smallfrowne Posted March 12 Posted March 12 haha I've never seen this comment when looking up parts before... I mean you can see what has happened here at £43 a plate. 5 Quote
billysugger Posted March 13 Posted March 13 3 hours ago, smallfrowne said: Stripping down a new to me but used and dirty sigma slipper clutch in front of the telly with a glass of wine. Terrible work. Get another one and you can have a pair of slippers in front of the telly 2 Quote
smallfrowne Posted March 13 Posted March 13 I'm glad I could set you up for that. I think this thing is toast actually so I may end up with a pair yet. Bugger. Oh bikes. I think I need a contemplating pipe and tin of st bruno. 1 1 Quote
Essexboy Posted March 13 Posted March 13 Changed the brake fluid which was darker than my wee after a night on the beer. Obv managed to spill some on the floor and rear tyre 3 Quote
bonio Posted March 13 Posted March 13 5 minutes ago, Essexboy said: Changed the brake fluid which was darker than my wee after a night on the beer. Not sure you're drinking hard enough mate. 3 Quote
V650 Posted March 13 Posted March 13 (edited) 22 hours ago, smallfrowne said: Stripping down a new to me but used and dirty sigma slipper clutch in front of the telly with a glass of wine. Terrible work. Terrible Thirsty work alright Edited March 13 by V650 Quote
smallfrowne Posted March 13 Posted March 13 (edited) Yeah I'm still drinking! Turned into a bit of a mini-saga this clutch. It popped up on my phone showing 10mins to go on ebay, so very spur of the moment purchase. But, I have since learnt that it is incomplete as well as quite worn. Maybe I'll do a thread on it. I've just been out to the shop for a) more beer & b) blu tack Edit: Gonna have a go, thread started: Edited March 13 by smallfrowne threadage 2 Quote
Fiddlesticks Posted March 14 Posted March 14 Ran the petrol down till the trip computer said zero miles left and bravely left it to the garage to do the clearances, air filter and plugs. I've removed the tank and done the air filter before, but taking the top off the engine and replacing shims might be one Haynes Manual spanner beyond my comfort zone. Maybe next time... 4 Quote
Mickly Posted March 14 Posted March 14 Not to the bike but. Got a free lever operated MX stand when I bought the KTM, never been able to get it to work, always seemed unstable & wouldn’t lift in a straight fashion without tipping over. I took it apart, cleaned it, re shimmed and greased the pivot points, hey presto, works a dream, both wheels off the ground and reasonably stable, quite chuffed. 5 Quote
Tinkicker Posted March 15 Posted March 15 (edited) Todays Failures... Tried to tax the VFR for the 1st April. Tax site would only do it for the 1st of March.... Fail. Jumped in the car, drove to Selby to pick up my rear wheel and shiny new michelin road 6. Turns out rear tyre still on backorder. Delivery sometime this week. Fail. Front tyre has arrived, but I took in the rear first. Rear wheel is at the shop, sans tyre. Front wheel still held in by spindle until rear wheel refitted to only have one wheel out at a time. I picked the wrong wheel to remove first.... Fail. Drove home empty handed. Looked at the front wheel, jacked up the front end, removed the wheel and chocked up the front end on wooden blocks so three points of contact, centrestand, screwjack and wood block under the sump and wooden blocks under the front forks. Drove back to selby to drop off the front wheel. I should have chocked the bike up in the first place and taken the wheel to the shop during the first trip. So 50 or so miles motoring over two round trips, just to deliver a front wheel to the shop.... Fail. Sigh... Edited March 15 by Tinkicker 2 Quote
Yorky Posted March 15 Posted March 15 2 hours ago, Tinkicker said: Tried to tax the VFR for the 1st April. Tax site would only do it for the 1st of March.... Fail. Yes, I've never really understood why you can't state what month you want the tax to start in. Likewise when Sorning, why is it without road tax immediately if you do it mid month, it should run until the last day. Yes, I understand the logic if you have sold the bike, (if the new owner taxes it straight away they get paid twice for the same month), but otherwise it should run on. 1 Quote
ChrisBiggsUK Posted March 15 Posted March 15 Took front sprocket cover off and cleaned out 19 years worth of accumulated black gunk. Why do I say 19 years worth if I have only had it since October? Well, given that nothing else seems to have been done to the bike in the 19 years before I took ownership of it, it is a safe bet that the front sprocket certainly hadn't seen any love. Well, it has now! Thoroughly cleaned both front and rear sprockets and chain, as well as the front sprocket cover. Gave the chain a good lube too. Bit by bit, I'm taking the entire bike apart, servicing it, and putting it all back together again. Next main job to do (won't be doing it for a couple of months though) is taking the exhaust off, giving it a thorough clean, getting all rust specks off it, and polishing it up to a shine so bright that I momentarily blind people as I ride by, as well as getting the bike up on a jack and giving all the hard to reach underside bits a thorough scrubbing and de-rusting where applicable. At this rate, by the end of the year I'll be positively certified to field strip a 125 bike and put it back together again blindfolded using only a hammer, a can of wd-40 and some duct tape. Which is a useful skillset to have. 6 Quote
Mississippi Bullfrog Posted March 15 Posted March 15 (edited) I noticed the rear brake on the CBF was pulsing a bit. The disc checked out fine so I reckoned it was a stuck slider....sure enough one of them is seized solid. I've got the caliper and mounting bracket in a vice. I got the stuck one halfway out but now it's stuck fast. So an overnight soak in Plusgas might help. We shall see! Edited March 16 by Mississippi Bullfrog 3 Quote
