# Tool Talk > Wheels >  1974 XS/TX650 rebuild

## th62

I bought a 74 TX650 several months ago as a long term project. I'll never be able to ride it, but I enjoy building rather than riding anyway, so it's worked out well

The bike was in terrible condition, had to ask the two young fellows next door to get the thing off the bike trailer when I got it home. Way past my physical abilities now

Every piece of steel was rusted, some of the spokes had rusted completely through, all fasteners were binned, along with seat, battery carrier and a few other rusted bits and pieces. 

Aluminium was badly oxidised and damaged from rough tool use. Motor was free but not running and had sustained some damage from an errant chain: Section of the top crankcase was ripped off and the shifter drum bearing mount had also been sheared off.

The bike came with a box of spares, mostly damaged: two extra carbs, extra gauges, mags and a set of rusted out spoke wheels, ignition switches, wiring looms, old bearings and so on.

Auto advance unit was missing, centre stand was broken, quite a lot of damage.

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## th62

First order of business was to tear the bike apart and look at the damage. In their wisdom, the Japanese decided to build the bike so the motor had to be removed from the frame to work on it, and a heavy lump of metal this thing is. The motor can only be removed by laying the bike on tnhe right side, undoing all the mounts and jiggling the motor back and forth while trying to get the motor free.

The TX is an odd mixture of over engineering and under engineering, some good ideas and some terrible ideas, as I was to find out. OtHer damage was the drive chain, despite being way beyond it's life span, it had been left in service so both sprockets had badly hooked, teeth. The previous owner had fashioned a rough auto advance plate which was at least 90 degrees out. The motor would never have fired up anyway as compression was down around 70/90lbs. Carbs were choked up, valve seats were pitted, starter gear spring had lost all tension, cam chain was stretched so much that the motor couldn't be timed, even with a whopping .30mm points gap and both cam chain guides had lost their linings.

Other visible damage was to the upper crankcase and numerous gouges in the side covers which would have to be ground out. I located a set of second hand crankcases, so sent off for them and also sent off for a seal kit, a gasket set, two new cam chain guides, a new cam chain, an auto advance unit, some shifter drum pins, valve spring seats, some stainless allen head fasteners, new pistons, rings, gudgeons and a few other little bits and pieces. I also sent the barrel off for reboring and the head off to have the valve seats reground.

Whilst waiting for the parts to arrive, I stripped the rest of the bike down, throwing out all the fasteners, spokes, seat pan, battery carrier, spokes and a lot of other bits and pieces that were just to rusted to be re used, then set about bringing the alloy back to life, a hard dirty job!

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asterix (Jan 12, 2021)

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## th62

Here's some alloy bits I prettied up while waiting the parts. The hubs were mounted on my lathe for trueing and removal of casting bridges between fins, then smoother and polished. Rims were in a terrible state with lots of tyre lever damage and pitting from heavy oxidising. Tyre lever damage was ground and then rims polished. Engine side covers were the same, most of the dents and gouges I managed to remove then polished them up. Front forks weren't too bad, just badly oxidised. Alsp polished the dipstick, cam chain adjuster, breather box, tappet covers, starter motor ends.

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asterix (Jan 12, 2021)

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## th62

A little more work: Just put the front hub together using sealed bearings, bead blasted the disk holder and drilled a few holes in the disk. Also put the rear hub together with sealed bearings. The Teles are also together, I removed all the casting marks from the sliders and polished them again, they look 100% better without the casting marks. Unfortunately I dropped the left side slider and damaged the seal surround, bugger! I'll try the aluminium brazing rods I have and see i f I can repair it. I'm thinking of doing away with the sidecovers and either making a polished aluminium battery carrienr and making a feature of it, or I'll shorten the sidecovers at the front and attach brackets to the battery carrier for the sidecovers, that way I wont have to mak e splayed manifolds.
All one handed, had the left hand index and second finger fused and the ring and pinky got new PIP joints. Not easy with just one hand all this work, but, this Yamaha is yelling at me!

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## th62

Built this seatbase with cowl from 1.1mm sheet. After cutting to shape, the sides were beaten down and the rear section rolled up. A cowl was then bent to shape around the upright and welded. Front mount is a rubber covered spigot, welded to a flat plate and bolted to the nose. I then bent up a raised section to cover the tank mount and welded that in Position. The rear mounts are grommets set into the cowl into which are fitted a couple of positive stop nuts I turned up. A couple of threaded tabs were welded on the rear seat loop and the rear of the seat is bolted to them. Rubber mounted seat to guard against vibration.

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## th62

And the seat brackets:

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asterix (Jan 12, 2021)

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## th62

Side covers beaten up from 1.5mm ally, then bent and twisted to follow the lines of the upper and lower frame rails, which ere at fifferent angles. Then polished them to see what they'd look like. Mounted using grommets and positive stop ally nuts I machined up.

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asterix (Jan 12, 2021)

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## th62

Finished off the front hub: I drilled the disk with some lightning holes, installed new sealed bearings, polished the hub and because the left side cover that covers the disk mount holes was rusted, I fabbed a new aluminium one and polished that as well. Bought some stainless fasteners, polished them up and assembled the hub. I want to go with an electronic speedo, if I can find one, so the speedo drive on the left will probably go and I'll turn up a stainless spacer in it's place. For a bit of extra bling, I also polished the edge of the disk. Hub should look nice laced up to a polished ally rim with polished stainless spokes.

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asterix (Jan 12, 2021),

Corm (Aug 29, 2020),

Fast.Eddie (Aug 28, 2020),

high-side (Sep 1, 2020),

Jon (Aug 28, 2020),

MadTrapper (Aug 28, 2020)

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## raildr

original start photos show mag wheels, ????

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## th62

Also came with a couple of spoked wheels.

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## th62

A nice new rotor arrived this morning. A trip out to wingfield in order to find a big lump of aluminium to make a mounting bracket from is in order now.

Tell you what though, knock Chinese made products all you like, but both the stator and rotor are excellent quality. Compared to the original Japanese made ones from the 70s, these are superb.

I suspect that the kit suppliers in America get theirs from China, for a lot less than I paid, get them to make a mount and sell the kit for $400.

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asterix (Jan 12, 2021)

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## raildr

my only known experience was a pair of headlights for Sable which had water in one side, looked very good and came with the bulbs, zero complaints..........

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## th62

What? Think you may have the wrong thread.

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## th62

Finished off the stator mount for the PMA today. I bought a couple of slabs of aluminium, thickest I could get was 25mm, so I settled for that. That meant making a 10mm spacer. After waiting ages for the bandsaw to cut the slab down to a size that would fit in the four jaw I chucked the square slab and made it round, dished the underside to clear the crank bearing mount, bored a 60mm hole through the middle and drilled a couple of holes for mounting.

Next came the spacer: Turned down a 70mm round ally bar to fit inside the stator windings and turned down a couple of locators either side to locate the spacer under the stator and to locate the spacer inside the base, thus making sure the stator is mounted central. Drilled a few more holes and tapped them, then stuck it all together.

Drilling and tapping all these holes scratched the hell out of the ally, so I mounted spacer and base in the lathe again and used some emery to get rid of the marks.

Fits on the engine nicely, just have to file a woodruff down to match the 6mm keyway in the rotor to the 5mm keyway in the crank. After that, solder some terminals on the end of the stator leads, yeah I know, I'm a rebel.

Next job is to turn up a cam for the points. I'm going to convert the twin points system to a single, lots of messing around here trying to get the points firing at the correct intervals.

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asterix (Jan 12, 2021),

Home-PC (Sep 9, 2020)

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## greenie

Whoever acquires this bike from you when your finished fixing it up, will have one hell of a decent reliable motorcycle.

It's a credit to you that your going to such detail, well done.  :Thumbs Up:  :Clapping:

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## tonyfoale

Great job. It is always nice to see work done properly.
Personally I prefer to make new stuff rather than repair old stuff. I cannot imagine taking on a bike so degraded as your starting point. I take my hat off to you.

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## th62

Modified the fork legs: Removed the lower mudguard mounts on both legs and the caliper mount on the left leg, ground everything down smooth and polished both legs. I also discarded the speedo drive and replaced it with a stainless bush and ally dust cover I spun up, pressed together and polished.

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asterix (Jan 12, 2021),

freddo4 (Sep 14, 2020),

greenie (Sep 13, 2020),

tonyfoale (Sep 13, 2020)

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## neilbarton

form over function?

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## th62

Not really, it's more functional than it was 46 years ago, and a lot shinier

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greenie (Sep 15, 2020)

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## th62

Resurrected the swingarm bearings today. The shaft was badly pitted so I turned it down .20mms to 21.8mm. The swingarm bushes were stuffed so I turned up two new ones from Delrin. When drilled, the hole in Delrin comes out slightly smaller than if it was drilled in steel. Unfortunately, not small enough, so the shaft and bushing fit was still a little too sloppy for my liking, so I turned the bushing outer diameter a little larger than an interference fit in the swingarm bushing hole and pushed the bush in place, this compressed the bushing material by .20mm taking the bushing bore down to around 21.8mm. Excellent fit. There's always more than one way to skin a cat!

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asterix (Jan 12, 2021)

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## th62

Some painting today. Frame is still at the blasters, soon as I get it back, I'll paint that too. Undecided on tank, guards and side covers, probably black, perhaps with a little sparkle. Either that or metalic charcoal.

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## th62

Some nice shiny triple trees. Couldn't get underneath the top triple tree for polishing so that's just a bead blast finish. Top had some difficult sections, but I managed to get in there with nylon fibre wheel and narrows mops. The large chrome washers under the handlebar mounts were rusted, so I spun up some aluminium ones and polished them. Lower triple tree had a rough cast finish, so I sanded the areas I could get to with the belt sander and nylon fibre wheel before painting.. Finally, I bought some stainless fasteners, cut them to length and polished them. When I find a magnetic sensor speedo I'll mount that on a polished aluminium plate and use the stock mounts. Triple trees look good so far. Picked up the frame from the sand blasters this afternoon and bogged up the rough areas, I filed most of the weld joints prior to blasting so that saved a lot of bog. Hard to know when to stop bogging on these Japanese frames, talk about rough. Paint day tomorrow, sand the bog down and apply a few coats of primer before I hit it with a top coat, then float coat it. I also removed the pins from the footrests, bead blasted everything, rammed a 16mm square bar down through the hollow pegs to straighten them, belt sanded the main bodies smooth, removed the casting joins and hit them with gloss black. Instead of Inserting pins, I polished up a couple of allen heads and fixed them with polished stainless nyloc nuts. Rubber peg mounts were buggered, so I bought a couple of rubber bungs from Clarkes. When I've finished the frame I'll shape the rubber bungs and insert them in the pegs.

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asterix (Jan 12, 2021),

greenie (Sep 30, 2020),

tonyfoale (Oct 1, 2020)

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## th62

First colour coat on the frame today, I'll finish of with a final float coat tomorrow after scrubbing down. Managed to get the front down tubes pretty straight and smooth with a belt sander and bit of bog, but the area where the footpegs mount, what an abortionate mess, bits and pieces tacked on, welding looks like a five year old did it, folder marks all over it. What a bloody mess these frames are, bits and pieces tacked on everywhere, abysmal welding and fit. I'll have another go at flattening the area tomorrow. This abysmal frame is going to ruin this build.

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asterix (Jan 12, 2021),

greenie (Oct 1, 2020),

tonyfoale (Oct 1, 2020)

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## tonyfoale

> This abysmal frame is going to ruin this build.



You obviously have the ability for another solution. Have a look here 
Making a motorcycle chassis or this is what tools are for.

More ideas here https://motochassis.com/photos/

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## th62

Looks a bit better with some paint on it. Have to slip the motor in now so I can knock up some exhausts. Should look - black!

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asterix (Jan 12, 2021),

greenie (Oct 6, 2020),

tonyfoale (Oct 6, 2020)

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## mbshop

I bought a new one in 73. It had the gold color scheme. Great bike. Only thing I did to it was pull the engine to paint the cyl black and polish the ends of the fine. Looked much better after that. Forgot why I eventually sold it but most likely it was to buy a newer bike. I bought the first xs750 that came to hawaii. Was also a fun bike. But as I was getting more and more into dirt bike riding and soon to be married, I sold it to get a van. Still miss those bikes.

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## th62

Managed to get the motor in without scratching the frame, now I can fabricate an exhaust and a few other bits and pieces. What a struggle though, I'm sure the Japanese have some sort of robotic device that installs the motor, but surely they realise at some stage the motor may have to be removed and not everybody has access to a a robot, what a stupid design. Next problem is to get it up onto the bench, then after that I'll have to remove the motor again at some stage to fix a leak at the bottom of the barrel. Getting the motor In wasn't the only struggle, the Japs in their wisdom use 10mm bolts, but the holes into which they fit are nearly 11mm, put the two lower bolts in place then you have to jiggle the motor around to get the upper bolts through the upper mounts. Probably easy for an able bodied person, unfortunately, RA has robbed me of my strength and much of the use of my hands, had to get the wife to help. I did make a stand to sit the frame on utilising the centre stand mounts, works well stopping the frame from wobbling around.

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asterix (Jan 12, 2021),

tonyfoale (Oct 9, 2020)

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## tonyfoale

> Getting the motor In wasn't the only struggle, the Japs in their wisdom use 10mm bolts, but the holes into which they fit are nearly 11mm,



I came across that problem quite often when I had the frame making business. My solution was to ream through 7/16" (close to 11mm) and make new bolts from 7/16" rod. England in the 1970s, so 7/16" was easier to get than 11 mm. The reaming was necessary because the holes in the cases are tapered (for die extraction in casting) and are not 11 mm all through.

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asterix (Jan 12, 2021)

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## th62

I managed to get the bike up onto the bench using a very technologically advanced method: Around 90 paving stones stacked on top of each other. I lifted one end, While the wife slid a few paving stones in then lifted the other end so she could slide a few more pavers in at the other end. Lifted it up one paver height at a time until we got to the right height then slid it across onto the bench. Wife got a little worried at times, the higher we got, the more wobbly it got. But we got there in the end. Helps if the wife is a good sport. I welded a frame mount together from 32mm tube and fitted that first to save some paint and keep it from rocking around all over the place. It bolts onto the frame using the centre stand mounts. Now I can start on an exhaust.

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asterix (Jan 12, 2021),

olderdan (Oct 12, 2020)

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## th62

It's a long road, but I'm getting there, ever so slowly. I mocked up an exhaust to get the angles right, tomorrow I'll get the local muffler shop to replicate the top and bottom angles then weld them together. Looking at it now, it doesn't look too back with the squared bends. Bet you can't spot the tiny LED rear indicators! Very unobtrusive. Still a way to go: Mudguards, battery box, air filter, electrics, exhaust, upper engine mounts.

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asterix (Jan 12, 2021),

olderdan (Oct 12, 2020)

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## olderdan

I have a similar fixed rolling bench for building motorcycles, the problem of mounting and dismounting was solved by the use of a cheap electric winch which rides on a scaffold pole. Rated at 250 klilo it will easily lift a complete machine on and of, once you get used to a motorcycle dangling four foot in the air from webbing straps. Like you I no longer ride for health reasons but I still get a lot of pleasure from restoring, (mostly old british iron). 
You are doing a great job on that XS/TX650.

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tonyfoale (Oct 20, 2020)

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## th62

Couple of top end mounts made today, just have to polish them and turn up some spacers. Exhaust was a no go today, none of the exhaust shops I went to do mandrel bends. Got an address to try tomorrow. Crossed fingers, otherwise it's an ugly exhaust system!

