The other ER5 restoration .

[fastbob]

38 minutes ago, Ian Frog said:

Hi Bob

In the morning I would start with the kettle and thermostat test.

Did the fan kick in as after all you weren`t benefiting from any airflow over the rad/engine.

I am sure the timing is right but a check of the advance mechanism wouldn1t hurt.

Be interested to see how it turns out.

Cheers

Ian

I've already checked the thermostat operation but not with a thermometer . ER5s usually only require a few seconds of choke before the revs rise and you can knock it off so I've never run one at a high idle for longer than necessary so maybe this is no cause for concern . The fan didn't kick in and I know it works . I'll set it up for a correct idle with the choke off tomorrow and see what happens . It's all good fun ..

Edited September 24, 2021 by fastbob

[Ian Frog]

Running it that way could be artificially rich enough to cause the effect I suppose but not sure.

Yes it`s all good fun and I look forward to learning what the cause was.

Cheers

Ian

[KiwiBob]

25 minutes ago, Ian Frog said:

Running it that way could be artificially rich enough to cause the effect I suppose but not sure.

Yes it`s all good fun and I look forward to learning what the cause was.

Cheers

Ian

Too lean a mixture is more likely to make it run hot than having it too rich!

[fastbob]

Over night I did a bit of googling on bike sites that use the same engine ( KLE , EN , EX and  GPZ ) and discovered that glowing header pipes is more common than one might think . Anyway I started it up again this morning and all is well . As soon as it's off choke it settles down to a steady tick over . It's hunting a little bit and when I rev it the revs take a long time to return to normal again . So the next job is to double check for air leaks and then take the mixture screws out a quarter turn or so . I cannot help but wonder what guardian angel made me decide to shelve the project for the summer . If I'd ridden it and a cam sprocket had fallen off it would have been pure carnage . On a positive note , the Wilkinson's Barbecue paint on the exhaust seems none the worse for being heated to red hot . Other good news is that the ridiculously cheap Chinese carb kits ( £8.00 for 2 including diaphragms and floats ! ) are not leaking despite my bypassing the petrol tap and there being a head of pressure from the auxiliary fuel tank . 

Edited September 25, 2021 by fastbob

[fastbob]

Got a bloody water leak now but at least I know what it is and how to fix it . Top Tip when you're fettling a bike , fill the rad system with tap water until you're sure it's leak free . Then drain and fill with coolant . The cheapest of which is B&Q by the way at £3.99 a litre . 

[fastbob]

Looking good . No leaks and I've almost got a steady idle speed . Another quarter turn out on those mixture screws and it's good to go I reckon . 

[fastbob]

Finished . All it needs now is a shakedown . Anybody got a litre of petrol ? 

[linuxrob]

Looking good Bob, nice job. I have used my old Gunson colour tune on the GS125 and Z500 to good effect.

[fastbob]

2 hours ago, linuxrob said:

Looking good Bob, nice job. I have used my old Gunson colour tune on the GS125 and Z500 to good effect.

I've balanced it and played around with the mixture screws but I still can't get the revs to fall as  quickly as I would like . Some say that's indicative of a lean condition and of course some disagree and say it's a rich condition . I've tried to make it richer and there was some improvement but maybe I should try the other way . 

[Fozzie]

This was a good read, I regularly scour ebay for CB500's and ER5's as I fancy it as a project. You can get quite involved without the costs sky rocketing, which you find on some jobs. 

 

Well done on finishing the build! Is the ER a bike that has a sweet spot for you? I ask as I've had around 5 CBR600F's as projects alone, seem to be drawn to them. 

[fastbob]

44 minutes ago, Fozzie said:

This was a good read, I regularly scour ebay for CB500's and ER5's as I fancy it as a project. You can get quite involved without the costs sky rocketing, which you find on some jobs. 

 

Well done on finishing the build! Is the ER a bike that has a sweet spot for you? I ask as I've had around 5 CBR600F's as projects alone, seem to be drawn to them. 

Yes , I do like the ER5 . I think it's because I had such a good time touring Scotland on my last one . Plus it's nice to do the same bike twice because you know everything off by heart the second time around . 

[billy sugger]

I have an unintentional project in the form of my cb500r that bust a conrod, so bike is currently in bits in my garage/lock-up waiting to be rebuilt but I'm not able to start on it until my shoulder is fixed. I got used stuff from the cb500 forum and from ebay, plus the thunder sprint guys

 

On 09/10/2020 at 22:48, fastbob said:

 

Hours of hand scrubbing with progressively finer Scotch Pads ( Toolstation equivalent ) degreased with cheapo Brake Cleaner , Two wet coats of Halfords Aluminium Engine Paint and then when it was dry I baked it in a medium oven for an hour to cure it . Life used to be so much easier when Nitromors actually worked .

 

[James in Brum]

Looks good  

[fastbob]

And the final chapter . MOT passed with no Advisories .

[fastbob]

Well .... Actually that's not the final chapter . I'm sure he won't mind me bringing this up but I actually sold the bike to James in Brum when some scumbags stole his ZZR . At the time I did make it quite clear that I had only ridden the bike a few miles to the MOT and back so if there were any bugs to iron out I was unaware of them . Long story short , the bike started overheating and spewing coolant so we settled the matter by me buying it back again and no hard feelings . I had got James to rig a catch bottle on the bike and one sniff told me that there were combustion products in the cooling system . Not good . Over the winter I got a second hand head off eBay with a great set of cams , caps and even the oil pipes . It was cheap as chips because it had broken exhaust studs which I had extracted by an engineer . And so to the present . I fitted this cylinder head last week and fettled everything this weekend . I hit the button and it started immediately ( ER5s always do ) Once it settled down I balanced the carbs and gave it some vicious twists of the throttle . Wow , this thing is smooth and it screams like a four cylinder bike . So far there are no indications of overheating and no coolant leaks but it's early days . I need to give it a proper thrash . I'll keep you posted .