Mississippi Bullfrog Posted March 21 Posted March 21 Rear brake caliper sorted and bled. Of course there is brake fluid all over the garage floor. It wouldn't be a proper job without the hose flying off the bleed nipple when you're reverse filling the system. 4 Quote
Mississippi Bullfrog Posted March 21 Posted March 21 A handy thing when refitting rear wheels is a caravan level ramp. It takes the weight of the wheel whilst you line everything up. 3 1 Quote
Mississippi Bullfrog Posted March 22 Posted March 22 Whilst I have a new bottle of brake fluid both bikes had fresh fluid front and rear. The Bobber rear is a bit of a faff as the swing arm bag has to come off to get at the caliper. 2 Quote
Mississippi Bullfrog Posted March 22 Posted March 22 2 hours ago, Simon Davey said: Bag? Luggage bag, like a pannier sort of thing? The rear brake caliper is right behind the swing arm bag. 1 1 Quote
Stu Posted March 22 Author Posted March 22 Went out in a lot of wet and stayed in wet all day despite a weather forecast for some sun Not a bad ride but the bike is grafted now! Looks like I have ridden through a field Only went as far as York to pic a bike up with a mate but covered 200 miles 5 Quote
Stu Posted March 23 Author Posted March 23 Washed this shite off! It's surprising how much crap is on the roads! 2 Quote
Fender1515 Posted March 23 Posted March 23 We are, Ready to Ride. Callipers front and back stripped, cleaned and sorted, All metal scrubbed cleaned and polished, locks oiled, Just need to organise some Sun, I may need to google that one. Happy Days 3 Quote
S-Westerly Posted March 27 Posted March 27 Bought a new exhaust system for my bike. As its made to order it shoul be ready before I get home in May. 4 1 Quote
Tinkicker Posted March 28 Posted March 28 (edited) New o rings arrived. Fitted them and put the carbs back together. This time, since it was not a complete rebuild, I split them so I would not have to alter any adjustments. A far more fiddly way to do it, but if it meant saving my fingers from getting burned while rebalancing the carbs, so much the better. Thankfully Honda put everything on indexing spigots so everything would go together in exactly the same relationship as before. Otherwise burned fingers time.. Would my hope to avoid the dreaded balancing be true, or be thrown on the scrapheap? Only time would tell. Carbs fitted, tank on loosely, spin engine over till pump stopped clacking, then choke on and away we go. Run for a couple of minutes, look under bike for drips. Nothing. Remove tank and check the fuel manifold tubes.. Dry as a bone . Yey! Good for another 25 years.. Fitted airbox, put everything else back together and warmed her up. Checked idle speed. Smack on 1000 rpm as before and she idled as nice as before, so no burned fingers. It keeps raining and to put the side panels on requires the panels to be at eye level, and I need the bike outside to fit them, but thats only a 10 minute job for tomorrow. So instead of an expensive job requiring £60 for an extremely expensive set of Honda O rings, It cost me £3.37 in o rings ( with 6 spares) and three hours of my time. Happy with that. Till next spring and more gnashing of teeth as some other elderly part decides to croak... The joys of the vintage bike owner. Waiting for fairing panels and tax, then she is road ready. [ Edited March 28 by Tinkicker 9 Quote
Mickly Posted March 28 Posted March 28 Speedy had a small wee when I arrived at the old gits club this week ( thanks go to Brother Dunc for pointing it out ) So I took off the rad side cover and inspected the rad cap, all looked ok, but it did need a top up. Put the cap back on and ran it on idle until the fan kicked in, the cap was working coz I could see fluid bubbling up into the expansion tank, thermostat was fine as the hose got hot …. But no leaks at all , maybe giving the rad cap a quick clean and refitting it solved the issue … who knows?, s’pose I just need to keep an eye on it. 3 Quote
Simon Davey Posted March 28 Posted March 28 @Tinkicker That does actually look like a new bike. 1 Quote
bud Posted March 28 Posted March 28 On 21/03/2025 at 15:29, Mississippi Bullfrog said: A handy thing when refitting rear wheels is a caravan level ramp. It takes the weight of the wheel whilst you line everything up. I have a piece of wood cut to that shape hanging in the shed. For that very reason. 2 Quote
