Saturday December 28th 2024 Being in the period between Christmas and New Year, this was a relatively quiet session… However… Motobi Moped… Jose’s 1960s Motobi moped still refused to run continuously and the engine insisted on dying for no apparent reason, then refused to re-start.  Graham helped Jose by inspecting the contact points and checking the points gap through the holes in the generator rotor.  With a gap between 0.3mm and 0.4mm the setting seemed to be about right.  A mark on the outside of the rota indicated that the points were opening in roughly the right place.  Of course checking visually isn’t accurate enough for good running in the long term.  This could only be achieved through the use of a timing buzzer and a dial gauge to determine the precise position before dead centre (BTDC) that the points were opening.  However our rough test would be sufficient to ensure the bike should run.  The fact that the feeler gauges slipped easi...

  Saturday December 14th 2024. Kawasaki Z550 AJ, Jack and Jon worked on the bike, AJ in particular was overcoming some final electrical problems around the headlight.  The front brake light switch was found to be faulty and a new one will have to be ordered.  AJ got the bike running outside the hall with vacuum gauges attached to try and establish why the engine was not idling smoothly. Unfortunately the club’s gauges were not playing ball. Hopefully a balance issue would explain why the exhaust of No 1 cylinder was not getting hot.  The respray of the bike’s tank and side panels was still a work in progress. Kawasaki Z550 on the brink of completion? Kawasaki Z250 Steve and Allan worked on the bike’s rear disc brake. The vacuum brake bleeding device the club had bought couldn’t be persuaded to work due to its o-ring having warped.  However with Phil Howell’s assistance Steve eventually got the fluid into the rear brake caliper.  Steve had concluded that the...

  Saturday November 30th 2024… PW50 Running and ready for Santa’s sack. During the meeting club mechanic Phil H worked to finish reassembling the little PW50 Yamaha and as you can see from the photos it looked splendid.  After a bit of pumping of the kickstarter the bike fired into life and with some tweaking of the airscrew etc was ticking over very nicely. All in time to ensure one young man would have a fantastic Christmas gift and one that would hopefully see him hooked on motorcycling for the rest of his days.  Yamaha PW50 - Nearing completion. Yamaha PW50 - Right side Yamaha PW50 - Left side Kawasaki Z250 - Steve bleeding profusely. Having put the rear brake master cylinder back together Steve filled it with fluid and set about trying to persuade the brake fluid to pump through and into the rear brake caliper.  Assisted by Graham and then Allen Steve adopted the ‘undo the bleed nipple’ ‘pump the pedal’, ‘do the bleed nipple up’ and ‘release the pedal’ approach....

  Workshop Update for Saturday 16/11/24… Kawasaki KZ550 Limited Progress was limited to installing  a battery of the correct dimensions to fit in the battery box.  The bike’s fuel tank and side panels were away with the club’s resident Kawasaki expert A.J. who in turn had got us a quote to have them professionally resprayed.  The quote included hand painting pinstripes on the tank to match those that Kawasaki originally applied to the bike.  The incorrectly wired bulb from amongst those in the tachometer still needed to be sorted to prevent the fuze blowing problem.  Andy, the club’s resident refinisher, sprayed the components needed to attach the seat to the frame when the time came.  Dnepr 650. Dave worked diligently to reassemble the top end of the engine, installing second hand replacement cylinders, cylinder heads and pistons to both cylinders.  This resulted in strong compression on both cylinders.  When the engine was started, the popp...

  Kawasaki KZ550 Limited (Hybird!) A.J., Jack and Andy Joiner worked on the bike and the bike was started up.  However a short developed in the wiring which blew the main fuse.  Andy Joiner, our budding auto-electrician detached components one at a time until the huge current drain on the battery ceased.  It did so when he disconnected the small harness of wires leading to the bulbs in the tacho.  Working with Graham and testing each bulb holder in turn with a volt meter Andy deduced that one of the bulbs had been wired up with its polarity reversed leaving the bulb holder on the live side of the bulb instead of on the earth side.  Although the tachometer is largely made of plastic there were metal components where some of the bulbs pressed in and it was concluded that the live bulb holder had shorted out on one of these.  Whether this would ultimately prove to be behind the fault would have to wait until the harness On leaving the session A.J. took th...