The mighty BSA (BSA-Suzuki-Allsorts) thread

[themoudie]

OOOOO, nasty! That sounds like a production engineers dream and a service manager's nightmare. The Boy Bros is like that in parts and only the reliability (fingers crossed ) enable me to stay sane and for it to have passeed the 100K mile mark. Both SRX's required their exhaust studs renewing, as they snapped off in the head!  Stainless replacements and bronze nuts and washers, with lashings of copper grease on renewal. So far, so good. 

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

Good health, Bill

[iansoady]

I don't know what on earth those allen screws holding the exhaust on are made of but it took me nearly an hour to drill the head off the upper one and make a start on the lower one. It's particularly awkward as they're quite low and need to be attacked from a crouching position. Oddly enough the bolt holding the silencer to the exhaust came undone with little effort. Remember  the days when fasteners on Japanes bikes were as soft as butter?

I'm beginning to think the seller knew about these problems and passed them on to the first mug who came along. Although I did get it cheap (I thought....)

[iansoady]

What a carry-n! I eventually managed to drill the head off the upper Allen screw but the bottom one was as hard as the bobs of hell. Eventually I resorted to a thin cutting disc in the Dremel and managed to cut the head off and release the exhaust.

This is what remains: a moot point as to how to remove the remains of the screws but I'll leave that for another day.



This is the offending sump plug from below:



This tries to show the exhaust in the way:



and this with the exhaust removed so I can get mole grips or if necessary a cold chisel onto it. Yes, I know.....




All this hassle because of a daft vacuum tap arrangement - although of course I would have been cganging the oil anyway.

[themoudie]

Oh Ian! That looks a bl**dy awful (polite terminology) bit of "production engineering"! 

My only suggestion would be new left-handed drills to remove the remains of the studs, after soaking them with Bulldog BDX, having given them a good heating with a MAPX torch.

As for the sump drain plug, a pox on Yamaha!

I have gone off the idea of a SRV.

Good health, Bill

[xbally]

What a nightmare!

I can only admire your patience and perseverance Ian.

[iansoady]

Of course this was supposed to be my riding around bike while I fettled the BSA/Zuki. And I apologise as it's not even a thumper! Later today I'll attack (probably literally) the sump plug.

[iansoady]

Judicious use of a cold chisel to make a notch in the outer periphery, followed by a long punch has got the plug out at least. The "oil" that came out was about twice the normal capacity and stunk of petrol, as did the oil filter.

I'll let the cut-off screws rest in penetrating oil for the time being - no rush to sort them out. I've ordered the bits I need from CSM in the Netherlands who seem to have good stocks.

[iansoady]

It's taken all this time to get rid of those screws. Soaking in penetrating oil for a week made no impression. My HSS drill bits had little impact. So eventually I cut them off flush with the flange with the thin disc in the Dremel, carefully centre popped them and used recently purchased cobalt drill bits to drill out the remains. I didn't bother trying to save the threads as there's plenty of room behind for nuts so just drilled 6mm clearance holes. I must say the cobalt bits were a revelation - I normally just use HSS but also have some TIN-coated drills which have probably lost their coating by now. I could probably have drilled the heads off using the cobalt ones.

Still waiting for the bits I ordered from CMS in the Netherlands.........

[Ian]

Ian, you have the patience of Job. As Bill said the fuel tap sounds a similar setup to the SRX. I found that if you replace all the seals then they do tend to be reliable. The seals for the SRX still readily available from Fowlers at time or writing or you could buy a complete (Chinese) fuel tap which I did for £24:10 (eBay) It's been reliable for 3 years
Seal repair kit available at £12:95 on eBay also. I should imagine Yamaha use the same seals on both machines.
Hope this helps in some small way
Ian R

[iansoady]

Ian, you have the patience of Job.
Ian R

Not what my wife says....

I think I'm now sorted as regards fuel taps, having effectively disconnected the main tap (On / Prime / Res) from the vacuum leaving it permanently active, and replaced the master vacuum tap with a cheap on/off version. So the plan is to leave the main tap in the On position and use the other one to switch off when leaving the bike. Also will allow me to switch to Reserve when out & about. I'll ignore the Prime position.

This is the main tap with vacuum blocked off:



This is the simple on/off tap - note the blanked off vacuum lines to the inlet ports:



And this the master tap under the back of the tank.

[themoudie]

Aye Ian,

Pleased to see progress. Appears to be exactly the same set up as an SRX, including the dodgy wire hose clips. I have replaced all my pipes with ethanol resistant hose and stainless steel fuel hose clamps. I had found the OEM hoses cracking/perishing and zinc plated wire clips rusting and having had the carb overflow, with a stuck float needle, I didn't want to repeat the experience from split pipes.

As for Job, I'll no go there, sometimes ....... !

Out on the Ducati for a canter today and the clutch cable popped. Dark mutterings, kept riding to see how far I could go using clutchless changes and with light traffic managed 26 miles afore turning "Off" the igntion, opening the valve lifter and gently braking to a halt. Trimmed the end of the cable, screw nipple threaded on and tightened, after which normal service was resumed for the 20 miles to home. Now to make up another cable.

Good health, Bill

[iansoady]

OK. Reattached the exhaust using nuts & bolts - a pig to get the nut on behind (see pic of top one) - I realised for the bottom one it was easier to put the bolt through from the back & put the nut on the front. Fortunately for once Suzuki provided broad enough flanges.



They weren't quite so helpful with the throttle stop screw. I hunted for this for ages before finally discovering it...



CMSNL had the parts but were very slow - ordered on the 20th and not sent till the 26th, but did arrive on the 30th. Far from cheap as well.

Anyway, up and running now and sounds pretty good.

[iansoady]

Well I think finally I may have cracked it.

The CMS parts arrived eventaully so refilled with fresh oil, fitted the filter and completed the mod to the exhaust flange.

I put everything back together and put some petrol in the tank, opened the main tap and after half an hour had petrol dripping from the back of the main (left hand) tap. It was coming from the non-return valve mentioned by others here. So I stripped that out, cut a 1/4" Cycle thread in the exit stub, fitted a setscrew coated with welleal and filled the other side with JB weld. Left to cure overnight then reassembled and it looks petrol-tight, at least so far.

MoT booked for Thursday morning!

[CrazyFrog]

Good progress Ian!

[iansoady]

Little Yam passed its MoT successfully this morning but the front carb is still weeping a bit of petrol so will have to come apart (again!) Quite a pleasant ride there & back - sounds nice, seems to handle well with a nice stable feel, takes off reasonably briskly. The front brake is a bit sudden so will have a look at the pads in there and also consider changing the master cylinder (14mm) for the 1/2" one I took off the 250RS a couple of years ago. Keep everything, it's sure to come in useful!

Then I can enjoy riding it and get to work on the BZuki.