27 September
George arrives on lightning tour, a spot of lunch an a beer at number 22, then the Nick Lowe show in Sunderland, weather a carbon copy of the hellacious conditions at the Stadium of Light, at least this show was indoors.
Nick delivers the goods.
George collects the goods
A garage find to smuggle back into the States.
Outside the Guzzilab.
Everybody happy!
August 6th
Seems to be less of a g/box smell since I re-routed the g/box breather a month ago. Removed the starter motor to find a big kink in the pipe and a resulting split - cut it down and refitted to make sure minimal interference with starter motor body and extended the tube out to past the pillion seat by the rear mudguard.
Cleaned and polished bevel box, looks more like it now.
Checked bevel level on main stand added 30cc EP90 to start to see flow from the level hole.
Gearbox oil level - non required.
Engine oil - 300cc added to get to half way mark on dip stick (screwed in)
June 25th 2024
Collected the T3 from Turbopacs at Team Valley.
https://dragonmotorbikes.co.uk/
Left it with them last week. They offer a range of car and bike services, and use a dyno for measuring bike output. Thought it might be useful to have the bike put on the dyno to see where it was at versus specifications. However they also offered to fettle the carbs apparently their specialist is a bit old school and likes to put a good old un to rights. Spoke to him (Ian) he seemed to know his stuff and is currently rebuilding his Ducati 900SS (owned from new in 1980) so we share some common legacy I guess. First impression was it's definitely too rich.
Anyhow he's changed the pilot, main jet and and atomiser to the settings below. And also adjusted float height and an inlet valve clearance. Balanced carbs.
June 6 2024
Spent a bit of time checking the fork internals are right for the bike
Ages ago (1985?) replaced the Bitubo factory fitted dampers for FAC items which can apparently be serviced. At the same time I changed the single spring for the double spring dual rate option as fitted to the Spada.
These have the top fork bolt built in, unlike the originals which serve to locate the damper via an allen bolt through a separate large nut which screws into the chrome 35mm slider to create the top fixing for the fork internals.
Did some measurements and compared with Spada diagram (see picture) and apart from needing to preload the dual springs by about 10mm to locate the retaining circlip at the end of the fork, everything is as should be.
Over the years I've tried various methods of replacing the fork oil.
Draining is easy, just use a jack to raise the front wheel (wood boards under main stand), take out the wheel spindle, undo the bottom retaining bolts, and the old oil will ooze out.
Removing the whole wheel and mudguard and brake calipers is worth doing for ease of access. Adds about ten minutes to the job but might save fifteen. If you've done this tapping the fork leg (sleeve - #34 in exploded diagram below) down will make it run out real quick.
Refilling.
Undo the top fork bolt until it is possible to free the damper upwards (it may be necessary to tap the fork leg down as it tends to stick in place, so having the wheel calipers and mudguard off helps if this happens).
Put the bottom bolt back in and push it home. Find a way of holding it up there (a friend? a rubber wedge?). Pour in 60-80mm ATF into the gap between the top of the slider and the damper body as quickly as you can but giving it time to flow in).
Then immediately screw the top nut back into the slider and then, keeping a hand on the allen key at the bottom, push the fork leg up and tighten the bottom bolt. Tight. You may get a bit of leakage but not much can get out if you do all this quickly.
If you take the whole fork leg out all of this can be accomplished more easily, providing you find away of really getting the bottom bolt tight once the new oil is in.. With the fork out it is quite easy to clamp it upside down and find a suitable funnel and tube to do the refill from the bottom. (be sure to lift the leg a bit to create a space for the oil to flow in otherwise it will fill the screw hole and just come straight back out).
Note that the current set up has very tight rubber bushes at the top and bottom of the headlamp mounting bracket, which make pulling out the fork assembly very awkward. It helps a lot to undo the headlamp mounting bolts which allow these to be twisted a bit and frees the stiction so the forks can be pulled out with a strong downward pull and twisting action.
