Back on the road

[Butch (cb)]

Well, I posted a few questions when I first signed on, but things went a whole lot worse from there. I think the issues I had at the time were:

- Lost charging
- Clutch slipping (6 spring)
- Copious oil leak(s)

But I then had the bike seize at the end of my road, which then required a short push home. Originally I thought it was transmission, but further investigation suggested engine. This after just short of 347 miles since a comprehensive engine overhaul that I'd had done. After a couple of calls I decided to drop the whole bike off with Roger at Cake Street this time.

In fairly short order he's established the seize was on the timing side main bush. Along with a further set of issues:

- No end float shims on the crank
- Oil pump body worn
- Crank case breather poorly aligned (from the factory)
- Wrong idler bush
- Mismatched head bolts
- Twisted con rods
- Tight little ends
- Marked bores
- Magneto mistimed between cylinders
- Dynamo needed remagnetising
- Clutch had a poor fitting pattern part fitted

And all this from a guy I thought was doing a pretty good job; he certainly talked the talk. Meanwhile, visiting and talking to Roger he seems to know his stuff and a quick worker too. He has a very impressive workshop there I thought.

Parted with another significant wedge and picked the bike up yesterday, gingerly starting the running in process all over again. 60 miles in the salt and slush. So far so good, don't suppose I'll be running many more miles before the Spring now.

[brackenfel]

Sorry to hear you've had problems on this scale..

If it's any consolation although I've not used them I've heard lots of good things about Cake Street.. We won't enquire too deeply about the other "expert"...
Give it a good hose down & get rid of every last bit of salt - I did the old Velo no good at all last year by leaving it a week or so. The idea that old Brit bikes chuck oil everywhere and protect everything is a myth...

Hope that from now on you'll enjoy riding it..

Cheers,
Adrian

[muskrat]

G'day Adrian,
                      great to hear your back on the road. The past problems will fade with a few more pleasurable miles under your wheels.
Cheers

[Goldy]

Hi make sure that you hose off all the salt because a couple of weeks in the garage in winter can cause a real mess and I speak from experience. Keep a close eye on the paintwork during the winter noiw that it,s had salt on it.  All the best Goldy

[Butch (cb)]

Yeah - thanks folks.

Managed to get the hose to dispense in the half light when I got home Sunday afternoon. Just what you need after a long cold ride. A very thorough hosing and scrubbing then ensued. Garaged and dried over night I was then all over the metal surfaces with a rag and WD40 yesterday.

I run my old V50 as a Winter hack, and just a few days under salt brings the alloy parts up nice and furry.

[Butch (cb)]

I've not really had the luck with this one. I bought it in early '79 having cut my teeth on a 1970 Suzuki B100P and passing my test on a 1967 CD175. I lifted the head not long after buying it and couldn't get it to seal for any length of time after that. The clutch was slipping too. Come the Summer my pal on a Saint and I headed down to Lands End with our girls for a week (from mid Essex). The bike played up the whole time and eventually expired the other side of Plymouth on the way home. We stuck the girls on the train at Exeter and then towed all the way back overnight. I stripped the engine but there wasn't a component that wasn't totally shot. I was out of money and out of luck.

So it did the rounds all in bits as I moved here and there. Eventually armed with a bit of cash I figured I'd never get around to it myself so farmed it out to a guy Bedford way to work on it in £500 chunks. This went on for some years before I picked it up as a rolling chassis with a reinvigorated engine and transmission. A couple of years then went by before I got around to sorting wiring, ancillaries and hanging the rest of the cycle parts on it. Finally back on the road last year. After around a hundred miles or so I had oil leaking from pretty much all over the place.

Back off the road last winter. I sorted out the cosmetics with new chrome, paint, rebuilt wheels etc. Pulled all of the plumbing apart and re affixed. Back on the road this year still running in of course. All came to a halt at just shy of 350 miles on the clock. The bike has now cost so much I daren't add it all up. I certainly can't afford to ever sell it. It's the bike I've owned longest, cost the most, and done the least miles. It had better shape up next summer, I thought it was being built up to ride. I had expectations of heading off abroad on it, if I can ever get it shaken down.

We'll see.

[brackenfel]

Hi CB,
Don't add the money up, the potential effect on the heart isn't worth it...

Some bikes just run and run with no trouble (my Velocette for example), others throw every trick in the book to say in the garage.. My Laverda did this, I got there in the end..
The A10 I bought "on the road"  but with an iffy gearchange.. PO reckoned the layshaft bushes needed attention - he was right.. I did about 50 miles on it and it came apart. Now it's a year & many new bits 'n pieces later.. Still isn't back together (recent weather isn't helping - my garage is so cold you're likely to have your skin freeze to the metal!) , maybe this coming Spring....

Just the way it goes sometimes... You'll get there....

Cheers,
Adrian