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tonyfoale (Oct 20, 2020)

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## th62

Polished the upper engine brackets and spun up some spacers for them. Also shaped an exhaust clamp which I can't polish yet as I'm modifying the polisher stand. Waiting on the exhausts at the present time, probably another week or so.

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Jon (Oct 20, 2020),

tonyfoale (Oct 20, 2020)

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## th62

New, revamped polishing and sharpening stations. Polisher is GMF, bought in 1976, now that's good service. Be interesting to see if the Abbot and Ashby grinder lasts as long as the GMF grinder has, no matter, I'll be long gone.

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tonyfoale (Oct 22, 2020)

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## th62

After making a few different style exhaust brackets, I've decided on these four bolt ally/steel exhaust brackets. A real job bending the 50/3mm steel to shape, ally was easy by comparison. Should get the pipes late thiS week then I can weld some mounting plates to the rear of the steel brackets, paint them and polish the ally.

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greenie (Nov 3, 2020)

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## th62

Picked up the exhausts yesterday, unfortunately, not a good job: Angles were out, left and right sides slightly different. Annoying considering it took him four weeks to bend them up. So, on to the bandsaw, cut the pipes into three pieces and welded them back together. Not much I can do about the angle not following the downtube angle, but I cut and welded the lower tube so it followed the ground, didn't like it so cut and welded again with just a slight upsweep. Lower section on the right is only tacked, should be able to finish them off tomorrow, then finish off the brackets, form the ally clamps and polish them up. Happy with the outcome.

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## tonyfoale

> Picked up the exhausts yesterday, unfortunately, not a good job: Angles were out, left and right sides slightly different. .........



It is so annoying when you can't find people to do a good job for you. Shame about the angles not matching the frame.
You are doing a great job with that bike.

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## th62

Pipes, brackets and clamps all done. Slapped some paint on and bolted them up. An absolute nightmare grinding, filing and smoothing all the pipe bender marks off, these pipe benders make such a mess of the pipe. Then there was Cutting and then welding the sections together, round tube right? Nope, not very round at all, get one side lined up nice and flat and another section doesn't quite line up. Not far out, but enough to notice. Lots of bashing and grinding and filing.

The top bend was such that the downpipe was to match the angle of the frame downtubes, that didn't happen, exhaust shop got that wrong. Not much I could do about that, but probably not that noticeable unless you get on your hands and knees to line the tubes and pipes up. The lower bend was way out, pipe was meant to run parallel to the ground. So, I cut the pipe further along and angled it up so it was parallel, didn't like that, so cut and welded again with a slight upsweep. That then threw the lower bracket angle out, once again, cut and reweld. All good in the end. I got the angles absolutely spot on, so both brackets are identical.

The top clamps were turned on a lathe using a four jaw to get the large central hole lined up. Managed to get them spot on, just using a punch mark and a dead centre. The lower brackets have very tight bends to get the bolts as close to the pipe as possible. Ally was easy, but the 50x3mm steel was a little more difficult, first bending in the bar bender, then bashing them in a vice.

I'd like to know why, when forming circles, or half circles in this case, PI is always incorrect by a couple of mm. Pi says these half brackets needed to both be 65.155mm long, including the right angle bends at each end. Now that is for the two halves to meet. I ended up making them 67.5 long including bends and that left a gap of 1mm once clamped together, which is what I was after.

I've done a lot of these type clamps over the years, Pi is always out, but it does give a ballpark length.

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greenie (Nov 19, 2020),

olderdan (Nov 20, 2020)

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## th62

Due to lack of interest I won't be posting progress reports anymore.

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## tonyfoale

> Due to lack of interest I won't be posting progress reports anymore.



That is a pity. You do not get much feedback but if you look at the bottom of the page you can see that 179 people have looked at your posts.

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## greenie

> Due to lack of interest I won't be posting progress reports anymore.



WHY NOT, it is a joy to see how your progressing.

You are achieving a marvelous result with a CLASSIC motorcycle, please keep posting. :-)

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olderdan (Nov 20, 2020),

tonyfoale (Nov 20, 2020)

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## olderdan

> Due to lack of interest I won't be posting progress reports anymore.



I would miss your posts as motorcycle rebuilds are what I am interested in. Its nice to see an XS 650 not being chopped for once and I am looking forward to the completion of your project. Its a fact that motorcycles are not of interest to many members but the techniques involved in restoring cover many areas of possible use to others.

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freddo4 (Jan 12, 2021),

tonyfoale (Nov 20, 2020)

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## olderdan

Allen Millyards web site has a useful trick for finishing welds on exhaust pipes which may be of interest to you, about 9 mins in.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=allen+mill...%3DT1aG63f_eEs
I have used this idea for refurbishing rusty kickstart levers etc.

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greenie (Nov 21, 2020)

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## th62

Funnily enough, that's pretty much what I did, except I used an aluminium oxide grinding belt turned inside out. Only good for final finishing though really.

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greenie (Nov 21, 2020)

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## th62

Since a couple are interested, Just a quick update: painted tank, front guard and headlight and made up a couple of headlight brackets. Paintwork yet to be polished, also have a couple of 650 stickers I'm thinking of applying to the tank. Not sure about them, don't want to draw attention away from the engine. If anyone is interested I can post some pictures and write a 'how to' narrative on making the headlight brackets.

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olderdan (Jan 9, 2021)

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## th62

Finally finished off the forks today, right side needed a final polish. These pics show how not to remove fork seals. Some people shouldn't be allowed near bikes, gouging the fork legs like that to get a seal out is criminal..
The damage is actually worse than the pictures show, both legs have deep gouge mark inside and outside the seal housings, one was cracked, but despite blasting the area and using a loupe I couldn't find it. I thought about cutting the top section down to the level of the top of the seal, then turning up an aluminium sleeve with a circlip groove and shrinking it over the seal housing, but, the seals were a damn tight fit and no more aluminium broke off the top. I might still remove the top section down to the level of the seal as the circlip really isn't needed, so tight is the seal fit. The stanchions have a bit of rust on them, hence the gaiters, but, I think the forks look better with them.

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freddo4 (Jan 12, 2021),

olderdan (Jan 9, 2021),

tonyfoale (Jan 9, 2021)

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## th62

I had another shot at the left side engine cover. No matter how much I polished it before, the aluminium appeared stained. I've tried a nylon fibre wheel before with no luck, so this time I scrubbed it down with wet and dry then polished it, Still the same. It appears there is a fault in the aluminium, I must have scrubbed the aluminium down by at least half a mm, all to no avail. Still nice and shiny, but the staining is really annoying me. Strangely enough, whilst the other aluminium on the bike was in terrible condition, badly pitted and oxidised, nowhere else is staining a problem. It's only in sections rather than the entire cover. Nothing more I can do, so I'll have to hunt around for another cover. Japanese metals have always been of bad quality, too much junk in the casting I'd guess.
Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails

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Jon (Jan 9, 2021),

olderdan (Jan 9, 2021),

tonyfoale (Jan 9, 2021)

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## tonyfoale

> These pics show how not to remove fork seals. Some people shouldn't be allowed near bikes, gouging the fork legs like that to get a seal out is criminal..
> ................ I thought about cutting the top section down to the level of the top of the seal, then turning up an aluminium sleeve with a circlip groove and shrinking it over the seal housing, but, the seals were a damn tight fit and no more aluminium broke off the top. I might still remove the top section down to the level of the seal as the circlip really isn't needed, so tight is the seal fit.



I bought some modern CBX forks from a S/H parts place because I wanted the cartridge damping pieces. One pair of sliders were even worse than yours, the previous owner had actually drilled holes under the seal.

I do not know if you are familiar with the Ceriani forks of the 1960/70s (maybe earlier as well) but they were made from tube with extra pieces glued on. The glued pieces were the axle carrier, mudguard and brake torque arm mounting and the seal holders. 

The damping pieces that I mentioned were for some replica Cerianis that I made for my classic race bike. I made the mudguard mounts and seal holders but for the axle carrier I cut the bottoms off the CBX forks which saved a lot of machining. Here are some pix.

 Click thumbnails for full size

 

I used a size for size fit which I lightly knurled and glued the pieces on with Loctite. The knurling gave a slight interference but the main purpose was as reservoirs for the Loctite.

The Ceriani form of construction is a successful precedent to what you propose for the Yam forks. I agree about the circlip, I have never found them necessary. The only force trying to move them is friction and that should be minimal.

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freddo4 (Jan 12, 2021),

olderdan (Jan 9, 2021)

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## tonyfoale

> Finally finished off the forks today, right side needed a final polish........... The stanchions have a bit of rust on them, hence the gaiters, but, I think the forks look better with them.



I agree, they look much better.

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## olderdan

Shame about the imperfection in the engine cover thats the trouble with being a perfectionist I know because I am also that way. I had a similar issue with my Triumph timing cover which had a gouge across it from a probable spill. I ground a groove and used Lumiweld to fill it and flatted and polished it smooth, There is a slight colour difference in the two metals but only noticeable because I know its there. I would be interested in how you achieved such a neat bend in those headlamp brackets. I also prefer the look of fork gaiters on road bikes.

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freddo4 (Jan 12, 2021),

tonyfoale (Jan 9, 2021)

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## th62

Here's how they were made. i started with two strips of 3mm ally, 50mm x 230mm. worked out PI for 34mm fork legs and did two 90 degree bends Pi apart. I used a bit of angle iron with the edge radiused for the bends as this aluminium fractures if bent to acutely. I then bent the ally around a 34mm dolly, bringing the 90 degree bends together with a 3mm gap between when clamped tight. Of course I had to stuff it all up when I shaped it, didn't I, made two right handers instead of a right and a left. The joys of getting old. Oh well, soon as I make a lefty I'll shape, drill and polish Some polishing was done beforehand for the areas I won't be able to get to after bending.. I'll post pics of the completed brackets when finished. . i started with two strips of 3mm ally, 50mm x 230mm. worked out PI for 34mm fork legs and did two 90 degree bends Pi apart. I used a bit of angle iron with the edge radiused for the bends as this aluminium fractures if bent to acutely. I then bent the ally around a 34mm dolly, bringing the 90 degree bends together with a 3mm gap between when clamped tight. Of course I had to stuff it all up when I shaped it, didn't I, made two right handers instead of a right and a left. The joys of getting old. Oh well, soon as I make a lefty I'll shape, drill and polish Some polishing was done beforehand for the areas I won't be able to get to after bending.. I'll post pics of the completed brackets when finished.

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asterix (Jan 12, 2021)

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## NeiljohnUK

Interesting issue with the side case polishing, granularity from a cold spot during casting perhaps? 

I have a fellow BMW boxer owner nearby who polished his engine (R80 sand cast casings) over a winter, had to repolish annually. Though the Ariel Red Hunter owner I met who did the same went so far the casings became porous and wept engine oil, ended up having to paint the inside with epoxy which stopped it to a degree, but as the metal was full of oil it didn't stick too well in some places. Modern water based engine paint is rubbish, my F800 has corrosion under all over, starting at any sharp edge where it's thinnest it creeps until it flakes it off, coat regularly with ACF-50 now to stop it getting any worse!

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## tonyfoale

> the Ariel Red Hunter owner I met who did the same went so far the casings became porous and wept engine oil,



They didn't become porous they started life that way. It was a legal requirement for Brit bikes of that era to leak oil.

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## th62

This afternoon I taught myself to mig aluminium. The key was finding the right volts, wire feed, stick out, speed and watching the heat build up, that had me stumped for a bit, wondered why each successive run was worse than the last - heat build up!. Oh, a steady hand also helps, but that's beyond this old codger now, hence the wobbly runs. Excellent penetration too, after welding an external edge joint, I ground it down flat then belted the hell out of it trying to separate the joint. Not too bad for an hour or so practice. A whole new world of aluminium fabricating has opened up now, should have taught myself to weld aluminium year's ago. Talk about messy though, splatter everywhere. And I burnt the crap out of my arm from flash, the flash is 10 times brighter than when welding steel.

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olderdan (Jan 17, 2021)

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## tonyfoale

> This afternoon I taught myself to mig aluminium. ........... Not too bad for an hour or so practice. A whole new world of aluminium fabricating has opened up now, should have taught myself to weld aluminium year's ago. Talk about messy though, splatter everywhere.



Are you using the inbuilt wire feed or do you have a spool gun? 
I am surprised at the dirty surrounds and splatter, are you using pure Argon or is Aluminium wire available with flux in wire like steel is? Although I have welded aluminium over 6 decades with Oxy/Act and TIG over 2 decades I have only used MIG for steel. I have seen some videos of Aluminium MIG but those showed a cleaner finish.
You have done a great job with such a small amount of practice. I relate totally with your comments on wobbly runs, being fairly ancient myself I am starting to have the same problem particularly with TIG where I have to hold the gun with one hand at least with MIG I can use both hands.

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## th62

No spool gun, so I set the machine to operate properly without one: I used 5356, .8mm wire and drilled out the tip to 1mm, threw away the liner recommended for ally as too much birdnesting and used a steel liner, installed a ribbed feeder wheel and loosened off the wire reel preload.

I have tried before using a disposable argon cartridge with dismal results - not enough pressure.

----------


## tonyfoale

> No spool gun, so I set the machine to operate properly without one: I used 5356, .8mm wire and drilled out the tip to 1mm, threw away the liner recommended for ally as too much birdnesting and used a steel liner, installed a ribbed feeder wheel and loosened off the wire reel preload.
> 
> I have tried before using a disposable argon cartridge with dismal results - not enough pressure.



Years ago I replaced the standard spiral type liner with a teflon version sold for Aluminium welding, I was welding steel but I thought that being teflon the wire would slide nicely. It did that OK but it only lasted about 1/2 day because the wire wore off a fine amount of teflon which formed a thin insulating layer in the tip preventing current flow. That was the second of two of life's lessons about teflon flowing.

----------


## th62

Coming together slowly, still a lot to do, should be finished in around another 20 years at this current momentum.

----------


## jdurand

I like the vise on the front disc, I'd never thought of that.

----------

asterix (Jan 27, 2021)

----------


## th62

Saves on pads!

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## th62

Finally decided to attach the side panels via rubber grommets inserted in the rear of the panels over the ally bungs I turned up and attached to the frame down tubes. They'll be attached to the front of the battery carrier. This gives space for pods or velocity stacks.

----------


## th62

I did experiment with more acute angles on the side covers, a lot easier to form, but I didn''t like the look.

----------


## asterix

It's always a work of patience. I've got two Triumph on constant rebuit state because I am not always satisfied of the results hence I trash some of the work and try something else.

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## th62

Welded up the battery carrier and made a security strap today. Reg/rect is mounted on a plate behind the battery carrier, solenoid is mounted underneath the carrier. Battery carrier is 3mm aluminium as is the the strap and reg/rect mount. Battery sits on an aluminium/rubber Sandwich. Front of the carrier is seen, so will be polished, remainder will be a blasted finish. Carrier sits on rubber grommets in the bracket I welded to the frame. Front mounts are bent up from 3mm steel and welded to 22mm tubes. Rubber mounts are inserted in the 22mm round tube. Still have to weld on some mounts for mounting side panels to.

