3XV Big Off rebuild

[yanw]

Did this last summer, along with my leg and collar bone:


I've stripped the bodywork and had it placed in my Swiss vault. Some pictures with her kit off and a new Yamaha (but earlier year) brake lever:


Next items on the list are repacking the end cans and new o-rings for the slip-on headers. I'll be sharing my good fortune in my next update, I'm just waiting for delivery of a couple of things 

Many thanks to Paul for giving me the impetus to do something.

[tzr-v4]

Good luck this one....

A good friend has ruined his freshly rebuild rz500 with an RZV500 alloy frame on her fisrt track day... I think it takes him 3 years before he was able to work on the bike 

[Warwick]

Nothing but minor flesh wounds there, Yan. Be right as rain in no time .

The stock cans are a mechanical baffle though; they have no packing, and can't easily be taken apart. I have a 3XV9 stock silencer somewhere. Do you want me to check the condition if you are looking to replace the scuffed one?

The pipe headers just use a common copper ring gasket to seal, no O rings. I found these could be re-used many times, and usually a simple quick tweak of the nuts will cure any leaks at the manifold in any case. More simple fixes

I have a set of new Chinese bodywork here in the red/white 50th anniversary colours. I want to keep the seat unit as I had them make me a single unit, but You can have the head/sides and V piece for £180 if you want them?

[Paul]

I agree. Nothing too serious. Can be fixed relatively cheap and Warwick has most the gear.
The crucial thing is to get them back on the road the quickest easiest and cheapest way.
I can sense a bit more of a project bike with this one in the future maybe?

[yanw]

Warwick, thanks for the offer, I will have it if you can find it to put in the loft for the restro in 15 years time. I will have a think about the bodywork.

I'm going to be swapping the standard exhausts for a pair of Jackals(?). They need the end cans re-wadding and the pipes slip onto round headers which need new o-rings:
http://pure2strokespirit.net/forums/index.php?topic=635.msg6641#msg6641

[Warwick]

OK. Understand about the pipes now. I'll have a look for the can. No worries either way about the bodywork. Just thought I'd offer  as you'd mentioned it in another post and I have it sitting around doing nothing at the moment. I bought it for a project that I've postponed for the time-being. It'll doubtless get used at some point though.

A couple of hours in the shed and yours could be back on the road no problem I reckon.

Quick! While the suns out. Before the summer rainy season commences...

[yanw]

I've only managed a bit so far due to a family bereavement but everything has settled down and I've got a weekend planned in the garage.

I have managed to repack the end cans. I got two sheets of 350mmx500mmx10mm of wadding which trimmed down to 300mm off eBay. I thought I would need to trim the length but I managed to stuff it all in. A squirt of pound shop ptfe spray in the cans held slide it in. I got a dozen 4.8mmx10mm pop rivets from my fastener supplier (http://www.allcap.co.uk/) for a shocking £1.50. Allcap have a warehouse full of every fastener you could think of and have an old school trade counter and guys who "know".

As the next plan is to strip the carbs and dry fit the new exhausts I've been on a mission to buy gaskets. Firstly I've discovered the 3XV exhaust gasket (~£10) is superseded by the 350YPVS exhaust gasket which is much cheaper. The cheapest and most trusted source came from Norbo (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ultimatelccrazy/) at £18 for six delivered.

The new pipes have slip-on headers and the o-rings that came with them where shot. Allcap couldn't help but they put me on the a local bearing and belting shop (http://www.acbelting.co.uk/). These "okies" are even more old school with a shop that's a cross between Open All Hours and Coronation Street. They spent a while measuring up the slip-on header and as they don't hold o-rings in stock got their rep to drop of some regular o-ring samples to try for fit. We tried the samples with the header and pipe and settled on BS222. They ordered me four Viton ones and charged me £5. Fantastic service from guys that care but they will try to sell you a tractor PTO.

Finally I've got myself a heated ultrasonic cleaner and some "carb solution" from Allendale Ultrasonics (http://www.allendale-ultrasonics.co.uk/). I'll report back with how I get on (and before I offer to do other peoples...).

[Warwick]

Nice work Yan. It's great when you find proper old school enthusiast type suppliers innit?

I found the oe type exhaust gaskets a bit too thick and bulky with the Jackal flanges, so I made simple, fibre gaskets from thick gasket paper - a simple round one instead of the oe copper gasket, and then a kind of diamond shaped one with stud holes punched in to seal the outside of the flange to the cyl. They worked very well, so it might be worth thinking about if you too find the oe copper rings a bit thick, making the flanges stand too proud of the cyl?       

