Thumper Club Forum
Technical => Project Progress => Topic started by: Steve Lake on April 06, 2011, 08:51:44 PM
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Having re-aquired #3 from John the plumber (who had it from me as part of a deal which saw me get a central heating system built around my woodburner with a home made back boiler)
john had done many 1000's of happy miles on it....and decided to go for a complete rebuild as it was getting hard to start and a bit tatty......the engine was stripped and rebored, new HC piston, head gasflowed. bespoke oil cooler fitted (this was a UK engine, so not fitted with an oil cooler). then the problems started....or not as the case may be, as John couldn't start the bike atall.....took the whole plot back to the guy who did the work on it, and fault was diagnosed in the generator....so was sent away for a rewind...... but the bike was still very reluctant to start...and John just lost interest in it..... i got a text one lunchtime.....'wanna cheep bike m8'.....and here it is.....
first things i checked was carburation, it currently has a pair of mikuni's... which have always worked ok...... but to my mind it seemed that there was a fuelling problem.....so i fitted my single 40mm dellorto.... after a bit of effort the bike started, but after a while (3 or 4 mins) it would backfire, flame out of carb etc...then stall.
on checking the tappet clearances...they were very tight.....with no clearance atall on the l/h inlet....adjusted these to be on the loose side, and set up the decompressor tolerance correctly.
now seems to be a bit more reliable....so #1 son has the mikuni's to clean up with his air line. in the meantime as you can see, the cosmetic side of things need a lot of attention.
John had 'personalised' the bike somewhat.... alloy guards....home made battery box, small tacho and matching speedo, a lot of rewiring, l/h switchgear from a different bike.
all in all a bit of a shambles...John said he rode bikes, not polish tem, but i doubt that this bike had been serviced properly since it left me 3 years ago. ther was a lot of rust around the back of the bike, so i removed the swingarm, and it didn't look like it had been greased since i rebuilt it with new needle rollers, and the rest of it is in a similar state, ,so i shall put the original speedo and tacho back on , and the correct l/h switchgear, ....this will all get done fairly quickly, as i intend to sell it, to fund 'second project', which i'll enter up on here tomorrow.
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more pics....poor old girl looks a bit tatty....still, nothing a few weeks of hard graft won't sort out.
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and even more pics..... i should have all the parts i need to fix this bike from my stash.... so just paint and wiring stuff needed....
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Ach Steve, that must be nice to have her back in the fold!
Keeping Tiggy company too- great stuff!
I see the Redex-sponsored catch tank lives on! :D
Cheers!
a
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My sympathies for suffering from the same affliction that I have Steve ;)
Ian
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Had to remove the swingarm and associated bits 'cos it was looking so rough...
hadn't been greased since i sold it 4 years ago!..... god it was a mess....
i have had to strip the swingarm and graese up the needle rollers, then a coat of black hammerite
the rear subframe is awful..... i just can't understand how, in the space of 4 years a lovely looking bike can be reduced to this
i'd wire brushed off the rear subframe and more black hammeritethen found the pretty s/s braided rear brake line was chafed away...more expense
and at the front oil is pi55ing out of the forks... more expence
and i have found some more unobtanium... the plate at the end of the swingarm (yamaha part number END1 ;D )
see pics
it's going to be a while before i get this pile of poo on the road
oh, and the chain!....ye gods....once i got it off i found it would stand up on its own, almost like an indian rope trick!
so the sprockets are cr*p too... starting to look like a money drain.......
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hence what looks like a jack and coke methinks :)
best of luck.
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Ahh yes, the pic, 2 bits of unobtanium....the end plate for the swingarm.... the new one is from stock at my local yamaha dealer, last one in the world by the looks of things.
the other (isn't coke) is Thwaites Liberation Ale at 5.2%, I have 3 bottles left, last year they brought the abv down to 4.8% and in the process bu55ered up a really good beer.
I can't fix the beer problem, but with a bit of luck and a following wind I'll get this poxy bike sorted......but
in the process of checking and cleaning bits b4 rassembly.....more effin problems
the braided hose for the rear brake is chafed right through the braid AND the pistons are siezed.....bo77ocks!!
got the hose replaced using the original (expensive) s/s ends...for a fiver, so that was a bit of a result (thank god for the few remaining quality m/c engineers!).....still working on the piston problem....any/all ideas most welcome
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everyone i know blows them out with compressed air. myself,if its seized both sides i bleed the brake with a front master cylinder(need the lever) then pump until one piston is as close tocoming out as i dare. Then apply G clamp to that piston to stop it from coming out,while you pumpthe other one right out. Never yet had any calipers that were able to resist the power of hydraulics.
