I'd like to say I've made great progress with the running gear but I'm getting poor communication from the guy who's supposed to have shipped me the rear caliper so it's been agitating me more than a little. But more on that later.
I suppose this week's biggest success has to be the exhaust system. Having chopped off all the metalwork up to the actual silencer, I cut-and-shut a piece of 1 3/4" stainless pipe and joined the original pipe connector to one end and the silencer to the other. Stainless steel seems a bit more difficult to weld than mild steel so I spent quite a bit of time tidying up afterwards with the grinding wheel. Because I'm not great at welding, my chosen 'style' with thin metals is to 'chain-weld' which is to say, lots of very close tack welds. Unfortunately there were the odd pin-holes in between welds which I had to go back over a second time. Once I started to get my eye in, though, I tried a few continuous welds and whilst they aren't as pretty as those already on the can, they aren't too bad. At least they haven't burnt-through, which is the main thing! Following this there are a few which will inevitably need a bit more grinding down but as it stands the system's perfectly functional. In fact with some rags temporarily sealing the connection to the header pipe (a proper gasket to be ordered!) the engine sounds really nice, not unlike when I had the Remus silencer on it a while back - if possibly a bit more subdued.
What I found interesting was that even after leaving it running at a fast tick-over for 5 minutes, the can was still barely warm. This makes me wonder whether I do really need to put heat insulating material between it and the mudguard, which I shall probably make out of ally sheet, above which will be the sheet steel tail fairing sprayed silver. I'm seriously considering at a pair of square 2" tail lights mounted in the tail fairing, above the exhaust. The number plate will mount below the exhaust and be illuminated at night by a nifty little white LED assembly which I've already ordered for £9, possibly a bit on the expensive side as I could have knocked one together myself for three or four quid... I'm a mug for ebay!
I even managed to weld a couple of mounts on the exhaust riser pipe, to which I screwed an abbreviated section of the original RR leg-guard. It doesn't look too bad either. The box itself is suspended by a pair of M6 cap heads, from the rear cross member on the brackets which extend the sub frame backwards. I still need to get a bit more steel strip to weld in the front cross piece then it will be bomb-proof. Anyway, it should be good for MOT when the time comes...
I have to admit I thought it had all gone pear-shaped midway through the welding of the pipe, though. The MIG started playing up by not arcing properly, then it blew the mains fuse. When I replaced the fuse it wouldn't arc at all and a continuity test between the torch and the main box suggested an open circuit on the main conductor. Closer investigation revealed that indeed the main cable providing current to the torch, had fractured over time and had parted company from its anchor! Not possessing the special crimp rings which were originally holding said cable in place, I made-do and mended with a jubilee clip. Better keep a close eye on that.. but at least it got me up and running again!
As you can see in the picture above, there's a rear brake caliper tentatively mounted-up. That's the one I got from Tony in Wisbech (he of the red wheels) but unfortunately it was missing the slider pins that connect it to the mount. I managed to 'borrow' one pin from the original Tranny rear caliper but the other one isn't a size I can match from my bits'n'pieces bucket. I still don't know (assuming I ever get it...) if the 600R caliper is the same as this so I daren't weld the stay for the torque arm just yet. Let's see what this week brings. (If Leyland Tony is following this, don't get rid of your rear caliper yet...!). The caliper mount is 'floating' on the wheel spindle at the moment. That is to say, it needs a couple of spacers making up to centre it properly on the disk. I'm going to hold out for a piece of 1" steel rod this time - it took bloody ages to turn down the 2" diameter stuff and I was pelted with very hot shards of metal most of the time I was doing it, despite using coolant.
Still on the issue of brakes, the front end has had some attention from me today, mainly trying to decide how best to mate the calipers to the fork legs. I took some measurements, triangulated several times to get the angles right, then used Techsoft's 2D Design program to create a cardboard template of the required bracket.
Original bracket in correct orientation and with template of required bracket overlayed. The black dots are the proposed M8 mounting holes.
Reverse of bracket showing where lugs need to be welded on (where you can see card, essentially!) 'Crosshairs' mark where the M8 threads need to be . The other threaded holes will be redundant.
Unfortunately I think machining a whole new mount from scratch (and certainly casting one from my own mold) is beyond my capabilities so I'm pretty much committed to welding lugs onto the existing brackets, in the positions marked by my template.
(Did I say I would be welding the lugs on? I meant I'd probably ask my mate Theodore to TIG weld them for me as I've never welded ally before and I'm out of argon for my own little TIG!).
After that, a bit of milling to square it all up then drill and tap a couple of M8 threads to complete the job. Will it work? I hope so!
A couple of posts back, I published an edited picture of how I thought the project would progress. Well, I've ordered the red vinyl for the saddle (!) so that should brighten things up a bit! The wife won't be so impressed but hey - whose bike is this anyway?
I finally removed the rear sprocket that came with the wheel - as I mentioned in an earlier post, it's for the wrong pitch chain - and I set-to finding out where I can get something to fit. I keep asking myself if it wouldn't have been easier to just get a new engine sprocket and chain to match the existing rear but that would have cost a lot more dosh. In the end I sent a query to JT Sprockets, asking them where I can get hold of a JTR1332-47 which is the model I need for this application. Originally this item was a spares replacement for the CBR400 1986/7, according to their web site. Armed with that revelation, a subsequent search on t'web didn't initially help me much in terms of finding a suitable retailer, hence the mail to JTS.
[UPDATE 15:35hrs Monday - Jim Irwin from JTS sent me contact details for a company that can do me a JTR1332-46 for £26.10 delivered, so I just ordered one over the phone from a very helpful guy at B&C Express (www.bandcexpress.co.uk) based near Lincoln. Tel. 01522 791369. There's another contact for your book.]
Remember the seized speedo cable that came from Wisbech with the wheels? Well I finally got it freed up without any damage! Unfortunately it's exactly the same length as the Tranny's cable so there's absolutely no benefit in swapping them over. Funny how it looked so much shorter when coiled up... At least I have a spare now!
I've spent a lot of the weekend just looking at the bike and tinkering with ideas. I do a lot of just-looking and thinking... I thought it might be neat to put the luggage carrier and grab handles back on but to be honest when I offered them up, they just didn't look right so they are now consigned to the scrap bin. Just as well really as its ally frame is absolutely shot and it would take hours to clean the crud off before I could even consider repainting it.
Of course, a cruddy carrier isn't the only area of the bike needing attention; This is an eleven-year-old work-horse so the rust is showing in a lot of places, especially around the nearside passenger footrest and regrettably, on and around under the rear suspension unit. The problem with the latter, just as with my Pan European, is a poor design of the mudguard which allows water to splash-on and congregate-around critical parts! Needless to say I'll be trying to minimise further deterioration before putting this baby back on the road. Customising this ride should have far reaching benefits to the bike as a whole. Who knows, I may even treat it to an oil change ;o)
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