Chris H
master of boobies
Its about time I done a report on this thing.
Here's the story, back in 1983 Kevin's father in laws brother bought this.
He rode it for a year then I think it was a heart attack that made him stop so it sat for years. In the mid 90's it was discovered in the garage so was dragged out by his son, no CBT etc etc and he got banned so it went away again.
Around 2000 Kevin saw it in the garage and asked about it. A deal was struck then Kevin set about getting it fixed. He then got it mot'd. However he then decided to strip it down to paint it. So the wheels were sent off for powder coating (£120!!!!), new tyres fitted and everything painted, then it sat never being put back together.
I have known Kevin a few years and until a few months back I never even knew he had this bike!
He asked me if I would put it back together for him and get it running. I said of course.
It was stored with no wheels on, carb stripped and off it and so on. This also meant a lot of bolts and spacers etc went missing.
So over the last couple of months we have been getting the bits together and making it back up.
First thing was the wheels, no bearings in them and spacers long gone. So went to a bike breakers and got them and bought new bearings. £45! mental!
Next was a new battery (£25), then I rebuilt the carb, I have pics of this will sort them later. After this added fuel and it fired up.
Only issue was the idle was about 4krpm and was difficult to rev. The main issue was the carb was knackered, it was heavily corroded so the clearances were massive after it had been cleaned up. So another carb was obtained that was taken from a running bike, this sorted that issue, you could also now rev it cleanly from idle to red line.
So back together it was taken out for a spin about, the issues were noted and were to be rectified.
Issues were;
Rear brake pulsed when applied
front brake light switch didn't work
horn didn't work despite being new all be it 10 years ago when it was laid up
various bolts needed split pins fitting
And that was it. So yesterday we finally finished the jobs off.
We went down to the scrappy so I could get a battery for the white chamade, whilst there we saw a laguna 2 with no front end and exposed horns. So I whipped em off and got them for free. Not bad. This came with 2 horns, one low one high tone. The hi tone went on this bike and the low tone will go on the VFR400R.
Here is the horn fitted, a Suzuki with a Renault bit
Its suitably loud and impressive.
The next issue was the rear brake pulsing, this was due to the drum inside the wheel having corrosion on it. Wheel off and sandpaper to smooth the rust off, all in all took about 30 seconds now its fine. No pictures but you have imaginations.
The brake light switch, a simple switch but was silly money, so I had a ponder and was sure I could sort something out from Maplins. So I went in on Friday with Soneji and had a look about for a push to break round switch. I found one for £1.29.
So next day back at base off with the brake lever etc then set about making it fit. I had to grind the hole out a bit then cut a bit off so it would sit in properly. The wires were soldered on and jobs a good un
Anyway some pictures of the beast
In with some of the other bikes I have about, moved them all so I could cut the grass
Its a good wee bike though, compared to the 6 year old Chituma it feels solid as a rock, a lot safer by a mile. Brakes are pretty good as well. Only issue is acceleration but when your used to sports bike with 10 times the power I suppose it would seem slow!
It will get mot'd this week or next weekend depending on time really.
[BREAK
rogress made]
28th August 2010
Well heres the progress up to today.
Heres a picture of the carb, had to tweak the idle speed as it kept cutting out, no big deal a small turn sorted it out. But nothing interesting
I also adjusted the tappets which I think I may have mentioned, the timing chain tensioner is a still noisy though, this is the access to the front which is the exhaust valve rocker arm
Today I fitted a new number plate, the old one wasn't an MOT issue but vehicles always look better with new plates.
this is the old one
new plate fitted, makes the bike look a lot younger as a bonus
We also got the V5 through which is the very latest new style one and it was also MOT'd on Wednesday.
The V5 shows the last owner as Kevin's wives cousin as expected who acquired the bike on the 22nd of April 1992! He was the 3rd keeper of the bike.
The MOT as you can see was a failure. There was also an advisory notice added.
The failures.
001 Rear wheel alignment incorrect which adversely affects the handling
002 Front roller brake test indicates excessive fluctuation of brake effort
003 Rear roller brake test indicates excessive fluctuation of brake effort
Advisories
004 Steering movement slight 'notchy'
005 Front brake disc(s) slightly scored
006 Offside lower rear suspension bush has slight free play
Overall not bad for a 27 year old bike.
I will deal with the advisories first,
the steering is the bearings, its been sat for a while so a flat spot has developed, you have to have the front wheel off the ground and move it ever so gently at the straight ahead position side to side to feel it.
