Saturday September 6th 2025

 Saturday September 6th 2025.

Mash Dirtstar 400 Scrambler…

The end of an era.

There were just to many issues to overcome.  Graham spent further time grinding away at the right hand exhaust rocker until the automatic decompressor mechanism no longer engaged with it.  Then guided by Graham Jo and Don then spent time reassembling the top end of the engine.  A battery was connected along with a starter pack.  In fact three different starter/chargers were tried. In most instances he engine wouldn’t turn fast enough for there to be a hope of it starting.  However on just one occasion it span up fast enough to fire. Not only that but it started and ran continuously for a whole 5 to 10 seconds.  Long enough to be confident that it could run properly and that the failure to run wasn’t due to an internal problem with the engine. Oddly though, the starter continued spinning the engine when it stopped firing.  In fact it only stopped spinning the engine when the battery was disconnected. Upon reconnecting the battery there was a big spark when the clamp made contact with earth and the starter resumed its work turning the engine over. Graham found a suitably heavy object to inflict a couple blows upon the starter relay and at that point things returned to normality.  With a very strong spark at the plug, excellent compression and nothing obviously wrong with the internals of the engine, it had to be assumed that the fuel injection was the reason the engine would not now keep running. Was a dodgy starter relay to blame for the slow turn over?  With the throttle body removed fuel could be felt coming from the fuel injector so perhaps it was an intermittent fault with the electronics.   Many owners seemed to have resorted to fitting a carburettor in place of the fuel injection, which didn’t say very much for the reliability of the system. Changing to a carburettor would not only mean finding a carb to suit and jetting it correctly, but also finding and fitting a fuel tap as fuel injected systems do not have a fuel tap.  Taking account of the low resale value of the bike (Even if done up and working properly), the lack of reliable information about them and the lack of spare parts (And spare parts dealers) meant this would have to be the end of the road for the pour old Mash.

Yamaha Majesty…

Peter and Chris made huge inroads into replacing the scooters extensive bodywork.   AJ assisted with a bit of unconventional plastic welding using a blowlamp. It seemed to do the trick and not much else remained to be done by the end of the session. One item that did cause a little pondering was the seat lock. At first, the way it worked wasn’t quite apparent and everyone wondered if something was missing.  Graham did a little research and found an on-line version of the owner’s manual.  It explained that the seat lock is electrically operated by a twist of the ignition lock.  How very posh indeed!.  With a battery fitted the lock catch could be heard clicking so all seemed to be well. 

Kawasaki KZ550 Limited...

One last but quite important bit of progress was made at this session. AJ had managed to acquire an old Kawasaki seat lock minus its key. As the lock had its key number stamped into it he hoped that a new key could still be purchased for it. As luck would have it he was in for a good surprise when he found that the key with the bike's ignition lock also fitted the old seat lock. Excellent work. Now he was waiting for a starter button to arrive to help complete the bike ready to go back on the road.

Honda Vigor 650…

Jon and Heinz worked together to help clean up more of the bike but were soon frustrated by a bolt securing the exhaust tail pipe to the rear frame rail.  The bolt itself was a 10mm allen headed bolt with the nut end exposed to all the muck and water that the rear wheel could throw at it, so it was no surprise it wasn’t keen to come undone.  Heinz and Jon searched for a set of Allen Keys they had thought they had seen around the workshop.  However no such tools were anywhere to be found. Graham then began a hunt to try and find something that would fit the allen head which was beginning to show signs of rounding off.  The allen socket needed to be a long one to reach the bolt between the frame and the silencer. After a search around the workshop Graham found an old set of allen sockets that someone had had given us including some very robust looking long sockets. After a couple of good hard taps to get the allen key as far into the bolt head as possible Graham and Heninz set about trying to break the weld like grip that the rust had on the nut. Eventually it gave in andwsith a lot of squeaking and creaking the nut slowly came undone.  

Suzuki Bandit 1200…

Andy resident refinishing expert got to work spraying the frame beneath the headstock to make good an area that had rusted quite badly and help get the bike looking its best.

Yamaha TX500…

AJ moved the part built engine and its components  to the workbench and began to ponder how to get it back into one piece.

In other news...

The DVSA had replied to Keiran's initial enquiries to get the KZ550 and the Z250 registered for the road. We now had a registration document for the KZ550 but a little more work was needed to get it registered as a historical vehicle to elminate the need to tax and MOT it. The DVSA had found no trace of our Z250s frame number on their records but when their letter was checked it was possible that the 'A' from KZ250A had been ommitted, so another search might have to be done.

Once again it was a big thank you to Merryl (AJ's wife) for providing a large box of delicious victoria sandwhich sponge and chocolate brownies, that disappeared at a rate of knots as always.