On with the engine...

Winter draws on... and I have no lights outside, so I am only able to work on the engine until dusk. It is in the summer house with the rest of the bike until it is small enough pieces to bring inside. This is something of a pain but my view is that the enforced pace allows me time to think!

I can't wait until the new workshop is up & running!

Here it is - it's a 20' x 9' garage I have bought in the middle of Sheringham, and it has a 9' square area upstairs as well. It has a solid concrete floor, is built from breeze block and has a tiled & felted roof.

There is no power or light yet but at least it is dry.

I plan to get rid of the up & over door to make it a bit more bike-friendly, and then get UK Power Networks to provide a 100A power supply.

Anyway, this evening I have been preparing to lift the head.

I've been using the tool kit spanners I have collected, for the sake of familiarity, to back off the fasteners around the head. I've slackened off the 3/16" BSW rocker adjusters and the 1/4" BSW rocker spindles so that we don't have any accidents on the bench later, which all came apart quite easily (though they were all pretty tight, apart from one of the rocker spindles (offside rear)).

I then moved on to the head studs, and now I understand where they all are if I don't know how to get them undone! The twelve nuts under the third barrel fin were easy to find, especially the one at the front offside where the fin is missing.

The four inside the rocker boxes look straightforward, though I guess they are 3/16" BSW and I don't have a suitable tube spanner for that - over to you Mr eBay.

I guess that I will be replacing these fasteners with more from Acme Stainless, or possibly plating them.

As for the last four, two at the front and two at the back... one I got to with a small 1/4" BSW ring spanner; but they are very inaccessible. Maybe a tube spanner from above, though not at the back where the inlet manifold covers them up, or mabe a slender Britool ring spanner my grandfather gave me many years ago. I've asked my ever helpful AOMCC colleagues for advice.

Anyhow, I have ordered a couple of suitable tube spanners, and I'm off to Leeds for work tomorrow. then I have a couple of important family events... Maybe some more activity this time next week?