Simon Davey Posted March 16 Posted March 16 Four wheels today. Replaced the carburettor on our ancient Honda quad bike. It's a poxy job, but only because of the width of the damn thing, and all of the "pre-broken" panel clips. Just took 2 hours though. Started on the button, and runs so sweetly. 7 Quote
Mississippi Bullfrog Posted March 16 Posted March 16 Success! That sliding pin has seen better days. To be fair it's ridden all winter and I can't remember the last time I serviced the rear caliper. 5 Quote
V650 Posted March 16 Posted March 16 (edited) 3 minutes ago, Mississippi Bullfrog said: Success! That sliding pin has seen better days. To be fair it's ridden all winter and I can't remember the last time I serviced the rear caliper. Oh that's ugly for a sliding pin Well done on getting it out Edited March 16 by V650 2 Quote
Essexboy Posted March 19 Posted March 19 Little trip to Wiltshire visiting friends before heading back to sea next week 5 Quote
ChrisBiggsUK Posted March 19 Posted March 19 3 hours ago, Yorky said: This is becoming more of a Merchant Navy Forum Arrrrr! 1 3 Quote
bonio Posted March 19 Posted March 19 7 hours ago, Essexboy said: Little trip to Wiltshire visiting friends before heading back to sea next week Great weather for it mate. I was up in Norfolk this morning; took the long way home. 1 Quote
Mawsley Posted March 19 Posted March 19 On 15/03/2025 at 13:59, Yorky said: Yes, I've never really understood why you can't state what month you want the tax to start in. Likewise when Sorning, why is it without road tax immediately if you do it mid month, it should run until the last day. Yes, I understand the logic if you have sold the bike, (if the new owner taxes it straight away they get paid twice for the same month), but otherwise it should run on. Probably time of the month. I taxed mine for Mar 1 towards the end of Feb and was offered Feb 1 as an alternative. Quote
Tinkicker Posted March 21 Posted March 21 (edited) Got the long awaited phone call yesterday. My new tyres are ready for collection. Collected them this morning, all good. Fitted the right way around ect. Bloke in bike shop spoke to the importer and it transpires that bike tyres are flying out of the warehouse door as fast as they come in. They can't keep up with demand.... So much for biking in the doldrums. A very nice pair indeed. Refitted the wheels, took the bike outside and put a gallon of fresh fuel in. Will my scheme of emptying the tank and carbs and not touching the bike again all winter pay off without resorting to dismantling the carbs and cleaning them out again? Whir, gave it a few presses of the button to allow the carbs to fill and away she went nice as ninepence... Great. Wait! What is that drip under the bike? Aw bollocks its fuel, one of the floats must be stuck. bast*rd thing, I put all new needles and seats in last spring. Gave what looked like the offending carb a tap with the screwdriver. Drip, drip. Crap. Off with the airbox lid and filter, deffo not the carbs overflowing. Can't be the float bowls leaking because the gaskets were also replaced last spring and the bike behaved impecably. No leals whatsoever. That only leaves one thing... Shiiite. Of course, with my great luck only the most difficult job on the entire bike, entailing removing and splitting the carbs yet again. Remove airbox, stack horns and top plate to get a better look. Yup. One of the fuel manifold O rings has dried out over winter and I need to split the carbs yet again to replace them. I could scream... I should have replaced them last year, but they felt fine. Kicking myself... Wet brown pipe marks the spot.... AAAARGH! Mightily pissed off with old bikes at the moment... Its never an easy job that plagues them. Edited March 21 by Tinkicker 1 3 Quote
Tinkicker Posted March 21 Posted March 21 (edited) Carbs off and one split away to get to the offending seals. Honda wants you to buy two "gasket kit B" at over £20 each to get the required number of seals " which is why I never bothered last year. I thought they were a special size. It is seemingly top secret info as to the size of the o rings. Plenty want to rebuild your carbs with new o rings, but never tell you the size. So I removed a good seal and measured it. Bog standard 8 x 2mm o ring. On inspecting the leaky one, no idea why it leaked, it is pliable, clean and undamaged, with very little or no distortion. Plenty of "squeeze" left in it, but clearly not enough. I measured the outside diameter on the T tube at 11.5mm. So assuming a new 8 x2 o ring will give 12mm outer diameter, the old one has deformed by 0.5mm. I have ordered a pack of 10 viton o rings for £3.32. There you have it. 8 x 2mm. The cat is out of the bag and no longer a secret. BTW. To measure an o ring pick it up squarely with calipers on the inside diameter, let the calipers close, watching the scale closely until the o ring starts to slip and drop off under its own weight. That is your inside measurement. Then measure the cross section at 90 degrees to the loaded plane. If the o ring is deformed, the measurement will be a little " over" example 2.25mm. O rings are sized by 0.5mm increments so if 2.25mm, it has been squashed outwards slightly, so assume when new, it was 2mm. You can usually see if it has been deformed. Edited March 21 by Tinkicker 3 Quote
S-Westerly Posted March 21 Posted March 21 Whenever we do a job that involves o rings we always replace them with new as there's nothing worse than boxing something up and finding its leaking due to a "used but good" o ring. Not conducive to happy sailors. Quote
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