----------

asterix (Jan 28, 2021),

olderdan (Jan 28, 2021)

----------


## th62

This is a video of the first start up of the engine, it burst in to life, loudly, on first push of the button. This was the first rebuild, didn't like the silver colour so pulled it apart, repainted it black and reassembled. Once again, it burst into life on first push of the button. I made a wheeled stand with an ignition system cobbled together using the original regulator, a $4, ebay, three phase rectifier, a couple of Bosch coils I had lying around and a couple of switches all mounted on an ally plate and fixed to the stand. This thing vibrates, I had to tie it up to stop it jumping around the shop. 



Since the second build I've fitted a PMA and a single points system.

----------

olderdan (Feb 1, 2021)

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## th62

This video shows my homemade manometer in use synchronising the carbs. I wasn't happy with this one, of course, since it used rubber chair stoppers to seal the acrylic tubes, so I made a second using neoprene gaskets sandwiched between to pieces of ply. The manometers are linked together at the bottom via a short plastic tube, this levels the water levels. Two long lengths of plastic tube emanate from the top of the tubes, these are fitted with .8mm jets I made up from Delrin, these even out the vacuum pulses, keeping the fluid levels steady and stable.

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asterix (Feb 3, 2021),

Rikk (Feb 1, 2021)

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## th62

Polished the front of the battery box and the side cover, rest of the box was bead blasted. Just a rough job, but I wanted to see what it would look like on the bike. Not liking it so far, so I think I'll be making a steel box and painting the side panels black. I'll wait until the pods arrive though so I can see what the whole setup looks like together.

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olderdan (Feb 2, 2021),

Rikk (Feb 4, 2021)

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## olderdan

It is difficult to make any battery box look attractive but having made such a good lob of it if you dont care for the polished finish why not just paint it black and save re making it in steel. Same goes for me on the side panels as the polished finish draws the eye away from the nice looking engine.

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## Rikk

I did a K&N pod conversion on my old 2001 ZRX1200 naked bike and the polished look didn't fit the bike, so I roughed it up and then painted it with black spray can bed liner. After a couple of coats, it looked just like a semigloss molded plastic box and fit nicely. Polished looks great on your bike, but it's an option for smaller parts that need to blend into the background. 

Nice job on your bike BTW, been following it for awhile. I have a 1971 Honda CB175 that I have been thinking about turning into a cafe bike, but I don't want to cut the original frame. I may try to find a different frame to cut. Keep up the good work!

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## th62

Finished both side panels, battery carrier, battery strap and mounted the reg/rect and solenoid. Very neat so far. Battery carrier is mounted in rubber as are the side panels. Took a bit of doing but eventually I got the side panels to mirror each other.

----------

asterix (Feb 9, 2021),

tonyfoale (Feb 9, 2021)

----------


## th62

Here's a selection of positive stop grommet nuts. Whenever mounting anything in rubber it's important to ensure the grommet is compressed the ideal amount, too much and the rubber will distort and eventually destruct. Too little and the mounted item will move and vibrate, negating the effect of rubber mounting and also eventually destruct. Not a new idea, the Japanese have been using it for years on their bikes. Particularly helpful when mounting things on bikes prone to vibration, 360 degree twins are a good example. In this selection I turned up on the lathe, the bullet headed one on the right is thread for bolting to a frame tab, used for mounting side panels, the grommet in the side panel just slips over the bullet head in a tightish fit, the front of the panel has two grommets secured by grommet bushes and allen head bolts. Next one is a threaded, positive stop, through nut I used for a similar purpose. The third is a grommet bush with a 6mm through hole, this one is used for mounting the seat. The bush is mounted in the grommet in the seat and an allen head screw passes through the bush and threads into a tab welded to the frame. The last is a grommet bush with a 6mm through hole, turned up from delrin. This one is used for mounting the aluminium battery carrier I welded up. As the battery poles are very close to the side of the carrier, I didn't want it shorting out if a nut, spanner, or whatever, made contact between the battery pole and the carrier, the Delrin bush isolates the carrier from the frame, so if the positive battery pole is shorted across to the carrier, it won't result in the battery shorting out.

----------

asterix (Feb 11, 2021),

freddo4 (Mar 2, 2021),

greenie (Feb 26, 2021),

tonyfoale (Feb 11, 2021)

----------


## tonyfoale

> Here's a selection of positive stop grommet nuts. Whenever mounting anything in rubber it's important to ensure the grommet is compressed the ideal amount, too much and the rubber will distort and eventually destruct. Too little and the mounted item will move and vibrate, negating the effect of rubber mounting.........



I always cringe when I see grommets bolted up tight without a positive stop.

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Rikk (Feb 11, 2021)

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## asterix

What holds the rear of the side panels? On the front of them, there are two socket head screws but I don't see anything on the rear .

----------


## th62

The bullet headed bushes are bolted onto a forward facing tab. The panels have grommet attached to them at the rear which is pushed over the bullet headed bush.

----------


## jdurand

For smaller grommets you can just use hollow rivets. Ready made, work fine.

----------


## th62

I bough a twin outlet coil for a CB750 for use on the TX, unfortunately it won't fit where the original coils were so I fabricated a mount and mounted it up where the flicker indicator relay normally sits. This necessitated turning the coil on it's side, so the plug leads follow different paths to the plugs, a bit untidy, but I think I can live with that. Rather than have the points lead snaking all over the place, I drilled a hole in the top of the points backing dish and took the wire straight up to the coil. I did originally make a coil mount that bolted to the horn bracket mount, the coil residing between the front down tubes, but that looked very untidy. For now, the coil is out of sight under the tank, looking much tidier. Shame about the plug leads following different paths and angles, but, you can't have everything. You'll notice I even polished the plug caps. Getting down to the nutty gritties now.

----------

asterix (Feb 21, 2021),

greenie (Feb 26, 2021),

tonyfoale (Feb 21, 2021)

----------


## th62

Re furbished a couple of ignition switches today, one is two position the other is single position. Unfortunately, the M4 threads in the bakelite surround were stripped, so I had to drill them out and re tap to 5mm, I also had to turn down the heads of the 5mm countersunk screws so they'd fit in the existing aluminium back clamp. The bakelite is in pretty rough condition: two big gouges and numerous scratches. So, I chucked it on the lathe and turned down the outer surface as much as I could, but the damage is still visible. I then soldered a bridge across a couple of terminals on the back of the switch and soldered another wire for feed on another terminal. That gives me one live feed in and two out.. The other switch is a two position, it's in better condition than the other, but open to the weather due to the open back design. The switch will be mounted on the right rear engine mount, so I've opted to go with the single position bakelite switch, which is better weather proofed than the other. The two out feeds and single position suit the electrics I've designed for the bike anyway.

----------

freddo4 (Mar 2, 2021),

greenie (Feb 26, 2021),

olderdan (Feb 25, 2021),

tonyfoale (Feb 25, 2021)

----------


## th62

And this is where it goes. Made the bracket for it this morning and mounted it, complete with grommet where the wires exit. I'll replace the philips heads with allen heads later. No philips head screws will ever reside on any bike I build, hate, hate, vomit. Positioning the switch here, allows the use of two less wires up the spine of the frame.

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freddo4 (Mar 2, 2021),

greenie (Feb 26, 2021),

tonyfoale (Feb 26, 2021)

----------


## th62

Regulator/rectifier plate done with a couple of panel mount, blade fuse holders on the side. Only need the one, but if I change my mind later on, I have two, plus I can add another two underneath the existing ones if I'm so inclined. The random orbital sander gives a nice finish on aluminium.

----------

asterix (Feb 27, 2021),

freddo4 (Mar 2, 2021),

greenie (Mar 2, 2021),

tonyfoale (Feb 28, 2021)

----------


## th62

I've been scratching my head on how to join a few cables under the seat. first option was a few twin bullet connectors, but I thought that was a bit untidy, so came up with this idea: A few bits of Delrin machined up to take a piece of all thread, a couple of nuts, a couple of Delrin washers and a couple of dome nuts, which I'll later replace with nylon domes. This setup allows several cables to be joined and insulated, negating any accidental short circuits. In reality, it'll only join three, maybe four, cables. I call it 'attention to detail'...

----------

asterix (Mar 1, 2021),

greenie (Mar 2, 2021),

Jon (Mar 1, 2021),

olderdan (Mar 1, 2021),

Rikk (Mar 1, 2021)

----------


## olderdan

In my experience bullet connectors are unreliable so I use spades instead. Your solution is a good one as cables especially earths can be joined to one point. Your attention to detail has become obvious in your posts, its all looking very neat. I have found a complete modified rewire with only two colours can get confusing so I use temporary In-Sure or Wago connectors until it all checks out and then go round making permanent ones.

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## th62

A couple of surface finishing ideas. The plastic guard under the seat of the TX650 was in terrible condition: badly scarred, and gouged, much like the rest of the bike. I was going to bin it and either make an ally one or buy a new one, but, being a bit tight with resurrection money, i did a little experimenting. First I hit the plastic guard with a polishing mop, that didn't work at all. Next I tried a nylon fibre wheel, even worse. Next I tried a scotch brite wheel, uh, uh as well. So , as a last resort I tried scrubbing it down with some fine sandpaper, got tired of that real quick, so put some fine paper on the random orbital sander and it didn't come up too bad. Then I had a brain wave, chucked it in the blasting cabinet and blasted it with glass beads. It came out in a matt finish, not shiny as per the original, but pretty darn good. A lot of the scratches and gouges are simply too deep, but once smoothed over with the sander and then blasted with glass beads it comes up pretty good, good enough to reuse as a hidden part anyway..

Second finish is a random orbital sander on ally, this gives a really, really nice, even finish which can be clear lacquered afterward to retain the finish, Bead blasting and then hitting it with clear lacquer also gives a nice finish, but not as good as the random orbital sander. As well as a nice looking finish it also provides a good base for painting with clear lacquer. Although, it is only workable on flat surfaces, trying to get an even pattern on something like an engine side cover would be impossible. Perhaps bead blasting and paintinng with clear lacquer would look alright, but, I'm addicted to polished side covers so that's out for me. Anyway some pictures: first picture is of the plastic inner guard, don't have any before shots, but trust me, the guard was in disgusting condition. Second pic is of ally finished with a random orbital sander. So, if you'er like me and balk at spending a million bucks on resurrecting a 47 year old motorbike, give these two ideas a shot, you will be surprised.

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asterix (Mar 24, 2021),

greenie (Mar 2, 2021)

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## th62

I rewire everything I build, so I'm very familiar with the circuitry and use as few coloured cables as possible, red for power, green or black for earth and aside from blinkers, one colour for everything else. this keeps it all looking neat and fault finding is simply a matter of using a multimeter. Of course, if you do it right, you should never have to delve into fault finding.

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## th62

If you don't have a clutch locking tool, or don't want to waste plates making one, here's an idea: a lump of 25mm x 6mm steel with two lugs welded on at the appropriate intervals to slot into the centre rotor grooves. It has to be off centre a little so the socket can get to the centre nut. It works well and doesn't mark the centre rotor. I also modified the pressure plate spring screws to take an allen head screw. Much better than those damn JIS screw heads which funnily enough are always stripped from someone using a philips head screwdriver on them. Yes, you can buy them, but why, when you can modify the existing ones in about 10 minutes.

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asterix (Mar 9, 2021),

freddo4 (Mar 10, 2021),

Jon (Mar 8, 2021),

katy (Mar 9, 2021),

nova_robotics (Mar 9, 2021),

tonyfoale (Mar 7, 2021)

----------


## th62

Here's a couple of sites documenting my work on bikes and other stuff. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1698761733787694 and, https://www.facebook.com/groups/952815685173434

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asterix (Mar 24, 2021),

greenie (Mar 14, 2021)

----------


## DIYer

Thanks th62! We've added your Clutch Locking Tool to our Transmission category,
as well as to your builder page: th62's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:















Clutch Locking Tool
 by th62

tags:
clutch, locking

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## th62

You might recall the coil mounting bracket I made a little while ago. I mounted it on its side because there wasnt room between the frame tubes to mount it right way up. This meant the two plug leads were a different length and took different paths from coil to plugs. I said I could live with that at the time, but, I couldnt, it just hurt my neatness sensibilities too much. The problem was the two, long, mounting bolls either end of the coil, they were simply too long to fit between the frame tubes so I discarded them and made a new bracket that the coil ends bolt straight to, negating the need for the two long bolts. This of course required some fancy bending of the bracket to get the mounting holes in the centre of the backbone tube and at the right height. A certain amount of cutting and removing material was also required so the coil would sit flat and far enough away from the tab for mounting the flasher can. But, success, I managed to get everything right on the second go, so now the coil sits right way up and most importantly the plug leads are identical in length and take the same path to the plugs. Youll notice the rear coil bolt is a mickey hair away from the backbone tube. I could have mounted the coil further forward, but that would render the tab in front useless for mounting a flasher can. Unfortunately, it doesnt look quite as Smick as the side mounting bracket, but I can live with that  I think?

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asterix (Mar 24, 2021)

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## th62

Progressing slowly but running low on motivation I thinnk. Might attack the seat pan next I thinnk. When I welded up the seat pan I welded a squarish box on the nose to clear the tank mounting tab, I think this'll make upholstering it difficult, so I'll cut the box off and fabricate a gradual sweeping piece from the edge of the seat, over the tab and down the other side.

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## tonyfoale

> Progressing slowly but running low on motivation I thinnk.



It cannot be easy to maintain motivation when you are not the one who will be riding it.

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## th62

Shockies came today, bike is starting to look like a bike now. Huge mistake though, I ordered the shockies in all black, should have bought the ones with chrome springs, damn! Here's a tip though, before you throw away your old shockies, take the rubber grommets out, they also fit the foot pegs. With a lot of fiddling that is.

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Rikk (Mar 24, 2021)

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## th62

Replaced the crusty old brake rod and connector with a nice shiny stainless one. Also turned up the adjuster nut and hinge pin on the lathe.

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asterix (Apr 1, 2021)

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## asterix

Nice job! I just made a couple of them for my Triumph's. Instead of making two flats however, i made a hexagon so I can use a socket to tighten it.

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Rikk (Apr 1, 2021)

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## th62

Just cant stop ripping things apart, story of my life. This thing is 10 years old now, time for a birthday party: complete strip down, clean and inspect.

----------


## asterix

Confinement has the same effect on me. I've been making racks for drills, reamers, files, pneumatic tools, etc. Too much time on my hands!

----------


## jdurand

The trick for me was figuring out how to put them together. Then to put them together slightly differently so they work better.

As a child a grandmother would give me old clocks and other things to take apart. Slowly I learned how things worked and started putting them back together. The rest... is history... only I'm not done yet! Have a brand new house with new tools waiting for us, just have to get there.

Oh yes, if anyone is in the Illinois area, we will be moving to temporary housing there in about a week. The people who bought this house last July really want to move in.

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## th62

I couldn't find any risers that I liked, so I made these up from a block of ally I bought. I was going to make up some round ones, but I like these, so these are what I'll stick with. The polished ally master cylinder and switch blocks are going in favour of some black ones, just too much shiny stuff up here.

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Jon (Apr 12, 2021),

tonyfoale (Apr 10, 2021)

----------


## mbshop

Are there grooves in the bar to secure them to the risers ? Even though tight, with a smooth finish, you run the risk of the bar shifting when least expected. They certainly look nice for sure.

----------


## tonyfoale

> Are there grooves in the bar to secure them to the risers ? Even though tight, with a smooth finish, you run the risk of the bar shifting when least expected. They certainly look nice for sure.



This might be a problem with high chopper style handle bars but in this case the bars are almost straight and so it will not be possible to generate much twisting torque on the bars. it is a non-existing problem.

