Another week over, where does the time go?
The exhaust system has been giving me a few problems. Basically it doesn't fit the engine. It should, as it came off a similar big inch Evo engine, but it doesn't. Mainly because the heads of this aftermarket engine seem to have deeper fins, which means the springs I use to hold the downpipes together wont fit.
Instead I had the short exhaust 'headers' welded onto the downpipes, no need for springs anymore. But still they wouldn't fit. These headers are 2 inch diameter instead of the OE 1 3/4 inch, which means I had to machine the collets a little, this leaves less room for the nuts which fasten the collets to the head. Don't remember it being such a problem on the old bike, but on this one there's not enough room around the exhaust studs to tighten the nuts holding it all together.
The solution is to use a special narrow type of nut, I've seen them before, but I didn't know what they are called (since found out they are called sleeve nuts). They are long hex nuts, with a thread at one end and a socket head at the other, so they can be tightened with an allen key. Closest I've found to what's needed are special head nuts from Triumph T140, they are 5/16 inch thread, but don't know if UNC or UNF, be perfect if they were UNF... later found out they are, so ordered them from Morgo the Triumph specialists.
The bars are 29 inches wide, about standard these days, but they looked like beech bars on the bike, so I chopped an inch off each end. I would've preferred to narrow them even more, but that can cause problems finding space for brake banjo bolts and clutch cables.
Fitted the air shifter ram and the oil filter mount this week, the latter needed machining to clear the frame tubes, pity as it was chromed, but needs must.
This is what the bike looks like today, going ok, except no front wheel or forks. The forks are still attached to another bike which is getting a new front end, so I'm just waiting for that to happen before I can get my hands on the forks I need. The rear wheel has had its hubs narrowed to align the front and rear sprockets. The front wheel is still a week or two away from being built.
I've done my bit by sorting out the rims which were cut out of an old Astralite wheel. They were originally anodised black, then sometime in the last couple of decades they were painted gold. Don't know what with, but its good stuff, I found it very difficult to remove.
After an hour of faffing about with the rims, I took them to a local machine shop who have a blasting cabinet. I asked how much to bead blast the two half rims ? The owner (Who I knew slightly), replied we're too busy this week, but the cabinets over there, you can do it yourself if you want. Couldn't refuse .. and an hour later the rims were looking much better. Cost me nothing except some promised biscuits next time I'm passing. I was surprised how fine the glass beads were they use, it felt closer to flour than sand I'd used before. But it worked ok and left a smooth finish ready to be polished.