133 replies to this topic

[dapleb]

Noice!

[laughin in a windstorm]

I was going to put the forks and wheel back in yesterday but remembered that when I took the brakes off the calipers were reluctant to let go of the discs, so I thought I'd better sort those out first, I expected to have to rebuild the calipers with new seals but after examining them I found they were really gummed up with filth,

I had removed the front braking system all intact so I pumped the brake lever to get each piston to move outward by clamping all but one piston at a time, I used some contact cleaner and got each exposed area of the pistons as clean as I could (no corrosion), afterwards all the pistons were able to be pushed fully back into the caliper by finger pressure, one took a bit more effort than the others so I will rebuild them sometime in the future, but for now they are ok,

I gave the caliper bodies a really good clean as well with some strong soapy water and dried them all off with a hairdryer,

doing the brakes took way longer than expected but it's another job done on the way to being done 

[laughin in a windstorm]

I took advantage of a dry and windless day to make the exhaust down pipes look better (I polish outside)

due to their design of joined together and narrow spacing between each pipe getting into all areas to polish was a challenge, after starting on the most visible areas it was soon obvious that in reality as far as looks go, these original pipes are past their best, they are 'peppered' with stone chips and to totally remove them would require so much metal removal that they would end up being almost half the thickness of the tubing,

knowing this I accepted to just make them look better, it still took a long time and I know that heat will discolour them again, but initially they'll make the overall look more pleasing when the bike is finished,

maybe in the future I'll be able to purchase some better pipes from a low mileage model, there are currently none available on ebay that are better than mine and the price is too much for my budget, after market ones are available but only as a 2 into 1 system and I want to keep the 2 into 2 set up

 

before and after

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[dapleb]

I thought the before picture was an after picture....thought that's not bad...then scrolled doon. Noice.

[laughin in a windstorm]

I thought the before picture was an after picture....thought that's not bad...then scrolled doon. Noice.

 

thanks, I know they will go brown again as they are only single walled tube, but hopefully will still look better, for a while anyway 

 

 

as I had the forks out already I thought I may as well give them an oil change, the oil seals are still good with no sign of leaks but I don't know when they last had fresh oil,

due to my wrist problem I really need the front end to be very soft to stop shock waves transferring into it and making the ride uncomfortable, they were super bouncy which is good for me but maybe not so good for higher speed handling, I could've bought some 5 weight oil but as I don't have spare money for such things (vet keeps stealing it) I just used what I already have which is half a litre of 5w and a litre of 15w, I mixed my half litre of 5w with half a litre of 15w which should give me something like a 10w, but from previous readings of fork oil weights and people mentioning their differing weights even when they are listed as the 'same' weight I will see how it feels when I eventually get to ride it again, it needed changing though as the stuff that came out looked like thin brown paint,

I also noticed that the top dust seal was quite corroded, luckily I had a new pair in my '''I've absolutely no idea where that part came from''' box that fitted, so I fitted them,

I cleaned up the forks and put them back onto the bike along with the front wheel and brakes, it took a bit of time working out how the routing of cables should go but I think I'm there now,

the downside was that once the forks were back in it was obvious that my previous attempt to allow the cable loom to be pushed back through the frame when the left fork touched it was not as good as I'd hoped, it does move back but it does not do so completely freely, the last inch of turn needs a bit of extra help, not a lot and this may not even be noticeable when riding and full turn isn't often used while riding anyway, I find that full turn is mostly used when moving in or out of parking spots etc.,

if it shows as a problem when the bike sits on its own two wheels again (today) I do have another idea of how the improve it, I'll probably experiment with it regardless 

[laughin in a windstorm]

I removed the front mounting bolt for the air box and then turned the steering fully to the left, the air box lifted slightly as the loom was pushed back into the frame, while in this position I checked the rubber inlets on the fuel injector bodies and they were good, so I put a small spacer under the front of the air box (8mm) and fitted the bolt back, now the steering moves much more freely, I wish every problem could be sorted in such an easy way,

the footrest hangers were a bit scruffy in places and I contemplated removing them to give them a full polish up, but remembering how condensation builds on my bike surfaces at times over winter I knew that they'd grow a full coating of white fur quite quickly, so I opted to just use autosol and a cloth to tidy them up to an even but dull shine, looking nice and ease of future cleaning is good for me now,

I used new exhaust gaskets and fitted the downpipes back on the bike, however now it is starting to look too nice to want to start the engine and risk ruining it all, best try and sort out those end cans soon !