----------


## mbshop

Ok, had no idea of what handle bar you are going to finally use and that issue just popped in my head having had to deal with it at times with stock handle bars. Dirt bikes and street bikes.

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## tonyfoale

> Ok, had no idea of what handle bar you are going to finally use and that issue just popped in my head having had to deal with it at times with stock handle bars. Dirt bikes and street bikes.



It is not mine, but the pictures show the handlebar.

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## th62

I've had bikes with dirt bike handlebars and higher road bike bars, never had any twist on me. Not a hope in hell with these drag bars.

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## th62

The new Narva switch arrived a few days ago, still undecided on where to park it??? I made two brackets for it:, one hanging off the rear engine mount, the other a bit further back directly under the side panel. The switch isn't the best looking thing. so I turned up a two piece Delrin cover for it. A ring mount of Delrin with a .6mm lip is mounted between switch and bracket, once hooked up a Delrin cover is pushed over the mounting ring and held in place via a groove I machined inside the cover and the .6mm lip I machined on the the mounting ring. Mounted behind the the rear engine mount the cover is visible, mounted directly under the side panel only the switch face is visible. The cover just acting as a dust cover. Leaning toward the latter mount.

----------

asterix (Apr 22, 2021),

freddo4 (Apr 24, 2021),

greenie (Apr 22, 2021),

nova_robotics (Apr 23, 2021),

tonyfoale (Apr 22, 2021)

----------


## Rikk

I like the mount under the side panel, but I would fabricate a matching blank panel for the other side, but I'm anal about symmetry. The engine mount location does look nice and clean though and is almost hidden, which is a nice feature as well. Both look good.

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## th62

Master cylinder and clutch lever came this morning. I was going to put a kit through the stock master cylinder and buy a new clutch lever, until I discovered the kit was $78, then I had to fork out out for a new clutch lever as well. It appears the 74 TX came with a 5/8" master cylinder bore, all other years, the kits are only $35, just my luck. Anyway, I did some googling and found a master cylinder and clutch lever combo on Banggood for $65, so bought them. Pretty well made, levers are adjustable, but do require a largish hand, even on the closest setting. Levers are well made, master cylinder casting is a little rough, but good enough. I did want black bars with polished aluminium fittings, but settled for the opposite, chrome bars, polished aluminium risers and black fittings. They look all right though.

----------

asterix (Apr 23, 2021),

greenie (Apr 23, 2021)

----------


## asterix

Went the same route for my levers. Bought some at mikesxs.net . I was using old parts from a donor bike ( xj650rjc ) as wire color coding was the same.

----------


## th62

Some work on the rear end: The guard was badly dented and had a couple of cracks running out from the tail light fixing holes. I cut the lip from the periphery off, removed some dents as best I could and removed the bracing underneath at the rear end of the guard. The cracks I removed by drilling a bloody great hole, around 48mm, in the mounting area. This left a bit of problem on how to mount the new tail light. The solution was to insert a big grommet in the hole with a 38mm ID hole, next I spun up an aluminium bush to fit inside the grommet with a 50mm lip to compress the grommet. The tail light base was fashioned from 3mm steel with a 10mm nut welded in the middle. Over that I welded a bit of 30mm square tube and welded a flat plate on the other end the same shape as the tail light. Next I mounted the bracket on the mill and drilled some lightning holes. A 10mm fixing bolt was drilled through for cabling access to the light. I was worried about the tail light twisting in the grommet there being just one bolt securing it, but when done up, it proved to be solid as. Off to buy some paint this afternoon, so tomorrow I'll prep everything for paint and lay down some gloss black.

----------

asterix (May 7, 2021),

freddo4 (May 11, 2021),

greenie (May 7, 2021),

tonyfoale (May 7, 2021)

----------


## tonyfoale

> Some work on the rear end: ........... The cracks I removed by drilling a bloody great hole, around 48mm, in the mounting area. This left a bit of problem on how to mount the new tail light. The solution was to insert a big grommet in the hole with a 38mm ID hole, next I spun up an aluminium bush to fit inside the grommet with a 50mm lip to compress the grommet......



Interesting solution.

----------


## asterix

Having owned a couple of Triumph, I know how vibrations can destroy licence plate holders and tail lights. Mounting everything on rubber back there is surely a better solution.

----------


## mbshop

Looks like a proper fix. As the rubber gets older it can be easily replaced as needed. Looks great.

----------


## th62

A nice new brake anchor made up today. Looks better than the old crusty steel one. Made from a slab of 10mm aluminium, cranked 12 mm and shaved down to 7mm on the leading edge.

----------


## mbshop

Looks strong enough. I have always had an aversion to shiny things on my bikes unless they can be cleaned very easily. Hope you like polishing !

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## th62

Obviously, why else would I do it.! I don't mind cleaning, polishing and maintaining my bikes at all, better than riding around on a filthy POS!

----------


## mbshop

Well, my bikes were kept clean including my dirt bikes. I did not enjoy spending time polishing though. Clean, yes, polishing, no. Most times I just had to polish my rims on my street bikes. Otherwise, not much aluminum on them that was shiny. For a few years I had a neighbor that had an Indian. I think he spent more time polishing it than riding it. After my getting on him to go ride it, he told me he enjoyed polishing it as much as riding. I dont understand that but to each his own.

----------


## th62

So why are you commenting on this thread, you obviously don't like what I'm doing, go look at something you'll like.

----------


## mbshop

Seriously ? Where did you get that idea ? Did I not say I liked it ? Have I not been positive in my comments ? Did I not like your brake light setup ? I follow because I do like what your doing. I just commented that I, me, did not like polishing. Take a chill pill dude.

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## th62

'I have always had an aversion to shiny things on my bikes unless they can be cleaned very easily. Hope you like polishing !'

Sounds pretty negative to me. this bike has loads of 'shiny bits'. Go somewhere else!

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## th62

On second thoughts, you stay, I'll go somewhere else. I have limited patience with fwits, you are just one too many for me. Bye.

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## th62

Ok, I wasn't aware there was an ignore list,, so I have activated it. I received a PM from a member asking I continue with updates, so now I've activated the ignore list. As I'm sure you are all aware by now, I'm and odd bod, I'm very proud of my work so do not respond well to criticisms, real or perceived. So if you wish to humour me I shall continue with updates.

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## th62

Today I messed around with the single points cam I made a while back. As you can see in the first two pictures the lobes were slightly off: when the right hand cylinder was timed correctly the left was slightly advanced, not a great deal, split the difference and have the right a smidgin retarded and the left a smidgin advance and it would run fine, But just to satisfy myself, I decided to see how close I could get them, after all I'm working with minute measurements here, so pulled out the files. As it happened, I managed to get them spot on, statically timed anyway, with very little work. The problem now is the keyway is slightly off, so the points backing plate has to be turned fully clockwise in order the get the timing right. So, now I know it is possible to get the lobes right, harder though is the keyway: I turned the cam around and set the backing plate midway, with the cam running free (no key) on the advance shaft, I turned the cam by finger and and marked where the keyway should be cut, unfortunately, you only halve to be a smidgin out to ruin it, and you guessed it, I was that smidgin out. So, tomorrow I'll make another cam, but this time I'll try cutting the keyway first and then filing the ramps. Fingers crossed. BTW, this was the problem with the commercially available cams, the lobes weren't set 180 degrees apart, making timing difficult. Many of the XS650 shops don't stock them anymore for this reason.

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asterix (May 10, 2021)

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## IntheGroove

Would an offset key work...

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## th62

Nope, the cam doesn't. Use a woodruff, instead Yamaha used a round pin inserted through a hole in the shaft.

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## th62

Take three on ignition switch placement. I decided to place it here, under the thank: Less noticeable both on the switch side and the back of the switch. The Delrin cover I made for it hides it reasonably well. Who would think such a simple decision would be so difficult.

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greenie (May 13, 2021)

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## asterix

Might be a good solution to keys and keyfob rubbing on triple clamps and ruining the paint and/or finish of lacquer.

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greenie (May 13, 2021)

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## th62

Learnt something today: When I bought this POS it had aluminium mags on it, plus it had a spare set of spoked wheels. I was going to use the spoked wheels on this build, until I discovered the price of stainless spokes, $250. So in an effort to save some money I thought I'd use the mags, so pulled out the front wheel and polished up the bared aluminium prior to painting it black. When I pulled the rear wheel out to polish I thought that looks really small, so I checked on the sidewall - 16". Grrr, no good for a cafe racer, so I wasted all that time polishing the damn wheel. So, $250 for spokes it is, damn, damn, damn!

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greenie (May 13, 2021)

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## Rikk

> Learnt something today: When I bought this POS it had aluminium mags on it, plus it had a spare set of spoked wheels. I was going to use the spoked wheels on this build, until I discovered the price of stainless spokes, $250. So in an effort to save some money I thought I'd use the mags, so pulled out the front wheel and polished up the bared aluminium prior to painting it black. When I pulled the rear wheel out to polish I thought that looks really small, so I checked on the sidewall - 16". Grrr, no good for a cafe racer, so I wasted all that time polishing the damn wheel. So, $250 for spokes it is, damn, damn, damn!



With the cost of vintage bike parts going crazy over the last 10+ years, I bet you could pay for your spokes and maybe more if you polish the other mag and put them on ebay. Especially with these being popular bikes for all fashion of builds. A few years back I needed a cylinder for a 1979 Yamaha IT250F I was restoring... It was crazy what people were asking, AND GETTING, for absolute junk. Ebay has made restoration and project bikes much easier to put together, however the prices have went crazy, but I digress.....

Great build by the way, I am always excited to see what you've done next when I see a notification for this thread.

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asterix (May 12, 2021),

greenie (May 13, 2021)

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## th62

Thanks for the critique. I have quite a few parts I'll put up for sale at some time: Battery carrier, side panels, carbs, wheels, wiring looms (one brand new, came as a spare with the bike?), switchgear. I did try to sell locally, pick up only, but all the replies came from interstate, so at some time, I'll have to look at postal fees I guess.

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greenie (May 13, 2021)

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## jdurand

> Thanks for the critique. I have quite a few parts I'll put up for sale at some time: Battery carrier, side panels, carbs, wheels, wiring looms (one brand new, came as a spare with the bike?), switchgear. I did try to sell locally, pick up only, but all the replies came from interstate, so at some time, I'll have to look at postal fees I guess.



If you're in the USA, look into https://xpsship.com/ we used them with our business for some time, normally better rates than we could find elsewhere. No special requirements, either a credit card or a bank account with get you going and then you can ship by different shippers at commercial discount rates.

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## th62

Slack day today, just made up a few static timing lights of different design. First one uses a 9 volt battery, so had to solder a resistor in the line to cut the voltage down. Second one works off the bike battery, so also had to use a resistor. Third one uses a 3 volt button battery, so, so resistor required. Why so many? I was bored!

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greenie (May 15, 2021)

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## jdurand

Does anybody really know what time it is?

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## th62

Well, another day spent on the points cam, must have made about a hundred of these bloody things before I figured out how to do it" cut the keyway first, then mark where the ramps are then file, check, file, check, ad nauseum! Finally got it right, close enough to say spot on, statically at least. I also added a felt oiler bracket to the backing plate and moved the condenser up near the coil. Looks a lot neater now, and quicker to set the points with only one set. I don't like cutting key ways on the lathe, so I used a 2mm end mill on the mil. The key is a 2.5mm round pin suck in the shaft crossways, so only had to cut the keyway down around 6mm.

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asterix (May 18, 2021)

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## asterix

Does anybody care ?

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## Rikk

> Does anybody care ?



Yes, there appears to be several of us who are interested in this build. Perhaps you should unfollow the thread and go elsewhere if you are not...

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## Rikk

> Well, another day spent on the points cam, must have made about a hundred of these bloody things before I figured out how to do it" cut the keyway first, then mark where the ramps are then file, check, file, check, ad nauseum! Finally got it right, close enough to say spot on, statically at least. I also added a felt oiler bracket to the backing plate and moved the condenser up near the coil. Looks a lot neater now, and quicker to set the points with only one set. I don't like cutting key ways on the lathe, so I used a 2mm end mill on the mil. The key is a 2.5mm round pin suck in the shaft crossways, so only had to cut the keyway down around 6mm.



Very nice work! I don't mind points either, but I'm curious, did you look into something like the Petronix electronic ignition type or just wanted the challenge?

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## asterix

I do care! I was replying to post #129 asking «if anybody was knowing what time it was?» The question seemed to me to be out of order in the discussion so I replyed « Who care's » as I was more interested in the progression of this rebuilt than the time it was that's all.

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Rikk (May 18, 2021)

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## IntheGroove

I tried to find the timing in degrees for that engine but found nothing...

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## Rikk

> I do care! I was replying to post #129 asking «if anybody was knowing what time it was?» The question seemed to me to be out of order in the discussion so I replyed « Who care's » as I was more interested in the progression of this rebuilt than the time it was that's all.



Oops, my mistake and I apologize. There seems to be a rash of folks posting mean spirited stuff and I'm really into this thread, so I, incorrectly mind you, took offense when I thought you meant to give offense. Sorry man.

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## th62

Did some more buffing on the front rim, came up reasonably well, I ground the edge down and managed to get rid of the lever marks, but as you can see in pic four the pitting is very bad and very deep, no way of getting rid of that. Pic five is the rear rim. I still have to grind down the edge of the rim to remove the lever marks. Very badly pitted and the area between the nipple lands is very uneven. I'll attack that next but not sure if I'll use them, whilst they look nice and shiny , get up to within a few inches of them and the pitting doesn't look nice. More procrastination required I think.

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asterix (May 21, 2021)

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## th62

Nope, haven't looked into any of the commercially available electronic ignitions. Haven't looked into any of the commercially available anything actually, too damn expensive and this is supposed to be a budget build. Although, if I looked at how much I've spent so far, it's hardly 'budget'! I have looked at building a hall effect system, I have all the electronic parts, just haven't got around to building one yet, one day. Plus, I tend to like mechanical things in case you haven't noticed.

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## th62

Degree wheel is about the only way to find that out. I did put a degree wheel on it a while back but forgotten the numbers.

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## asterix

Wheels won't be the first thing anybody will look at at first glance. There are so many interesting other parts that will attract attention.

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## th62

And the rear rim, came out better than I expected. I used an air belt sander to try and even out the area between spoke holes, doesn't look too bad now. It has a couple of damaged bits still evident which I'll try and resolve with a nylon fibre wheel. I may just use these I think, will look good once spoked up to polished hubs with polished spokes. I'm polishing the exposed edges on the aluminium wheels also, once I've painted them and exposed the polished edges I'll compare them. Still not keen on a fat 16" at the rear though.

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asterix (May 22, 2021),

Rikk (May 24, 2021)

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## Rikk

> Nope, haven't looked into any of the commercially available electronic ignitions. Haven't looked into any of the commercially available anything actually, too damn expensive and this is supposed to be a budget build. Although, if I looked at how much I've spent so far, it's hardly 'budget'! I have looked at building a hall effect system, I have all the electronic parts, just haven't got around to building one yet, one day. Plus, I tend to like mechanical things in case you haven't noticed.



I don't blame you one bit. No sense replacing what works or what you can make for much less money. 

Those wheels look great, You are the only one that will notice anything wrong with them. That bike has way to may other cool things going for one to be distracted by minor pitting in the wheels.

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asterix (May 24, 2021)

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## Rikk

> Ok, that's the end of this thread as I can't post anymore pics. Admin have been less than helpful so I'l cease posting here. If you are so inclined you can continue following the build at A long, long project. | Page 11 | Yamaha XS650 Forum....



Well that stinks...

By the way, this is a cut/paste of the post I received in an email notification, but was not shown here when I clicked on the link.

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asterix (May 27, 2021)

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## asterix

Rikk , thank you for the cut/paste of TH62 thread . We will follow him on the other forum.

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## th62

Retry: Synced the carbs and checked the PMA today. Bike runs beautifully now, idles nicely, revs cleanly, no spitting or hesitation. PMA/reg/rect output is 14.6 volts, so happy with that as well. Timing is spot on on both cylinders, so the single points cam also works well and the filter and cooler deliver a good oil supply with no leaks. Fancy that, all the engine mods worked as planned! This is my homemade manometer I use for syncing, super easy to use, gives a good, stable reading.

Now it's back to cycle parts. I was going to spoke the wheels next, but can't get any stainless spokes for the rear wheel, so I'll have to work on something else: I've been thinking of hunting around for a clagged 650 motor, I'm missing working on motors already.


 Sound is a bit strange though. Trust me though, without mufflers this thing sounds great!

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asterix (Oct 16, 2021)

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## th62

Retry: Synced the carbs and checked the PMA today. Bike runs beautifully now, idles nicely, revs cleanly, no spitting or hesitation. PMA/reg/rect output is 14.6 volts, so happy with that as well. Timing is spot on on both cylinders, so the single points cam also works well and the filter and cooler deliver a good oil supply with no leaks. Fancy that, all the engine mods worked as planned! This is my homemade manometer I use for syncing, super easy to use, gives a good, stable reading.

Now it's back to cycle parts. I was going to spoke the wheels next, but can't get any stainless spokes for the rear wheel, so I'll have to work on something else: I've been thinking of hunting around for a clagged 650 motor, I'm missing working on motors already.

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asterix (Oct 16, 2021)

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## th62

Not sure if I posted this mod before, just in case, here it is a remote spin on filter and cooler mod.

This took a lot of work, I had to modify the right side engine cover, machine up a new cover for the now gone strainer, machine a spin on filter mount, fabricate some new engine mounts to hold the mount, fabricate a mount for the cooler, machine up a few stainless fittings for the mod, plus a few other bits and pieces.

I drilled and tapped the front of the sidecover. I hate jobs like this, there's always the fear of stuffing it up and ruining a part, but, all went well: drilled out the oil pump gallery to 10.8mm, tapped it to M12 x 1.25 for 40mm to cover the gallery to the old oil strainer, countersunk the top of the hole to allow for an O ring and inserted the stainless spigot I turned up, looks quite alright.
Whilst I had the cover off, I removed the kickstart mechanism and turned up a couple of bungs to cover the hole.

Next I binned the strainer cover and machined up a new one, which I think looks a lot better than just screwing a right angle, screw in fitting on the original part. Took a bit of doing this part as the outer side had to be angled to follow the angle of the side cover. Rather than use an ugly screw in fitting, I spun up a stainless barb and shrunk it in place.

Next came the spin on filter mount. I made this from a lump of 25mm ally, shaped it to the desired shape, drilled and tapped the side for mounting screws, then mounted it in the lathe to machine the oil gallery recess, once done I drilled a central hole for oil intake and a second hole through to the recess for the output. I then spun up a threaded piece on which to spin the filter, shrunk fit it into the housing, turned up a stainless, threaded barb, screwed it into the spin on filter threaded piece, sandwiching the filter mount between. There was insufficient space for a screw in output barb, so I spun up a barb for an interference fit and pressed it into place.

For my next trick I fabricated some new engine mounts on which to mount the filter mount and oil cooler. The engine mounts were basically the same as the original ones I made, the right has been extended downward around 25mm for the filter mount and both drilled and tapped at the front edge for mounting a cooler bracket.

The cooler bracket is just a piece of 3mm ally bent at a right angle so the cooler mounts on top. I had to cut some 10mm ally tube to fit between the cooler mounting fins and recess the mounting bracket holes a little so I could install some rubber grommets to insulate the cooler from vibration. To hold it in place I cut some 6mm bolts to size and spun up some threaded positive stop, ally T nuts.

Last of all, I polished everything - of course!

All the parts sat around for a while while I awaited the arrival of some AN fittings for the cooler. Damn expensive these things, $60 for two. When they arrived I mounted everything and linked everything with rubber hose. Looks quite all right, not overly visible.

Quite a big job this one, but all worked out well in the end and the system worked well when I started the bike.

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asterix (Oct 16, 2021),

freddo4 (Oct 15, 2021),

Jon (Oct 18, 2021)

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## th62

Stock, the lube system works like this: The motor is wet sump, so oil is contained in the sump. The oil pump is is mounted in the right side cover and linked to the sump via large gallery across the motor. So, oil is drawn from the sump, into the pump and out through a 10mm gallery toward the front of the right side engine cover. The gallery is bunged at the front of the cover and another gallery drilled at a right angle, just before the bung delivers oil to the right side oil strainer behind the round cover on the right side engine cover, the oil is strained and then fed through a small 8mm gallery across the front of the motor delivering oil to the motor. The system is low pressure due to roller big ends and mains, around 6-10psi cold, and around 1psi hot.

The modified system works thus: Oil is drawn from the sump via the oil pump, pumped up the 10mm gallery, past the right angle gallery to the original strainer (now blocked by the stainless screw in barb) out the stainless barb on the front of the side cover and on to the remote filter via a rubber hose linking the two. Clean oil exits the spin on filter via the push fit barb to the cooler via a rubber linking filter and cooler . Cool oil is then delivered to the round strainer housing cover, fills the void (left empty by the removal of the strainer) and into the 8mm gallery across the front of the engine delivering clean, cool oil to the engine.

The sump also contains a strainer through which oil to the pump is strained. Ideally, the spin on filter would be better placed here, however this involves fitting the spin on filter under the sump, leaving it prone to being struck by speed bumps, rocks and road debris. The standard sump filter is prone to being holed at one corner where there is a higher pressure load, so I fabricated a cover from light ally to protect the corner of the strainer.

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asterix (Oct 16, 2021)

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## th62

The TX was fitted with a twin cable throttle, one cable for each carb. Syncing the carbs was accomplished by adjusting the inline adjuster on the cable, a tedious, time consuming, nonsensical way of doing things. So, I designed and built a simpler system consisting of a cable splitter and two knurled adjusters, one fitted to the side of each carb.

I bought a single cable throttle on eBay and looked around for a splitter. All I could find was a plastic POS or a steel one with no means of securing it, so it would just flop around under the tank. Not to my liking, so I machined up a splitter from a lump of ally. I machined a step and drilled two holes for mounting the splitter to the upper engine mounts I made. Next, I bored a 14mm hole through and threaded it each end to a depth of 11mm with a 5/8"UNF thread, then machined up two end caps with a thread to match, knurling the knobs with a scissor knurled I made some years ago.

After this I turned up a brass slide, drilled three 1.5mm holes for cables and later used a slit saw to cut a slit to each hole for the three cables. When finished, I assembled the splitter, sealed the cable holes in the end caps and dunked it in an anodising bath I put together. I sealed the splitter prior to anodising as anodising leaves a thin veneer of oxidised ally over the surface which would have decreased the size of the bore.

To make syncing easier I turned up two 35mm long stainless, threaded adjusters, knurled the end, drilled through with 1.5mm hole, and bored out the cable end to 5.5mm to accommodate the cables. I then made up two ally brackets to screw them into and fitted them to the top of each carb.

Having synced the carbs with the standard inline cable adjusters before and now synced them using this new system, it is chalk and cheese: Much simpler and a lot quicker.

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asterix (Oct 16, 2021)

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## th62

I nutted out a simplified schematic for the TX last night and did a little work on it today. Rather than one harness, I decided on two, one for lights and one for ignition and charging. Five wires for the lights run up the left side of the backbone for lights, another three run up a harness on the right for ignition. I've included some earth cabling in the harness rather than just depending on earthing through the frame.

Once I've routed all the cables to their destinations, I'll zip tie them then wrap the harness removing the zips as I go. Having one harness for ignition and charging circuits and another for lighting simplifies fault faulting and cuts down on the number of colours needed in the harnesses.

I've ordered some stainless spokes, should be here this week. Can only get front spokes at the moment for some reason, seems to be a shortage on rears. As soon as they arrive I'll repolish the hub and rims and spoke it up.

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greenie (Oct 19, 2021),

luvmygto (Oct 19, 2021)

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## Rikk

> I've ordered some stainless spokes, should be here this week. Can only get front spokes at the moment for some reason, seems to be a shortage on rears. As soon as they arrive I'll repolish the hub and rims and spoke it up.



Have you checked with Buchanan? They can usually make spokes for anything they don't stock them for. 
Buchanan Spokes - Spokes Category

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## th62

Front spokes arrived from Geoff's this afternoon, so I laced up the wheel. The spokes for the rear wheel are coming from Heiden Tuning, so they probably won't be here for a while. Much better looking than the mags I think.

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## Frank S

Spoke wheels rule on a bike .but on a car unless it was vintage 1930s not so much

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## IntheGroove

My '67 MGB would not look right without wire wheels...

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## Frank S

> My '67 MGB would not look right without wire wheels...



Admittedly there were exceptions, just like the old Kreger 5 spoke mag wheels on a select few cars they looked good on others they just looked ridiculous.
I saw an Excalibur kit car that almost looked good with the 26" rims but 22s with a little more sidewall would have looked a lot better. 19" wire spokes and white walls may have made it pop.
A lot depends on the body lines of the car. When it comes to bikes I've seen 1 or 2 with a 16" solid disk rear really set the bikes above the bar, however both sported 21 or 23" fronts on spokes. 18s in the rear and 19s in front for heavy cruisers possibly a 21.

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## th62

Just watch who you get your spokes from. The thread on the spokes I bought is longer than stock spokes, so when trued there is about 3mm of thread visible between nipple and hub. Probably wouldn't bother most, but I'm not most! If you blow up the picture you'll see what I mean, the dull grey ones are stock. Not happy, I complained to the seller, GeoffsXS , he now says he wont deal with me and sent me a number of abusive texts and emails. Not that I need him, there are a plethora of XS accessory shops around.

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## IntheGroove

You are correct that that is unacceptable. I will not do business with GeoffsXF if I ever need spokes...

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## th62

Spokes arrived from Heidens this afternoon, so laced up the rear wheel. What a difference, no exposed thread on any spokes.

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## th62

Some progress shots. Looks much better with spoked wheels. I've taken the carbs off as one diaphragm has been holed, so, I'm tossing up between VM round slides or fixing the BS38 carbs. Not real keen on vacuum carbs, so leaning toward the VM round slides. Damned expensive though at $600. It's come a long way from such a humble beginning.

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## asterix

Changing the diaphragm on the carb that you already have put time and effort is the way to go. The money saved will surely be used for completing the project. Spoked wheels are definitively the way to go. Nice job !

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## th62

I've since discovered that JBM are not shipping to Australia at the moment. That leaves buying an OEM slide and diaphragm.. The cost for them is more than a round slide, so, I think I'll be going for a round slide kit. The kit cost more than a single round slide, but comes with a number of jets and manifolds. All I'll get if I wait until JBM are shipping again is two 47 year old carbs of a terrible design.

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## th62

have some VM round slides coming next week. I've read the cable interferes with the petcock, standard fare is to tilt the carbs inwards at the top to fix the problem, but, that's a bit too rough for my liking, so to circumvent the problem I made up these two 20mm spacers. Hopefully, these should move the carbs back enough so the cables clear the petcocks.

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asterix (Dec 12, 2021)

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## asterix

Ah, always a problem but to a problem, there is a solution. It is to us to find it!

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## th62

I bought some round slide VMs in kit form, they come with extra jets, cables , manifolds and rubber boots for mounting. The kit is put together as a kit expressly for the XS650. However, when I mounted them on the bike I found I had to tilt the carbs over quite a bit for the carb cables to clear the petcocks, amateur hour in my opinion. To stop the carbs hanging up on the petcocks, I turned up an aluminium manifold, 40mm longer than the kit manifolds . It moves the carb back behind the tap, so I can sit the carbs upright and get to the adjusters. Problem with is, the fuel spigot on the tap now gets in the way, so I swapped the taps left to right, right to left, so the spigot now faces forward. Rather than turn the manifold up from one 90mm round, solid lump, I turned the spigot up from a 50 mm piece, leaving a 2.5mm lip at the bottom. I used one of the spacers I turned up beforehand for the flange, enlarged the hole and forced the spigot through. The lip actually seals against the cylinder head stopping the spigot from shaking itself loose. Longer inlet tracts do move the torque curve further down the rev range, but like a lot of performance mods, twin carb conversions, porting, velocity stacks, and so, the difference in performance, particularly on a street bike, would be hard to pick up, only a dyno would pick up the difference. This was only a rough manifold to try it out, I'm happy with this solution, so I'll turn up two identical manifolds over the next few days. Once done, I'll polish the float chambers and screw tops and paint the bodies black to match the engine.

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asterix (Dec 23, 2021)

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## steve1958

Nice work and as the owner of a couple of XS650's I am always interested in new twists in their developement. I note that you have added an oil cooler as well which looks very neatly done.

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## th62

Yep, oil cooler and spin on oil filter conversion. I posted the build a few pages back.

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## th62

Finished off the right side manifold, looks OK when polished up. Unfortunately, you can see a couple of scraping from where I pressed the two pieces together, I'll try to fix that on the left side. I did make one boo boo with the flange, I drilled the mounting holes before the bore, bad mistake, makes it very difficult to line the three holes up. Oh well, I'm committed now as I've made two flange blanks the same way.

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asterix (Dec 24, 2021)

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## th62

So, finished machining the second manifold, managed to get the second one identical to the first, well not quite, the second one is 0.02mm longer, but i can live with that. i also turned up a couple of brass spigots, drilled the manifolds and pushed the spigots into place, then polished the second one and bolted them in place. you'll notice the spigots for the balance pipe is tucked up out of the way, bit of a bugger attaching syncing hoses to it, but i didn't want the balance tube seen. urned out quite good, the adjustment cable sits around 10mm behing the tap, so plenty of room to get a spanner in there for syncing. Outlet on the tap now faces forward so it's a bit of a trek to the carb inlets, and damn, the left side carb has the inlet on the same side as the right hand carb, so it's seen. so much for left and right hand carbs.

The carbs have to be supported at the rear via rubbers for vibration. I'll make a two piece polished ally clamp to clamp onto the main frame downtube and go from there.

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asterix (Dec 27, 2021)

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## th62

Finished off the rear carb mounts and anodised them. The brackets that attach to the carbs were brush finished prior to anodising, whereas the larger brackets was polished prior to anodising, so the finish is slightly different. Everything fits and works as intended, but it's very tight in there. The manifolds sit the carbs 10 mm behind the taps, so I had to swap the taps so the outlets faced forward. The small brackets attach to the larger bracket via a grommet and positive stop T nut, the larger bracket bolts to the front of the battery carrier which is rubber mounted. I also spun up a couple of brass 6mm to 8mm brash fuel line adapters.

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asterix (Jan 7, 2022),

Rikk (Jan 7, 2022)

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## th62

Wasted afternoon. Made the damn slot too small, this is what happens when you're old and senile. But, now I know it's easily done and should look Ok polished up, nice and chunky. I follow the measure once and make twice rule. Tomorrow I'll have another shot.

