Mark's still cleaning his bike

As usual, click any image to zoom in.

Here are some video clips I took when Mark was unaware - just to get my own back for the times he left his dictaphone in sound-activated mode to see if I snore:

1. Popping round for a brew
2. Burning me off out of a roundabout
3. Riding over the toll bridge
4. Nearly home
5. Made it back

Replacing the distributor clamp

As usual, click any image to zoom in.

	These photos are actually from a while ago but I've only just found them on my pinhole camera obscura.
	Mike Kilvert (the seller of Mark's bike) came up with his Dad, Rich (that's what he told us, anyway) a few days after selling it to try to sort out why Mark's bike wouldn't start when cold.
	At the time we thought the clamp holding the distributor was moving so we bought a replacement and fitted it with their help.
	We haven't got a fancy stand to lift the bike into the air so we just rested it on Mike's knee and the foot peg!
One neat trick was using a screwdriver to pull the kickstart spring out of the way so that they could remove the inner cover.		We had trouble getting the inner cover back on though. Turned out that the shaft between the kickstart and the gear lever was coming under a hydraulic effect so we had to use a syringe to remove oil from the hole it sits in.

Autosol

As usual, click any image to zoom in.

You've got to love the stuff.

We used it in the past to keep the exhaust pipes on our Hornets in showroom condition - including underneath so everybody could admire the shine while the footpegs were shooting sparks.

Mark bought the bike from a self-confessed non-polisher (hi, Mike!) but spent an hour this afternoon on the clutch casing and carb cover.   Looking good already.

Another speedo restoration

As usual, click any image to zoom in.


We tried hooking up Mark's "new" speedo to his bike last weekend. Although the odometer worked, the needle moved not a jot.


This was somewhat disappointing given that in carrickbay's description on ebay it was claimed that the "needle moves when you spin with Allen key".


Mark was spitting sparks so I took the speedo home and dismantled it. Turns out the description was somewhat less than accurate as the needle mechanism was seized.

I eventually managed to free it up with some WD40 and today we tried it in the bike. It read 25mph when doing 30mph so it didn't take more than 3 or 4 turns of the brass adjusting screw to get it reading correctly again.

Maybe we should go into business - there's a fortune to be made judging by how much some people are charging for what we've done here more than once!

Oil change

As usual, click any image to zoom in.

We changed the oil in Mark's C15 today.

We ran the bike until it was warmed up then drained the oil tank and cleaned both the oil filters before filling back up with 20w50 mineral oil.

To stop an oil leak we've tried replacing the metal washers on the sump plate with some fibre washers.

Fingers crossed

As usual, click any image to zoom in.

Mark came over for a brew tonight. He said he warmed it up for 5 or 10 minutes while putting his kit on and it still cut out twice in the first quarter of a mile at tickover as he went to pull away. Looks like we might need to adjust the carb again. Perfectly fine the rest of the way here and then home though.


Once he got here and had downed a cuppa, we went out to fit the new rubber spark plug cap that I picked up for him today. It was at that point I noticed that the top 5mm or so of the spark plug had disappeared. Rather embarrassing given how I had laid it on thick that having a loop of copper wire from the spark lead wrapped thus was how we all did it in the 1860's and none of us ever had any trouble. Couldn't say much when he took the top of my spark plug and promised to bring a spare one round "some time"...

Cold ignition problem

As usual, click any image to zoom in.

Mark tried to start his bike this morning and it was having none of it.

When we originally bought it, it was hot starting that was the problem. Now we've changed the ignition coil and done the earths that seems to be fixed.





After checking battery levels (on and off load) and connections, we ended up replacing the ignition cable from the centre of the ignition coil to the spark plug cap. This seemed to help a little but not enough so we removed the ignition cap completely and looped the copper strand from the ignition cable directly under the top of the spark plug et voila.




Pazon recommend a 4.5k to 5.5k resistor in the ignition cap - or none at all. Mark's bike came with a 10k ignition cap which apart from being outside the manufacturer's tolerance could well have been breaking down.

Left it a few hours to go stone cold and Mark was able to ride 8 miles to my place, have a brew and ride it back without any issues at all. It now starts within three kicks every time so let's see what tomorrow brings!

