hmmmnz

ok where was i,
i degreased the frame and gave it a general tidy up.

put new shoes in both drums,



changed the fork oil and seals

got the bike back on its wheels again and fitted the engine



ran the cables,  and connected carbs up



connected all the electrics back up,
best bike ever for wiring,  see a wire, connect it to another wire of the same colour,  and repeat,  was so easy,  no stupid indicators,,   and a cool old school rectifier,

plus the coolest brake switch ive ever seen


then chuck the tank and seat on,



then connected the exhausts,



and kick starter and gear shift,

so thats where i stand,

ive got to get a few bits before i can attempt to kick the old girl over,


fuel hose,
fuel tap,
2 stroke oil,
engine oil,
battery acid and then charge the battery,



at some stage i will need to get.

new tyres,
new throttle cable,
throttle grips,
new tank pads (missing from original parts order)
kick start rubber,
gear change rubber,
foot peg rubber
 

right,

i managed to get the generator rebuilt,

im pretty fucked off though,  the parts i ordered for it,

new cam, points etc were all for the older model which had a big gear which spun at half the speed.

so the cam needed to have 2 lobes on it, where on my model they put in an idler gear and a small main ger to get it to do a single rotation for every rotation the engine did,

i ordered the right parts but the wrong parts turned up,  this was a year ago, so didnt notice till now,

och well,  cant do much about it now,

old cam back in ;(

so i got it in place and spent a supid amount of time getting it timed up,  mainly because i cant tell my left from my right, and was timing the wrong cylinder

then i went about rebuilding the carbs, setting the floats etc cleaning everything again,

and fitted them

so thats it for now,  engine is now fully rebuilt and ready to fit back in the frame,

but first ill degrease the frame from its 38 year old grease and muck,

change the fork oil and probably seals

change the front and rear shoes, and check all the bearings etc, and order a new chain for it as well,

the end is neigh

right ive gone as far as i can on the motor until the seals and bearings arrive for the generator,

ill also have to wait until the bits from the states turn up to finish the carbs.






was looking for a new set of tyres,  and couldnt find any to fit made by bridgestone   funny shit.

ok clutch off ,

idler bearings replaced,

and fitted all back together

next hiccup was i was missing a pin that the left hand side rotary valve needed to turn

old number 2 screwdriver to the rescue

the steel shaft on that screwdriver is bloody hard, ended up wrecking a new hacksaw blade cutting it

time for pistons and what not to be fitted

love the new old stock 60's era bearings,

barrel posts fitted

and barrels

i have to wait on 2 bearings and a seal turning up so i can finish the generator,

also went to fit the new points and condensers,  fucken points were the worng size,  but i managed to fit the new condensers,

and cleaned up the old points which turned out pretty good any way.

the generator is going to be the bit that holds me up,  along with random carb parts that are coming out of the states.

plenty of other shit to be doing i suppose,

after fitting the spring and split pins, refitted all the bits and bobs, you know cogs and all that manly shit

 then got the 2 halves of the crankcase together,

pretty painless,  

then went about popping the right side rotary valve and cover,

and what no in prep of the clutch going on,

made a very advanced clutch plate soaking device,

made fully from recycled materials,  im upto date and very green in my ways.

i give you mince tray clutch plate soaker

the name could do with some work, but you must admit its very effective.

och the joys of cork clutch plates.

put the clutch together, lined up the crank sprocket,

was quite pleased with myself until i noticed another gear....

bugger it,

wont go on unless i remove the clutch and what not,

of course i can't undo the clutch because it just spins, and i dare not use the 4mm clutch bolts to make a holder in case i brake something,

so, have to bring the rattle gun home from work tommow,

spastic.

 

and a few days she should be back together,  time permitting

ah ha,  well that didnt work out to plan,  almost a year since touching the bike.

to be fair, ive had 4 different bikes stolen,  done 2 top end rebuilds on my own bikes,  done a full rebuild to a tdm 850, and another to a ktm990 (dont ever buy one of them, bastards to work on )

fitted double glazing to the house, cut down a dozen trees on the property,

helped convert a bus to a motorhome, started a new job,  missioned about france and belgium in the campervan,

rebuilt my old 1970s swiss made revox amplifier,

plasterboarded all of the upstairs and painted, re-wired most of the house, 

yeah i know, excuses excuses

anyway house is looking ok, untill a building warrant comes through for the extension down stairs, so i have some time on my hands.