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asterix (Jan 12, 2022),

Wildwilly (Feb 25, 2022)

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## th62

I cheated, bent one up from 3mm stock. A lot harder to make this way and doesn't look as nice, but a lot less material wastage.

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## th62

Doubled up post.

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## asterix

Less massive also. Blends well with the rear wheel.

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## th62

I made a billet adjuster today for a comparison, think I prefer the billet one..

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## Rikk

I think the machined adjuster looks better as well. It's design more closely matches the rest of the custom bits you've made. The sheet metal bent adjuster looks more like a polished up factory piece.

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## mbshop

Billet looks nice. But man, I was one of those that hated keeping things polished. To much work when I could be out riding !

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## th62

I finally had a win. Initially I made the adjuster with a 15mm slot to fit over the swingarm axle mounts. That didn't work too well, scratched the hell out of the paintwork. Next I tried putting a step in the slot, 15mm where the axle slips through and 16mm for the rest, but couldn't get a decent finish inside the slot. I know you can't see inside the slot when it's fitted, but, I know the finish isn't up to scratch. So today I milled the slot out to 16mm for the whole length, papered it reasonably smooth, then put it in the vice and stepped it by bending the ends in to around 15.5mm. Seems to work pretty well, so I'll try making another tomorrow the same way. I think I'm going to have to powder coat the frame though, the acrylic lacquer just scratches and chips too easily.

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asterix (Jan 17, 2022)

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## th62

I did away with the tacho and voltmeter up top, simplified it by just mounting the speedo on the top tree, I'll put some idiot lights in the headlight bucket.. The voltmeter is now below the right hand side panel. I'll either connect it to the battery via a toggle switch or connect it to the brake light wiring.



I designed and taped up a couple of harnesses a while back, decided to go with two: One for ignition, plus the neutral cable, the other for lighting. A much simplified system for fault finding. Four wires in one, six in the other, although I think I'll delete the neutral cable, don't see any need for that or the tacho. It still needs a little tidying up, a bit raggedy at the moment.



Scraping the barrel for fabrication and machining work now, only have to finish off the wiring and fit brake lines, chain and sprockets and mufflers, nearing the end, what'll I do when I finish. This build has been very enjoyable, learnt lots of new cuss words.

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asterix (Jan 26, 2022)

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## Rikk

If I remember right, without scrolling back through the post, you have an identical plate on the opposite side from your volt meter. It would be neat if you could find a small digital tach/hour meter that matched the volt meter and mount it. No real benefit other than using the tach to help tune the carbs, but it would balance both sides of the bike.

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## th62

Nobody does anything properly these days. I bought some VMs a month or so ago and found the cable ends that sit in the adjusters on top of the carbs are a very sloppy fit inside the brass adjusters, so today I pulled them out and took some measurements. The hole in the brass adjuster where the cable end sits is 7mm, whereas the cable end is only 6mm doesn't sound like much but that 1mm allows the cable end to flop around inside the adjuster. I spun up a couple of brass sleeves that were 6mm inside and 7.05 on the outside then pressed the sleeves into the adjusters, I couldn't risk making the fit any tighter as the walls of the sleeve were only .5mm thick. All worked out well, now the cables are a good fit, as they should have been from the shop. Why doesn't anybody supply good fitting accessories anymore?

Whilst I was at it I made a Spanner to fit the carb caps so I could tighten them reasonably tight. The spanner is aluminium so as not to scratch the polished caps too much. Previously, when I made the throttle cable, I made the inner cable a bit too long , so the adjuster in the throttle was at the end of it's adjustment, that also had to be fixed by removing the nipple, cutting 8mm off the cable and refitting the nipple.

After putting everything back together I started the bike and synced the carbs at idle, then increased the revs to around 3k and synced again, all good, or so I thought. Then I found as the revs rise upwards of 4-5k the left inlet tract on the left pot loses vacuum putting the carbs out of sync at higher revs. So, I synced the carbs at 4-5k revs then took it back to 3k revs and damn it, the sync is out again. Sync at idle remained constant and even More mucking about to find the problem.

----------

asterix (Feb 6, 2022),

emu roo (Feb 7, 2022)

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## th62

I broke the brass adjuster on the left hand VM, so had to make a new one. Instead of a hex head I knurled the head so I don't have to mess around with an 8mm spanner when adjusting. As you can see, the thread isn't much chop, the only M6 x .75 die I had was a non split die and carbon steel so the thread is a little undersize and a bit ragged. I've ordered a HSS die, so as soon as that turns up I'll make another, plus one for the right hand carb. Might make them from stainless though, stainless is bit hardier than brass. So much for the brass sleeves I made.

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asterix (Feb 7, 2022)

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## tonyfoale

> Nobody does anything properly these days. I bought some VMs a month or so ago and found the cable ends that sit in the adjusters on top of the carbs are a very sloppy fit inside the brass adjusters, ................. 
> 
> Whilst I was at it I made a Spanner to fit the carb caps so I could tighten them reasonably tight. The spanner is aluminium so as not to scratch the polished caps too much.



I have often replaced the ferrules on the ends of outer cables with my own better fitting items.

I love your spanner, I'll replicate that.

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## th62

Doubled up.

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## th62

I have chronic RA so the clutch lever on the bike is too heavy to use comfortably, so I put the law of the lever to work.
The clutch lever's distance from pivot point to nipple centre is 30mm, whereas the clutch actuator lever's distance from screw, or pivot point, to nipple centre is 35mm, so the law of the lever is already at work, but not enough for me.

I had an old clutch actuator lever that came in a box of parts with the bike. I removed the original lever, cleaned up the damaged screw and turned down the head of the screw to 13mm.

After fashioning a rough lever I attached it to the screw, turned up a dust cover and welded everything together. As I wanted better leverage I drilled the pivot point for the nipple holder 10mm further out from the screw, 45mm.
Attached everything and pulled the lever, much, much better. The actuator lever, due to the increased distance between screw and nipple holder pivot actually moves the pushrod less than the original, but still separates the plates enough for the clutch to do it's job.

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## tonyfoale

> I have chronic RA so the clutch lever on the bike is too heavy to use comfortably, so I put the law of the lever to work................ The actuator lever, due to the increased distance between screw and nipple holder pivot actually moves the pushrod less than the original, but still separates the plates enough for the clutch to do it's job.



You might find benefit from converting to hydraulic operation. There is no friction in a cable to steal some of your applied force and there is less free-play to steal motion. Those Yamaha scroll actuators are far from the best system around when you want a low force solution.

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## th62

Already have parts on order.

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## tonyfoale

> Already have parts on order.



It will be interesting to see how you fit the slave cylinder. The easy way might be on the outside of the cover, maybe with a bit of welding. The fun way might be if you can fit it inside the cover and hide it.

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## th62

There is one that bolts in the cable hole, that's the one I have coming from China. But the bore is probably too small compared to master cylinder bores, so probably will make it heavier.

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## th62

The coil on the TX went kaput, so I sent off for another CB 750 coil. It arrived yesterday so I went to install it only to find it didn't fit' the bracket I made a while back, the mounting holes on the new coil are 10mm closer together. Not much choice so I made another mounting bracket. Being as it's under the tank I anodised it instead of polishing it as I'd done with the original. Prior to anodising I rotary sanded it, then hit it with a scotchbrite wheel, then dumped it in the anodising bath. Unfortunately, anodising tends to greatly amplify any imperfections in the finish, whilst it looked great before anodising it came out showing the sanding scratches. Acceptable and not seen under the tank, but I wasn't happy with the finish, so rather than do it all again, I put it in the blasting cabinet and gave it a light blasting with glass beads. What a great finish this gave, still anodised so it won't oxidise, but boy, what a great finish. I still have to route the cables and harness neatly, that's why it looks a little untidy. I might also do the same with the top engine mounts.

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asterix (Mar 4, 2022)

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## th62

I sent off for a hydraulic clutch slave cylinder and some hoses, they arrived today and I was pleasantly surprised. The slave cylinder mounts where the original cable was and pulls on the lever attached to the course thread screw. It was cheap and is pretty darn good quality, just not sure it will work that well as the bore is only around 12_14mm. Tomorrows job.

Some hydraulic hoses also arrived, these were advertised as 'braided' but certainly there is no external braiding. They are quite small in diameter and appear to be made of some sort of plastic with braiding of some sort under the clearish outer surface. The smaller of the two came with three banjos: straight, 28 degrees and 90 degrees. Again, they appear to be quite good quality.

The slave cylinder and hoses were only bought to play with, but if everything works ok, I may look at the hoses for brake lines. I'll be on the lathe again shortly to make a slave cylinder that pushes on the clutch actuating rod, not a fan of the course threaded screw actuator.

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asterix (Mar 4, 2022)

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## tonyfoale

What about the master cylinder?
I have not seen a slave cylinder like the one that you have. 12/14 mm bore does seem small if it was direct acting but it looks like it retains the original Yamaha actuating scroll. I was expecting something like this



That is why in a previous message I expressed an interest in how you would mount it.

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## th62

I doubt I'll be using this slave cylinder, it's just something to experiment with.

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## th62

I've designed and put together a couple of much simplified harness' one for lights, the other for ignition, minus stuff I don't require, neutral light and so on. But still the spaghetti bucket lived up to it's name. I dislike untidy with a vengeance so made a bracket that sits inside the spaghetti bucket to try and keep things neat and make it easier to find and connect the wires.

Two grommets sit in the middle for routing earth wires through to earth connections and a couple of linked, Delrin, insulated terminal bridges sit either side of them for power connections. Mostly connected up, but still have to connect the headlight cables and speedo light cables, not sure about adding idiot lights, more procrastination needed there me thinks! The cables emanating from the switchgear are very, very light gauge, not sure if they'll handle the current, even though all lights are LEDs, so I may have to either solder in heavier gauge cables or change the switchgear.

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asterix (Mar 19, 2022),

tonyfoale (Mar 19, 2022)

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## tonyfoale

Neatly done.

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## th62

Finished off the front wiring and spaghetti bucket. Still looks a little untidy, but neater than most I think. I even mounted the lens on a couple of wire safety straps to stop it pulling on the harness. I had, to buy these double female bullet connectors from China, couldn't find anyone in OZ who stocks them. Trying to find sub 6mm eye terminals was a job, same with 3mm blade terminals, they stock female blades but not males. And they complain that everyone is turning to online shopping - no bloody wonder.
Got to attack the back end now, mount the indicators and plug them and the tail light into the lighting harness.

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asterix (Mar 21, 2022)

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## th62

The indicators I bought don't have a long enough threaded section to go through the guard bracket, so I made these extension brackets to mount the indicators on. The V shaped cut out at the rear of the brackets fits around the frame tab protrusion, thus stopping the brackets from moving.

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## th62

Nup, binned them. Looking at the picture I noticed the line on the top the aluminium bracket doesn't follow the line on the top of the frame tab. So I made a new pair. Not a lot I could do with the bottom line as the tab angle is different to the guard angle, so I followed the tab angle down to the bottom of the guard then followed the arch of the guard. I might have to thin it down a bit though, looks a bit too big???

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asterix (Mar 23, 2022),

tonyfoale (Mar 23, 2022)

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## asterix

The thinner bottom part of the first bracket look better. The pointed end of the upper part looks akward. Perhaps a rounded end ?

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## Rikk

What if you added a radius to the bottom edge of the bracket similar to the radius of the fender lip. Not that anyone would notice it unless they looked directly at it from the side, but it keeps the lines smooth and consistent.

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## th62

Nope, if I did that then the lower fork would be horrendously thick. That's why I followed the line on the bottom of the tab down to the guard then followed the line of the guard.

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Rikk (Mar 29, 2022)

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## th62

A few weeks ago I sent off for some tapered mufflers, these were said to suit from 38 - 45mm pipes using the supplied sleeves. Well they came, but aside from being chrome when I ordered black, they were rubbish: The spigot that goes over the exhaust pipe is tapered, so no matter how tight the clamp is done up, they have an alarming amount of movement, so I wrapped them up and on sold them.

Today I went to an exhaust shop and bought 1.5 m of 57 mm pipe and the same amount of 41mm pipe and asked the guy to taper the ends of the 41mm pipe out to 57mm. This was just an experiment mind, just wanted to see what they'd look like. Once I'd welded the tapered cones on to the 57mm pipe, I slid the 57mm end of the mufflers over the exhaust, stood back and had a squiz. Very pleasantly surprised, they give the bike the look I'm after. So next week, or whenever, I'll get some 45mm pipe and get the guy to expand the ends out to 57 mm and weld them on to the other end of the muffler.

The plan is to make up a couple of long baffles and slide them all the way inside the mufflers, start the bike and gradually slide the baffles out until I achieve what I think is an acceptable noise level. I'll also throw a bit of fibreglass insulation in the bodies to dampen the high level noise.

They look a bit Pommyish, but that's alright, I like Pommy bikes.

Once I've finished the mufflers, that's pretty much the build finished. So I'll strip it down, repaint everything again, give the tank a coat of isocynate free clear coat and stick the bike back together. All that remains to be done then is get some tyres fitted and upholster the seat. That'll be the end of my bike building days though, unfortunately, this build has pretty much stuffed my body, my elbows are stuffed, can't doing anything without lots of pain now. So once finished I'll probably book elbow replacement surgery and retire from life. Although, every now and again I'll probably wander out to the workshop, sit on the bike, blow through my lips to make some bike noises, dribble down my chin and remember the good old days of my youth. Still a bit left to do though.

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olderdan (Apr 4, 2022),

Rikk (Apr 4, 2022),

tonyfoale (Apr 4, 2022)

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## IntheGroove

I hope you ride it when you're finished with the project...

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## NeiljohnUK

Reverse cone mega's would look nice, and unbaffled sound awesome!

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## olderdan

I have admired your skills and perseverance, it would be good if you could enjoy riding it for a while.

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## th62

Nope, I can't ride any more, I knew that before I started. Didn't stop me though, it's just a project to keep me active.

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## th62

Finished one of the mufflers today, plus a baffle. Unfortunately, none of the tube sizes will slide inside the next size up, .25mm too big. I did, consider getting the exhaust guy to expand the tubes, but, I don't share their idea of a 'good fit'. So, using a drum sander I shaved .25mm off the inside of the tail pipe and the same amount of the receiver end. Now, because round tube is not round, more egg shaped, I can match the oval shapes together, push one tube in, twist and get a really tight fit.

Baffles were fun to make, 168 holes in total. I drilled 14 along the length of the pipe, then drilled another 11 lines of holes around the circumference, by the time I'd drilled the last line the holes didn't match up, so, I mounted another piece of tube on the lathe and used the bit to scribe lines along the length, 9.9mm apart, then used the dial indicator to mark around the tube at 10mm intervals, then drilled using the mill. Success. I know you can't see the holes in the baffles and it won't make any difference, but,
At least I'll know they are neat and the rows and lines match.

All I have to do to tune the decibels is start the bike and pull the baffle out until I'm happy with the noise level then cut the excess off. In area, I need 58 x 5mm holes to match the area of the exhaust pipe outlet, I can probably go a few less actually because the exhaust outlet is only arlound 34/36mm as is the baffle outlet.

Welding the cones front and back was also fun: Tacked the cone in four places as straight as I could get it, then mounted the muffler in the chuck, spun it and using a dial gauge, marked where I needed to weld in order to pull it straight. Four times from memory I did this, with 25mm long beads. The tail pipe on the other one I did yesterday, manually, is a little off, but I'll remedy that after I've added the receiver cone.