Disc scoring very light its been sat for years, nothing major.
Suspension bush just needs the swing arm bolt nipped up.
The failures.
Rear wheel alignment, Kevin adjusted this, its slightly to the right, easy 2 minute fix.
Now not having ridden the bike I don't know how bad it actually is brake wise, we knew about the rear brake as you can feel it easily, but I had no idea abotu the front brake.
Anyway, today I set about the front brake. The lever has always been solid, barely any movement, there should be some movement. I also spun up the front wheel there is no perceptible wobble of the disc something the MOT tester also noted he thinks the metal has broken down in the disc, I beg to differ.
So what I did was, got the master cylinders top cover off, the usual damaged screw heads of course. Got the cover off and the brake fluid was black. I mean black, it looked like oil.
I soaked some out with a paper towel and saw there was a lot of debris in the fluid. Mostly corrosion particles. Not good news really, but I cleaned out pretty much all of it. I then added more fluid.
Then I pulled the caliper off, I pressed the lever and got the piston most of the way out, peeled back the boot and it was like new! still had rubber grease on it.
I tried to push the piston back it wasn't moving.
I pulled out the vice and with a cracking sound it retracted, the crack was corrosion firing out of the return hole in the master cylinder, the master filled up with black brake fluid. I soaked it up and added more fresh stuff and worked the piston back and forth a few times. It would then push back by hand.
So once it was free I cracked off the bleed nipple and bled the caliper out. The fluid was disgusting. However it came clear and air free so closed it up. The piston moved freely out and pushed back with your thumbs. So a result.
I then sanded the pads flat with some coarse sandpaper so they look like new and then greased the sliders.
I also took out the top caliper carrier bolt, its been touching the disc slightly. So I fitted washer under both carrier bolt heads and now the bolt is nowhere near the disc. This should stop any issues like heat affecting the braking.
Now there is a lot more movement in the brake lever, it feels like it should. When you pull the lever and look at the caliper you can see the caliper moving then moving back when the lever is released. So hopefully that will be the front brake sorted, it needs road tested to know for sure.
The back brake with it on the centre stand and run up in gear the wobble is quite bad, so it will require some more sanding me thinks. Will get on with that tomorrow, line the wheel up and road test.
Then it will be back down for an MOT pass hopefully.
[BREAK=Nothings happened]
22nd September 2010
Well nothings happened, this is because the owner doesn't want to spend money on it.
I pulled the back wheel again a few weeks ago and studied it closely, indeed the issue appears to be corrosion between the alloy wheel and steel brake drum liner. So it needs the old drum removed (destroyed upon extraction) and then the wheel milled back to shape if needed and another liner inserted.
Ahh well see what happens.
Today I started it though, must be the first time in a month or so. Fired right up and ran like a champ.
I gave it a quick clean as well, the chrome came up really well, no detailed pics but here is one from the kitchen
Beast.
[BREAKug out]
8th April 2011
This was dug out of Kevin's garden last week, well his old garden, divorce is happening so all his stuff has been chucked out of the house/garden etc.
So this is down here and getting ready for the retest and sale.
First thing a few months back he actually bought new wheels for it, so they are grey not blue as before. Much nicer I think, also no pulsing of the brakes now.
Will get pictures soon for the new look.
However in its lay up the usual tarnishing of the chrome and a few niggles have arisen.
Mainly a dead battery (easy fix, charged it), water in the fuel and flasher issues.
Also an annoying issue was a cracked side panel, this happened who knows when, but longer before the bike was built back up.
Since paint was bought (wrong colour no less, its apparently rover Tahiti blue but rover Tahiti blue doesn't match!) it was time to repair it.
So here's the panel
The back side, the lug clips into the fuel tank
Stitching began
backside
this made it solid enough to work with. Next stage is melt a bit more of it
After melting and sanding down to flatten it
Sand out some other spots which are iffy
Body filler part way through final sanding process
it was sanded more and then painted but the supplied paint wasn't metallic! So wrong colour. No more pictures of this process.
The next issue is the indicators, they will flash at varying speeds, if the engines running and revved they flash faster and almost remain on solidly unless you turn on the headlights then they flash normally.
Its the original relay and a 2 pin old school thermal job
Best course of action? bin it off and fit a newer flasher relay. I happened to have one lying about which is a ford unit.
The Ford unit internally is a digital device not a 1930's technology thermal unit.
