The not a project bike part 2

So as expected the running on one cylinder turned out to be a coil, I double checked by swapping the wiring to the coil of the cylinder that was working and it still ran on that side.

First coil I ordered off evil bay was the wrong type, I needed a twin spade terminal one, so after trying to get the wrong one to work and making a horlics of it, blowing loads of fuses and getting really pissed off I worked out that I had the wrong coil.

That finally arrived and I fitted it along with a new plug cap just to be on the safe side.
 
I then used the bike for my daily commute, for 3 or 4 days of a week before I left it alone for the weekend. Result I thought, winter bike on the road I thought, pah how wrong could I be.

Went to use it first thing Monday morning and the battery would barely turn the engine over, had to wait until the weekend to check it out properly, I charged the battery and left it 24 hrs and then checked it again and it had dropped 1volt, so new battery it was.

Decided to go for it and bought a teeny tiny li ion one from a very nice seller on the bay. Finding it was a bit of a nightmare as most people are trying to sell you a replacement for what you already have in your standard bike, when what people like me (who are definitely not working on a project bike)  are looking for is the smallest battery available that will turn their engine over and work with their bike, this little beauty is 80x80x95 and is so light that I nearly throw it over my shoulder every time I pick it up.

New and old for comparison

 

This of course has necessitated some work to the battery box to make sure this little un sits nice and snug. I've hit my little mods to the box with some of my favourite one coat anti rust black spray paint since I took the pic below. Pics of everything re fitted again once the paint has dried, but that's likely to be after Christmas. 

 

Most exciting news tho, instead of investigating the clutch issue I have, instead of refurbing the forks, during the christmas break I have a day reserved in the workshop, and my mate Paul is coming over to give me a hand, and we will be chopping the back of the frame rails off and welding in a nice loop with a kick in it and then making up a new seat and fitting a new rear mudguard. Should get it all done in a day no probs, right??

I'm going to go for a bit of internal wiring out to the back end to try and keep things clean and tidy, but that might have to wait a bit as its not essential to keeping the bike on the road.

So remember that little suzuki twin that is most definitely not a project,  well I finally  got it on the road as a winter bike, only 12 months late. Bit of a hick up with the mot but it passed on the re test and is on the road. The tester must have had his Friday rush on as the was more play in the rear swing arm bearings than our local play ground. I rode it for a couple of weeks but there was some dodgy handling going on so I thought I better get it sorted.
What a job that turned into, swing arm removal was a piece of piss,

 but getting the bearings out was a complete nightmare, they must have been the originals, I ended up smashing the cage and needle rollers out before welding onto what was left so I had something that I  could get purchase on with the bar I was using to hammer them out. Repeated welding and the associated heat plus some considerable  hammering and generous doses of  plus gas finally had the remainder of the bearings release their grasp on the  swing arm.

I was quite rough with the swing arm during this whole process and had successfully  removed some good chunks of paint so sanded them back to bare metal and it was during this sanding  I came across what I thought  was a bit of crap paint on the brace plate, on further inspection it turned out to be what I can only describe as chewing gum that had been shoved into what turned out to be a rusty hole. I  dug all the gum  out of the hole and made it a more uniform shape  so I could make a repair piece that I could weld in. Before I made the repair I took the opportunity to remove all the rusty rattly crap that was stuck in there.














 New bit welded in and dressed back, prior to paint.

I got it all back together with a bit of new paint on it, and what happens when I attempt to take it out for the first time to see if it's made any difference,  the bugger will only run on one cylinder. The story continues. 

Couple of nice bikes at the local bike hot spot last sunday

  

This Honda cafe racer was my favourite thing up there that day, lots of works gone into it and its well turned out.

Breaking news, this old fucker is finally on the road, passed its MOT and is now taxed. Its a winter bike finally, only 12 months late.

 

This bad boy is mine, I've inherited it from the father in law, big ass welding bench, the top of it is 1/2" plate and it took 5 of us to lift it. The drills motor needs fixing I'm told so I need to find the time to get into it and get it looked at.

Lea Gate July Hot Rod meet

First Friday of the month is American car night at the Lea Gate pub just outside Preston. As the weather has been so good I was expecting a good turnout, and I wasn't disappointed. These are my favourites out of the bunch, with the all aluminium bodied Brooklands style racer being my absoulte favourite. I spoke to the guy who made it, its basically a Westfield with mods the the chassis to make it taller around the sides and then he "just" added the ali bodywork. All designed in his head and added to as he saw fit, every panel was made first go and before he started he'd never used an english wheel or tig welded ali in anger. It was his post retirement project, and took him 8 months working 8 hrs a day 5 days a week. It was proper awesome.

Finally - the wait is over

Well this is a picture I've been waiting a long time to post. My garage with a finished roof and two lockable doors.
My life for the last couple of weekends has pretty much revolved around getting the steel side door sorted out.
Its skinned with a 2mm steel plate and it took me and a mate to put it back on the hinges (cheers H)

Now comes the hard part, getting the electrics sorted and signed off, and getting my bloody builder to come and sort the mistakes and blemishes in the floor. Oh and trying to stop myself filling it before all this is done as I really need to get the floor painted.

And the door (and frame) that's taken me so long to make. It might have come together a bit quicker if I had better facilities to hand but hey ho that's what I'm heading towards. And considering this is my first proper welding project I'm pretty pleased with the results.

I still have to finish the lock properly but I can lock it from the inside and come out the big door which is fine for now.

Check everything

So remember that little Suzuki which is definitely not a project but has not really been on the road since I got it. Well after winning the fight with the air box and getting it on the road it was absolutely rubbish at low revs ie would barely even pull enough to get going especially when just started  and only marginally better when warm. Oh well I thought thats the price I pay for putting pod filters on need to get the jetting sorted and go one up on the pilot jet size. I looked at one of the pair to see what size was in it and checked the spare set too, all 42.5 right then I'll just go up a size and that should sort me out, however I should of checked the other carb too as when I came to fit my newly acquired pilot jets I found it to be 4 sizes too small WTF, whoever had been mucking about with these carbs was fecking retard, different size pilot jets and no blanking plugs. I dont think I could off actually test rode this bike even I I'd wanted to when I went to buy it.

I've also tried to re-build the front caliper but it's not gone well so far as I skewered the rubber boot for the piston with a screw driver and it wont bleed up. Still, I'll persevere.

I've started making the side door for my garage, 3mm thick, 40mm box section. Its my first proper welding project (I'm not counting the frame for the door that I made in 5mm angle). Its going OK even if I do say so myself,  just added some cross pieces half way up today to make a crosss shape in the rectangle.

Things are hopefully happening with the garage again, watch this space.

Big Changes, its all happening at once

So I have some big things and huge changes going on in my life at the minute.

This happened

This is happening but far to slowly and is taking forever to get completed(worlds biggest garage(well in my world anyway))

And finally I've not been able to work on this for months but this is a rough mock up as I left it without anything welded but its a rough outline of how it might look.