A good day today, muffler gives the bike the look I wanted. Once both are done, I'll double skin a portion on the inside, weld some mounting points on, then paint them black. Not sure what type bracket to use, but it will attached to a polished aluminium stay bolted to the pillion passenger peg mounts. I'm thinking of a wide polished aluminium clamp around the body of the muffler, that will negate the need for double skinning. I can feel a 'try and see' coming up

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asterix (Apr 7, 2022),

tonyfoale (Apr 7, 2022)

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## tonyfoale

Great work.

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## Rikk

Those pipes look great, perfectly fit the cafe look. 

Do you anticipate having to change jetting because of the exhaust and the pod filters?

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## th62

Probably, although they're not too restrictive, might run a little rich due to the VMs being jetted for straight through pipes.

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Rikk (Apr 8, 2022)

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## th62

Finished off the muffler today and made a polished aluminium hanger for it. I was going to double skin a section on the side of the muffler and weld mounting tabs to it, but decided these full cradle hangers would look better, plus, nothing to break off from the vibration. Happy with the result, these mufflers look nice and suit the build I think.

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Rikk (Apr 12, 2022),

tonyfoale (Apr 12, 2022)

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## th62

These are the exhaust hangers, they clamp around the mufflers, a stainless washer between the bends allows the the clamps to be done up tight thus gripping the mufflers securely and preventing the ends of the clamps from bending.

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Rikk (Apr 15, 2022),

tonyfoale (Apr 15, 2022)

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## th62

Completed the last job today, fitted the baffles to the mufflers. All that's left to do now is rip the bike apart and repaint, then reassemble. Don't know when though, I like looking at it now it's finished.

I'll be repainting with the same black, but this time applying an iso free two pack clear over the base colour coat on some selected parts: tank, seat, guards and maybe a few other bits.

When resprayed and assembled I'll fit tyres and get the the seat covered, don't trust the upholsterers with the seatpan, that's why the two pack iso free clear on the seatpan before getting it covered. I was going to cover it myself, but the Singer has given up the ghost.

When resprayed and reassembled I park it in the garage and cover it up and go out every now and again, uncover, sit on it, blow through my lips to make some appropriate motor bike noises and dribble down my chin.

Don't know what I'll do after this, maybe an R65, if there's anything left of my elbows.

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tonyfoale (Apr 16, 2022)

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## tonyfoale

I'll miss your posts. Superb job.
Daily doses of Cod Liver oil fixed my elbows but maybe you have a different problem, might be worth trying though.

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## th62

I haven't finished yet. probably more mods to come.

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## IntheGroove

Maybe you could do a video so we can hear what it sounds like. Great job...

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## tonyfoale

> I haven't finished yet. probably more mods to come.



Good, i look forward to it.

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## th62

Probably the last startup before tearing it apart again for repainting.* Sync was a little out, so I adjusted the idle screws, turning the idle screw a fraction results in a big difference to the manometer.* Happily, the mufflers do an excellent job of quieting the beast.**

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asterix (Apr 20, 2022),

olderdan (Apr 20, 2022),

tonyfoale (Apr 20, 2022)

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## IntheGroove

Sounds perfect. Great job. Thank you for that video...

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## Frank S

Now that was the sound of music, great job.

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## Rikk

Sounds great!! It has been a treat to watch this build. Thank you for sharing your adventure.

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## olderdan

Sounds great!

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## th62

I thought Id make one more video before tearing the bike apart. This one deals with carb syncing with a manometer.



This manometer has a relatively large body of water, and the vacuum lines are fitted with a .6mm jet. This has the effect of slowing down the movement of water stabilising the readings and making the device extremely accurate. Just a miniscule turn of either idle screw or throttle adjustment screw greatly effects the fluid levels.



I have great trouble with my fingers, so you'll notice me changing hands frequently trying to turn the adjustment screws. I also turned the adjustment screws the wrong way a few times, putting the levels out.

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asterix (Apr 21, 2022)

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## IntheGroove

You sure do know what you're doing...

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## th62

This is a new brake divider I machined up to replace the original. The original hoses were rotted, so I replaced them and did away with the two steel tubes that connect the hose to the calliper and the hose from the master cylinder to the divider. Unfortunately, the new hoses have the banjos on the same plain requiring the lower hose to be twisted through 90degrees to connect to the original divider, so I machined a new divider to get around the problem. The lower hose connects at the rear of the divider, as does the brake light switch. The top hose connects to the side of the divider.

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asterix (Apr 26, 2022),

olderdan (Apr 26, 2022),

tonyfoale (Apr 26, 2022)

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## th62

A few hours is all it took - it's just a pile of bits that once was an almost complete bike now, just needed tyres and the seat covered. Going to be a big job polishing all those bits again, any volunteers???

A couple of mods on the frame to do: Remove the coil and flasher mounts then repaint along with tank, guards, seat, trees and a few other bits. Not sure what paint to use this time. I used acrylic lacquer last time, but spilt some petrol on the tank and it stained it. Painted heaps of tanks with acrylic lacquer before but never had this problem, either the paint is different or the petrol is. Don't really want to repeat the exercise.

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asterix (May 10, 2022),

Rikk (May 10, 2022),

tonyfoale (May 10, 2022)

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## tonyfoale

Could it be alcohol in the fuel?

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## th62

Not from a service station.

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## th62

Applied the final coats of acrylic lacquer to the tinwork and some ancillaries this afternoon, didn't come out as clear or as good as I hoped, but acceptable I guess. I'll give it a few more days then sand the tank and spray over with 2k clear. Not the done thing, technically, but plenty do it, so we'll see how it goes.

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asterix (Jun 11, 2022),

Rikk (Jun 13, 2022)

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## Frank S

From what little I still remember about painting with lacquers was there was a lot of rubbing to ever get the shine to really pop.

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## th62

Depends on your technique. The tinware in the picture is straight off the gun. This was my first paint job on the tank, again, straight off the gun.

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## th62

In searching through this thread trying to find the above picture, I noticed I'd never posted on the engine build. A little late but here it is. 

I never bothered trying to start the engine when I bought the bike home, waste of time considering what I was intending. After getting the engine out of the bike, by no means an easy task, I got it up on the bench with a lot of effort, this is one heavy engine, and started stripping it.
In pulling the engine apart I discovered the previous owner had installed a new set of rings on a bore and pistons that were way out of spec, bodged up an auto advance unit that was 80 degrees out, elongated the points backing plate slots to allow for a stretched cam chain, put a kit through the carbs without bothering to clean them and did an oil change without cleaning the filters

I knew the top crankcase had been smashed by an errant chain, unfortunately, the damage was a bit more extensive, the chain had ripped the alternator cables and the shifter drum bearing housing was also damaged. I stripped the motor down and found the piston to bore clearance was way out of spec, the valve seats were badly pitted, the cam chain was stretched so much the motor couldn't be timed, I noted the previous owner had extended the slots on the points backing plate, but still there simply wasn't enough movement in the backing plate to time it.

Rather than buy a new auto advance unit, the previous owner had bodged up a replacement, it put the timing out by around 80 degrees. The cam chain guides had delaminated leaving bits of black stuff hanging off the aluminium base guides and floating around in the crankcase. The shifter drum was missing a pin, so no hope of getting any gears. Sump and side filters were so gummed up I'd be surprised if any oil actually got through them. All the JIS headed screws were absolutely mangled, the eight chrome rocker dome nuts were rusted as was the oil pipe, engine oil seals were all buggered the springs behind the lips on some had actually popped out. The barrel gasket had developed a serious leak at some time but had never been seen to, drive sprocket looked like a series of hooks. The sprocket nut had nearly been cut in half by a chisel, side covers were badly pitted and oxidised. Carb float chambers were gummed up and pitted on the bottom, manifold rubbers were split. Luckily there were no stripped gears and the Crank and associated mains, conrods and so on were all in good condition. A feature of these bikes is the bullet proof crank.

I bought some new, second hand cases, had the barrel rebored and valve seats reground, bought two new pistons plus rings, gudgeons and circlips, made up a pin for the shifter drum and a couple of bases for the valve springs which were missing, bought new gaskets and seals plus a stainless Allen head kit, bought a new auto advance unit, had the point and advance covers, rocker domes and oil pipe re chromed.
I blasted the crankcase halves, barrel, head and rocker cover and carb bodies, then pressure cleaned everything several times making sure I got rid of all the blasting media from all the orifices and nooks and crannies, then soaked them in a bath of degreaser and pressure cleaned them again a few times then blew everything out with High pressure air.

I smoothed over all the casting flashes on the crankcases and painted them silver, squared up the cylinder head fins and removed any casting lumps. The side covers were blasted inside and the outsides were polished along with the valve covers, breather box, dipstick, cam chain adjuster and carb tops and float bowls.

I pulled the starter motor apart and found all in order, so polished up the aluminium ends and painted the body Black. The starter gear spring gave no tension on the gear so I reshaped that a little.
Jap bikes are just so easy to assemble: invert the top crankcase chuck all the gears in, line up the mains pins drape the cam chain over the centre crankshaft sprocket, tie the ends together, load the crankshaft in, paint the mating surfaces with goop and bolt the lower case in position.

I then made up a bench stand, mounted the lower end in, assembled the ring on the pistons and inserted the pistons in the bores then lowered the barrel over the studs and inserted the gudgeons and circlips and finished lowering the barrel.
The head was missing a couple spring base washers, so I made a couple of new ones and mounted the valves then lowered the head in place over a new gasket. Next came the cam which I put in place, draped the chain over and timed the cam then riveted the chain together.

Next came the rocker cover. After assembling the rockers I lowered the rocker cover over the studs and torqued everything down. The rockershaft end caps has mangled JIS heads so I binned them and looked for some new ones. Hang the classic sign on a bike and parts prices go through the roof, the buggers wanted $40 for four. So I looked on ebay and found some short, stainless, Allen heads M18 x 1.5 for $1.20 each for an all up price of $5 and installed them.

Carbs were blasted then pressure cleaned and blown through with air and reassembled and bolted in place on new rubber manifolds. Clutch, starter gear, and alternator were all bolted in place and I was ready to start it up. First cleaning the strainers, filling with oil and turning the engine with a cordless drill to get oil circulating .

Rather than start the engine up on the bench stand and watch it vibrate across the bench and fall on the floor, I built a new stand on wheels, added a fuel tank bracket, mounted the regulator, condensers, a couple of Bosch coils, a Honda solenoid, installed a $4 ebay three phase rectifier (used OEMs are $70) wired everything up to a rocker ignition switch and momentary starter switch and pushed the start button. Damn thing roared into life immediately and damn loud with those pipes. If you think Brit twins vibrate, this thing leaves them for dead, I had to tie it to the bench grinder stand to stop it walking around the shed.

I made up a manometer and synced the carbs, then stood back and looked at it. Nope dont like it, too bland in silver. So, up on the bench again, rip it apart, blast the paint off and repainted it black, then do it all again. Much, much better.

----------

Frank S (Jun 12, 2022),

Rikk (Jun 13, 2022)

----------


## IntheGroove

It sure was worth the effort...

----------


## Frank S

Looks like you have done an outstanding job on your rebuild, the engine looks better than new

----------


## th62

Painted the tank, seat, guards, headlight and callipers with 2k clearcoat this morning. Unfortunately, I can't wear glasses under the respiration so I couldn't see too clearly - bloody great run on the tank, damn. Couldn't get any non isocyanate free, so just the usual 2K.

It's been over 40 years since I used 2k, so I couldn't remember what coverage was like, how much paint I'd need, googled it in various painting forums. 2litres minimum for frame, tank, guards seat, headlight I was advised. Armed with that knowledge, I shyed away from 2k because it would have cost near as damn it to $450/$500.

Seems our painting professionals haven' a clue., I mixed up 250mm clear, 125mm catalyst and a little thinners. Got three coats down on tank, guards, seat, headlight and callipers and still had 200mm of mixed paint left.

By the look of it, I won't be spending anytime compounding or polishing the paintwork.

This pic should give you some idea why painting and, polishing aren't my favourite past times. Scared the crap out of the dog.

----------

asterix (Jun 23, 2022),

Rikk (Jun 23, 2022),

tonyfoale (Jun 23, 2022)

----------


## th62

As you are probably aware, when fuel runs low in bike tanks tank, due to the tunnel one carb can run dry, BS carbs overcome that problem by linking the carbs via a short hose between them. I run VM carbs on the TX so there is no fuel link. Previously I had a jumble of hoses and T piece barbs linking the petcocks, but that was just so untidy, so today I made a fuel distributor. Not quite finished yet: I still have to drill the linking gallery through so the petcocks are linked, but, I don't have a 4.5mm drill long enough, so I'll have to drill from both sides and blank one side off with a screw and copper washer, then punch in three brass barbs, clean it up a little, round off the edges and polish it.

The distributor mounts underneath the front lip of the ally battery carrier I made some time ago.. A tube from each petcock attaches to the two inner barbs via a small filter, fuel line links the two outer barbs to the carbs.

I was going to make one with integral sintered bronze filters, but the unit would have been LARGE , so I decided to go with the two inline filters.

The left side works well, plenty of room for the hoses and filter as the carb hose attaches to the side of the distributor, but the right side is a little crowded as the fuel inlet on the carb is on the same side as the left hand carb, I may have to make another just a few mm wider.

I'm going into hospital today for five days, that'll be followed by about of month sitting on my bum, so it'll have to wait a while before I can finish it off.

----------

greenie (Jul 24, 2022),

nova_robotics (Jul 25, 2022),

tonyfoale (Jul 25, 2022)

----------


## IntheGroove

It would be great if you could figure out a way to put the sintered bronze filters in the block. And get well soon...

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## Rikk

Another nice job! 

Heal quick, I'm sure you will come up with many more things to do the the 650 while you recover. 

Take care

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## asterix

> As you are probably aware, when fuel runs low in bike tanks tank, due to the tunnel one carb can run dry, BS carbs overcome that problem by linking the carbs via a short hose between them. I run VM carbs on the TX so there is no fuel link. Previously I had a jumble of hoses and T piece barbs linking the petcocks, but that was just so untidy, so today I made a fuel distributor. Not quite finished yet: I still have to drill the linking gallery through so the petcocks are linked, but, I don't have a 4.5mm drill long enough, so I'll have to drill from both sides and blank one side off with a screw and copper washer, then punch in three brass barbs, clean it up a little, round off the edges and polish it.
> 
> The distributor mounts underneath the front lip of the ally battery carrier I made some time ago.. A tube from each petcock attaches to the two inner barbs via a small filter, fuel line links the two outer barbs to the carbs.
> 
> I was going to make one with integral sintered bronze filters, but the unit would have been LARGE , so I decided to go with the two inline filters.
> 
> The left side works well, plenty of room for the hoses and filter as the carb hose attaches to the side of the distributor, but the right side is a little crowded as the fuel inlet on the carb is on the same side as the left hand carb, I may have to make another just a few mm wider.
> 
> I'm going into hospital today for five days, that'll be followed by about of month sitting on my bum, so it'll have to wait a while before I can finish it off.




There is also « dead space » between the two air filters. This is where I plan to hide my fuel filters on my Bonneville.