so i was back to bolting the 2 parts of the bottom end back together,  but thought id go over it all just in case i missed something a year ago, 

just as well as id missed a spring that activates the "highway gear" selector  (basically lets it go from 4th back into neural, or allows it to shift into 5th and stops it going into neutral)    pretty cool idea,

and also forgot 2 split pins on the selector forks, that keep the pins in place and keep it located on the selector drum,

of course like a retard, i didnt have a single split pin any where,  so that made short work of my evenings work on the bike,

hopefully work on this will pick up, and ill have it finished before,...  before sometime

my workmate here in the uk working on the trains with me has been an merc mechanic for the last 10 years,

hes actually looking at getting one at the moment,  and really likes them,  but has said the parts are stupid expensive,

especially brake and suspension related stuff,,

apart from that they seem to be pretty reliable

i had to shoot to new zealand for my grandads funeral
had his last ride in his faithful 55 morris
(had it since new)




when i got back my barrels were waiting,







even champhered the ports for me, which was nice


they are like brand new, pretty impressed, with the results... not so much with the service though.

also the new clutch metals and fibres had turned up,



along with new points and condensers.


and a cool little tool box cover lid which i was missing. they fall into the unobtainium category of rare metals,  but managed to find a brand new one in the correct colour


so thats where i stand now,
i pretty much have everything i need now to finish the engine,
just a couple of carb kits, and a couple of bearings for the generator to fit,

and a few days she should be back together,  time permitting

 

right been a while.
lots of waiting when parts have to come from the other side of the world,

any way first to arrive was my new shift drum and selector dogs.
i had to buy a whole set to get one dog.  but thats the way it goes

sitting nicely in their new home

next up was cleaning the gear box, removing and replacing all the bearings,
thankfully simply bearings in the uk had every thing i needed in stock,


most of the bits i need arrived from richards relics in the U.S,
the new intake to airbox rubbers and chrome joiner


the new pistons, rings, pins, small end bearings, and circlips




gasket set


and brake shoes


and a funky little key ring


also a new cam lobe for the points inside the alternator/generator

still waiting on http://www.poetonaptec.co.uk/ to return my barrels,
they were remarkably quick to take my money, but refuse to return an email,  i guess ill have to suck it and see


but the good news is i can atleast rebuild the bottom end back up.


 

arhh the joys of honda twins,

ive owned a couple of the early cb250's a k2 and a g5

the g5 ate cams, broke rockers, dropped valves, threw a rod,

the k2 blew 2nd gear, snapped the kick start shaft, holed a couple of pistons, and ate some rings,

cool bikes when running,  but was never sure how honda got such a good reputation,  i think it was on on the back of the c90

good luck.

most parts have been ordered, it pretty great expense out of the states
the mrs even noticed the drop in the bank account, which she doesnt normally notice.  bugger.  but she just got a new car so i didnt really get in trouble just a stern look

ive decided im going to have to rebuild the alternator, after finding out the price on a replacement item, (more than the price i paid for the bike) ive managed to get the cam that opens the points,  so i'll have to free the old ones off, and replace the bearings,

barrels were sent off to http://www.poetonaptec.co.uk/ to get ceramic plated.

here is the left hand barrel,  it had the rings stuck to the bore,
and required a stupid amount of effort to free them from the piston.

you can see the chrome chipping off at the top, and faintly see the mark just above the transfer?? port where the rings were stuck



next up is the right hand cylinder, which is actually in pretty good shape, and if the left had been like this i wouldnt have sent them off to get ceramic plated.



so thats the befores,  ill update on the afters

ordered all the seals and bearings tonight.
im having trouble finding a shifter fork to replace the broken one,
i was hoping for a second hand part, but looks like im going to have to "fork" out for n.o.s. .... bugger,


so my list of bits to get are

* clutch basket /  steels and fibre plates  (£60-100)
* pistons, rings, pins and clips, (2 sets)  (£200)
* barrels, replated or replaced  (£130 per barrel to replate) (£160 for new barrel)
* tank rubber knee pads (£75)
* intake rubbers (£110)
* gasket set (£90)
* brake lever (£15)
* brake shoes (£ unobtainable!! )
* gear change dog (£unknown )
* carb rebuild kit (£ unknown)
* alternator (£100)

so atleast £1k to spend

first up will be to get the engine internals. as they will hold up any sort of progress,  and i'd like to get the bottom end back together, whilst i still remember where shit goes

ok finally got a decent internet conncetion in the new house so i can upload some photos and what not

carbs was next

 40years of petrol turns into this....  yum

so those and the crankcases went along to my mate with a new ultra sonic cleaner..

most of the stuff is done being unltra sonicly cleaned,
i think im going to have to buy one, bloody awesome.

crank cases.





and carbs.



