Pretty quiet session this week in the miserable weather, but lots of things going on. Armstrong 500 Heinz has been touching up paint on the frame to military standard of the day "slap some paint on it" - not to airbrush quality. More paint required. Honda NS125 Ioan busy with wet and dry on the main faring. Kawasaki Z250 Andy-Rattle-Can has been trying to get a nice sheen on a side panel. Yamaha 535 Virago Steve's been shining up the engine block all day. Yamaha TX500 Armed with a full set of cylinder head nuts, Dave W & Phil R got the head on the engine. Later they were seen with various other, scratching their heads - the replacement cam chain doesn't seem to be any longer than the old one.  Honda FX 650 Vigor Mal is still fiddling with the front mudguard bracket - this is about the last thing to do to finish the project.

  Kawasaki Z550 Now that he had insurance to ride the Kawasaki,  Keiran finally took it out for a ride on the road. Part way round the route it came to a halt and he feared he might need to be trailered back to the workshop. As you can see from the notes he made on the ride, it wasn’t a complete success. Never the less it was the first time in several decades that it had propelled someone over the tarmac.   One other worrying issue became apparent when it was wheeled back into the workshop and it was time to go home.  Keiran had filled the fuel tank right up for the first time since it had been lined and re-sprayed.  As Graham gave the bike a cursory glance over before moving on to other things, he noticed fuel dripping from the front left corner of the fuel tank.  There was no sign of anything leaking from the fuel tap, so the initial conclusion had to be that the tank itself was not fuel tight.   With Chris to assist him the fuel tank was...

  During a busier session…   Honda NS125F… Following its owner’s first visit to the work for a long while last Saturday, Keiran had fetched the bike back from our storage container. At this session Keiran, Phil R and Dave worked to try and find parts that had been removed from it some time prior to the Covid Pandemic. Once they had been rounded up an investigation began to work out what was what. A very rough looking petrol tank was found along with a variety of plastic components, which the team fitted together to make something resembling a Honda NS125F. The fuel tank was going to need a good deal of TLC to get it ready for re-spraying and all the plastic panels would need to be resprayed to get them in a fit state once again. A couple extra panels caused a lot of head scratching.  They looked as though they there were part of the fairing ,but no matter which way they were turned, or which side side of the of the bike they were held up again there seemed to be nowhere...

  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...

Dylan was on hand to oversee further work on this bike and came equipped with new fork seals and a new choke lever. By close of play both front forks had been removed and stripped down. One of them had been fitted with a new fork seal, which was far easier than anticipated.

The bike’s owner bought in brand new throttle and clutch cables for the bike. Phil the mechanic set about installing them both. Next on the agenda will be things such as.. Replacing the choke cable and the bodged choke lever. Replacing the rear wheel bearings. Changing the front fork seals Changing the steering head bearings.

The state of the throttle and choke cables was checked this time. On removing the twist grip housing it was quickly apparent that the throttle cable was hanging on by its last threads and needs to be replaced. Removing the left handlebar switch revealed that the plastic choke lever had broken where the cable connects and a bodge had been made using a rubber grommet to stop the cable falling out of place. The cable itself was seized solid and should really be replaced unless we can find a functioning cable oiler, but even then I do not hold out much hope. We also checked the bike out to see if would pass an MOT but alas things need to be done before that will happen. Such as... Replacing the notchy steering head bearings (The front fork assembly should travel from side to side smoothly without any notchiness, which would cause horrendous handling issues!) The front fork seals are leaking and need replacement. The rear tyre is heavily perished. There is play in the rear wheel bearings. T...

Previously the carburettor had been removed and taken for cleaning by club mechanic Phil Howells.  It had now been cleaned and returned.  Dylan, and the two Graham’s worked on the bike. The first issue we faced was re-installing the throttle on the end of the cable.  The throttle cable fits in a small slotted hole in the throttle slide.  The spring that closes the throttle surrounds the cable and the bottom end of the spring seats on a flat metal plate.  The principle purpose of the plate is to prevent the throttle needle from rising up.  Initially I managed to thread the throttle cable through the wrong hole in the plate.  However this quickly became apparent and ten to fifteen minutes of patient cable waggling saw the throttle slide attached to the cable.  Dylan then worked patiently to fit the carburettor into the openings of the engine and engine air-filter hoses both of which had hardened a little and shrunken over time.  Now it was time...