VH 500

[Jay.Watson]

Well after a bit of a delay and a couple of false starts I now have the head back from the welder. I did have a go at making some steel inserts from threaded bar but with my lack of skills and lack of kit it wasn't really on. I spoke to a welder who reckoned he could weld it okay but wouldn't be able to get more than about 8-10mm down the holes so I had a bit of a re-think. I bought some ally bar off eBay, chopped off eight half inch lengths and filed a slight taper to them, drilled the holes out to a size very slightly smaller than the bar, heated the head in the oven and cooled the bar in the freezer. I pressed the bits of bar into the head using a modified bolt as a guide/depth gauge so they were at a uniform 10mm below the surface. The welder then welded them in for me and plugged the holes to surface level. I've just come in from sitting in the sun refacing the mating surfaces with a body file - once I've drilled and tapped it I'll reface it properly...

Back from the welder's...


And thanks for the tips about drilling - I have taken note.

[Jay.Watson]

Albert lives!

He's back together, appears to be oil tight and runs. Had a couple of flames out of the exhaust but that may have been due to the A/R not being connected or due to a leaky exhaust to head joint... will have to check that out but had enough for today. Won't be able to play tomorrow as I offered to sort my mate's Camaro for him but hopefully have it sussed over the Bank Holiday, then it will just be a small order to Draganfly for some bits and bobs and he should be out and about again...

[barry.swanson]

...you are one rapid operater Jay!

[Jay.Watson]

...you are one rapid operater Jay!

I do wish you hadn't said that... I've ground to a halt since!

Just come in from the garage after having a bit more of a play. The flames out of the exhaust turned out to be a small dynamo fault that I think I've sorted, the bike now runs properly again and sounds really good. I was a little concerned as I thought it might be a valve timing problem but it looks now like it was the dynamo going out of time... My other task was trying to get the downpipe to fit, not impressed with it at all, bracket about half inch out, angles all wrong but have made it fit and it will have to do "for now". Not achieved anything more on Albert as my time has been split between helping a mate sort his car, ironing out a few running faults with the better half's Morini and stripping the Jag' engine from my hot rod - a very involved and increasingly expensive looking affair...

[Jay.Watson]

Well, so much for getting this on the road in a couple of weeks... always more work than anticipated. Pretty much every job I do turns into "weld up, drill out, retap threads". Spent a day just making the front mudguard fit properly - got rid of the homemade brackets that sat it up too high, and retapped the threads in the fork legs. Noticed there was some play in the front wheel so pulled the bearings out and repacked with grease, recut the threads for the bearing retainers but the play was still there. Turned out to be wear on the front spindle - seventeen quid spent at Draganfly for a new one and job sorted. Just basically going from front to back on it at the moment - everything seems to have been done up as tight as it would go but half the time the bolts are too long and have stripped the threads out, or they have only gone tight due to knackered threads, paint, rust etc. so lots of cutting bolts to fit and the like... and making good the threads! Bought some nice stainless bolts from eBay. Glad I didn't throw out my old imperial taps from years back.
The next job will be to remove the magneto as the threads where the dynamo attaches have been stripped (didn't you just know it?) and to fabricate some new means of bolting the two together.

On Sunday I popped 'round to an old mate that I've not seen for about a year. Fifteen years ago I rebuilt his Enfield into a sort of street scrambler for him, when I told him about Albert he gave me the bars that he removed before selling it... a quick blast of black paint and Albert has developed some attitude...

And just to give you a chuckle, after accidentally chipping a chunk of paint from one of the rear shocks and finding some decent chrome underneath, a whole evening was spent painstakingly removing all the claret and polishing up the chrome. I even turned up a tool from an old screwdriver to get into the "Armstrong" lettering stamped into the shock cover. Lots of detail work later and... not perfect, but not bad either and in keeping with the overall condition. The following morning I started on the other shock and under the claret paint it's black and from a different manufacturer... grrr....

Oh and I meant to say in the previous post a mag' fault not a "dynamo fault".

