And today's activities...

Had the air filter drying over the heater most of the night, to make
sure it was completely dry.

Decided, whilst the fuel tank was sort of off, that I'd have a look at
the spark plugs. So, fuel tank removed properly (rather than
balancing on my leg) and placed gently on a bed of silken pillows
(well perhaps not quite), it was time to remove the air filter
housing. Carbs were stuffed unceremoniously with tissue to avoid
mishaps.

Well the air filter housing is a tad fiddly - again not much room,
especially with the air hoses on the front, but off it came. At that
point, I lost the will to live. The spark plugs appear to be buried
somewhere around the front wheel and the ignition coils looked a
bugger to remove. So having decided 'bugger that' , back on went the
air filter housing - even more fiddly putting it back on!

Went back to the house, picked up air filter and put it place and
screwed the top in place. Got the fuel tank and started connecting
stuff when I looked to one side for the pliers and found the air
filter basket, which I'd omitted to insert. Fuel tank back down again
and basket added.

By this time 'Fat Bob', the nosy neighbour with the Blackbird from up
the road had appeared to chinwag whilst I was wrestling with getting
the breather tube etc hooked up with one hand. Despite his best
efforts in distracting me, I got the bike together and the fairing
back on.

Started it up and let it get up to temperature - wanted to check that
the cooling fan would cut in and to see if the exhaust seemed
clearer. While I was waiting, I got the footpump to do the tyres. I
did think it felt a little off yesterday - no wonder, given there was
about 20psi in the front and 10psi in the rear

So, exhaust products did eventually clear, fan did cut in when it was
meant to, tyres up to pressure, so <fingers crossed> I may have a
legal bike again come Friday. Woohoo!

Tomorrow, I'll wash it

 

In message

<snippage>

Well I managed to put the remaining two valves and rocker arms into the
CB72 head and drop it onto the barrel, loosely put the cam chain on
(thank f*ck I bought a magnetonnastick, would have been impossible
without). At this point I stopped to read the manual to work out the
valve timing, and I'm glad I did as I would have missed the two rubber
grommets that go around some knock pins that locate the cylinder head on
the barrel.

Then I went to the pub for some lunch.

Hopefully by the end of this week the engine will be screwed back
together and back in the frame.

 

A *lot* of Honda twins use these.

 

There weren't any there when I lifted the head, but I was expecting
something fairly original and got .5 oversize pistons and a few lumps of
red hermatite..

 

Erk. Mind you, after four decades if that's all you got, you're
relatively lucky.

 

Well yeah fair point. House move has necessitated that it gets put
together rather faster than I would like, so stuff I would normally have
done with a stroker I've left to chance on this one. Engine is fairly
easy to dismantle anyway. Probably have to again for the common
kickstart pawl wear problem, but reboring, new pistons, new
valves/guides and new kickstart bits don't come cheap, so apart from the
cost of a gasket set it was probably the right decision anyway.

It's still along way from running. Dual-points timing is new to me, as
is any kind of valve timing[1], so it's a learning curve, but a much
nicer one now a lot of the "oh for fucks sake" events have ended. Note
for the interested, anything under 6mm (and selected few larger) on this
bike is not metric, it's JIS, a note INOX fasteners failed to notice and
I'll be having words next time I see them at a Classic show.

Recommendation - http://www.tsrvapourblasting.co.uk - very happy
Carbs look great, tempted to send the RD ones off.


[1] Apart from watching my Dad set up the valve timing on his Comet,
wow, talk about complicated, Know Thy Beast TYVM!

 

I've never even heard of that.

 

Japanese Industrial Standard apparently. Complete pain in the arse.

 

Beelzebub_on_Mac wrote:
snip wooo hooo
I'm pretty sure spark plugs are supposed to be changed at the same time
as the bike ;-)

Nooooooo !

The sun is shining just now, please don't invoke the washing gods !