Seventeen year old in action again

Got tired of this new 'will she- won't she' start saga 

I called Alex @ Grizzlys for a price on a new coil. 

A new single fire coil will cost £150 quid - and that is not an option.

He suggested testing the Ultima coil by using a hair drier to see if it breaks down when hot and compressed air in reverse.

 My seventeen year old Accel 'super' coil for points ignition

My problem seems not quite so black and white as sometimes it will not start cold, and if she does, by the time I've packed and got her onto the road, 

will not start again.

Decide to temporary remove the ultima ignition and fitted the blue streak points and my coil - A - fucking - gain!

The shots a little fuzzy as she was running at the time!

Bitches Diary

14th March 

Will not start, add petrol to plugs as before and will not start, coughs through carb with throttle open

15th Charge battery, hot wire, starts 2nd kick. warm up. Stop and leave 5mins and starts first kick. Take to road to test, fires but will not start.

16th Friday. Think its the coil. Refit points ignition and coil. Takes a few kicks and starts with throttle open. Warm up. Stop and starts again hot. Road test, starts after a few kicks, throttle open. Starts first kick at gas station, ride 10 miles. 

But now have no 4th gear!

Pretty Rubbish

 Cheap shit kicker shaft about to snap on me

Replace with old faithful footrest till I can afford better

BITCHES DIARY

11th March Sunday -Breakfast hotrod meet.

Will not start! fires occasionally

took off carb 4 times changed jets, plugs

12th

Change everything back to how it was last week, when it ran, - no start.

Dip plugs in petrol. kick ignition off, kick on and engine starts.

Runs well. warm it up till ticks over without enrichener.

Switch off and take to road test. Will not start. Even with petrol added to plugs again. 

back together again baby...

Looking for a reason why the selector jammed

Just as I am about to put the selector cover back together I notice the mainshaft selector fork is proud of the shifter finger that the shifter cam sits on by 3mm

So was that the cause? 

The selector cam is not able to sit on the shift fingers properly?

(incorporatinglots of new to me techno manual speak)

After a bit of "should I take the gearbox out' or 'try to take off the extra metal in-situ' - shall I, shan't I, argument with myself

 Its done (in situ with a bloody small hand file, gaffa tape, some cloths and a vacuum cleaner. Phew. 

Which just leaves the question - WHY was it like that?

These new pawls jammed and are not as well shaped as the originals (which were not that bad) and I really had had enough by then, so they got removed. I guess the label says it all.

And finally, some bling for her ladyship

a Kustom Tech Adjustable Enrichener 

At first she would not start with the enrichener on and now will not start without it. Bitch. Standing there with some clothes pegs, which work when full on but aren't adjustable, haha, is a bit of a bore.

'her loudness' is too vocal ...the noisy bitch

lowtech

The Kromeworks HP+ baffles supposedly give better performance but the sound is just deeper. Decided to try two baffles, adding the original cheese graters (which are one baffle cut in two) will hopefully tone down the attention grabbing noise and more important a little easier on my ears on the road. 

The baffles were covered in black soot when removed.

She's doing about seven miles to the litre, while we run in the engine, a light hand on the throttle to forty mph, thats about about 32 miles to the gallon so I think its time to revisit the Super E jetting.
Currently running an intermediate 28 and main 70.
I have now gone back to the 26.5 and a 68.

Everything I do on her seems to go in circles and is done not once but twice and sometimes thrice.
She would not start with the Super E enrichener and now will not start without. Ha.
And so an adjustable enrichener has been ordered.

all is not lost, or... best not panic...

 could be the gears - but they go round and the oil has 

no metal fragments in it (I sieved it)

it could be the selector in the cover as it seems stuck 

its not the throwout bearing 

(which is called a pushrod assembly in the manual) 

as its all there on the end of the pushrod

the shifter cam doesn't return, but can't see why unless its taken apart

 stupid design ('to remove cover drill hole and pry loose')

 has to be the bloody pawls jamming somehow

the selector cam has a little wear but seems ok

 the formidable parts diagram

so those evil pawls (plus spring) are going to be replaced

and the last person in there didn't do both locktabs on 
the plunger block either

Thank fuck it wasn't the gearbox (sorry tranny)

Parts in One week 

she devil...

and on the One hundred and twenty eighth mile...

gearbox stuck in third or 4th gear, made it home clutch squealing.

fuck.

 postscript to my rear head misfire

a not so unusual problem 

So dear reader, I have been given 'Blind Pew's Black Spot' it seems...

