Isolation

These are strange times for all of us. And obviously, I’m looking forward to getting back to some sense of normality with my family – but that’s looking like it’s a good while away yet. One thing is for sure though, I will never take my freedom for granted again. That said, while I’m isolating myself at home, it does give me some time to get on with the TRX rebuild, and also some time to write about it. And now that I have more time, I’ve also gone a little bit further with a couple of things than I was originally planning.

The rebuild really started with the head. As mentioned previously, I’d dropped this off with Spike to get the valve seats recut and a general bit of porting and tidying. And a few days back before the lockdown, I popped over to his to pick it up:

Phwoooar. That looks good enough to eat. It’s certainly clean enough to eat off. Spike really has done a bloody good job there and it’s all shimmed and has new stem oil seals. In other words, ready to bolt straight on. Which is pretty much exactly what happened. I took the opportunity to strip the middle layer out of the head gasket, which is only 0.2mm, but it’s essentially something for nothing, so worth having. The head was torqued down onto the barrels, and the cams given a smear of grease and engine oil and slipped into the journals and the caps installed. Oh, and worth mentioning, the galleries for cam lubrication were primed with a squirt of engine oil, so it wouldn’t be completely dry on first start. Well, it wouldn’t be anyway as I’ll spin it over a few times to get oil pressure before trying to start it, but it can’t hurt. The ceremonial Timing Of The Cams could now begin. This always seems to be a git of a job on the TRX for some reason – I suspect incompetence on my part if I’m truly honest. But after a bit of a struggle, and a bit of skin left behind the cams were nicely lined up as per the workshop manual, and everything torqued down. The last thing to do is fit the tensioner, and this is an absolute pain in the arse with the engine in the frame. Note to self – next time, just take the engine out completely. It’s way easier in the long run. With everything installed and lined up per the manual, I gave the engine a couple of turns by hand to check there was no unexpected valve/piston clouty shenanigans going on. There wasn’t, so I lined up the timing mark on the crank, and checked the cam timing again, just to give myself that warm glow of a job well done.  Of course, at some point in the installation, the crank must have moved, as both cams were now one tooth out of time.

Bollocks.

Nothing for it but to take the tensioner out, pull one of the sprockets off to give me room to wiggle the chain off, and re-time everything. Second time around, it all went back perfectly, so I left it alone for a day, and went back next day just to check it all again to make sure, and yes, everything was properly lined up this time around so I rechecked all the torques on the caps and sprocket bolts and popped the cam cover on.

The cooling system was next. I thought it would be wise to check the thermostat, so I pulled the housing apart and gave it a quick test in a jug of hot water. And while I couldn’t get a particularly accurate temperature measurement it was definitely opening and closing in around the right temperature range. That ascertained, it went back into the housing, and it all went back together again easily enough. I decided to reuse the old o-ring in the housing as it looked and felt perfectly good.

No doubt you’re already ahead of me here…

The radiator was refitted with no drama, the hoses reconnected, and everything bolted up and temperature sensors reconnected. I could have refilled the coolant at this point, but decided against it, as I really wanted to get the carbs on so I could run the new fuel and vacuum hoses. And of course, because I’d been so thorough on the cleaning up of the cooling system, there couldn’t possibly be any leaks that would entail having to remove the carbs again so I could get to the thermostat.

Of course not. That would never happen.

Next thing then – refitting the inlet stubs. Really nothing to write home about here – it’s just a case of bolting them up loosely, then feeling inside the join between the stub and the inlet tract to make sure everything is lined up perfectly, and nipping the bolts up. With the stubs now fitted I could make up the new vacuum lines to run to the fuel tap and pump. Rather than pull both lines down the right hand side of the bike, I’ve taken one down either side of the engine, so there’s less of a curve for the r/h line to the fuel tap. It really shouldn’t make much of a difference, but if there’s less chance of it kinking, that means less chance of an inopportune lack of fuel when passing an HGV on the A505. A small change, but one that’s worth making I reckon. The carbs were popped on next to run the lovely Tygon hose from the pump to the inlet spigot.

I could then refit the throttle cables and clutch cable. I was happy to do all this work before refilling the cooling system, as remember, there was no way that anything could possibly leak, necessitating pulling it all apart again.

The exhaust system was next on the list, but I can’t fit this finally yet, as I need a couple of gaskets. No worries though, as I could easily just nip it up in place to see if everything fitted. And of course there was no drama there at all. As this is a 2-1 system I’ll only need one can, so I pulled one of the Renegade cans out of the loft and offered that up to check fitment. All good there. I’ll try to get a photo as it’s so lovely and tucked in compared to the old Renegade system. The link pipe runs pretty close behind the r/h footpeg, but I don’t think that’ll be a problem – we’ll see.

All of that happened during evenings over the past week or so. Today I had time to get out to the garage to make sure that everything was in order, and to refill the fluids in readiness for the final fitting of the pipe and the first start.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

New o-ring for the thermostat housing is now on order.

In other news, this turned up:

It’s gorgeous. It’s the link rod for the gear shifter mechanism. The old one was cracked axially at the ends, and while it would have worked a while longer, I thought it prudent to replace it. This one was machined by my multiple-beSpondon’d friend Rich from a vague description that I mailed to him. It’s utterly perfect in every way. And I can’t wait to fit it, once the chain is on. It really will be a suitably perfect finishing touch.