Of course there is an issue the original has 2 pins the new unit has 3. The original unit has a power in and a light pulse out if you will. The new unit has the same but also requires an earth. The other issue is the plug has the pulse and positive feed on the wrong way to plug right in.
So To check it worked ok I temp mounted it to test, using a jumper wire
Doing this got the flashers working but not only that a good 2/3 times brighter. Also now there is an indicator click noise which is strange on a bike.
After confirming it all worked I swapped the leads round in the plug, just a simple case of popping the spades out and swapping them
I made up an earth lead which goes to one of the earth’s coming from the battery. So the wiring is done.
I never tested it with the engine running as the babies were in bed and I didn't want to risk waking them by revving the thing. So will test that tomorrow.
I caught the flasher in action, much brighter
I wanted to have a look inside the old flasher to see if it was badly corroded of something.
So snip the securing ring
Clean inside but the resistance was odd in it, probably just old age and poor technology
Jobs for the MOT are as follows
I need to fit a c clip to hold the gear selector lever on as its gone missing and the lever falls off if your not careful.
The wheel alignment and the brake issues are sorted.
So its ready to go.
Needs a right good run though.
[BREAK=Wheels]
20th April 2011
Not done any work on it, moved it out the way a bit then Elizabeth sat on it. Got a picture so here are the new wheels on it.
[BREAK=MOT'd, tinkered with, still in my possession]
16th September 2011
Well another report not touched since April.
The bike is MOT'd. I walked it the 2 miles to the test station as I wasn't going to insure it :lol:
It was meant to be picked up but Kevin's new mrs won't let him have it there so he said sell it. I stuck it up had some interest but they all said it was too old. Its amazing how many people cannot understand a a date. I mean I assume everyone on here can understand that 1983 registered means it was registered in the year Nineteen Eighty Three A.D.
The MOT was fine, a clip holds the gear level on as it should, I pulled the steering head bearing apart and removed the old grease, cleaned it all up fresh grease and its perfect . I did get an advisory on wheel alignment, I went home and checked the bits of wood I used to line it up, they were bent :lol: should have checked them when I set it up.
It starts fine every time, however the tapping got the better of me, I could never set the valve gap with any sort of consistency. So I decided to investigate.
The engine is an OHC design with rockers on pins fitted to the cam cover, to adjust the valves you do it through small port holes through which you can see nothing.
So this cam cover had to come off to get a look at things inside.
Cam cover off, the cam is free now, note the worm on the nose of the cam, this drives the tacho, note the black appearance of the exhaust cam lobe
Then look at the rockers in the cam cover, yes those pads are not supposed to look like that...
The rocker contact pads should be a smooth outwards hump, not a variety of differing dips like these are
The camshaft is actually in ok condition, the blackness mostly came off with a wipe, the cam journals are not scored etc which i was surprised at, so the cam is still usable
new rocker arms are less than 20 quid but its not my bike so I’m not buying them, I did however get the file on them to smooth them out a bit
This was through sheer curiosity. I put it back together, I managed to set the gap with consistency and started it, ran much quieter and better.
Amazing the things you find working on engines.
Anyway the bikes sat here MOT wasting and Kevin isn't doing anything to try and sell it/get it moved. I have the V5 and MOT so I might just put it in my name and claim it as my own.
Rocker arms are cheap, 150 barrel and piston kits are cheap...
I have a few ideas for it if I do take it on, one was to make it into a cafe racer but I also fancy making an old school Katana style replica from it.
However I don't have enough time to finish my own stuff as it is never mind taking on other crap.
I also SORN'ed it again, should have left it and let him get a fine :lol:
[BREAK=New rocker arms]
February 2012
I ordered some new rocker arms for it, £19
fitted them up and I can now set the valve gaps nicely and its a good bit quieter and smoother.
Only took the one picture, this is the old arm and the new arm side by side, easy to tell which is the new one
Started up no problem despite sitting for months.
[BREAK=Still here]
17th August 2012
Well the beasts is still here, still starts right up. Apart from once when I forgot I took the fuel out of it for the lawnmower :lol: When I put fuel back in it fired right up of course.
The babies like to ride about the back garden on it with me. They love the horn as its very loud (Laguna horn) so they are always peeping that.
Not much has happened with it, I checked the MOT as I was sure it was up next month, turns out it was July it was up. So need to get another MOT on it. Why? Not sure as its probably still going to be here a while.
I don't know why but I love this bike, no use for me to use properly its too small. But theres something about the simplicity and the fact they can look pretty good when tidy and painted like an 80's Katana.
