro-mechanical unit with a capacitor/resistor (CR) circuit that controls the time taken for the relay contact to break... It has a single pair of contacts that switch the output to the lights and the input to the relay... I used some fine wet/dry paper and some switch cleaner to clean the contacts up and, Voila, indicators too..!!

Next, I wanted to make sure the hydraulics were sorted before I fitted the front mudguard and headlamp cowl... I checked over the front bake hoses a while back and even though the hoses looked OK, I found a split in the outer cover of the top hose... I replaced this with a new stainless/braided hose from HEL - Bought at the Stafford show - made while I waited in less than 10 mins... Bargain price too...

The OEM hose is a Brembo part... No part number, but it does have a DoM label with "3/81" on it... That makes it 34 years old... Better look to getting the others changed too...





So, brake and clutch master cylinders fitted, both systems bled up a treat; time to fit the mudguard and cowl... The mudguard wasn't a problem at all. I test-fitted this pre-paint as it's an aftermarket "Rickman" style fibreglass part...It came without mounting holes, so I used the old "length of fuel pipe along the tyre" trick to ensure proper clearance and cut my own mounting slots... The cowling was a different matter... It's a 2nd hand part, not originally fitted to my bike, and hand made to fit to another bike decades ago... Before the paint went on I made certain the mounting holes were aligned... BUT... I forgot to check the flyscreen...!! Typically, I could get three out of four holes to align, but not the fourth... It was clear that "persuading" the screws in would end in tears, so I carefully overbored all four holes in the screen (to 8mm) and working from the centre out, the screws went in nice and neat...



Next up is "control cables for beginners". My supplier for the new cables (Johnson's) fell at the first hurdle, but they did send the parts back as promised... I'll be having a go myself as soon as my conduit shears and solder pot arrive...

Once the cables are sorted, the carbs and airboxes can go on and it'll be time for oil, fuel and internal combustion...!!

Jeff

[Miti]

Too nice an evening to waste...

A few weeks ago, I had a couple of infill panels fabricated by a local metal-bashing company... These are so I can ditch the awful tank "underskirt" panels, but still retain some protection for the electricals under the tank...

They were made to my own pattern, but "once in the metal" there were a few "tweaks" to be made...  Most of all, they need a 20deg bend to properly align with the frame tubes...  So, I dismantled the LHS one and got stuck in...





Didn't work out too bad, if I do say so myself... RHS one next, then a couple of bits dressed here and there and a coat of black satin to finish...



Jeff

[Miti]

...I might be longer working on mine as most parts are a bit special and one off...
....I am hoping some of the steel parts are reusable and am trying to save the crank and cams (steel long stroke crank and rally cam profile)...
...At the moment I am stuck with trying to get the cams out of the heads but while I removed the nuts very easy, because I used alloy cam sprocket carriers to save weight,  I am afraid they have melted to the camshafts...

Bloody hell Mick..!!

Is there anything in there that's going to be useable..?  I'm no metallurgist, but I do have a basic understanding of how heat affects steel... Will you be able to "trust" any of the hardened parts at all..?

Jeff

[MICK]

Though I have never tried heat treating before by burning down the building and exploding acetylene bottles, followed by quenching with seven fire engines I am quietly confident the completely over the top parts specifications could come to my rescue for some of the steel bits at least.

We shall see though the results will never be as shiny and nice looking as yours there is a lot of information to be had from the remains even if the timing marks are very difficult to find 

Some would say it looked like that when it was on the road but I think they exaggerate just a little and I am having fun.

Mick

[Miti]

Not a great deal of progress this weekend... Spent a LOT of time editing a magazine for a load of old duffers in a single make bike club... 

Also did a bit of work learning how to make cables up... Interesting stuff... Got myslf a cheapo "solder pot":



and a collection of cable-making parts fron Venhill (other suppliers are available):



I've spent a while getting the correct measurements for the various cables and I'll post up more when they're finished off...

Meanwhile...  More phone photos to be going on with...







Jeff

[Scott]

I'm liking this...

Scott

[Miti]

Thanks Scott... I'm getting near the end of my patience with it now... Should have been BOTR two months ago..!!

Anyway... At least it's got to the two steps forward and only one step back stage....

With the tank back from the painters, I needed somewhere safe to put it, so I put it here....



Not as easy as it sounds... it's one heck of a tight fit and not fun to play with, with the bike on a paddock stand and two feet up in the air...

I was quite pleased with myself... Until the side panels went on and the seat came down...  Look at this gap...