the floats need a bit of work, as they were floating    and couldnt be done properly.
not sure why my mate dint just weigh them down, but im not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

now its really time for the moths to hop out of my wallet,  and start ordering shit  

Well Suzuki are the cheapest I have discovered of Suzuki, Yamaha and Kawasaki. I'm getting new intake rubbers outta Japan for my GT185 and they $15 nz each. You did pick one of the rarest.

yep. no mew old stock available, thakfully richard from bridgestone motorcycles in the states got reproduction ones made a full set for both sides

crank case rubber and airbox/filter to crankcase is  $160 usd  so not bloody cheap.  but available non the less

right where was i.
so cases got split,




 crank got pulled,


and onto the gearbox,







the selector dogs had partially welded themselves to the selector shaft and i couldn't free it to pull the shaft free,
but with a combo of blow torch and almost a can of penetrating spray and a few dozen taps from a hammer i managed to get all the dogs moving.
so the shaft came out,

and with a bit of wet and dry and oil i cleaned up the shaft to a nice smoothish and more importantly re-useable condition.

i found this bit of metal in the bottom of the gearbox...

hmmm,


oh so it looks like i have to buy a dog, not to worry, first broken thing ive found,

gearbox bearing are a bit notchy so i'll replace them, and have decide to replace to 2 outer crank bearings as well,  just because.


cases are off to a mate to get sonic cleaned, and get rid of the 40 year old shite on them.

next up, carbs and alternator, then to spend a stupid amount of money on almost impossible to find parts




 

well all tell and no show for this post.
pics in the next post.....

anyway, split the crank cases,  and the news is pretty damn good.
all 3 crank bearings are in good nick with no play, the conrods and bottom end bearings are good,  all the gearbox and bearings are good.
only the selector forks and the selector barrel are stuck at the moment.

even the center seal is good, (was my secret dread, all good bearings but fucked seal, which would have meant spliting the crank.)

so thankfully that'll all save me around £500-600
ill still have to spend around 250quid a side on barrel re-plating, pistons, rings and top end bearings, plus another 100 on intake rubbers
plus another 100 on clutch parts. and atleast another 100 on gaskets seals and other random bits,   


get a vintage 2 stroke they said, cheap fun ... aha

yeah, pretty good idea, my vespa has a similar idea, but instead of using a disk it uses a notch cut out of the crank itself,

which obviously is a bit more of an issue to change,

you could possiby use a down draft carb and do a little sweeping curve to feed the port. 

obviously these days if you were going to make a 2 stroke you'd just fuel inject it.

right, update time.
basically moved house so now have a garage and a place to work on the bike,            
has been a bit of a mission getting settled in, but been worth it,

the garage




first off had to remove the carbs etc from the side of the engine,


all the wiring, hoses, foot rests seat tank etc, so i could unbolt the engine and pull it from the frame,


not a too hard of a job,

 the chain was stuck pretty solid to the front sprocket



next up was to pull the heads which was super easy,


next was barrels.


 not so easy. managed to pull the right hand one no bother, the rings and piston were in pretty good nick, and if it was cast iron bores i'd have been happy with the barrel as well,


the left hand cylinder wasn't going anywhere, so left it for a time until i could get to the nut on the crankshaft and try and brute force it out.

pull the clutch side case,  a combo of black sludge and water came out to reval the mess that is the clutch,
all new friction and steel plates are going to be needed


pulled the basket and all the associated cogs etc, a bit of rust on some, but easily save-able.  then into the rotary valve,



everything is nicely marked so you can't really cock up the timing if you pay a wee bit of attention

rinse and repeat on the oil pump side.

you probably noticed the alternator is out,  that fucker is also seized solid and will also need new bearings.

yep much the same



so that pretty much it. i did get the other piston out.  piston is pretty much done for, and rings are poked, but i sort of thought it was always going to be the case.

crank is feeling really good, so hopefully i dont have to spend $800 usd on a new crankshaft,  its probably going to cost me around that for all the bearings, pistons, rings, seals, gaskets, etc etc

tomorrow night hopefully split the cases....
may be
 

cool project, always liked the old dr/gn donk.

  but you are the worst at taking pics,  

100% their own design. chrome bores were well ahead of the time, and having a rotary valve was pretty much revolutionary for the time,

kawasaki stole that design for its a1r race bike.

bridgestone took on lilacs engineers (another jap bike company)  when it went under, but they produced 4 strokes,  mostly v twins guzzi style.