My cousin keeps expressing his interest in it and I have told him he can use it if he passes his CBT, of course he still hasn't bothered with that.
One thing that annoyed me was the fuel cap, 2 were with the bike, one locked the other didn't. The one that didn't was the proper one for the bike. It looks better and fits the tank as it should, so I set about sorting that out when I was bored.
It took a bit of work as the tumblers were seized solid so the lock barrel was stuck. However I managed to free them up with picks and got it out. Getting the chrome cover off without damaging it was the really tricky part.
This is the cap stripped of all its parts
Bare cap, the holes and the ball and spring in the previous picture allow the cap to draw air in but not let the fumes out
What I then did was mix and match the tumblers and adjust so the ignition key locked and unlocked the fuel cap. This means the proper cap now locks as it should.
This is back together ready to go
The old round wrong cap, you can see the cut out on the tank for the proper cap
The correct cap in place, much better
Another thing I did was pull off the leather seat cover, the cover was made by Kevin out of an old leather jacket, it was just poor looking now and holding in any moisture that got in. The original cover underneath is pretty tired so will need to do something about that.
These pictures are of the beast the other day
I keep thinking of just pulling it apart and getting it powder coated, sort out the seat, do the bodywork a nice black/silver/maybe 449 blue and I keep looking at the 150cc big bore kits as well.
I put it up for sale and plenty of people came despite me telling them the age in the advert they all came and said "its tidy but its too old". More than one said "I thought when you said 1983 you meant 2003"!
Why are people so stupid?
Some of the garabge GS's on ebay are going for silly money despite being high mileage and very tired, but they are about 15 years younger than this. People put too much stock in what a numberplate says.
The 400 sold so that's someone else's bike off my land and it means I put this bike which again isn't officially mine (but it is) through the trees in the 400's place. Where it can either stay or I can strip it down in my wee temp shelter thing I made which has turned into a sturdy semi permanent shelter which is impossible to see unless you go through my garden then through the trees.
[BREAK=Massive update! Road legal, problems, crashed etc]
September 2012
Well the poor trooper has been through it all over the last 2 weeks.
My cousin Jamie sat his CBT and got insured.
So time to get the bike running right and mot'd.
First of all, carb had a slight stumble and I have never cleaned it so do that first
Its the wrong throttle cable btw, so that needs sorted at some point.
Some debris, not much, still we want it spotless
fully stripped
the sticky choke mechanism
With that done, carb back on fired up first time and with some tweaking runs perfectly.
I then take it down for it's MOT. It passed, no issues. I managed 60 mph down a hill :lol:
So get it taxed and its road legal.
Go out to practice slow control etc
me and my bike just sit and watch
Jamie on it
I then leave him. He comes back several hours later and I note theres a loud tapping noise. Loose tappet noise.
So I pull the tank etc and check the valve gaps which have grown. Strange I think. Take the head cover off and theres not much oil there. Tappets have worn like before. Crank the engine over hardly any oil comes out.
Great.
I have all sorts of thoughts about what it could be, pull the filter, theres not much oil in there, so I think clogged strainer.
On the 125 engine theres a plate on the bottom of the sump, I drain the oil and pull the plate off hoping to see the strainer. Which i do.
This is VERY clogged, silicone etc, so someone has had it apart before then!
after a quick clean
The plate
after a quick wipe for a half and half
Back together and now theres plenty of oil getting up top. Still need to replace the rockers again though. I should have checked it properly when I replaced then originally.
Obviously with the tappets adjusted its quieter and Jamie says a lot cooler which I can understand as theres oil flowing now. It also seems to run a lot better which is nice.
So after a few days of running about he wants to go a decent journey, Callander it is then.
Nearly there he isn't catching up I was down at 20 mph. I knew the tit had crashed it. I was thinking I'll just go home the other way. As I wanted to batter him as I knew he binned it. So I spin around and sure enough he has binned it on a corner.
Had to bodge a few bits to get it home, including having to dig up a big rock so I could smack the foot peg straight. Damage is, tax disc gone as it broke off, broken indicator, bent indicator, smashed screen, damaged front mudguard, bent foot peg.
I straightened the bent peg, the bent indicator, removed the front fairing and screwed and taped up the bust indicator. But somehow the tappet cover broke as well so need one of them, also need to get another tax disc which was only a few days old. Typical.
Pictures
tax disc holder gone totally
Oh yeah he broke a bone in his hand, poof.
Poor bike, from doing nothing to being pressed into service, doing about 200 miles then crashed and then ridden home. Its a tough wee bike that's for sure.