Fender1515 Posted March 28 Posted March 28 10 hours ago, Tinkicker said: New o rings arrived. Fitted them and put the carbs back together. This time, since it was not a complete rebuild, I split them so I would not have to alter any adjustments. A far more fiddly way to do it, but if it meant saving my fingers from getting burned while rebalancing the carbs, so much the better. Thankfully Honda put everything on indexing spigots so everything would go together in exactly the same relationship as before. Otherwise burned fingers time.. Would my hope to avoid the dreaded balancing be true, or be thrown on the scrapheap? Only time would tell. Carbs fitted, tank on loosely, spin engine over till pump stopped clacking, then choke on and away we go. Run for a couple of minutes, look under bike for drips. Nothing. Remove tank and check the fuel manifold tubes.. Dry as a bone . Yey! Good for another 25 years.. Fitted airbox, put everything else back together and warmed her up. Checked idle speed. Smack on 1000 rpm as before and she idled as nice as before, so no burned fingers. It keeps raining and to put the side panels on requires the panels to be at eye level, and I need the bike outside to fit them, but thats only a 10 minute job for tomorrow. So instead of an expensive job requiring £60 for an extremely expensive set of Honda O rings, It cost me £3.37 in o rings ( with 6 spares) and three hours of my time. Happy with that. Till next spring and more gnashing of teeth as some other elderly part decides to croak... The joys of the vintage bike owner. Waiting for fairing panels and tax, then she is road ready. [ Quote
Tinkicker Posted March 28 Posted March 28 6 hours ago, Simon Davey said: @Tinkicker That does actually look like a new bike. As with all my restorations, it is pretty much a brand new bike. Although the base engine has not been touched. A complete waste of time, every breaker knows that offering up a vfr engine meets with zero demand.... 3 Quote
V650 Posted March 29 Posted March 29 13 hours ago, Tinkicker said: New o rings arrived. Fitted them and put the carbs back together. This time, since it was not a complete rebuild, I split them so I would not have to alter any adjustments. A far more fiddly way to do it, but if it meant saving my fingers from getting burned while rebalancing the carbs, so much the better. Thankfully Honda put everything on indexing spigots so everything would go together in exactly the same relationship as before. Otherwise burned fingers time.. Would my hope to avoid the dreaded balancing be true, or be thrown on the scrapheap? Only time would tell. Carbs fitted, tank on loosely, spin engine over till pump stopped clacking, then choke on and away we go. Run for a couple of minutes, look under bike for drips. Nothing. Remove tank and check the fuel manifold tubes.. Dry as a bone . Yey! Good for another 25 years.. Fitted airbox, put everything else back together and warmed her up. Checked idle speed. Smack on 1000 rpm as before and she idled as nice as before, so no burned fingers. It keeps raining and to put the side panels on requires the panels to be at eye level, and I need the bike outside to fit them, but thats only a 10 minute job for tomorrow. So instead of an expensive job requiring £60 for an extremely expensive set of Honda O rings, It cost me £3.37 in o rings ( with 6 spares) and three hours of my time. Happy with that. Till next spring and more gnashing of teeth as some other elderly part decides to croak... The joys of the vintage bike owner. Waiting for fairing panels and tax, then she is road ready. [ Looks great A credit to you Quote
Tinkicker Posted March 29 Posted March 29 (edited) Up and about early. We put our clocks forward last night, so it is not a big shock come Monday morning. 20 mins work and she is done. Just needs taxing on Tuesday. I intend to put the big blue back on the road tomorrow. Of course, she is mot and tax exempt but I will do a full mot inspection on her before she ventures out on the road. Just a five minute job. Another ready for the upcoming season.. Edited March 29 by Tinkicker 6 Quote
bonio Posted March 29 Posted March 29 With the help of a long screwdriver, some Plusgas, and a heavy hammer, I changed the preload on the CRF from extremely saggy to somewhat saggy (which is as far as it goes). I need to take it for a quick spin to try it out. Then I fitted a new screen to the MV, one I made earlier in the week by cutting one down. Sadly it got a few scratches when I was sanding it down, but I'll put up with that if it reduces the wind noise. 4 Quote
Fiddlesticks Posted March 29 Posted March 29 Hammered out the headstock bearing cups. Hammered in the new ones. Didn't think to wear ear defenders. Now feel like I've been at a Motörhead gig. 3 Quote
Tinkicker Posted March 30 Posted March 30 14 hours ago, Fiddlesticks said: Hammered out the headstock bearing cups. Hammered in the new ones. Didn't think to wear ear defenders. Now feel like I've been at a Motörhead gig. Join the club. I have permanent jet engines roaring and whining away in my ears.... 1 Quote
