Mickly

Right, back on track. Managed to get the dowels sorted & the cyl head sitting flat ( without the liners or gasket in place ) Good job I removed the head as I realised that I’d omitted to fit this: fixed cam chain guide .. whoops. Smaller beads of sealant added to the liners & head refitted. The gaps either side of the head are now satisfactory with no way of squeezing the smallest of feeler gauges in. Now to fit the cam shafts.

Now, I understand that I could have avoided this if I had switched my phone off but….. The couple of quiet minutes at 11:00 today to reflect on those who served and fell was interrupted by the pinging of txts from Dominoes & Hermes, FFS can’t these tw*ts put a moratorium on messages for just 2 minutes

I also made loads & hung them from the ceiling, when I got a bit older I hung them from a tree in our back garden and shot them with an air rifle from my bedroom window.

Rode it to the Cinderella club, surprisingly high number of bikes considering that it was drizzly and slippery under foot Mates Bitza

Really pertinent topic for me. I absolutely love my ancient Arai Quantum, but it’s now 10 years old & needs replacing and I’m considering a flip front lid, especially as now I have to wear glasses when riding.

Went for a spin yesterday afternoon for a couple of hours, thought it was a bit nippy, on getting home there was the quilted inner for my leathers hanging on the wardrobe door - I was convinced I’d zipped it in earlier

On a country road approaching a hump back bridge I was convinced that the road went straight on due to the high hedges and telegraph poles going straight on, a great opportunity to get some air under the Gixxer’s tyres …. Nope the road went hard right shortly after the bridge and straight on was a farm track … luckily the farm gate was open & I managed to keep it upright despite a bit of off roading

Has the Missus realised her necklace has gone missing?

The liners are out & cleaned up again along with their seats. I thought I would test fit the head without the liners & gasket to ensure it sits flush & guess what?? Correct - it doesn’t My suspicion is that I’ve fitted one or more of the dowels on the piss !! To be continued ….

I am aware of this & have new bolts … not cheap!!

And on closer inspection it seems @fastbob was quite correct ( did anyone ever have any doubt? ) The liners will have to be removed again so excess Hylomar can be removed before it blocks the coolant ways.

Having slept on it, I decided to take off the head. All the liners were level with the top of the engine cases, no gaps at all, should they be slightly lower?

Once had a bike garage replace a fork seal on my old Speedtriple - got home & on closer inspection there were scratches on the gold fork upper where some heavy handed tw*t had rammed them into ( or out of ) the yolks. Dave Brown M/c’s in Cov … no longer in business !!

I will give it a go tomorrow. I’ll also pop the plugs in and see how the compression is ( hand cranked )

So the required 90° would be 1.5 points Oh we’ll I’ve got the gauge so may as well us it.

Now I’m a bit concerned does this gap between block & head look right? this is the other side. Worried now that it’s not seated correctly & I’ll have to take it off again.

Managed to tuck the engine under my arm to steady it & all bolts now tightened as required. Each bolt has a dab of paint when tightened in case I was called away for a domestic emergency

Is it safe to look up ‘Nomex Underwear’ on the internet?? I’ve been caught like that before & some stuff can’t be unseen

So the extra 2 bolts were delivered while we were away. Tightening up in the order specified in the Haynes manual 1st stage is torque to 20Nm 2nd stage is torque to 27Nm 3rd stage is a 90° turn - I’ve never had to do this before so I’ve bought a gauge and watched some YouTube tutorials on how to use it: The long bolt in the cam cap hole only stops the dial moving by holding the lever attached to the gauge so isn’t under any strain & now the gauge hand moves as you tighten - 1st one done, but I am finding it very difficult to hold the engine on the bench while ensuring the Torx drive stays vertical and doesn’t cam out while applying the required turning force using a breaker bar, I may have enlist a mate to hold the engine. I know some on here will say it’s all a faff & I should just go by feel, but experience and many stripped threads & broken bolts show that in this respect I definitely do not have ‘the touch’

Hope you get through this ok.

I’m always typing spelling mistakes… no excuses, I’m just thick !!

Having a Speedtriple I use an Abba stand that operates on the swinging arm pivot, I also have the ratchet strap attachment that allows both wheels to be off the ground at the same time. Its a great bit of kit. The only down side is that I have managed to ham fistedly scratch the frame where the adapter has dropped out as I tried to fit it - the lesson is to tap the adapters into place before fitting the stand !!

Or an Alfa … especially the Sud !! Mate of mine had one, spent loads on fixing the engine because the head warped, only for it to be condemned at its next MoT

In those days the cars rusted to bits any ended up I the scrap yard before the valve seats wore away