Here's the story, back in 1983 Kevin's father in laws brother bought this.
He rode it for a year then I think it was a heart attack that made him stop so it sat for years. In the mid 90's it was discovered in the garage so was dragged out by his son, no CBT etc etc and he got banned so it went away again.
Around 2000 Kevin saw it in the garage and asked about it. A deal was struck then Kevin set about getting it fixed. He then got it mot'd. However he then decided to strip it down to paint it. So the wheels were sent off for powder coating (£120!!!!), new tyres fitted and everything painted, then it sat never being put back together.
I have known Kevin a few years and until a few months back I never even knew he had this bike!
He asked me if I would put it back together for him and get it running. I said of course.
It was stored with no wheels on, carb stripped and off it and so on. This also meant a lot of bolts and spacers etc went missing.
So over the last couple of months we have been getting the bits together and making it back up.
First thing was the wheels, no bearings in them and spacers long gone. So went to a bike breakers and got them and bought new bearings. £45! mental!
Next was a new battery (£25), then I rebuilt the carb, I have pics of this will sort them later. After this added fuel and it fired up.
Only issue was the idle was about 4krpm and was difficult to rev. The main issue was the carb was knackered, it was heavily corroded so the clearances were massive after it had been cleaned up. So another carb was obtained that was taken from a running bike, this sorted that issue, you could also now rev it cleanly from idle to red line.
So back together it was taken out for a spin about, the issues were noted and were to be rectified.
Issues were;
Rear brake pulsed when applied
front brake light switch didn't work
horn didn't work despite being new all be it 10 years ago when it was laid up
various bolts needed split pins fitting
And that was it. So yesterday we finally finished the jobs off.
We went down to the scrappy so I could get a battery for the white chamade, whilst there we saw a laguna 2 with no front end and exposed horns. So I whipped em off and got them for free. Not bad. This came with 2 horns, one low one high tone. The hi tone went on this bike and the low tone will go on the VFR400R.
Here is the horn fitted, a Suzuki with a Renault bit
Its suitably loud and impressive.
The next issue was the rear brake pulsing, this was due to the drum inside the wheel having corrosion on it. Wheel off and sandpaper to smooth the rust off, all in all took about 30 seconds now its fine. No pictures but you have imaginations.
The brake light switch, a simple switch but was silly money, so I had a ponder and was sure I could sort something out from Maplins. So I went in on Friday with Soneji and had a look about for a push to break round switch. I found one for £1.29.
So next day back at base off with the brake lever etc then set about making it fit. I had to grind the hole out a bit then cut a bit off so it would sit in properly. The wires were soldered on and jobs a good un
Anyway some pictures of the beast
In with some of the other bikes I have about, moved them all so I could cut the grass
Its a good wee bike though, compared to the 6 year old Chituma it feels solid as a rock, a lot safer by a mile. Brakes are pretty good as well. Only issue is acceleration but when your used to sports bike with 10 times the power I suppose it would seem slow!
It will get mot'd this week or next weekend depending on time really.
[BREAK
rogress made]28th August 2010
Well heres the progress up to today.
Heres a picture of the carb, had to tweak the idle speed as it kept cutting out, no big deal a small turn sorted it out. But nothing interesting
I also adjusted the tappets which I think I may have mentioned, the timing chain tensioner is a still noisy though, this is the access to the front which is the exhaust valve rocker arm
Today I fitted a new number plate, the old one wasn't an MOT issue but vehicles always look better with new plates.
this is the old one
new plate fitted, makes the bike look a lot younger as a bonus
We also got the V5 through which is the very latest new style one and it was also MOT'd on Wednesday.
The V5 shows the last owner as Kevin's wives cousin as expected who acquired the bike on the 22nd of April 1992! He was the 3rd keeper of the bike.
The MOT as you can see was a failure. There was also an advisory notice added.
The failures.
001 Rear wheel alignment incorrect which adversely affects the handling
002 Front roller brake test indicates excessive fluctuation of brake effort
003 Rear roller brake test indicates excessive fluctuation of brake effort
Advisories
004 Steering movement slight 'notchy'
005 Front brake disc(s) slightly scored
006 Offside lower rear suspension bush has slight free play
Overall not bad for a 27 year old bike.
I will deal with the advisories first,
the steering is the bearings, its been sat for a while so a flat spot has developed, you have to have the front wheel off the ground and move it ever so gently at the straight ahead position side to side to feel it.
Disc scoring very light its been sat for years, nothing major.
