FH - shaking down 3

 Well, the mild spitting and reluctant starting returned with a vengeance today. After the tank pinhole repair, the washer around the speedo cable and some general bolt tightening I fueled up and took the bike for a short commute of about 4 miles.

It was certainly reluctant to start, and was also lumpy as hell but it got me there and restarted when it was time to come home.

The journey back got progressively worse, and by the time I turned into town I had only one cylinder.

That cut out as I turned into the yard.

The engine sounded flat and 'hard' on the way out, just like the W/NG when it's retarded. The blue exhaust pipe in the picture screams 'retarded' too - the bike went straight on the ramp when I got home.

With the plugs out, I engaged top gear to use the back wheel to turn the engine with the magneto end cover off - the points had virtually closed up. Setting that back to 0.012" had the engine bursting into life at the merest tickle of the kickstart!

I greased the point cam, but I must check the gap on both cylinders.

Shame about the blue exhaust. That won't polish out but at least the tank isn't leaking!

FH - shaking down 1

 Well, I've decided that since in the last nine miles of circuits around the house the Huntmaster hasn't exploded, I have today filled it up and racked up another 15 miles.

Amongst other places, we've been to the lovely 1901 Weybourne Station on the North Norfolk Railway. Here the FH poses next to the 1960 - built English Electric Class 37, ready to depart on the last up-train of the day.

It's going very well. In the first nine miles I had adjusted the brakes 3-4 times, and after changing one of the levers they are starting to feel OK. 

Some days ago, I had adjusted the tickover. Today, having put perhaps 11 miles on the engine I stopped at Weybourne to find that it was less easy to start; adjusting it on arrival at home, I leaned it out 1/2 turn or more - the plugs are showing tickover was rich. I may have gone too far, but before I adjusted it the engine was very easy to start cold.

The other thing that is obviously wrong is the gearing - you can feel it is too low. Inspection of the build pictures show there's a 22 tooth engine sprocket fitted - standard fitment for solo bikes is 24, so we will have to see if we can get one of those.

Lastly, we have a timing cover oil leak and a primary case oil leak. I know that the old chain oiler screw hole is open, and there may well be too much oil in the primary case but since that will have to come apart to fit the new sprocket, we won't worry too much. The timing case is another matter.

FH - running in

 Another sunny day dawns and after more faffing about trying to get the chainsaw to run adequately I went out for some more circuits on the FH. Before I started though, I wanted to check the oil level and top it up - it was virtually full though, so perhaps it had wet sumped since it last ran and emptied the sump back into the tank in the couple of miles I did yesterday.

I also remembered to remove a large magnet I had used to stick a cable clip under the rear mudguard:

The bike ran beautifully, starting easily. The clutch seems a little notchy but the brakes certainly work, though the front is very spongy. There's a lot of flexibility in the lever which we will have to sort out.

It sat here happily burbling away while I took this picture:

On return, I went round the bike with the spanners. After my third circuit, I had noticed the front had started to clonk on braking and I was surprised to find the brake torque arm nut had loosened off.

This brings us to running in. This is what the Ariel instruction book has to say about running in:

It also tells you to change the oil at 1500 miles and decarbonise at 2000 miles. Pitman tells you to change the oil at 200, 500 and 1000 miles.

I'll be checking bolts, chains, cables and brake adjustment very frequently, especially at the beginning, but what of the head gasket? Shall I retorque at some point? I think not, at least not as a matter of priority since it has an annealed solid copper gasket.

The other thing that will be worth checking is the magnetic sump plug, to see if that picks up any nasty debris!

W/NG - Oil pressure

One of the more hair-raising aspects of rebuilding an engine is making sure the lubrication system is working before you go out on it. You fire it up, and then hold your heart in your mouth waiting for the spurts of returning oil coming into the tank to tell you that all is well.

When I built the SQ4, I ran the engine up on a big power drill, as I wrote in this post. I should maybe have done that this time, but I have sealed up the primary case now and anyway the drill might undo the shock absorber nuts - you cannot get to the timing side of the crankshaft on a single, with the oil pump in place.

You are reduced to some right leg exercise on the kick starter. Waiting for oil to come back in the return will take a long time, but you can see it much sooner either here, at the blanked oil pressure gauge take off:

or here, at the rocker oil line connection to the timing chest. Slackening either fastener should see oil dripping out if all is well with the pressure side of the pump. 

Of course, oil at these two points does not mean it is getting to the big end - you will have to wait for it to drip out of the sump plate (if that is still off) or return to the tank.

You'll have to cope with living on adrenaline and biting your nails for a bit longer.

Trip to the Seaside

After an uneventful run up to Sheringham, North Norfolk.

This may not seem much, as a 27 mile trip, but its the first time that I have been out riding on a route that was not circular around my home - the idea being that as you shake the bike down the radius gets larger. The first trip I do on a rebuilt machine goes out of the gate and I turn left and keep turning left until I get back, 10 minutes later. I increase the radius of the circular route as I get more confident with the machine.

As you all know, I have been having overheating problems leading to low oil pressure; as many people have said, Mk1 engines run very hot when newly built - at the end of this trip, the SQ4 had clocked up 117 miles since rebuild. 

So, following your advice, I am breaking it in slowly and keeping an eye on the oil pressure. I'll run it around each day and build up some miles.

Little steps

Well, its been 2 months since my last post, and you might be forgiven for thinking that nothing much was going on.

Soon after getting the bike started as I showed you in a previous post, the registration came through and I was able to order the number plates. 

There were a few little jobs left to do after start up, which got easier every time I tried it. I'd noticed when building the engine up that one of the rocker cover studs was damaged, not allowing the cover to be tightened down. I replaced them all with new studs from Drags. 

I made a spacer for the primary case to frame bolt, and filled the primary chain case up to the drain hole. This appeared to be necessary to get the oil level sufficiently high to lubricate the chain, but AOMCC wisdom suggests I may regret that later.

When I'm out for the first time on a newly rebuilt bike, I plan a route, around the house or workshop, not more than pushing distance away. That way, I can ride round and round and never be too far to push the bike home. When I've gained some confidence, I increase the radius – the idea being that I shake out the larger issues near home, and then if something happens when I am farther away I still only have the radius of the circular route to cover to safety.

Braving the mid-morning traffic on the first outing, the fuel line airlock returned just as I was passing a crowded pub... All the faces turned to listen to the old bike thundering down a shallow hill just as it spluttered to a halt before attempting the other side.

I pushed it down a side road and home, to arrive, in time honoured fashion, drenched in sweat...

Riding impressions? Initially I found the steering wandering, which was easily cured by backing off the steering damper. Its incredibly smooth – with a surge of torque as you open up. I didn't get out of second gear on the first few trips. Its easy to start, and every time I do it, I notice the engine's stiffness easing up. 

The fuel system is still plagued by air locks. Its not help by me filling the tank with barely a gallon – the tap is very high in the tank, especially since the tank mounting rubbers are not correct resulting in the rear of the tank being rather high.

The mixture needed setting up, as did the tickover, which resulted in me finding out that adjusting the carburetter with the engine running is a risky operation if you don't want to burn your hands. I made some special screwdrivers to get at oddly positioned screws.

The brakes are being adjusted on every trip, and they are still bedding in.

It seems to be charging happily - in fact the electricals are all ok.