 

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[laughin in a windstorm]

I've been working on my silencers which were a lot more involved than I imagined, they were both a bit tatty but the right hand one had damage from the crash which needed sorting out,

first of all I had no chance of fixing the damaged strap at the front of the silencer, I do have some on other silencers that I could use the straps from but the holes don't line up, that would mean the holes show through the gaps in the strap, so I need to think of something different,

I thought about just cutting some solid strips of stainless to make the strap but then thought about something different, if I change one then I have to change all 4 for looks,

in my 'store' I have a corrosion coated brass container or whatever, I don't remember where it came from but it will do the job, so I marked out and cut 4 equal rings,

once they were cut out I ran them over my deburring wheel to remove the corrosion, then put them aside as I work on the other bits,

next step was to totally disassemble both silencers, then I did some work on the damaged right hand one, the front link pipe area was damaged beyond straightening so I had a choice of cutting out the damage and welding in new metal or make a cover plate, I chose cover plate for simplicity as I doubt the actual damage will cause any difference to the bikes modest power output,

I also noticed that some cracking had occurred where I previously welded the link pipe to the silencer, so I made a cover plate and welded it in place and welded over the cracked area,

all welds were then ground down along with a bit of grinding on the crash damaged lettering to try and smooth that out, I'll never make it perfect as the scrapes are too deep,

after grinding the welds the areas were given a first stage polish,

it was always my intention to shorten these silencers so the next thing I did was to remove the 'FUEL' logo badges and mark a line around the silencer just short of the rivet hole for the logo, I mark an equal length line on the inner tubing and cut away the unwanted areas and smooth off the edges,

when both silencers were cut I could make a start on making the new brass 'straps', it was not as easy as I anticipated as I found the brass quite hard to bend evenly, stainless is quite predictable in the way it bends but brass seems to bend like cardboard, it resists at first and then just lets go at a certain point which creates kinks which are undesirable, so I had to bend it a little at a time until it was sufficiently bent that I could use tape to hold it in place on the outside of the silencer tubing, then I was able to mark where the holes need to be (round tube would be easier),

once I had drilled all the holes I used small bolts to attach it to the silencer tubing and make any adjustments that might be needed before messing up on the rivet process,

when I was happy with everything I wrapped fresh baffle material around the inner tubing, I used tape to hold it in place as it just wanted to fall straight back off again, then I slid the outer sleeve over it and into position, then the front ends could be riveted back together using the brass straps,

then the rear caps could be re-attached and also riveted back in place with the brass straps,

next step was to give both silencers an over all polishing, and when that was complete I taped up around the lettering and gave the TDM lettering a fresh 'brushed' finish,

now they are finished to my acceptable standard I wanted to fit them back on the bike, but the connecting clips on front of the link pipes broke  , now I have to make new ones

 

brass container of some sort, equal rings cut out and cleaned up

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making good the link pipe area

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cutting down to size

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making brass straps, reassembly, basic polish up

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before, after finishing

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Edited by laughin in a windstorm, 08 November 2025 - 12:26 pm.

[leehenty]

Thats a nice job with the brass.

[laughin in a windstorm]

more and bigger pictures with explanations can be seen on my face book page, I had to start a 'part 2' album and for some reason uploading pictures to it now puts them in the wrong order 

 

https://www.facebook...99515635&type=3

Thats a nice job with the brass.

 

 

thank you, I thought I might try adding a bit of class to my crazy style 

[laughin in a windstorm]

I fitted the silencers back onto the bike and inserted the baffles, I can't be doing with straight through's anymore as they drown out the natural ringing in my ears,

time to start it up and have a listen,  wuhh............wuhh............wuhh.............wuhh, I think I drained the battery while sorting out the indicators, headlights and horns 

[leehenty]

A minor bump on the road of progress

[laughin in a windstorm]

I sorted my minor bump with a day on charge with my little optimate   , it started up and sounded great, although it was still constrained in my shed so it should be quieter once out in the free world,

there was a smell of burning and a bit of smoke but it soon passed, it was just the assembly grease and instant gasket I used to create seals and to hold the exhaust gaskets in place, I left it running and it got quite hot very quickly but it did drop the revs after a while so I know my 'fast idle' fix has worked, my downpipes have already gone a golden colour but then I knew they would, but it's alive again,

so now with little else to do I decided to give my paintwork a light rub down and polish up, I got the rubbing down done but it got too cold to do any polishing up again so that may happen today 

Edited by laughin in a windstorm, 12 November 2025 - 02:49 am.

[laughin in a windstorm]

so it's now a battle with the cold for me,

I have managed to finish my paintwork, I rubbed it all down with a 2000 grade wet abrasive paper, my spraying area is not the most ideal for perfection straight from the gun, so it needs a bit of help to remove slight imperfections that can stick to the wet clear coat, things like dust, small hairs and magpies etc., also I usually rub down the surface so no underlying colours or graphics can be felt, but with this one I had to put on six coats of the orange to get it to be one shade as it is a bit translucent, this makes it quite a thick layer and if I rub down enough to lose their raised edges there is a risk of removing all of the clear coat, so to be able to lose the raised edges I would have to spray more coats of the clear on and to be honest I can't be bothered  ,

all I am after is just a smooth feel and with the very slight raise to the stripes,

once it has been rubbed enough with the abrasive I can use a compound polish to start bringing up the shine again, it is quite a long process but very therapeutic in a mind numbing sort of way,

once that is done all that's left is a good wax to remove the final swirl marks

 

 

tank in process of rubbing down (if you look close you can see dark untouched by the abrasive areas beside the stripes)

rest of panels rubbed down

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tank and mudguard nearing end of bringing back the shine

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all parts finished, fender extender fitted and seat panels reassembled

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Edited by laughin in a windstorm, 17 November 2025 - 08:58 am.

[laughin in a windstorm]

still struggling with cold temperatures but I have made a start on my last item which is the handlebars, I just need some time where my joints are free to move and my mind to engage, but not necessarily together