Suspension bush just needs the swing arm bolt nipped up.
The failures.
Rear wheel alignment, Kevin adjusted this, its slightly to the right, easy 2 minute fix.
Now not having ridden the bike I don't know how bad it actually is brake wise, we knew about the rear brake as you can feel it easily, but I had no idea abotu the front brake.
Anyway, today I set about the front brake. The lever has always been solid, barely any movement, there should be some movement. I also spun up the front wheel there is no perceptible wobble of the disc something the MOT tester also noted he thinks the metal has broken down in the disc, I beg to differ.
So what I did was, got the master cylinders top cover off, the usual damaged screw heads of course. Got the cover off and the brake fluid was black. I mean black, it looked like oil.
I soaked some out with a paper towel and saw there was a lot of debris in the fluid. Mostly corrosion particles. Not good news really, but I cleaned out pretty much all of it. I then added more fluid.
Then I pulled the caliper off, I pressed the lever and got the piston most of the way out, peeled back the boot and it was like new! still had rubber grease on it.
I tried to push the piston back it wasn't moving.
I pulled out the vice and with a cracking sound it retracted, the crack was corrosion firing out of the return hole in the master cylinder, the master filled up with black brake fluid. I soaked it up and added more fresh stuff and worked the piston back and forth a few times. It would then push back by hand.
So once it was free I cracked off the bleed nipple and bled the caliper out. The fluid was disgusting. However it came clear and air free so closed it up. The piston moved freely out and pushed back with your thumbs. So a result.
I then sanded the pads flat with some coarse sandpaper so they look like new and then greased the sliders.
I also took out the top caliper carrier bolt, its been touching the disc slightly. So I fitted washer under both carrier bolt heads and now the bolt is nowhere near the disc. This should stop any issues like heat affecting the braking.
Now there is a lot more movement in the brake lever, it feels like it should. When you pull the lever and look at the caliper you can see the caliper moving then moving back when the lever is released. So hopefully that will be the front brake sorted, it needs road tested to know for sure.
The back brake with it on the centre stand and run up in gear the wobble is quite bad, so it will require some more sanding me thinks. Will get on with that tomorrow, line the wheel up and road test.
Then it will be back down for an MOT pass hopefully.
[BREAK=Nothings happened]
22nd September 2010
Well nothings happened, this is because the owner doesn't want to spend money on it.
I pulled the back wheel again a few weeks ago and studied it closely, indeed the issue appears to be corrosion between the alloy wheel and steel brake drum liner. So it needs the old drum removed (destroyed upon extraction) and then the wheel milled back to shape if needed and another liner inserted.
Ahh well see what happens.
Today I started it though, must be the first time in a month or so. Fired right up and ran like a champ.
I gave it a quick clean as well, the chrome came up really well, no detailed pics but here is one from the kitchen
Beast.
[BREAK
ug out]8th April 2011
This was dug out of Kevin's garden last week, well his old garden, divorce is happening so all his stuff has been chucked out of the house/garden etc.
So this is down here and getting ready for the retest and sale.
First thing a few months back he actually bought new wheels for it, so they are grey not blue as before. Much nicer I think, also no pulsing of the brakes now.
Will get pictures soon for the new look.
However in its lay up the usual tarnishing of the chrome and a few niggles have arisen.
Mainly a dead battery (easy fix, charged it), water in the fuel and flasher issues.
Also an annoying issue was a cracked side panel, this happened who knows when, but longer before the bike was built back up.
Since paint was bought (wrong colour no less, its apparently rover Tahiti blue but rover Tahiti blue doesn't match!) it was time to repair it.
So here's the panel
The back side, the lug clips into the fuel tank
Stitching began
backside
this made it solid enough to work with. Next stage is melt a bit more of it
After melting and sanding down to flatten it
Sand out some other spots which are iffy
Body filler part way through final sanding process
it was sanded more and then painted but the supplied paint wasn't metallic! So wrong colour. No more pictures of this process.
The next issue is the indicators, they will flash at varying speeds, if the engines running and revved they flash faster and almost remain on solidly unless you turn on the headlights then they flash normally.
Its the original relay and a 2 pin old school thermal job
Best course of action? bin it off and fit a newer flasher relay. I happened to have one lying about which is a ford unit.
The Ford unit internally is a digital device not a 1930's technology thermal unit.
Of course there is an issue the original has 2 pins the new unit has 3. The original unit has a power in and a light pulse out if you will. The new unit has the same but also requires an earth. The other issue is the plug has the pulse and positive feed on the wrong way to plug right in.
