Hi All From Lincolnshire!

[Reborn 400]

Like Dave's, my sump plug was leaking, mine had already been re-threaded once.
I managed to find a good used sump easily enough.

Don't know quite how bad it until I get it off and inspected, pretty sure it's not been rethreaded before. The sump plug bolt looks new (very shiny) but obviously been over tightened previously.

I'll decide whether to risk a heli coil or get it time serted after inspection.

The sump has been off before, (RTV around the flange edges) so who knows what horrors lurk within!

[Reborn 400]

Welcome along Johny to what some may refer to as the 400/4 forum 🙂.
Congratulations on being a reborn 400/4 rider. Was your original bike a yellow one and what colour is the current bike? Post some photos when you can (you need five posts before you can post photos).
Nurse Julie has a lot of parts for the 400/4 and Ken (Oddjob) also has some 400 specific parts (I don't know if he still has any of his HD cam chains left. He also makes the carb felts.
The best upgrade you can make is to buy some Parakeet Yellow paint and repaint the bike if it's not already a yellow one, apparently Parakeet Yellow is alleged to add another 10-15mph to the top speed of the bike but I can't possibly comment 🙂.
As for the stripped sump plug, yes, been there! I had an engineering shop put a timessert in mine (it's a big thread in a thin casting so very easy to mess up doing it yourself) with thread lock applied to the outside.
Happy spannering.

Thanks for the warm welcome Dave!

Was talking to  Julie earlier, just ordered a seal kit for the leaky oil pump.

I will post some photos soon, mine is Light Ruby Red, my previous 400/4 was the same colour too!

I like that Parakeet Yellow, it would be my second choice of colours. Had a friend back in the day who owned one that colour and I could never keep up with him, so your theory must be correct! 

[Oddjob]

The reason the yellow bikes go faster is most likely shame. They don't want to be seen on a 2 wheeled banana so they go faster to avoid being identified.

That's my theory anyway 

[Laverda Dave]

The reason the yellow bikes go faster is most likely shame. They don't want to be seen on a 2 wheeled banana so they go faster to avoid being identified.

That's my theory anyway 

Now then Ken😲. That's what we called my mate's 400/4 back in 1980, the same bike I waited over 40 years to get my hands on to restore. It's still called the Flying Banana and says so on the number plate. We used to out corner CB500/550’s on them back in the day😉😉😉.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

Yellow attracts flies, it's a well known phenomena.

I think the yellow 400s are faster as they don't want the flies to s**t on them.