I think its time for you to move on and enjoy yourselves.

chains and paint don't mix

 Drive chain movement requires more metal

 taking off the rear guard

 it seems you need to allow at least an inch up and down movement

 don't forget to pull the tape towards the cut - not up like I did

bros of the road...

We went for a ride on sunday to a popular scenic spot near me called Newland's Corner

On the way I pulled in to try and stop the front lifter block leak. 

Then she would not start.

So I must have been there twenty minutes. And not one bike stopped.  Mainly rice burners and a couple of enthusiast types on their way to Newland's Corner. An allen key would have come in handy.
We eventually carried on and shortly arrived there, with the eyes of the biker community upon me and 'her loudness' - I thought, fuck this we are not stopping here so all these 'fellow bikers' can snigger if (or more probably when) she refuses to start again in the hot sun.
So I adjusted her tickover, turned her round and we blasted the fuck out of there.
Sometimes its nice being loud.

Not born free...

Good to chat to Pete and check out his classic drag bike build on the Barons Speed Shop stand

bewitching paint

Met Doug and Martin (he of the wood effect yam 650) and some mates

Sickboyz shovel and stig paintjob

and a chat with mr sickboy himself - Wade Poulson

Nice rear end

 Knuck Lane Splitter

This years show seemed more laid back, than last years, still the mainstream chromey stuff, in a sea of evos and maybe not so many punters. I think more shovels were featured - that could well be a fashion thing and a tad early in the year for some builders to show their bikes.

London Custom trip...

 Bling

shoveltime at the show

 remote reservoir

altogether shoveliciousness

bobs shovel

swingerlicious

with some nice details 

 some heavy stuff 

 gorgeous stopper

 pantastic

bird deflector 

and knucklicious!

 Well laid out show this year, met a few friends and had time and room to chat, we got there at eleven and didn't leave till three thirty, we had a good day.

  

Christine takes a trip...

with handbag


sounds like someone's digging up the street with a jackhammer,
damn those solid lifters

Timing is everything...

Dug out the old FXE rev counter again 

and Pete came around with his timing gun 

Set the advance timing again

A big difference compared to when we did it last time. When set at TDC the unit is almost fully over to the left. When timed dynamically the plate is advanced considerably more and raised the tick-over noticeably.  

and then it fucking rained,

So a road test tomorrow - can't wait.

false widow...

daily mail scoop

eu-fucking-rika!

Christine breathes fire at last

Well dear reader, the reason she runs badly isn't due to: 

timing,  the cam, an ignition fault, a bad earth, petrol vent, bad plug, carb blockage, coil, plug leads, et al. 

Its due to the pratt who didn't adjust the pushrods properly.

'With the tappet at it's lowest position, adjust the pushod to the point where it has no "up/down" play...but you can still spin it between two fingers. It's OK if you have a slight amount of drag when spinning...but you have to be able to spin it.'

Does "no up/down play" include that of the compressing spring? or should that spring compression not be taken into consideration?

That spring should be compressed so that the solid adapter is fully seated in the tappet. Then as the engine warms up and the cylinders grow allowing valve lash the spring is supposed to take up the lash resulting in a quieter engine.

I didn't compress the spring so the rods were running loose and not opening the valves. 

The revelation came to me yesterday and I realized it just had to be the pushrod adjustment. 

So dudes, feel free to take the fucking piss...

Ps.

As soon as it seemed she was firing properly, I gunned her down the road. She's got long legs with that 25T trans sprocket and we barely needed 4th gear on the back roads - an absolute pleasure.