So To check it worked ok I temp mounted it to test, using a jumper wire
Doing this got the flashers working but not only that a good 2/3 times brighter. Also now there is an indicator click noise which is strange on a bike.
After confirming it all worked I swapped the leads round in the plug, just a simple case of popping the spades out and swapping them
I made up an earth lead which goes to one of the earth’s coming from the battery. So the wiring is done.
I never tested it with the engine running as the babies were in bed and I didn't want to risk waking them by revving the thing. So will test that tomorrow.
I caught the flasher in action, much brighter
I wanted to have a look inside the old flasher to see if it was badly corroded of something.
So snip the securing ring
Clean inside but the resistance was odd in it, probably just old age and poor technology
Jobs for the MOT are as follows
I need to fit a c clip to hold the gear selector lever on as its gone missing and the lever falls off if your not careful.
The wheel alignment and the brake issues are sorted.
So its ready to go.
Needs a right good run though.
[BREAK=Wheels]
20th April 2011
Not done any work on it, moved it out the way a bit then Elizabeth sat on it. Got a picture so here are the new wheels on it.
[BREAK=MOT'd, tinkered with, still in my possession]
16th September 2011
Well another report not touched since April.
The bike is MOT'd. I walked it the 2 miles to the test station as I wasn't going to insure it :lol:
It was meant to be picked up but Kevin's new mrs won't let him have it there so he said sell it. I stuck it up had some interest but they all said it was too old. Its amazing how many people cannot understand a a date. I mean I assume everyone on here can understand that 1983 registered means it was registered in the year Nineteen Eighty Three A.D.
The MOT was fine, a clip holds the gear level on as it should, I pulled the steering head bearing apart and removed the old grease, cleaned it all up fresh grease and its perfect . I did get an advisory on wheel alignment, I went home and checked the bits of wood I used to line it up, they were bent :lol: should have checked them when I set it up.
It starts fine every time, however the tapping got the better of me, I could never set the valve gap with any sort of consistency. So I decided to investigate.
The engine is an OHC design with rockers on pins fitted to the cam cover, to adjust the valves you do it through small port holes through which you can see nothing.
So this cam cover had to come off to get a look at things inside.
Cam cover off, the cam is free now, note the worm on the nose of the cam, this drives the tacho, note the black appearance of the exhaust cam lobe
Then look at the rockers in the cam cover, yes those pads are not supposed to look like that...
The rocker contact pads should be a smooth outwards hump, not a variety of differing dips like these are
The camshaft is actually in ok condition, the blackness mostly came off with a wipe, the cam journals are not scored etc which i was surprised at, so the cam is still usable
new rocker arms are less than 20 quid but its not my bike so I’m not buying them, I did however get the file on them to smooth them out a bit
This was through sheer curiosity. I put it back together, I managed to set the gap with consistency and started it, ran much quieter and better.
Amazing the things you find working on engines.
Anyway the bikes sat here MOT wasting and Kevin isn't doing anything to try and sell it/get it moved. I have the V5 and MOT so I might just put it in my name and claim it as my own.
Rocker arms are cheap, 150 barrel and piston kits are cheap...
I have a few ideas for it if I do take it on, one was to make it into a cafe racer but I also fancy making an old school Katana style replica from it.
However I don't have enough time to finish my own stuff as it is never mind taking on other crap.
I also SORN'ed it again, should have left it and let him get a fine :lol:
[BREAK=New rocker arms]
February 2012
I ordered some new rocker arms for it, £19
fitted them up and I can now set the valve gaps nicely and its a good bit quieter and smoother.
Only took the one picture, this is the old arm and the new arm side by side, easy to tell which is the new one
Started up no problem despite sitting for months.
[BREAK=Still here]
17th August 2012
Well the beasts is still here, still starts right up. Apart from once when I forgot I took the fuel out of it for the lawnmower :lol: When I put fuel back in it fired right up of course.
The babies like to ride about the back garden on it with me. They love the horn as its very loud (Laguna horn) so they are always peeping that.
Not much has happened with it, I checked the MOT as I was sure it was up next month, turns out it was July it was up. So need to get another MOT on it. Why? Not sure as its probably still going to be here a while.
I don't know why but I love this bike, no use for me to use properly its too small. But theres something about the simplicity and the fact they can look pretty good when tidy and painted like an 80's Katana.
My cousin keeps expressing his interest in it and I have told him he can use it if he passes his CBT, of course he still hasn't bothered with that.