Tinkicker Posted March 30 Posted March 30 (edited) And we come to the devil bike. How would she fare? What part have I not attended to in the past? If there are any, I can expect the worst. Never mind, time to get her road ready. First job was remove the left sidepanel to ensure that the oil pump check valve had held the oil in the oil tank, and not allowed it to fill the crankcase over winter... Oil tank appeared full. Great. Check valve is not leaking and is doing a good job since I rebuilt the pump. Boo. The oil tank had inexplicably parted company with the hinge over the winter. I had noted some very fine stress cracks in the hinge flange before, but they did not appear to be spreading. But of course, this was the item I had not replaced previously... I went on ebay to buy a remanufactered tank on ebay and found the supplier sold out ( it may be that my public service announcement on a dedicated yamaha enduro forum last week, pointing out this supplier may have been a shot to the foot - me and my big mouth). I have sent the supplier a message to see if he plans on making more. Is this the only part left that had not been replaced? Why it has failed after not been moved for 6 months is a bit perplexing. I shook my head and soldiered on. Fill with fuel, fuel tap on, allow carb to fill for 30 seconds or so and 4 kicks later, away she went. I warmed her up, changed the dead battery in the cylinder head temp meter and ran her carb dry again. I was going to give her a run today, but not with the insecure oil tank. Devil bike 0 Alkylate fuel treatment - sucess. That is 3 out of 3 sucesses and the way I will store my bikes over winter from now on. As for the other problems, that is just playing the vintage bike wack a mole game. Every part that fails and relaced is one less failure in the future. I think apart from the frame, the entire bike is brand new. Looking lovely in the spring sunshine and I must admit, she sounds as good as she looks. That comprehensive engine rebuild was money well spent. Edited March 30 by Tinkicker 6 Quote
Simon Davey Posted March 30 Posted March 30 Lovely little bike, but at 175, not so little really. 1 Quote
onesea Posted March 30 Posted March 30 (edited) Today loaded up and 200 miles (4h45mins) by bike for the first time this year. How do I feel fresher then having been sat in the car for 5 hours? A little chilly across the moors, but then I hadn't wrapped up. At some point after this picture, my front right indicator stem decided to break. No known reason, I guess it will be insulating tape for going home Edited March 30 by onesea 5 Quote
V650 Posted March 30 Posted March 30 6 hours ago, Tinkicker said: And we come to the devil bike. How would she fare? What part have I not attended to in the past? If there are any, I can expect the worst. Never mind, time to get her road ready. First job was remove the left sidepanel to ensure that the oil pump check valve had held the oil in the oil tank, and not allowed it to fill the crankcase over winter... Oil tank appeared full. Great. Check valve is not leaking and is doing a good job since I rebuilt the pump. Boo. The oil tank had inexplicably parted company with the hinge over the winter. I had noted some very fine stress cracks in the hinge flange before, but they did not appear to be spreading. But of course, this was the item I had not replaced previously... I went on ebay to buy a remanufactered tank on ebay and found the supplier sold out ( it may be that my public service announcement on a dedicated yamaha enduro forum last week, pointing out this supplier may have been a shot to the foot - me and my big mouth). I have sent the supplier a message to see if he plans on making more. Is this the only part left that had not been replaced? Why it has failed after not been moved for 6 months is a bit perplexing. I shook my head and soldiered on. Fill with fuel, fuel tap on, allow carb to fill for 30 seconds or so and 4 kicks later, away she went. I warmed her up, changed the dead battery in the cylinder head temp meter and ran her carb dry again. I was going to give her a run today, but not with the insecure oil tank. Devil bike 0 Alkylate fuel treatment - sucess. That is 3 out of 3 sucesses and the way I will store my bikes over winter from now on. As for the other problems, that is just playing the vintage bike wack a mole game. Every part that fails and relaced is one less failure in the future. I think apart from the frame, the entire bike is brand new. Looking lovely in the spring sunshine and I must admit, she sounds as good as she looks. That comprehensive engine rebuild was money well spent. Fab Quote
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