Bugger about the beer.I hate it when people mess about with something thats good and ruin it.the good thing i've always found when a brewery ruins your favourite beer is that you have to go loooking for another one.Which of course means sampling many an ale. which is of course, nice :)
good luck.
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Aye Steve,
Agree with Skraatch, when did your hydraulics let you down! ;)
I've a nice bit of 5mm plate, which sits between the pistons in the caliper and a couple of well polished tyre levers. Use the levers to move a piston back in whilst pumping on the lever.
If this wheeze fails!!!!!!!!!!!!! ??? ??? Then remove caliper. Place in vice and split the caliper, soak the whole lot in diesel, clamp a pair of 'Mole' grips onto the piston, with the caliper body in a vice and apply leverage. Knackers the piston, but they do come out! ;)
As for the beer/ale! :( Greene King I.P.A. or else try a drop of St. Peter's, will deliver to your door and the bitter is a lovely drop of beer. Good and 'hoppy'! Here is their link: 'St.Peter's' (http://www.stpetersbrewery.co.uk/default.asp) Mind you, it would make a nice little canter from your place, to fill up a tank bag or a seat pack on the back! ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Slainte, Bill.
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Yes Bill, know St Peters well, a friend had his wedding reception there (now that's what i call good planning), and my local Morrisons sell their beer.
I did the 'hydraulic' extraction, well, put it this way, with the caliper in the vice, i managed to push the pistons back into the housing ok, and there wasn't much in the way of corrosion there. I figured that cleaned up and a new set of pads installed, i could refit it on the bike and use the mastercylinder to ease them out again....
Well the theory was good... and would have worked a treat....if the master cylinder hadn't been siezed as well.... hells bells....what else am i going to find wrong with this bike??!
Now, this must be the 6th rear master cylinder I've had to try and rejuvenate, and if true to form, i'll fail miserably, and with the 'service kit' no longer available, a replacement unit is an expensive fix.
But after 2 hours on the workbench I finally got the thing working tolerably well.... the final fix being a thorough polishing of the bore with a strip of rag wound round a bit of rod soaked in brasso and turned by my trust black a decker drill.
refitted the mastercylinder, and then went through the time honoured excessively lengthy bleeding process peculiar to SRX bleedin brake systems.
Once I had a bit of pressure, a good heft on the lever and the pistons obligingly moved out, so i levered them back in, repeated the process 4 times, re-bled the system and hey presto... thank god for that., job done.
I'm seriously not looking forward to replacing the fork seals....heaven knows what i'll find.
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a labour of love indeed. I keep telling myself with mine when innevitably everything takes forty times longer than it should that it will all be worth it in the end,and yours is looking well tasty already.
Good luckwith the fork seals,not my favourite job at all,but some of this might help:
http://dorsetpiddlebrewery.co.uk/acatalog/Bottled_Piddle.html
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Forks were a doddle... all of an hour and job done... but the job revealed how bad the problem was, the l/h caliper (and hence the pads) were soaked in fork oil, so the calipers will need a thorough clean and the pads replacing (interesting to note that the same pads were in place that i originally fitted years and miles ago, I know this, because i always fit one sintered and one standard pad to each side).
the job with the forks....having lulled me in to a false sense of 'job going smoothly now, be done in a few days'.....now kicked me in the teeth as i surveyed the horror of a completely bu55ered wiring system. john had slung out the original spedo/tacho, made up a bracket and fitted a matching pair of small chrome units, and some very ugly warning lights, the whole thing is a mess, and i have found sufficient parts (albeit a kph spedo) so put it back to standard (the srx binacle is one of the defining characteristics of the machine along with the quirky tacho position) but john (he really should stick to plumbing) cut a load of wiring out, ang removed plugs, so i'm really struggling, he also replaced the l/h switchgear with an item from 'who knows what', and fitted LED indicators amd rear light assembly, it also looks like the rear light assembly has been connected up 'ass about face' and burnt out......wunderbar!
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Now why doesnt all this surprise me?
