SCREENS 1 & 2

Not much inducement to get out into the cold damp garage at the moment, but there were a couple of jobs I wanted to get done before Christmas.

The rubber bobbins, I had got from EBay, for mounting the coil pack were in danger of getting lost, so I thought it wise to decide the best place for them and get the job done, only four holes to drill, didn't take long, just had to ensure the coils cleared the closed bonnet and that the HT leads had an unobstructed run to the plugs.

In lieu of anything else important to do I ordered a pair of Aero Screens, Brooklands style. £55 each, excellent, although the aluminium frames will need a bit more polishing, but as you probably know by now, I like polishing. I took my time in measuring and marking where the holes for the support brackets needed to be and then drilled them using a 4.5m drill for the 4ba bolts which would allow a little wriggling room for alignment. I made up four brass backing plates out of an old letter box internal flap, to spread the load on the underside of the scuttle. Job done, starting to look the biz.

Hopefully the New Year will bring forth steering and suspension parts from Arthur and allow me to move things on, in the meantime I will make a start on sorting out the wiring loom.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to anybody out there who happens to have nothing better to do than read my little blog.

FINISHED WITH ENGINE

Tappets have been adjusted, 0.15 mm for exhaust and 0.10mm for inlet, the socket on the alternator nut allowed me to turn the engine over so that each piston was at TDC on the firing stroke, thus ensuring that the pushrods were at their lowest position before the feeler gauge was introduced between the tappet and the valve stem.

The remains of the, well and truly stuck on, gasket was removed from the underside of the rocker covers. New gaskets were in place  and the covers were bolted back on, after another quick polish.

Whilst I was unscrewing the second of the two screws on top of the left hand carb, in preparation to reconnecting the throttle cable, I failed to hold down the top and like a jack in the box, as the last thread of the screw released the top and spring sprung out. The spring I  found on the floor on the other side of the garage, but the top totally dissapeared. I assumed it must have gone even further than the spring, but despite fruitlessly turning the garage inside out I gave up looking for it and set about connecting the other carb, ensuring that I held the top down. All went well and as I adjusting the cable, there was the other top, not more than four inches away tucked down between the two cylinders, what a relief.

The throttle cable was soon connected to that carb and then the whole lot was liberally sprayed with the ACF-50 anti corrosion spray, just going to leave it now for the spray to creep into all the nooks and cranies before wiping off the excess. I have to say that I am very pleased with the finished appearance of the engine. Smug Git

One last thing, I have resolved my problem with getting a plug socket passed the chassis side rail and onto the spark plugs, a new 3/8 drive one just slips in and an adjustable wrench on the hex end of the socket allowed me to tighten the plugs.

TOPS ON

Last Wednesday I collected my bits from Dave at www.tsrvapourblasting.co.uk and I wasn't disappointed. Shiny bright, thanks Dave. He assures me that the carbs have been reset to pre. dissasembly setting since emerging from the ultra-sonic bath, but may need slight adjustment once engine is running.

The photos show the newly cleaned parts, plus the new carb filters, oil line to rockers and polished ali alternator cover. Time to put it all back together again. First on was the sump pan, not forgetting the new oil filter and then the laborious task of valve grinding, thankfully only four valves.
Valves were reinstalled using my trusty old valve spring compressor and plenty of oil down the valve guides.

I have plenty of piston ring compressors, ranging from small, which must have been for my first Villiers powered 2 stroke motor bike, up to a big bugger which was probably for my AJS 500cc single, anyway it has marked on it 2/6d so I have had it a long time. A slightly longer screw to hold it together and it slipped over these 530cc pistons a treat. The weight of the cylinder sliding down the studs was sufficient to push the compressor to the bottom of the piston where I unscrewed the clamping screw and gently pulled the compressor out around the studs. Off course I had to raise the engine to give clearance for the cylinders and heads to drop into place, but it all went very smoothly.

 Fortunately I had not forgotten the two O rings which go over the top and bottom studs before the cylinders are dropped on, and then the other 4 O rings are placed over the other studs before the rocker cradle is postioned over them and the whole lot is bolted down to 30psi, that was after the engine was lowered and secured in the chassis.

 I oiled the ends of the push rods and located them down their respective shafts before the rocker gear was installed, again using a liberal amount of oil over the securing pins. Just remains to adjust the tappets and refit the rocker covers.