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.

close but no cigar 2...

the glorious super B

peter kindly took off his bike and brought round to try

and its throttle cable arrangement

which meant we didn't fit it as I wasnt prepared to hack up the stupid internal throttle cable on my bike.

The problem happens under load so it needed to be a practical 'heath robinson' fix.

Going round in circles...

 Found this interesting - especially about fitment 

Somebody left a message on christine last night

Bitch Diary - 17th Friday

Hot wire to coil. To satisfy myself but no difference. Hard to start.

Take off points Ignition and coil.

Replace with Ultima single fire ignition.

Starts real easy. Tick-over is fantastic, like a metronome in comparison.

Runs and accelerates a little better but on acceleration either bogs or misfires. 

A noticeable improvement on points ignition.

Well thats the ignition circuit sorted.

Pete is going to take off his Super B for me to try,

fool - we've already fucked his coil...

Please let something breakdown...

Bad Coil 

firing on one terminal only

Is the cap vented?

How to test - sucks but doesn't blow (heh heh)

weird, the bad coil I was lent says its single fire, measures 4.6 ohms

Bitch Diary

15th

Changed condenser, checked flow from tank, petrol cap is vented. Starts on enerichener!

Ride around the block twice ( I do learn) runs bad and almost dies.

16th

Hot wire to road test - wont start. eventually fires and is running on rear pot only.

Check front plug, cold. swap leads/ plugs same nospark. replace coil as no spark on one side. Remove hot wire. Road test, better but still no acceleration and sounds choked. 

are you as tired of this tale as I am?

 She starts and doesn't misfire, so we finally go for a test ride

Having failed to diagnose the previous non start (no spark).

 A kilometre feels a long way when you're pushing a shovelhead back home

Christine started running rough, no acceleration and finally died, pulled the plugs sparking but dry.

Still, she now starts with the enrichener, 

I just couldn't get some matching brass clothes pegs to hold it open

the mark of the beast...

Finally made a carb support

Putting her back together I decided this will be, or is a problem and found the old carb support that came with the 'flowmaster' back in 1988.  A little work on the fitting and with essential speedholes - job done.

Finally discovered a wiring fault this morning

Third time its happened, usually when I strapped a tool roll on the front.

So remembering this I switched on the lights and puffhhh.

It seems the speedo bulb earth wire shorted touching the live feed.

The Bitch Diary

10th Feb

Have measured valve depth 1.666 (tolerance is 1.600 to 1.645) so it is 26 thou out

and requires new valve seat. This would reduce valve ht.

Decided to take off more metal in rocker cover instead. Ground in valve as well.

11th Feb

Very cold -takes 7 kicks, starts with no falter on tickover, (used to have to build) sounds better and didnt seem to misfire on constant throttle but not warmed up. Take to the road for a test run, fired up twice, 1st on a compression mis- kick, then would not fire twenty odd kicks, plugs dry, mega wet sumping.

I didn't check to see if the plugs were firing. Could the short have caused the non start,  it doesn't seem possible as the lights have there own breaker.

close but no cigar...

double check the valve is the correct length 

 I figured it should be close to this measurement

 and so it proved to be close - but no cigar

Replace the valve seat

Fuck it, take it to an engineering shop and get the lot done. 

Then sanity finally reared its ugly head, the engine had been rebuilt with new valves and guides and cost is a significant factor and so dremeling the rocker cover for clearance will do till the next time the heads are worn out.

off with her head!...

 wet fuel deposits

 sooty exhaust valve

 moisture/fuel? droplets on inlet pushrod

 groove in rocker cover

wear on edge of the exhaust valve collet

Finally decided to take off the rear cylinder head to try and locate anything could be causing the misfire.
After speaking to my technical advisor (heh heh) for pointers to look out for, I mentioned this mark that had appeared again on the cover wall.
If you check back on my build last March (head job) I relieved this area of the rocker cover after it took nearly an hour to get the cover off because the valve collet was jammed against the cover wall.
Is this the cause of my misfire? Is it holding the valve open? Is the valve the correct length?
My valve spring compressor that worked in the past slips over the valve stem keepers on these alloy collets so no removal today.
I'll keep you posted on any further exciting developments...