[Paul]

Nice post Yan. Reminds me of the high standards set by steve which had us glued to our screens every night hoping for an update.
What size ultrasonic did you get? Got a mind to bring some carbies when I come visit.

[yanw]

Thanks for the advice Warwick, I will try to remember it when they don't fit.

It's 1.2l Paul, but heated which is the trick. Your welcome to bring carbs for cleaning when you try to get your SP crank off me...

Back to today's trials and tribulations. I got the airboxes off and the filters are in good nick. I will clean and oil them anyway as I have some "filter oil spray" and they are off. I have taken the left/upper carb off and cleaned it in the tank today. I'll post some before and afters once it is back together but it's done a good job. I have posted a picture of the stuffed "carb filter" and what came out of it. I did the "epoxy fuel tap filter fix" (thanks Warwick) last year but this must have been carp built up before that.

On the worrying side is what I found behind the right/lower airbox. The bottom corner of the airbox was a bit oily and thinking back that fairing panel had a little bit of oil on it. The bikes a '93 RS and has the "solenoid" oil pump. If you look on the picture below you will see that the oil line from the oil pump to the right/lower solenoid is cracked and this must be where it was loosing oil.

I've not felt the bike "nip up" at all and I think it is only a small leak. The right/lower exhaust was smoking and looking at the restriction in the carb filter I don't think it was ever making serious ponies. I've looked at the parts book for that bit of pipe and on Cmsnl its 5 euro but NLA. I was thinking of getting some of the clear oil lines and clips from Norbo. Has anyone got any experience or advice (I'm keeping the oil pump and airboxes for the minute Paul  )

[yanw]

Having just been out and looking at the brass tube it looks like it was bent when I came off. I have very gingerly straightened it up enough to get a new line on/off.

[Warwick]

I've no experience of the later solenoid pumps, but I think the line bleeding procedure is a little bit more involved than with the straightforward pump isn't it? If there's enough length on the split hose, a simple trim and re-fit job might be the most straightforward fix? Failing that, any suitable size oil resistant hose will do the job.

[yanw]

I've not done the bleed before but Wullie did warn me about it. I have a roughly translated version from a Japanese site translated in a PDF. There are lots of steps and think you have to wait for the moon to be in the right quarter at one point.

The original pipe is too short to trim/reuse so I will get some clear line from Norbo. If I'm going to have to bleed it I might as well put clear lines throughout.

[Paul]

yambits do clear lines if you're stuck, which i doubt!!
thats a lot of crap in that little filter.

[yanw]

I've managed to clean the carbs and fit the clear oil feed lines. Everything takes longer than you think and you find more stuff to do/fix/replace as you go.

The ultrasonic cleaner did the business and if you are looking to get one I would recommend going for a heated one and the pro cleaning solutions. The upper carb smelt like something had died in it when I opened it up so as an experiment I sprayed the carb body with half a tin of pound shop carb cleaner. It looked really good after and I was a bit miffed about shelling out £60 for a cleaner and solution. I put it in the tank and the solution went as brown/nasty as the un-sprayed one. My inner Northerner calmed down a bit after this as the money wasn't a waste after all. The carb screws had been butched/flat-head-cut by a previous owner so I popped down to Alcap and got ten allen-key headed bolts for £2.40 (M4, 0.70mm pitch, 14mm length). They look a lot nicer now.

I got my clear line from Norbo and have replaced all the original oil feed lines. The clear stuff from Norbo is the same inside diameter but has a larger outer diameter.  I managed to re-use the metal clips but I had to stretch them a bit with some long nose pliers. The original lines were snapping, cracking and falling to pieces when I was taking them off. If you are still running original oil feed lines I would seriously recommend changing them. I'm not the World's best mechanic but I managed it and I reckon you could do it in about two hours including taking off the bodywork and airboxes. If you have a '93 onwards solenoid set-up you will need about 60cm of line all told. Norbo is happy to sell you single lengths; it's the same stuff as he sells for the 250/350LC. If you are worried about your original lines then buy some replacement line BEFORE you inspect yours as mine were cracking/splitting with only a casual sideways glance.

I've not bled the oil-pump but I will post a separate write up when I do with all the required mystical incantations, correct type of incense and the virgin's phone number.

If anyone wants replacement carb bolts let me know, I'm happy to do them at cost plus postage. Same goes for ultrasonic cleaning carbs; they work out at about £3 each (plus postage etc) (I'll whine if they're not stripped so beware...).