Ian
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Hi Steve, tell me more about the Del Orto carb on the SRX! What adapter do you have? Where did you get it from? Do you run it on the Del Orto or revert back to the Mikunis? What about jetting/needle settings? What are the advantages?
Thanks in advance, Mike
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Had a manifold made up
had to bash the underside of the tank up and remove the tap/filter assembly)to accomodate the extra height of the carb
It's a 40 mm unit with accelerator pump (the people who supplied it gave me a set of jets and needles, a process of trial and error got it going ok.
advantage... simplicity, easy starting, better performance (but not better top speed)
drawbacks... lots of fidddly things to do to get it fitted and working correctly.
when i bought it, it cost me £120, the manifild cost me £60 to be fabricated, £30 to weld up tank and move fuel outlets and weld up and move the breather pipe in the oil tank.
nothing is ever straightforward when you start to modify bikes.... was it worth the effort...i'd say yes, at the time i needed a set of carbs to get the bike running, so i was always going to have some expense whichever route i took.
I'm currently running 2 x 33mm dellorto's... whic give similar performance and better top speed, thats why i had the big carb spare to try on this current project.
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OK...nearing completion... the wiring was an absolute nightmare... 10 hours spent on that alone.
another 30 hours on painting, making/remaking brackets, refurb of swingarm, new head race, forks overhaul, brakes overhaul etc
fitting of new parts, tacho cover, speedo and tacho rubbers, front sidelight fitting, new break pads all round, seals and dust covers for forks.
MOT booked for the morning, all being well it'll be on the market in a week.
not including the MOT and the cost of the bike, it's cost me approx £200 for parts, paint etc
remains to be seen if i'm happy with it...couple of days should tell.
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I had better get my skates on then Steve :(
You seem to have left me standing with this one.
Im not happy with many facets of mine though
Ian
A photo or two would be nice
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Bah humbug.... #1 passed it's mot with flying colours....but this one (#6) failed.... dodgy numberplate and no reflector.... still, all said, once i'd got the wiring done and the panels and tank on and decals fitted and a gallon of juice in the tank (by then it was 10pm last night, and i was blummin happy that it fired up 4 prod) i figured i'd take a flyer on the plate.
now got a proper plate and reflector fitted (apparently black/silver # plates can onlyu be fitted on vehicles up to 1973)
If you look closely Ian you'll see that although everything is properly set up and working well (it's a stonker of an engine), finer details like the finish on the calipers and rear shocks, the alloy mudguards (i hate them, if i was keeping it they'd be off in a flash) are all just 'clean and serviceable' and although i have dealt with most of the rust on the chassis, it look 'ok'... not brilliant.
So it'll be on Ebay later in the week..... shame, but this was always going to be the case.
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Note the crappy XT kick start, but at least i got the original type spedo/rev counter assembly set up ok (not the exact one, which is a great shame, as this is a British bike and had an MPH speedo, this one is kph)
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Steve,
"clean and servicable" it may be, but its certainly quite a looker as far as Im concerned. Its the "whole thing" part about it that I like. You must have been in your garage (or wherever) more hours than I have of late (I have seen 1am more than once in the last few weeks!)
Hats off to you once more......I will post news about mine on my thread after writing this.
Ian :)
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Thanks Ian... yes... a few late ones... and then waking up a 4am with the wiring daigram clearly visible on the bedroom cieling!... or lying there wondering if i'd forgotten anything... ::)
looking forward to seeing yours (if you'll pardon the expression ;D ) judging by previous photo's it'll be one amazing machine.
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Steve,
Who made the exhaust expansion box ?, looks like a neat solution
Steve
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Steve,
Who made the exhaust expansion box ?, looks like a neat solution
Steve
Yes, come on, who made it and where did you get the reverse cone mega from???
Mike
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Ahh yes, the exhaust system... well, it was made by Roger cotterell (one of 3 brothers who ran Denver Motorcycles)
Gary Cotterell used to race in the british and european Supermono series and at one time his chassis featured in most of the leading bikes.
sadly Denver Motorcycles closed a couple of years ago, Roger emigrated to New Zealand, Gary builds/repairs aero engines in Feltwell, the 3rd brother went full time in the fire service.
the reverse cone mega, i'm not sure about, i'll ask john (the previous owner) as I think he obtained it, when i flogged the bike to john it had a predator system on it using standard header pipes, when john gave the engine to Denver m/c's to rebuild/tune he blagged the SRX4 monoshock siamese headers off me, and i got the predator system back (which went onto #5 and was sold 2 years ago).
if you want, i can take some proper pics and measurements in case you want to replicate it.
