FH - shaking down

 Well, the Huntmaster is back on the road and very lovely she is too. When I last rode her a couple of days ago I sensed that she wasn't starting quite as easily as normal and back in the workshop I had a look at the points - they were a little bit closed up and on adjusting them back to 12 thou, her usual immediate starting returned. I'd also weakened the idle a little bit and speeded up the tick over. 

Today she's back on form, going really well, starting very easily and on arrival at my destination showing no oil leaks other than a slight weep around the base gasket and the usual drip from the chain case.

Back at the workshop, I tightened up the base gasket and it occurred to me that maybe I could thicken up the felt pad in the oil tank to reduce the oil going to the chain case. 

Looking around the bike I noticed there was a slight weep from the oil feed to the inlet rocker box. 

It turned out that the acorn nut on the other side was very loose. 

What you have to do is slacken the banjo nut completely and then tighten the acorn nut such that the rocker shaft is tight against the inside of the rocker box and then when that's done tighten the banjo bolt.

I have some 3 mm felt sheet that I bought for the W/NG air filter - I'll see if I can roll up a bit of that into a cylinder of about 12 mm diameter and cram it into the Huntmaster oil tank chain case feed. Maybe I'll wait until I change the running-in oil (SAE30) to the normal oil (SAE40) - that might make a difference.

More later.

FH - coming together

 This is going to be a very short blog post and is just here to record that the top end of the Huntmaster is back together and currently waiting for the tank to go on, when it will be ready for the road again. 

As you can see I have cut the rocker box oil line and bent it out of the way of the bottom of the tank. It now sports a short length of flexible hose and some hose clips to allow the rocker box to be removed without interference from the oil line banjos. The rocker box has been on and off several times getting the gaskets right and developing the sequence of bolting up so the absence of the banjos has been useful.

Crimps

Time to make up some fuel lines. I've got 14" of 1/4" ethanol resistant fuel lines knocking around, and some suitable crimp ferrules.

To make a good crimp, you need a little tool which you can buy or, with a bit of 1/2" square barstock you can make your own. The tool is just two 2" lengths of 1/2" square bar, clamped together and drilled for a 1/2" hole, such that there is a semicircle in each bar. V shaped grooves have been filed at four positions around the outside of the hole, and two short 1/4" rods set into the two halves of the tool maintain alignment.

Cut the end of the fuel line square with a sharp blade. Slip the ferrule over the end and push the banjo, tee, or hose tail (with the union nut in place) into the hose, as far as it goes. The fuel line, normally 1/2" OD, will swell out to something like 17/32".

Place the two halves of the tool around the ferrule and squeeze in the vice. The ferrule compresses the tube back to about 15/32", thus retaining it on the hose tail. It produces a better crimp if you squeeze it half way, and then rotate the ferrule/hose assembly 90 degrees in the tool, then finish the crimp.

Compressing the ferrule to less than its original diameter generates some 'spare' material, which swages out into the V grooves we cut. Here is the fuel tap end:

Here is the carburettor banjo:

And here is the non-standard 1/4" fuel filter. Judging by the cr@p I get out of my Bantam tank we will need this: