Kickstart

Hiya The A4 running All the best Katy

Had my A4 running tonight. Runs very nicely at speed, even with half a dozen coaches behind (Dapol mk1 for the test run). Occasional click, mostly on curves. At low speed with no load it jerks. Not checked exactly, but seems to be about every ~3 turns of the wheels. With a load it wouldn’t pull away. Just juddering. I pushed it up to a reasonable speed and then it ran nicely. This was running on DC Looks very nice though! All the best Katy

There are inkjet printers that can print onto a patterned surface like the side of a coach or wagon. All the best Katy

Hattons list the weight of the A3 at 3390g and the A4 at 3400g - but that is with packaging. All the best Katy

Mine arrived today. Hopefully be able to put it on some suitable track tomorrow All the best Katy

That is what most people do. Plain plastikard is available in quite a lot of thicknesses (40 thou is effectively 1mm thick). All the best Katy

Hiya The Sprint was my first car. Yes it rusted. Had a 33 afterwards that was far better for rust (certainly no worse than a Ford of the same age). Lovely cars to drive, and would love a nice one. The Sprint is just waiting for me to get the last few bits off it before it goes. All the best Katy

No smoke escaped yet! All the best Katy

It did look good at Guildford All the best Katy

I have ordered an unnumbered garter blue A4. I have no legitimate excuse, but I always liked the A4. Unsure what I will number it as - I would have liked Mallard but only single chimney versions are left. Possibly Falcon. Hopefully it will be ok. Would have left it a bit longer, but they seem to be selling out quickly. All the best Katy

Bit more done on the fzr600. Indicators now work, working starter relay fitted, clock lights mostly work 😜, exhaust fitted, clutch cable fitted, radiator fan connected and coolant added. Problems still to deal with include the starter motor trigger (the relay works if the trigger wire is grounded, and the oil light check circuit works if the starter button is pressed, but the starter button is not triggering the starter relay) , brake light, and the fan being on full time when the ignition is on. But getting there. All the best Katy

No pictures today (for 2 reasons - progress looks backwards and it was too dark when I finished!), but a bit more done on the FZR. Had to take the top fairing back off and the mirrors off (I had painted the mirror stalks - not perfect but look better than they did). Connected a battery up to check the electrics. Problems were a bit odd, and the switchgear felt a bit off. So took the switchgear back off, stripped all the switches out and cleaned up all the contacts. Then blasted clean the switchgear casings and painted them satin black. Look a lot better and the indicators now work! Front side light not working turned out to be both a blown bulb and a wire snapped off when it is soldered to the bulb holder. Soldered that and it now has a working side light. Found the problem with the clocks lights not working (my fault in the rewiring - wire in the wrong position in the block connectors to the clocks) - easy fix but too dark to see properly to pop the terminal out and correct it. Still zero sign of life from the starter relay. Going to take the relay off and bench test it as I can't even manually trigger it. All the best Katy

Tiny bit done on the FZR600. The fuse box holder is rubber and they rot. They also don't appear to be available on their own. Used on other Yamahas I think. So I have designed and 3D printed a replacement. I have printed this in TPU. All the best Katy

Yes side stand switches can be a pain! But while it works I will fit it for now. Last year a friend had a go on my Cagiva Freccia. They were riding slowly so I pulled over. They said "there is something wrong, a grinding noise on bends". The side stand was down. They had only ever ridden bikes with a cutout when the side stand was down and the bike in gear, which the Cagiva just has a flashing warning light (that is well hidden behind the control cables). All the best Katy

This is the original front frame rails for my Bandit 1200. Owned by me from new and garaged pretty much its entire life. The frame had been powder coated, which ironically might have made this worse by making the tiny drain hole a bit more blocked. All the best Katy

Just a Honda XR125 . Possibly most surprising bit is that being a chain drive bike I would expect the swinging arm to be hollow for that area, and free to drain at the adjuster end. All the best Katy

I saw a picture just a couple of days ago of a Honda where the swinging arm had pretty much snapped. Corrosion on the lower side, and then fresh metal where it had cracked. Scary. All the best Katy

Very much so on bits turning up. The nut is cheap should I need to buy one , just miffed that I can't find it. I used to have a 600 Diversion. Think the swinging arm rotting wasn't that unusual on them. Mine was OK for the swinging arm but had the rear shock seize up - best we can make out one of the rings on the damper piston managed to escape and jam the piston. Other issue I had was a failing clutch thrust bearing - and it failed on the guy I sold it to also. Possibly because the Haynes said to lube it with oil which the Yamaha manual said to lube it with moly grease. The fuel pump was a vacuum operated pump - if the bike conked out before you had switched to reserve in time it could flatten the battery before it had pulled enough petrol through to start again. I had to chop the old shock out of my FZ750 for similar reasons. No clearance initially for an angle grinder so spent a lot of time with an air powered hack saw cutting away just under the top shock mount. Once that was cut, the swinging arm could come out and I had the space to use the angle grinder from underneath on the top shock mounting bolt. All the best Katy

Original ball bearings tend to have a lot larger lip to knock them out. The tapered roller bearing race is almost flush with the inside of the head stock. As an aside, Sealey sell some extra long pin punches which are useful for getting wheel bearings and steering head bearings out. Long enough that they drastically reduce the chances of belting your thumb with the hammer. Certainly saved me a lot of pain. All the best Katy

As to female bike riders, there was this event at the Triumph factory earlier this year:- https://www.visordown.com/news/general/triumph-play-host-largest-womens-biker-meet-moto-advisor All the best Katy

Thank you. This isn't so much a restoration, rather turning a old mess of a bike into something useable. Expensive bits have been the tyres and the fork rechroming. I am going to barely touch the bodywork The dedicated restorer would have kittens at me not replating the original bolts in the original plating! Rear shock is from a BT1100 Yamaha, which happens to have the same dimensions and just a very marginally stiffer spring - plus being a considerably newer bike far easier to find in a condition which doesn't look like it spent the last 30 years at the bottom of the sea. Even at this level, as you say very much not financially viable but I have a soft spot for the bike, and doing this is going to make it viable that the bike survives. Still can't find where I have put the swinging arm spindle nut. It will turn up. All the best Katy

Hiya I know a lot of female bike riders! Bit more done on the FZR600. Front brakes now fitted and bled through. Rear shock fitted (and had to replace one pair of bearings in the linkage, which had looked OK previously by weren't). Side stand fitted, so the bike can now be self supporting (the side stand switch isn't fitted - don't have an M5 tap to clean the mounting holes up so had to order one). All the best Katy

I have spent up for this month and now you remind me of that! 😝 I did get these very hot, but they snapped without much force. Wanted them out initially so I could quickly bleed it through and pump the pistons out (compressed air wasn't doing it, and the piston puller wouldn't move them). The bike had sat for more than a decade. The wedges are interesting. I don't have anything like that. what do you use them for? All the best Katy

2 bleed nipples sheared off on the rear caliper (despite loads of heat), and getting those out with a welder is probably easiest. All the best Katy

Yep, single ball bearings are a nightmare. I have tapered rollers in this one which are easier to put in but harder to get out. Getting bearings and the like out is something that is pushing me towards getting a mig welder! All the best Katy