EXPLODED DIAGRAM
| 1 | 17 49 02 01 | 1 | Front fork |
| 2 | 14 50 45 02 | 2 | Upper cap |
| 3 | 90 70 62 38 | 2 | Gasket |
| 4 | 17 51 66 00 | 1 | Bush |
| 5 | 17 51 77 00 | 1 | Mark |
| 6 | 98 62 04 35 | 4 | Screw |
| 7 | 95 00 42 08 | 4 | Washer |
| 8 | 17 50 37 50 | 1 | Plate |
| 9 | 17 50 02 00 | 2 | Cap |
| 10 | 17 49 31 00 | 1 | Fork head |
| 11 | 98 62 25 35 | 5 | Screw |
| 12 | 95 10 08 37 | 1 | Washer |
| 13 | 10 51 34.01 | 1 | Nut |
| 14 | 14 49 46 00 | 1 | Cup |
| 15 | 92 24 92 25 | 2 | Taper roller bearing |
| 16 | 14 51 67 00 | 1 | Shim |
| 17 | 14 51 70 00 | 1 | Bearing ring |
| 18 | 17 49 40 00 | 1 | Fork yoke comp. |
| 19 | 17 49 27 00 | 4 | Rubber ring |
| 20 | 17 49 61 00 | 1 | R.H. stay tube |
| 21 | 17 49 62 00 | 1 | L.H. stay tube |
| 22 | 14 52 64 07 | 2 | Shock absorbeer |
| 23 | 92 63 01 06 | 2 | Self locking nut |
| 24 | 14 52 65 05 | 2 | Rubber ring |
| 25 | 90 27 10 14 | 2 | Snap ring |
| 26 | 14 52 76 00 | 2 | Cap |
| 27 | 14 52 78 00 | 2 | Tube |
| 28 | 14 52 79 00 | 2 | Tube end |
| 29 | 14 52 66 00 | 2 | Spring |
| 30 | 14 52 54 01 | 2 | Arm |
| 31 | 98 62 25 35 | 2 | Screw |
| 32 | 10 52 89 00 | 2 | Gasket |
| 33 | 98 62 24 22 | 2 | Screw |
| 34 | 17 52 25 20 | 1 | R.H. sleeve |
| 35 | 17 52 26 20 | 1 | L.H. sleeve |
| 36 | 98 62 05 40 | 2 | Screw |
| 37 | 92 60 22 10 | 2 | Nut |
| 38 | 98 62 03 12 | 2 | Oil drain screw |
| 39 | 95 10 01 16 | 2 | Washer |
| 40 | 90 40 35 47 | 4 | Seal ring |
| 41 | 14 52 45 00 | 2 | Dust guard |
| 42 | 17 55 02 00 | 2 | Rear suspension |
| 43 | 12 55 23 00 | 2 | Spring |
| 44 | 17 55 03 00 | 2 | Center head |
| 45 | 17 55 23 00 | 8 | Rubber bush |
| 46 | 95 00 42 15 | 4 | Inside washer |
| 47 | 95 10 03 37 | 2 | Outside washer |
| 48 | 92 60 22 10 | 2 | Nut |
| 49 | 95 10 02 55 | 2 | Outside washer |
| 50 | 98 05 44 16 | 2 | Screw |
31 May 2024
Just in case I think about a new seat cover or maybe a repair to the one I have
07534803542
Unit 4E Harmire Enterprise Park Marwood Barnard Castle DL128XT
Upholstery Motor Cycles Car trimming furniture Barnard Castle England (acornupholstery.com)
25th May 2024
First trip out, about 12 miles around the locale. Once warm revved pretty hard (to 5500rpm) in third and fourth along the Barton straight, everything a bit blurry up there. Motor felt strong with a loud intake roar. A bit tappetty otherwise when pottering along. A couple of little chuffs on shut off.
The work over the winter on fork maintenance and alignment doesn't seem to have improved stiction. Although some ATF has leaked onto the garage mat from the bottom fork bolt. Will have to sort that next job. Rockers are oil tight now it seems after tappet adjustment last autumn.
Next major task, Dynometer at Dragon in Durham.
February 2024
Time to take the front end down and replace the split gaiter. Not surprised it failed as they were something of a stretch fit.
Some problems getting the stanchions free of the yokes. Assumed it was down to the interface with the alloy yolks, plenty of advice from the good folks in the Tonti FB group.
Turns out that taking the centre nut off the steering column and lifting the top yoke freed it all up. When this is tightened down it actually compresses the rubber grommets on two fork shrouds which carry the headlamp. Creating a vice like grip on the stanchions. Once it was lifted a few millimetres the stanchions pulled out freely.
Earlier on releasing the pinch bolt on the RH slider it sprung outwards about 4mm, implying something up with alignment. The bike has suffered excessive stiction in the front suspension forever and I've never cured it.
So took some time to check alignment. Removing the dampers and draining the oil freed up the sliders allowing a check on fork seperation across full travel. 160mm all the way as per specification, no sign of any deformation in either stanchion.
Reassembled with new gaiters, once again had to undo steering head cap nut (the one with the eagle logo) - has to be slackened to decompress the rubber inserts and allow the stanchions to push through.
Checked steering head bearing play before tightening up. None felt.
.HEIC)
Releasing the pinch bolt springs the fork away from the spacer.
Reassemby detail;
Reassembled the forks with new ATF and gaiters and put in the yokes. Positioned the front wheel minus calipers and mudguard, lowered the jack down to line up the spindle and pushed it easily through by hand and loaded the RH spacer in the gap. Gentle tapping with a rubber mallet seated the LH end of the spindle against the bearing. At this point the spacer looked right, just able to rotate it by hand. So then I tightened up the LH pinch and did the fork pumping thing (took out sump jack and off the centre stand obvs) and pulled it back on the c/stand. The spacer rotated by hand with a very very slight bit of lateral play. A gentle tap on the LH spindle end resulted in zero play but still free to rotate. Tightened spindle nut up - this locked in the spacer and no rotation possible. So tightened up pinch bolts bottom up. Measured disk to slider gap, same both sides about 3mm. So now just need finally tighten spindle nut, fit calipers mudguard headlamp and instruments and ride it! I think the stiction is what it is, and maybe because of the double seals in the sliders. Quite why the RH fork seemed to spring away when I undid it I don't know. It all seems in spec to me!