Ignition sorted - hopefully!

As usual, click any image to zoom in.



Mark has had trouble again this week with starting his bike - in as much as it would not start at all.

If you were lucky enough to kickstart the bike within the first two kicks then great, otherwise the spark plug was wet and we had to dry it out on the kitchen hob before trying again.

There were several times when the exhaust would spit or even shoot a 3 foot long flame. Admittedly, that's a bit like me after a vindaloo but I am bobbing on a bit after all and my gaskets aren't what they were. Still, the point is his bike wouldn't start.

The bike has a Pazon 12V electronic ignition system - modified for single cylinder - and we noticed that the ignition coil was getting quite warm if not hot fairly quickly after a cosmic ray struck and we were able to start the bike. A miracle in itself after Luigi's trick of pulling the clutch in while I was kickstarting it the other night.

This morning we fitted a new ignition coil from Brian at BSA Lightning Spares and tidied up some of the wiring on the electronic ignition system so that leads were "cut to length". We also found a few poor earth connections and resoldered those. The frame has been repainted at some point and looks brilliant, but from an electronics point of view there was a non-existent earth for the coil and rectifier so we scraped away the paint under the bolts in those areas in the shot and also hard-wired an earth (orange cable) from the chassis to the positive terminal on the battery.

As per a previous post, the kitchen sink filter/air filter is now in situ and working well.

Fantastically jolly jape

Mark waited until I was just about to kickstart his bike before pulling the clutch lever in.

My knee rebounded faster than Jordan and I'm still limping three days later.

Air filter

As usual, click any image to zoom in.

Mark's C15 doesn't have a pancake air filter fitted so we needed to think about how to make one given that trying to find a second-hand one on ebay is more difficult than getting me to open my wallet. No, I'm not tight-fisted - I'm just trying to breed a new form of moth that has never seen daylight.





Anyway - I was reluctant to let Mark remove the stereo speaker grilles from my Morris Marina (orange with a black vinyl top - tasty) but we spotted some malleable kitchen sink filters in a local emporium.




After cutting two sheets to shape - using the air filter from my C15 as a template - and sandwiching part of my wife's black scarf, (I hope she doesn't start reading this blog...), I came up with this little beauty that we'll fit before the weekend.

Speedo not working

As usual, click any image to zoom in.

Mark's C15 speedo wasn't working and we noticed that the speedo gearbox was loose on the back wheel so we took the back wheel off today to check.

Mark was worried that with the gearbox loose it would be damaging the cut-outs on the rear wheel hub as happened on my bike - see this post for details. However, the back wheel looks brand new and the speedo gearbox appeared to be working fine - you could see the worm thread on the gearbox turning when you spun the back wheel.

So, we headed up the other end and into the headlamp to look at the speedo and that is when we noticed that the top 4 inches or so of the speedo cable had snapped off! By inserting this bit of cable (see the bit at the bottom of the photo, next to the speedo) into a cordless drill and then into the detached speedo we were able to verify that the speedo was working (although it might be necessary to calibrate it in the future - see the earlier post on calibration).

By measuring the length of cable protruding at the speedo end and by referring to the earlier post on speedo cables, we were able to determine that a new 4' 10.5" magnetic speedo cable was what we needed to order.

Tweaks to Mark's C15

We've been busy this week adding bits and bobs to Mark's C15. So far we have:

• replaced the cracked silencer 

• added a gear lever rubber

• replaced the kickstart rubber

• added petrol tank rubber

• replaced a sticky rear brake light switch

Mark's now got a 1959 C15!

As usual, click any image to zoom in.

Mike & Annie Kilvert came round this morning to drop Mark's bike off and came in for a couple of hours for a brew and a chat!



After they'd left to visit friends in the local area, Mark and I set off to BSA Lightning Spares to see Brian for a few new parts (silencer, gear lever rubber, kickstart rubber, handlebar rubbers) before setting off on an odyssey. Didn't get home 'til dark!






Mark seems to have got the hang of a kickstart after years on Japanese bikes - turns out a bit of throttle while kickstarting means your knee doesn't get rubbed raw like this...