Back with a 500 ....

[Laverdaroo]

Nice, nice, nice

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

Whilst I was picking up my frame from RPT Engineering Ltd at Alfreton I started chatting to a bloke who was having a Moto Guzzi wheel hub powder coated for his Mini Metro A series engined trike - he told me he gets his wheels rebuilt by an excellent Motorcycle Dealer in Shirebrook by a bloke who knows his stuff - his hub was reverse spoked whatever that means.

I think it is called Shirebrook Motorcycles as the bloke knew where it was on Station Road - do you know the place Simon?

.http://www.shirebrookmotorcycles.co.uk/

.

https://www.shirebrookmotorcycles.co.uk/wheel-respoking

[Oddjob]

Your cam cover end caps are almost done Simon, they were pretty bad with contamination and under the paint/lacquer was quite a bit of odd casting marks, like the surface has a rash. Took me a good while to get rid of it, spent about 4 hours on them now and they are almost ready to polish. I'll post a pic of them when they are done.

Swinging arm with needle rollers in will be better than the standard metal bushes, I've got a set in my swinging arm. However because of the way they are constructed the original grease nipples are useless as the cage blocks the exit point off. If your going to get the old swinging arm powder coated I'd advice putting a grease nipple in the centre of the pivot tube, just drill 4mm and tap 5mm and fit a small stainless grease nipple. Needs to be done before having it powder coated obviously, a small flat spot and a copper washer under the nipple will help seal it from leakage when pushing grease down it. 

[SPR]

Whilst I was picking up my frame from RPT Engineering Ltd at Alfreton I started chatting to a bloke who was having a Moto Guzzi wheel hub powder coated for his Mini Metro A series engined trike - he told me he gets his wheels rebuilt by an excellent Motorcycle Dealer in Shirebrook by a bloke who knows his stuff - his hub was reverse spoked whatever that means.

I think it is called Shirebrook Motorcycles as the bloke knew where it was on Station Road - do you know the place Simon?

.http://www.shirebrookmotorcycles.co.uk/

.

https://www.shirebrookmotorcycles.co.uk/wheel-respoking

I have used them to rebuild a wheel ages ago for a Harley - they were good and very reasonable cost

[SPR]

Your cam cover end caps are almost done Simon, they were pretty bad with contamination and under the paint/lacquer was quite a bit of odd casting marks, like the surface has a rash. Took me a good while to get rid of it, spent about 4 hours on them now and they are almost ready to polish. I'll post a pic of them when they are done.

Swinging arm with needle rollers in will be better than the standard metal bushes, I've got a set in my swinging arm. However because of the way they are constructed the original grease nipples are useless as the cage blocks the exit point off. If your going to get the old swinging arm powder coated I'd advice putting a grease nipple in the centre of the pivot tube, just drill 4mm and tap 5mm and fit a small stainless grease nipple. Needs to be done before having it powder coated obviously, a small flat spot and a copper washer under the nipple will help seal it from leakage when pushing grease down it.

Brilliant about the cam cover caps Ken

The swing arm had plenty of grease in it - I wonder how it had been greased - I'll take some better pictures of it .... it had different tube and different size big end cap things that go on the ends before fitting

Thanks

Simon

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

Interesting upgrade on your old swing arm - must give you some confidence in the quality of its last rebuild.

[SPR]

Interesting upgrade on your old swing arm - must give you some confidence in the quality of its last rebuild.

That was exactly what I thought

[Oddjob]

Your cam cover end caps are almost done Simon, they were pretty bad with contamination and under the paint/lacquer was quite a bit of odd casting marks, like the surface has a rash. Took me a good while to get rid of it, spent about 4 hours on them now and they are almost ready to polish. I'll post a pic of them when they are done.

Swinging arm with needle rollers in will be better than the standard metal bushes, I've got a set in my swinging arm. However because of the way they are constructed the original grease nipples are useless as the cage blocks the exit point off. If your going to get the old swinging arm powder coated I'd advice putting a grease nipple in the centre of the pivot tube, just drill 4mm and tap 5mm and fit a small stainless grease nipple. Needs to be done before having it powder coated obviously, a small flat spot and a copper washer under the nipple will help seal it from leakage when pushing grease down it.

Brilliant about the cam cover caps Ken

The swing arm had plenty of grease in it - I wonder how it had been greased - I'll take some better pictures of it .... it had different tube and different size big end cap things that go on the ends before fitting

Thanks

Simon

Probably greased as the bearings were fitted. The end caps are odd, it's like a washer inside a washer, same as my kit.

[Oddjob]

Camcover end caps are finally done Simon, came out reasonably well. I also did a surprise for you as I remembered you needed it.

Here's some pics,

Before. As you can see the condition wasn't great, no big dents or cracks but the surface is heavily contaminated with oil and grime. There were some surface scratches and small stone strikes that needed removing.



After, not perfect but acceptable I'd say. I've replaced the O-Rings with some brand new Viton ones I'd bought for my own caps, I bought 20 so I had some extras lying around.





And the surprise, didn't replace the O-ring on this as I haven't bought those yet.





Hope you like them, I'll bung them in the post tomorrow if I get the chance. Should still have your address somewhere.

[Sesman]

Wish mine looked like that😭

[SPR]

Wow - what can I say !!! they look fantastic and night and day from the original

And the dipstick as well !! you were right the old one did let the side down somewhat 

You Ken are a true gent but I'll pm you as your really need payment for all the time and effort you have gone to

Many Many thanks

Simon

[Johnny4428]

They look stunning Ken, great job as usual. I’m with you Sesman going to have to remove mine now and see if I can improve them a bit.

[Oddjob]

A word of warning about doing these covers. I've done a few pairs now and every single one exhibited the same odd feature. When you strip them of the lacquer and paint you'll find the bottom edge for some reason looks buckled, the metal is not smooth at all. Weird sorts of flow marks start to appear as well, like when the alloy was cooling it didn't set at the same rate everywhere.

The best advice I can give it to use those discs I told you to buy Phil, the ones from Amazon, start off with dark blue and go down to red afterwards to smooth out the metal, finish with a light blue.

Best thing I can say is don't give up, sometimes things are not going well and you think you'll never get them smooth but keep at it, be prepared to spend some hours on each one, the better the prep the better the result.

[Laverdaroo]

Had a go at mine today, no where as good as yours Ken but that goes without saying. They were in an awful state and gauged badly with some clonking scratches.

I bought some of those disks Ken mentioned; wish I’d boy got them when I did the 400 they’re ace and saves loads of time!

Couple of stages enclosed, reasonable happy but going to have a look in the light tomorrow, might give em another bash.

Rattled over them with those plastic discs as mentioned then got the bench grinder swapped round and jJust that grey soap on the stitched cloth followed by the white on the solid cotton one Ken. Not bad considering I’d rather pour molten lead into my nose than polish metal


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[Laverdaroo]

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