So it’s safe to say that we’re nearly there with this rebuild. And what started out as a simple refresh all got a bit more complex when I found the valve disaster that was about to happen. No worries though, as with some enthusiastic bodging and corner cutting, I’m still just about on budget. I’ve got the figures all typed up somewhere, I’ll publish them soon. One thing I’ve learned though. Don’t cut corners on o-rings.

Actually, there’s two things I’ve learned. The second is the most important. I really really enjoy building up engines, as should really be obvious to anyone who’s read this blog previously. With that in mind, once things are back to that normal state, and I’ve taken The Lovely Faye out to dinner, and had a day at the seaside with the girls, and been out for a bike ride for the sake of it, I’m going to start earnestly making plans for a proper workshop in the garage.

Finally, to anyone out there still reading this – and most importantly of all. Stay safe at this time. Look after your loved ones. And look forward to the day that this is all behind us and we can play in the sunshine once more.

The Pipe Dreams of Instant Prince Whippet

A bit of a delay since the last exciting installment, and a very simple reason this time. I ran out of money, catastrophically and completely. Not kind of feeling a bit skint in that I couldn’t afford a nice bottle of Aligoté to go with the Sunday dinner. No, properly wondering how on earth I was going to pay the mortgage. Just one of those months when a lot of things happened at once. So the first thing that I had to do was let Spike at Cambridge Motorcycles know that I wouldn’t be able to pay him for the head work, so best just pop it all to one side for a few weeks. Which was immensely frustrating, I suspect for both of us. All that said, things have been going on in the background, and now that I’ve been paid, things are definitely moving forwards again. And so without further ado, here’s a quick rundown.

Engine: Original plan was for Spike to recut the valve seats, give everything a good seeing to with the Dremel to smooth out the ports, fit new stem oil seals, fit and shim the new valves, and skim the head to raise the compression a nadge. Here’s a quick preview of the old vs. new valves:

However, there’s been a slight change of plan there. Because we don’t know the valve to piston clearance with the new valves, and because the new valves are flat not dished, and because it only runs on super unleaded already, I’m not going to touch the compression at this stage. Well, maybe do the trick taking the middle layer out of the gasket, but that’s only 0.2mm. Once I get the head back I can measure the valve to piston clearance with the aid of some strategically placed plasticine, and that can then feed into the next phase of engine development. Did someone at the back say lumpy cams? Go straight to the top of the class if so. There’s no immediate plan for these – but if I can get a set at a good price in future, well, given that I’ve got the flowed head and big valves and programmable ignition, it’d be a worthwhile mod I reckon. But that’s all way in the future. Right now, the plan is to get the engine back together with the flowed head and new valves, and then I can bolt on the new exhaust…

Exhaust: Remember last time I said that I had a lead on a nice Projection Components 2-1 system going second hand? I’m happy to report that it’s now in my garage. And even better than that, the seller gave me a hefty discount on the amount I was willing to pay. It came complete with what looks like the most shatteringly illegal end-can I’ve ever seen:

I’ve no idea yet what I’m going to do with that. Maybe flog it to a local lad to put on the Vauxhall Nova. There’s no way it’s going on the bike, that’s for sure. I like my neighbours too much for that.

Leccy bits: A general tidy-up of the loom really, nothing serious to worry about. Well, other than the connector to the reg/rec getting a bit toasty:

For now, I’ve used some pre-insulated crimps to wire the reg/rec straight into the loom. This isn’t ideal, I know, as it means when it fails I need to cut it out, making more work. But, as I’m resigned to this happening anyway, there’s no point in putting a posh connector on the end of it only to throw it away later. I will keep an eye on the new crimped joins though, just to make sure that they don’t go the same way as this connector did. I’m hoping that I made a good enough connection that I don’t need to worry about it.

Fuel system: Finally, I’ve ordered a complete new set of fuel and vacuum hoses. This is something that really should have been done in the initial restoration, but I’m tight and lazy, so didn’t bother. So there’s some Tygon hose to run from the pump to the carbs, and a genuine Yamaha bit to run from the tank to the pump. And if I ever find the person who designed it so that the fuel tank outlet is a different diameter to the pump inlet, I’m going to punch them right up the bracket. I shouldn’t be surprised really. In my experience, Yamaha have never designed a decent fuel system. New vacuum hoses to run from the inlet stubs to the fuel tap and pump complete the work here.  Carbs got a good stripdown and clean, and everything appears OK in there.

Odds and ends: General clean up, brakes now all bled and seem to be working just fine. New chain from the marvellous Alan Russell is now sitting on my bench beside me, waiting for an appointment with the chain tool and Big Hammer. Large scratch put in fuel tank by me being a catastrophic pillock. MPH speedo refitted.

That’s kind of where we are right now. I’m not going to do anything cosmetic to the bike at this stage, as it’s still very much a working bike, which will get used again in all weathers. So no point in spending a ton of money that I don’t have just to make it look nice. No. Not at all. If I do come into some money in the near future, I have other plans for it. I would have to come into an awful lot of money though – as it’s a Spondon frame that’s currently for sale. I suspect this is just a pipe dream though – there’s only three of these frames in existence, and I’m sure that it will be sold by the time I’m anywhere near being able to afford it.

On the subject of which, the SV650 that I wrote about here is now very firmly up for sale. If you’re interested, let me know. Any funds raised go into the Spondon piggy bank.