 7 years  ago i bought and rebuilt a mini buffalo

which turned out to have a bridgestone 60cc engine fitted (rotary valve 2 stroke single)

wtf  bridgestone as in the tyres guys??? yep.  duning the 60's and 70's they made and competed very sucessfully with motorbikes

read the history and demise of the bike division here

http://bridgestonemotorcycleparts.com/index.php?topic=149.0

anyway its taken me 8 years to find another bridgeston.

ive now moved to scotland and managed to find a mkII rs  that had been imported from the states along with a bunch of rd350's  the guy who bought it over had no interest in it so sold it to me,

it was produced in december 1968. (1 of 7800 built) mk11 rs200

dual rotary valve induction, twin cylinder 2 stroke,

pics















so the good bits are its pretty much complete,
its only done 2900 miles.  
paint is ok and has a cool patina
frame is in excellent condition

bad bits are, its been sitting for 40 odd years
its seized solid,
all the rubber bits are perished or missing front brake lever is busted,


my plan is to get it running, by doing as much of a rebuild that is necessary,
i wont be touching the paint,  as i dont want a show bike,
replace any missing bits, get it registered over here in scotland and ride it.


im guessing im going to need:
rings for both cylinders
top and bottom bearings,
new conrods, and new crank pins,
piston pins,
all new internal bearings
new chain and sprockets,
rubber carb boots (carb to airbox)
tanks rubber knee pads,
new tyres,
and probably a rebore/re-chome depending on barrel type

.
i'll post photos as things happen  (which may be a while, in the midst of moving house at the moment)
 

well, not much done to the old girl,

it went through another mot (wof) with out even a single advisory,

i cleaned up the bottom of the doors, patched a little hole on the wheel arch and changed out the rear shocks

1 of which looked to be the factory sachs shock and the other had been changed to a monroe,

the monroe was still servicable, but the sachs shock was as good as useless,

a mate went over to ireland for a week in it and it behaved like it should, and we are off up to the isle of skye in scotland for a wedding for a few days,

so should be good.

its a bit high, but if its an old school non regulator style bike, then its a non issue,

if its the honda c50 style wiring with a reg/rec then its a problem and you'll need a single phase regulator,

on both bikes they have a take off to power the lights and another that either goes straight to the cdi/points or via a reg/rec

ive had two, both got abused like you wouldnt beleive and wouldnt die,  did some awesome off road riding on one up the back of waitahanui (near taupo) with mates on dirt bikes,  went anywhere they did,  great bikes.

Well, where was I . . Oh yes - the clutch.

All the new parts (plus one old one) were laid out:





I then de-greased and washed the flywheel and housing as well as I could with Industrial cleaner and hot water (DOH, I should have set the camera 'white balance' to "Daylight" :blast).





I used 'Optimol TA' on the splines and spring contact points before assembly to make sure that everything moves smoothly.

Its just like a car clutch and the friction plate needs to be centred before the cover plate is tightened down. I used a spare Input Shaft with the pushrod pushed through to the diaphragm spring to align everything before the 6 set screws are tightened down evenly to a final torque of 17 lbs/ft.





The Input shaft is then withdrawn and the gearbox installed. I had removed the swing arm to make this easier.





With the gearbox installed (the splines lined-up OK, thankfully) The airbox goes on - this is not a nice job as the two upper bolts are a fiddle. I should have ground a 6mm Allen Key down a bit but decided to just take my time over it.





Notice anything missing . . .  Yup, I forgot to put the cross-over fuel pipe in so it all had to come apart . . Bummer :blast.


The clutch operating arm is then installed and set to the requisite 203mm clearance from the cable mounting lug (The BMW Club had long articles in their mag about this :augie ).





I thought I'd better put a new Air Filter in while I was at it .





The rear brake stoplight switch looked a bit past its best - but it works :thumb.





The swing Arm was installed, centred and torqued-down. A new Speedo Cable boot was fitted in place of the hard and cracked one and everything started coming together.

I remembered to fill the gearbox with oil and while I was at it checked and topped up the bevel drive and drive shaft. The engine oil was nice and clean so didn't need touching.





Then the rear carrier, tank, seat and silencer (:confused:) were fitted. This involved bad language and a lack of photographs but finally here we are . . . .

The Rat Bike Lives :bounce1  :clap.





















so thats it, got the bike back today,
ride home was interesting,  would only fire on one except at idle or with the choke on,  so i rode home on the choke   still managed 65mph with the new higher 5th gear just on choke

clutch is super easy, easier than any of my other bikes in fact,

to do jobs are,  unblock main jet,  replace all the cables,
balance the carbs,  do the valve clearances, tighten the rocker arm end play, replace the indicator relay with a led unit,   then start the rear  spoked wheel. and come up with a steel front mud guard