Pinned So what have you done to your bike today?

Thanks Frankster, but I got plenty to keep me going for the next few years.

 

Well, just when I'm complaining about not having any time to work on bikes, the Tasmanian weather gods send me a few days of hard rain (and cold winds) to force me indoors.

I've been meaning to take a look at the Spada race bike as it has been 'playing up' from time to time. When I bought the bike (in QLD) it was setup as the PO wanted, which was his prerogative.



I started the bike up and it ran reasonably well, so I didn't bother to take it for a test ride given it had been raced a few weeks before I bought it. I took the bike back to my brother-in-law's place and changed a few things to my liking and also set the bike up for the drags at Gunnedah which I attended on the way South.



At Gunnedah, I did some test runs on the Saturday in preparation for the Sunday qualifying and eliminations. On one run, I was on the line ready to run, when the bike just died. It was so instant, that I originally assumed it was an electrical issue. I realised it was something else when I tried to restart and the engine turned over, but wouldn't fire. I pushed back from the line and let the other rider run a solo pass. I was just about to hop off and push the bike back to our pit area when the engine fired on my last try. The officials let me do my run and the bike ran fine. Back in the pits, there was nothing really obviously wrong; plenty of fuel, no loose connectors, no kinked lines, no leaks zip. I did notice the vacuum hose was a little loose from the fuel petcock, so I pushed that on all the way and never had any other issues the entire weekend.



@jmw76 had come over to my place to help me with something and I showed him the bike. He has a Spada too, so I thought he'd appreciate having a look at one setup for racing. When I started the bike, we noticed a fuel leak, which Peter suggested might be a stuck fuel inlet valve and to just rock the bike to free it up. This seemed to work, but I knew I'd eventually have to take the carbs off for a good look.

Back in TAS, I did a track day at Symmons Plains Raceway and the bike seemed to run okay. I was surprised that I ran out of fuel on my last session; luckily as I was coming down the back straight and I coasted into the pits.

The local VJMC crew have a track day scheduled at Symmons Plains for the 27th of September, so given the rainy weather I thought it would be a good time to fire up the bike and make sure everything was 'right' before doing a few laps of the neighbourhood and then parking it for the track day. As soon as I turned on the fuel and started the bike, fuel literally pissed out everywhere. I could tell it was coming from the front cylinder and I let the engine run (dangerous, I know) to check if the fuel leak was affecting the bike. To my surprise, the bike ran fine, but when I checked the exhaust temps, the front pipe was way cooler than the rear. Okay, off come the carbs.



I got my first surprise before I even got to the carbs. The intake rubber for the front carb was mangled. The picture is after I tried to stretch it back into shape. It wasn't seated correctly, which is really bad considering there are holes and markers to make sure you line everything up right.


Next step was to remove the carbs. Whoever had done these was really having a laugh. The connectors were weird and the front carb wasn't quite sitting properly on the boot. I checked all the settings and other than a weird air/fuel setting, everything else was pretty much standard. Main jets are #108, idle jets are #35, but the air/fuel valves were set to just under 1 3/4 turns out. The O-rings in the air/fuel valves were flat and concave, so new ones went in and I set the air/fuel screws to 2 turns out. Less than what the manual states, but maybe someone set them using the 'nearly stall' method. All orifices were given a good clean out and all were clear before reassembly.



I plugged the vacuum hose and hooked up an external fuel supply to test the setup. The engine started on full choke (it was about 8 degrees) and once it warmed up a bit the revs jumped to 3,000. I adjusted the idle down to spec (about 1,300) and after a few revs and letting the engine run for awhile I checked the exhaust temps and the front cylinder is now definately working. Put the bike back together (properly) and fired the engine on fuel from the tank and via the vacuum hose. All good. If it rains tomorrow, I might balance the carbs as I'm pretty sure they are out of whack. I'm looking forward to taking the bike for a spin around the block. I think it will run a little better than before.

 

Spada Carb Sync

Well, another mixed weather day in TAS gave me an opportunity to finish off the Spada. After successfully curing a serious fuel leak and getting both cylinders working, I was intending to balance the carbs as the front cylinder was now running hot and the rear cylinder was running colder. I used the vacuum gauges in the pic and after a bit of fluffing around, both cylinders now have the same vacuum. Both cylinder exhausts are now running at the same temp. There is a slight hesitation from idle, so I will increase the air/fuel an extra 1/4 turn out to see what that does for the engine.



And, while I was at it, I did the street Spada as well. Nearly perfect, so nothing to do/see here...

 

The CX is gone already ? , that was a nice bike !.
The luggage rack that your after for the CX , is no longer needed.
Sorry to ask the question what bike you've purchased , is it a Triumph ?.

 

The end is near(er)

Well, after threatening to sell my Vmax, today it finally happened. Off to a new home with an owner who has had them before. I'll kind of miss the old girl, but I won't miss those absolute rubbish front brakes. It's amazing how much room this bike took up in my shed; it feels cavernous now! I'd had her since 2013, so we had a good run. She was a full boost 1988 VMX 1200. Great bike for lighting up the rear end and pulling power wheelies without wanting to.

 

Cleaned the carburettors, new carburettor insulators just waiting on new throttle cables so I can try and start it. Compression was even across the cylinders and pretty good for a bike thats been sitting around for a while.

 

Last month, I put an 2005 Thundercat (2005 YZF600r) engine in place of my tired old FZR600...OMG! It rocks! No more eating a quart of oil every 500 miles, and the added 1000RPM plus the faster piston acceleration really woke my FZR400 chassis up! Of course, I've read that the chain alignment was an issue but since I'm using the JDM XR400 rear wheel, no issues and everything lined right up.

 

What did I do with my bikes today, took them out for a little run. They had not been started or ridden in ages. The sun was out so I thought why not. Both behaved themselves.