One thing that annoyed me was the fuel cap, 2 were with the bike, one locked the other didn't. The one that didn't was the proper one for the bike. It looks better and fits the tank as it should, so I set about sorting that out when I was bored.
It took a bit of work as the tumblers were seized solid so the lock barrel was stuck. However I managed to free them up with picks and got it out. Getting the chrome cover off without damaging it was the really tricky part.
This is the cap stripped of all its parts
Bare cap, the holes and the ball and spring in the previous picture allow the cap to draw air in but not let the fumes out
What I then did was mix and match the tumblers and adjust so the ignition key locked and unlocked the fuel cap. This means the proper cap now locks as it should.
This is back together ready to go
The old round wrong cap, you can see the cut out on the tank for the proper cap
The correct cap in place, much better
Another thing I did was pull off the leather seat cover, the cover was made by Kevin out of an old leather jacket, it was just poor looking now and holding in any moisture that got in. The original cover underneath is pretty tired so will need to do something about that.
These pictures are of the beast the other day
I keep thinking of just pulling it apart and getting it powder coated, sort out the seat, do the bodywork a nice black/silver/maybe 449 blue and I keep looking at the 150cc big bore kits as well.
I put it up for sale and plenty of people came despite me telling them the age in the advert they all came and said "its tidy but its too old". More than one said "I thought when you said 1983 you meant 2003"!
Why are people so stupid?
Some of the garabge GS's on ebay are going for silly money despite being high mileage and very tired, but they are about 15 years younger than this. People put too much stock in what a numberplate says.
The 400 sold so that's someone else's bike off my land and it means I put this bike which again isn't officially mine (but it is) through the trees in the 400's place. Where it can either stay or I can strip it down in my wee temp shelter thing I made which has turned into a sturdy semi permanent shelter which is impossible to see unless you go through my garden then through the trees.
[BREAK=Massive update! Road legal, problems, crashed etc]
September 2012
Well the poor trooper has been through it all over the last 2 weeks.
My cousin Jamie sat his CBT and got insured.
So time to get the bike running right and mot'd.
First of all, carb had a slight stumble and I have never cleaned it so do that first
Its the wrong throttle cable btw, so that needs sorted at some point.
Some debris, not much, still we want it spotless
fully stripped
the sticky choke mechanism
With that done, carb back on fired up first time and with some tweaking runs perfectly.
I then take it down for it's MOT. It passed, no issues. I managed 60 mph down a hill :lol:
So get it taxed and its road legal.
Go out to practice slow control etc
me and my bike just sit and watch
Jamie on it
I then leave him. He comes back several hours later and I note theres a loud tapping noise. Loose tappet noise.
So I pull the tank etc and check the valve gaps which have grown. Strange I think. Take the head cover off and theres not much oil there. Tappets have worn like before. Crank the engine over hardly any oil comes out.
Great.
I have all sorts of thoughts about what it could be, pull the filter, theres not much oil in there, so I think clogged strainer.
On the 125 engine theres a plate on the bottom of the sump, I drain the oil and pull the plate off hoping to see the strainer. Which i do.
This is VERY clogged, silicone etc, so someone has had it apart before then!
after a quick clean
The plate
after a quick wipe for a half and half
Back together and now theres plenty of oil getting up top. Still need to replace the rockers again though. I should have checked it properly when I replaced then originally.
Obviously with the tappets adjusted its quieter and Jamie says a lot cooler which I can understand as theres oil flowing now. It also seems to run a lot better which is nice.
So after a few days of running about he wants to go a decent journey, Callander it is then.
Nearly there he isn't catching up I was down at 20 mph. I knew the tit had crashed it. I was thinking I'll just go home the other way. As I wanted to batter him as I knew he binned it. So I spin around and sure enough he has binned it on a corner.
Had to bodge a few bits to get it home, including having to dig up a big rock so I could smack the foot peg straight. Damage is, tax disc gone as it broke off, broken indicator, bent indicator, smashed screen, damaged front mudguard, bent foot peg.
I straightened the bent peg, the bent indicator, removed the front fairing and screwed and taped up the bust indicator. But somehow the tappet cover broke as well so need one of them, also need to get another tax disc which was only a few days old. Typical.
Pictures
tax disc holder gone totally
Oh yeah he broke a bone in his hand, poof.
Poor bike, from doing nothing to being pressed into service, doing about 200 miles then crashed and then ridden home. Its a tough wee bike that's for sure.
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