My 2nd poor photo doesn't show the problem quite as badly as it looked in "the real world", but the first one shows it quite well...  The gap between the side panel and the lower edge of the tank was about 13mm...   The rear/top edge of the tank was sticking up above the seat by the same amount...  It just looked "wrong".

The tank is an aluminium "Vampire" item... This is the first time it's been on the bike with the bike (near) 100% complete...  I checked clearance all around the tank and there was no doubt that it was mounted too high at the back...

I'm guessing that the alloy tank was fitted to the Vampires with modified rear mounts... I know the frame and airbox were different, but never having stripped down a Vampire, I'm not "au fait" with the specifics...

So... The next patient was wheeled in...



V1000 rear tank mount... There are two...

Each mount comprises four separate parts, to do two different jobs... They secure the rear of the tank and locate the front of the seat... The parts are (from bottom to top):

• Steel spacer with shoulder for seat mount, recess for central spacer and 8mm clear hole
• Dished washer (helps the seat mount slide home properly
• Central spacer (approx 11mm o/d - 8mm clear hole)
• Hard rubber buffer.

The height of the shoulder on the steel spacer determines the height of the front of the seat.  This wasn't a problem...

The dished washer provides support for the rubber buffer and guides the seat into place... Also, not a problem...

The thickness of the rubber buffer determines the height of the rear tank mount... Aha..!!  The culprit..!

I disassembled one of the mounts and measured up the rubber buffer and central spacer.  The buffer is 20mm deep and the spacer protrudes though it by 6mm...  I looked through my "big box of odds and sods" and came up with a nice new shock absorber rubber of approximately equal diameter and an 8mm bore... I carefully cut this into two halves...

Measuring the difference between the old buffer and my hand-crafted replacement... I cut a length of Dural tubing (I have no idea where that came from...) to the correct length and reassembled the tank mount... I slipped it into place for a "test fit"...



More poor phone photography... The gap is now approx 4mm...  I'll be taking 1mm off my new "lightweight" central spacer (as there is some clearance between the rubber parts that shouldn't be there) and that'll take the gap down to 3mm.  Then I'll make up the 2nd mount to match...

Onwards...   

Jeff

[Miti]

Well... That was a pointless exercise... 

I've never seen the modified airbox fitted to a Vampire, but the one fitted to the V1000 is a VERY close fit under the Vampire tank... My modified tank mounts are useless:



I'll come back to this at another time, but it's becoming all too clear why some folk simply ditch the airboxes and also why the latest "Kingswood" V1000s are fitted with "Pod" filters instead...

I'll consider my options after the bike is back on the road...

Jeff

[Miti]

New No. Plate arrived... I took bloomin' ages measuring up and fitting this... I'm glad I'm not paying myself by the hour...!!

Standing back to shamelessly admire my work, I was quite taken by look of the bike with the seat raised...

Nearly there now...



Jeff

[Miti]

Eery time you change something on a bike, you then have to compensate for the follow-on changes that happen as a result of your first change...  It's a real Pain in the A..!!

I decided to do away with the "underskirt panels", replacing them with metal "infill" panels that will allow more air circulation, whilst still providing for some protection to the ignition system components... (see post dated 24th May).

I've secured these to the frame using stainless steel "P" clips with rubber coverings, like these:



That works a treat.  But the underskirt panels also support the oil-cooler cowl... I managed to secure a couple of modern fairing fasteners for the two lower cowl scews, but I needed to fabricate a small "braquette" to secure the upper two... This is my third attempt after failing twice to get the all the required angles and dimensions correct...



This ties the top of the cowl to both new infill panels and I must say the whole thing is very securely attached now...

Looks pretty smart too...



Had her running today - the new "silencers" aren't as loud as I thought they might be... Especially as something has "gotten stuck" with all the faffing with cables and covers and the bike fired up a treat, but revved to 3K rpm and stayed there...

It's clear that the front cyl is holding the revs high... I'll get back in there and see what's gotten stuck and get the carbs balanced, etc... Soon be out on it again (watch out for a snow forecast in Scotland...)

Jeff

[MICK]

Very Nice
You might need to secure your rev counter cable before it rubs all that nice paint off the front mudguard under braking and when you ditch the air box be aware that the engine cam timing does mean that its a lot happier with long induction lengths to limit the effect of blowback.
Shame the numbers have already washed off the new plate 
Carry on enjoying and posting , it brings back so many memories.
Mick