[Jay.Watson]

Difficult to believe I last posted on this thread so long ago... the big problem has been me trying to finish my old Austin hot rod - what should have been a simple engine change, with a bit of fettling here and a small improvement there, has become the best part of a year's work (I'm sure many of you know the feeling).
As the rod is nearing completion I started on Albert again and have immediately hit a snag. When I bought him he had a Square Four type combined ignition and light switch mounted in the headlight shell - no wiring to speak of tho'. I did ask on here if it the switch would be of any use to anyone as it had suffered some damage and I had bought a "U39" type switch (off, dip, main). Well, I went to fit the new one and it falls straight through the hole in the headlamp... I'm presuming that I need a new headlamp panel with a smaller cut out, or am I missing a spacer or similar? I nearly bought a panel but it was bid to about £35 and I wasn't even sure it was what was needed... Fitting the switch and making safe the wiring was to be the next job followed by checking the timing etc. as he used to start consistently well but is now reluctant to fire up... I'll get to it, wish it was bit warmer out there tho'

[dave.owen]

Jay. I've got s spare light panel you can have foc. Pm me with times you are in next week I'll pop it round. Dave

[Jay.Watson]

That's a very generous offer Dave, many thanks. I'll p.m. you as soon as I know what I'm at.

One of the things that has annoyed me ever since I got Albert was how precariously he sat on the sidestand. It wouldn't stay down without the weight of the bike on it and the smallest nudge was enough to flip it up (good job my garage was so full that there wasn't the room to fall over); also the bike leant over so far that kicking it over could be a little awkward at times...
So today's job was to investigate and, hopefully, improve so that it's not a constant worry whilst working on him. As it turned out the main problem was that the pivot bolt holes in the stand had worn into elongated egg shapes and had nearly worn all the way through on the back. Surprisingly the hole in the frame lug was relatively unworn in comparison. The trusty m.i.g was fired up and the holes filled in. Then, using the drill press/pillar drill I drilled straight through both sides of the stand. I had to guess where the holes should be centred due to the wear but they are not far out. A spot of grease on the pivot and it's all back together. It's not perfect as the stand still wants to flip up occasionally if there is no weight on it but at least Albert sits up properly now and is far less likely to end up in the dirt... job done.

[Bob.Murphy]

One of the things that has annoyed me ever since I got Albert was how precariously he sat on the sidestand. It wouldn't stay down without the weight of the bike on it and the smallest nudge was enough to flip it up

I believe that legally a sidestand has to retract on its own if it doesn't have an engine cut-out incorporated. Sidestands on modern bikes have this interlock and stay down. Just as well - a couple of times I have tried to move away from a petrol pump on my 2004 BMW GS only to have the engine die as I went into gear .

Too many people have been injured or killed by riding off with the stand down.

It was interesting reading this thread again and seeing your problems with stripped threads. I have just bought one of these kits:

http://www.lb-restoration.co.uk/cgi-bin ... ON&pid=104

And reading the instructions it seems to offer an easier alternative to alloy welding - claiming to be stronger than the alloy yet will drill & tap cleanly. The rods melt at 380 deg C which is achievable with a propane torch. They even claim that new studs can be cast by melting the rods into a (very clean) nut positioned over the broken remains .

I haven't tried it yet but if it works it could be better than a helicoil where there isn't much metal around the (once) threaded hole.

Time will tell.

Bob.

[Jay.Watson]

I don't know the legalities for new registrations but most of my older bikes have had stands that stay down and have not had any interlock fitted. This includes my 2002 Hinckley Bonnie. Any bikes I've owned that have had flip up stands I've usually modded so that they stay down until I need them to flip up. Try starting a high comp', kick only Harley Shovel with a flip up stand and you'd probably spend a lot of time picking it up off the deck Personally, I always check that the stand is up before riding off - it's part of the ritual; second nature much like not trusting neutral lights or self cancelling indicators...
I've seen those ally weld kits demonstrated at various shows and in the hands of the demonstrators certainly appear to give impressive results... be interested to know how you get on in a less controlled environment. I did consider that route before I realised how cheap it would be to get an engineering company to weld it for me and do it right first time. Cleanliness seems to be a big part of the process and possibly not that easy to attain with oily old bike bits in a shed.