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Home-PC (Jul 27, 2022)

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## th62

New fuel distributor.
I binned the fuel distributor I was making, too big, and made another smaller one. The design has changed a little: There are outlet spigots either side of the fuel distributer which feed the carbs via fuel hoses, the two outlet spigots are joined by a 4.5mm through hole. A line from the petcock feeds into small plastic filters which feed into the two brass spigots on the front of the distributor, via fuel hose, and these feed into the 4.5mm through hole.

The brass spigots have been undercut on the face connecting to the distributor to allow for an O ring. The brass spigots are a push fit in the distributor so shouldn't leak, the O rings are just added insurance.

This was about as neat as I could make it and certainly neater than the jumble of hoses, adapters and T pieces I had there before.

I didn't bother polishing the ends, that was a mistake - looks unfinished, so I'll have to remove it and polish the ends.

Here's lots of pics (as usual), including the build process.

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asterix (Aug 9, 2022),

greenie (Aug 11, 2022),

Rikk (Aug 9, 2022),

tonyfoale (Aug 9, 2022)

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## th62

I stripped the clear coat off the side panels because the polishing wasn't good enough. Interestingly, After soaking the 2k clear just wiped off the blasted inner surface, the outer polished surface was a different matter, had to scrub and scrub and scrub to get it off.

Then I polished again: Sisal and black, sewn cloth and white and then loose leaf cloth with green. Finish was pretty good, but I wanted better so finished off with a loose leaf Swansdown mop and green compound. Normal loose leaf cloth mops are calico, Swansdown is a finer, softer material providing a better finish. But don't be fooled, all mops, sisal, calico and even Swansdown mops leave streaks in the aluminium, you just have to look closely. You can reduce the streaks by polishing in different directions leaving a cross hatch finish, again, if you look close enough. Polishing with a very soft touch will reduce the streaking even further.

The compound is what does the polishing, don't use enough compound and all you'll produce is heat. Compounds when running lean will leave little globs on the surface of the material, particularly around holes and edges, particularly green compound.

I use Silvo as a final hand polish, Silvo has a finer texture than aluminium polishes such as Meguires and Autosol, so provides a better finish. Final polishing with Silvo and a microfibre cloth will also scratch the material, particularly if used in a circular motion. So, take note of the direction in which the streaks run, polish with the microfibre in the same direction, streaks are then less noticeable. These streaks are hardly noticeable unless you look very, very closely and are very, very fussy, not something you would normally notice.

I've been at it for over 55 years, so I'm very fussy. Here's some final polishing I did today; side panels, engine mounts and a filter mount I made some time ago. Aluminium will never polish up like chrome or stainless, it is a more 'subdued' shine, which I prefer. Nevertheless, it does come up nice providing a good mirror finish. In pic three you can see the hairs on my fingers..

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asterix (Aug 23, 2022),

Rikk (Sep 3, 2022)

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## th62

The clear coat on the forks and sides wasn't up to scratch so I stripped them and re polished them. I also re-polished the chain adjusters, headlight brackets and brake backing plate. I might make some new headlight brackets, these ones are looking a little shabby. Brake backing plate came up pretty good with just a quick rub on the mop . The wheels have been sitting on the floor of the study for a couple months now so have lost a bit of their shine. When I've finished with the other bits I'll de spoke and polish up the hubs and rims again.

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asterix (Aug 30, 2022),

Rikk (Sep 3, 2022),

tonyfoale (Dec 17, 2022)

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## th62

I've clear coated most of the polished aluminium, smaller bits, just have the wheels to finish. Unfortunately, the clear coat dulls the shine quite a bit. Funny stuff to spray on polished aluminium: I had to spray a very light coat first, give it a few minutes then hit it again with a heavier coat so the paint would pool and flatten out. Still a bit of orange peel though, particularly on the triangular engine mount. The clear coat doesn't behave the same over painted surfaces, just polished aluminium, very disappointed in the finish. I may not clear coat the wheels as they'd be hard to get the clear to pool, there's a very fine line between pooling and a run. Float coating seems to just run and build up on the edges. I'm also thinking of painting the side covers black, they just didn't come up to scratch.

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asterix (Sep 7, 2022)

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## th62

A little premature, but I did a little detailing. Stainless fasteners don't look the best straight off the shelf, so I've started neatening them up a little. Allen heads have striations on the side of the heads and numbers stamped on the face of the heads, so I chucked a heap of them and turned them down a little before polishing. Hex heads were very rough, so they were ground down a little before polishing. I ground and polished the ends of any bolts that were seen as well as removing the excess thread..
I've only done one side of the bike, tomorrow I'll tackle the other. Then the engine fasteners, a few little ones on the carbs. I haven't done the washers, can't figure out how to hold them without polishing the ends of my fingers.
The footpeg holes to which I mount the mufflers are 12mm, heads of the fasteners on the inside looked like they'd scrape against the swingarm, so I turned up some brass shim tubes and pressed them into place so I could use 10mm fasteners, they just clear the swingarm.
Once I've finished, I'll remove the clear coat and just leave the ally bare.

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asterix (Sep 15, 2022),

greenie (Sep 15, 2022),

tonyfoale (Sep 15, 2022)

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## IntheGroove

To polish the washers turn an Allen head down then put the washer on with a nut and polish away...

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asterix (Sep 15, 2022),

greenie (Sep 15, 2022)

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## th62

Reed valve engine breather.
​​​​​​​I made this little gizmo yesterday, finished it off this morning with the bead blaster. I was going to polish it, but damn this gizmo looks good with a bead blasted finish.
Petal was taken from a pit bike read valve and cut in half, two holes drilled and screwed to the base plate. Base plate was tapped M3 10mm deep to take the petal. Not fun tapping this small, but, this time around the tap survived.
Main body was carved out with an endmill to give the petal room to move and air to flow. Base plate has a channel on the engine side for any oil to run down back into the rockers. Topside was channelled either side to get the Allen heads level with the top surface. Stainless Allen's were turned to make them shiny, I do like shiny baubles.
Outlet spigot is 16mm with a 10mm hole. If it's not big enough I can take it out to 12mm later on.
Air from the engine enters the main body from the reed valve is channelled upward, does a U turn and travels downward to the outlet spigot, losing a little oil on the way. Any oil trapped before the reed valve is channelled back to the rockers.
I'll have to design and build a catch can now, thinking of mounting it behind the downtube between the carbs. But, it's getting a little busy in that area.
Manual machining only, would love a CNC, but not in my budget, would've made things a lot easier

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asterix (Oct 11, 2022),

NeiljohnUK (Oct 12, 2022),

nova_robotics (Oct 12, 2022),

tonyfoale (Oct 11, 2022)

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## tonyfoale

I am a fan of using reed valves in the engine breather line. Here are a couple of pix of the one that I use on my Aermacchi race bike.

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asterix (Oct 11, 2022)

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## th62

A while back I made two wiring harnesses, one for ignition, the other for lights. I wrapped both up in plastic insulation tape, not an easy job keeping the cables straight and in the same order for the harness length. I managed that reasonably well, but after wrapping the harnesses were s tiff as a board and twisted.

This morning some cloth insulation tape arrived, so I cut the old plastic stuff off and wrapped both harnesses in the cloth tape, boy what a difference. The harnesses are now quite straight, pliable and easier to thread through the frame. Big improvement. Good stuff this cloth insulation tape.

Tomorrow I'll solder on some more terminals for the rear end, shorten a couple of leads and hook everything up.

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tonyfoale (Oct 25, 2022)

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## NeiljohnUK

Nice and neatly done, loom work can be very satisfying, I know of a local company to me that makes looms for industrial vehicles, the loose non-glue back PVC tape they use allows movement, with glue backed tape stabilising the exit points. Cloth tape is more 'period' for many vehicles, my long ago sold Series 1 Landy had cloth wrapped looms from new.

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## tonyfoale

> A while back I made two wiring harnesses, one for ignition, the other for lights. I wrapped both up in plastic insulation tape, not an easy job keeping the cables straight and in the same order for the harness length. I managed that reasonably well, but after wrapping the harnesses were s tiff as a board and twisted.



I have had similar experiences. Then for a long time I used some plastic tape made for looms. It was a big improvement, although it could be difficult to use because you had to keep tension on it or it would not stay in place. For the last loom that I made I got some cloth tape. As you have found, that is the best.

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## th62

I've slowed right down now, I can only manage an hour or so in the workshop before the elbow complains. But, I haven't been totally idle: I stripped the clear coat off the forks and gave them another polish. Pulled the front wheel apart, polished the rim and hub and re laced it. I stuck the caliper together, hoping the pistons would seal, no such luck, so I'll have to,order some new pistons. Still haven't re painted the seat and covered it yet or bought tyres.



Most of my interest is making stuff, and mostly machining, but being as the bike is all but finished I didn't have anything more to make. So, I thought real hard about it and decided on some air cleaners, pods just don't do it for me. I turned up an aluminium base and a couple of knurled nuts, then beat up a rear plate and polished them. I was going to use the black, stainless mesh to hold the foam in place, but changed my mind, just don't like the look of it, so I'll look around for some perforated sheet and use that. 



I was going to use a catch can for the engine breather, but being as I'll have pancake air filters I'll plumb the breather hose into the filters via a T joining piece.



I finally decided on a shrink fit for the base of the filter, so did a little experimenting with heating and freezing.: The carb bell mouth is tapered slightly by around .05mm,, so I chucked the carb body and trued up the bell so it measures 57.38mm, then stuck it in the freezer for a couple of days to see how much it would shrink - virtually nothing, .01 mm. Next I bored out the centre of the air cleaner base to 57mm and stuck it in the over at 250C, it expanded by .18mm. So, I chucked the base again and turned the hole to 57.20mm. So if I heat the base to 240c it'll expand to 57.38. That of course won't fit over the bell mouth, because it's not a clearance fit, so a little light pushing in the vice will be required. That should give a good tight fit and just to make sure it won't come off, I've tapped the side of the air cleaner base for a 5mm grub screw.



So, you'd probably think freezing the carb body is a waste of time as it doesn't shrink enough to make a difference, but there is a good reason to freeze the carb: Bringing the air cleaner base and carb together to press fit them can't be done quickly, so heat transfer will take place and the carb will heat up slowly, if I'm quick enough it should reach normal temperature sometime during the press fit and hopefully the air cleaner base won't cool down too quickly.



Tomorrow, I'll find out if my plan works, if so, all I have to do then is is make another air cleaner for the left carb.



Well, it's not quite that simple: A while back I made a fuel distributor block that bolts under the front lip of the battery carrier to neaten up the hoses joining carbs and taps, and also to get a level fuel flow in both carbs. Unfortunately, the distributor block hangs too low, so the filters interfere with the fuel lines, I've made the filters as small a diameter as I can, so another 'narower' fuel distributor block will route the fuel hoses around the filter.



There is a method to my madness, I've now got more stuff to machine up, Oh happy days!

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asterix (Dec 17, 2022),

Jon (Dec 19, 2022),

tonyfoale (Dec 17, 2022),

yumastepside (Dec 19, 2022)

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## IntheGroove

Lookin good. Keep going...

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## th62

Well, I finally got around to finishing off the right side filter, and damn it looks good. It gives a nice unobstructed air flows, much better than pods. My plan on heating and cooling didn't work too well, much to hard to handle all the bits and pieces and tooling trying to press them together, so, I ended up pressing together cold.

Same with the sizing, .020mm press fit was much too much, so after a few tries I got a good fit by decreasing it to about .04mm. And of course my day wouldn't be complete without misplacing parts, I lost the idle mixture screw spring, no idea where I'm going to get one of them from.

All I have to do now is make an identical one for the left carb from that great slab of aluminium I spent yesterday tracking down, and beat up a rear plate. But first I'll make another fuel distributor block to keep the hosing neat and simple.

If I can remember, I'll take lots of pics of the machining and fabrication process and bore you all to tears with them.

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greenie (Dec 21, 2022),

olderdan (Dec 21, 2022),

tonyfoale (Dec 21, 2022)

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## tonyfoale

Nice work.

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## olderdan

Nice job, looks much better.

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## th62

I did warn you: Here's loads of pictures taken while making a new fuel distributor block. It's little smaller than the first one I made and routes the hoses from petcock to carb nice and neatly, it also levels the fuel on both sides of the tank so one carb doesn't run dry when the fuel level gets low.

The block is drilled through left to right 5.5mm and has barbs machined on the end to take the 8mm hose going to the carbs. Two 6mm brass barbs are pressed in place on the front which take the hoses from the petcock via a couple of inline filters.

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asterix (Dec 22, 2022)

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## th62

Heres the process used making the air filters. I took sizes of the first filter I made and replicated them to the second. This time I took lots of pictures to outline the steps in making them. I cut a 15mm slice off the 101.6mm lump of ally and turned down one end to 97.4mm, then cut a piece of 1.7mm sheet to around 111-mm in diameter, stuck them together and bashed the overhang until there wasnt one. I have to use my left hand now, as the right elbow complains. Sound easy, but its not, out of every 10 strikes, I think I miss about nine. 
Once formed, I mounted it in the four jaw, and turned the overhang down to 3mm, then smoothed out all the scratches and what not with sand paper, finishing off with the random orbital sander with 240 grit.
Next, I mounted the 15mm slab in the three jaw using the turned down area and drilled through with a 25mm bit, machined the outer diameter to 101.4mm, machined out the centre leaving a 2mm wide lip on the periphery, 3mm deep, then bored out the 25mm centre hole to 57.3mm to fit the 57.4 mm carb bell mouth. .10 mm proved a little tight, .07 would have been better I think.
I flipped the slab over and mounted it in the four jaw, then spent a couple of hours trying to centre the damn thing, then turned down the inner mounting ring so its 8mm wide and the flat body of the filter 2mm thick. Final step, turn down the inner mounting ring so its 9.8mm deep.
The cutting tool was then centred., spot on, and used to scribe a line across the back of the centre mounting ring. After removing from the chuck I found the centre point using a calliper, centre popped it, mounted it on the mill and drilled the centre pops with a 4mm bit, then mounted it on the pedestal drill, centred the holes and tapped the 4mm holes with a 5mm x .8 tap. The plate was then turned on its side, and drilled and tapped in the centre of the centre ring at 90degrees to the other two holes on the face.
The piece was mounted in the three jaw again and using 240 grit any cutting ridges were smoothed over, then both plates were polished.
The knurled securing nuts were turned up from a piece of 20mm stock, tapped 5mm and then knurled using the scissor knurler. These were mostly done by eye, so wont be absolutely identical. Youd need a calliper to pick up the difference though, so good are my four eyes.
The carb body was mounted in the three jaw and a file used to remove the ridge at the beginning of the bell mouth. The face of the bell mouth was pretty rough, so I took the time to smooth that with some emery. The turned piece was located over the bell mouth, the assembly was then stuck in the vice and pressed into place.
The lead into the bell mouth is flat, so not a perfect shape for induction. You can recess the filter lower on the bell mouth, creating a bit of a lip on the outer periphery of the bell mouth to improve induction, but realistically the improvement in induction wouldnt be worth the time.
Both filters fit well and the hoses from the fuel distributor block lead over the filters nice and neatly. Happy with the outcome, except the inner knurled nuts are a little difficult to get to, probably due more to the fact my fingers are fused, but I can turn them with a little bit of messing around, better still, use the wife, her fingers arent fused. Ive yet to get some perforated sheet metal to replace the stainless crap I used to keep the foam in place.

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asterix (Dec 26, 2022),

Jon (Dec 26, 2022),

nova_robotics (Dec 26, 2022),

sossol (Dec 26, 2022)

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