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Hi Steve, some good pics and measurements would be welcomed by a lot of us on here, thanks for the offer ;)
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Ok.. done a few miles now and now have a few problems to sort out....
went scratching down a few lanes, sort of pushing on a bit, the road got bumpy and i very nearly got unshipped.... bluddy rear shocks completely bu55ered.. back wheel was coming off the ground as i yo yo'd down the road!
luckily i had the original shocks from my bike which are ok (just not as good as the Koni's i'm using now), so these were cleaned up and pressed into service.
(can the standard yamaha shocks be serviced I wonder?)
then i was starting the bike in my drive and it backfired...and blew the cone right off the mega!... only just missed my car ffs!.... well it was only pop riveted on, with ally rivets no less... and i had got some s/s pop rivets which i was going to fit.... but with the cone off it was obvious the best solution was to drill and tap the cone and use some dome head s/s bolts.... job done, looks a lot better too.
It is also clear that the front tyre is on its last legs, so buying a new tyre which'll go onto #1, and #1's will go on #6 as less than 1/2 worn.
bit of electrical tidying to do, and hopefully that'll be it....
On my way home this afternoon, at a steady pace after the 'pogo' incident, i got to wondering how many miles this engine had done since the rebuild?......bu55er all is my estimation....as John could hardly get it started..... and there was me 6k rpm in 4th seeing what she went like.....plonker!!!!... steady as she goes for a few miles methinks!... I must call john and get the facts.
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Is that all?
Must remember to avoid this one when it goes up on ebay ;D
Is Gary C still in the knigs lynn area?
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then i was starting the bike in my drive and it backfired...and blew the cone right off the mega!... only just missed my car ffs!....
..... and there was me 6k rpm in 4th seeing what she went like.....plonker!!!!...
HAhahaha!! :D Looking great mate, good luck with selling that one (again!).
Cheers for now,
a
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Note the crappy XT kick start,
I thought the XT kick start wouldn't fit the SRX? I thought it had different splines?
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Note the crappy XT kick start,
I thought the XT kick start wouldn't fit the SRX? I thought it had different splines?
I think there has been some localised surgery involved :o
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No, no surgery.... there are several XT units that have the same splines..... with a pinch bolt which does need a bit og surgery to clear the clutch housing
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Thats me told :-[
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No, no surgery.... there are several XT units that have the same splines..... with a pinch bolt which does need a bit og surgery to clear the clutch housing
You wouldn't happen to have any part numbers, would you? ;)
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'fraid not.... just got lucky picking them up at auto jumbles
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I will see if my local friendly bike dealer can sort out a part number.
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Brilliant! SRX kickstarts are about £106.00 from dealers now if you can get 'em!
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Got to be a market for getting some made up
I know a bloke who makes beeza kick start levers.....
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Ebay auction has 3 hours to go..... viewed over 2000 times, 179 watchers.... and it's nowhere near the reserve... bluddy barmy Ebay!
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I'm lurking out of curiosity, nosiness! ;D No intention of purchase and far to much to do, with the others.
I wish you all the best Steve.
My regards, Bill.
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well, thats a bu55er.... thought it'd go for a reasonable price... not sure what to do... maybe put it in MCN and Classic Bike... .both offer free advert space.
Still.... looking on the bright side... i'm starting to warm to the old girl... had a blast out on it tonight and really enjoyed it... good strong engine and everything working as it should... maybe i'll hang on to it ;)
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Ebay is a bizarre place. a lot of things don't get anywhere near what they're worth, and yet other stuff sells for vastly more than it's worth. Myself i'd keep it, cos its nice :)
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There's an article in the June edition of Practical Sportsbikes on buying an SRX600, should generate some interest in the model.
You should see the prices they are quoting for the bike's value!!!
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cheers... i'll have to buy it
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Sold on Fleabay today.. to a good home ( i hope) in essex,
I was half hoping it wouldn't go.... i'm getting to enjoy riding it, and looking at it. I'm sure #1 srx must get a tad pi55ed off, enerytime i knock up an srx to sell, i spend more time on that than #1 and start muttering about maybe flogging #1 and keeping the latest creation..... only to go back to #1 once the bike is sold...... she's going to kick my ar5e one day... ;D
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I know how you feel Steve!!!