Yak Shaving.

I only intended to replace the speedo drive unit, ended up doing the front indicators. For those who don't know what Yak Shaving is, have a quick read here.

A Yak, earlier today.

Anyhoo, whilst I was feeding the new speedo cable up, I nudged a connector for the front brake light switch, which subsequently disintegrated. In order to put a new connector on, the headlamp had to come off, so whilst I was at it I tidied up some of the wiring and put the new indicators on that have been sitting around for weeks. And swapped the toolbox locks for a set I have that only needs one key.

Disturbingly, when swapping the speedo drive, I noticed a crack in one of the axle caps - looks like a gorilla has tightened this up at some point. Good job I found it now, and not at 60mph - time to do more shopping, methinks.

Not good. Shaggy is displeased.

YBR MOT...

...passed, no advisories :-)

Pleased.

So, a nice dry weekend meant there was time to sort a couple of bits. The YBR got a new chain, ready for the MOT this week, and the Enfield had shakedown run part deux, this time NOT leaving me stranded by the side of the A508 for 5 hours. This pleases me.

Once the bike was warmed up nicely, I decided to check the air/fuel mixture with my Colortune. A bit fiddly, but simple enough to use. The default 1.5 turns out on the screw that I'd previously set it to seemed spot on - there was a nice blue burn. This pleases me too. I could have fiddled, but since it was running nicely on the outing, I figured I'd leave it alone for the time being. A plug chop session is on the cards sometime, or maybe throw some money on a dyno like I did with the Electra. We'll see.

The speedo is getting worse, and examination finds some grindy crunchy noises coming from the speedo sender unit. I'd bought a bicycle speedo some time ago, so decided now was the time to fit it.

Surprisingly accurate, an indicated 53 was 54 on the GPS. Susceptible to interference or vibration though methinks, because when stationary it jumps around. Pull off, and it settles down OK happily. This also pleases me.


I'd picked up a folding mirror at an REOC autojumble for three quid, since the existing ones have decided to act more like wind vanes. I now no longer have to do Linda Blair impressions when joining dual carriageways, and it gives me a few more precious inches width in the garage. As with all of my previous Enfields, the vibes mean that you can't tell what type of car is behind you, but you can tell whether there is one or not, and how quickly it is approaching. Enough for my needs.

This pleases me muchly.

Time..

... for a new chain on the YBR. I'd not updated my calendar with the YBR's MOT date (I saw it on the calendar, but it was for the stolen one - not this one) so it ran out at the end of February. Oops. 

Gave it a check prior to booking it in this week, and finally the chain has reached the point of no return. Sprockets still have life in them, so I'll just splash out £14 for a new chain, then do the whole set next time around.

The Culprit.

Bingo.

Since the carb was new, the fuel was reasonably fresh and there was unburnt fuel getting through, I doubted it would be a blocked jet, so went for the part that I'd last worked on - the ignition. Took the coil pickup plate off, and found that I could move the magnetic rotor around by finger pressure. Must have been OK up until the point I gave it the beans, where the vibes loosened it off.

Found TDC, realigned it, tightened it, rechecked TDC, put the pickup plate back on. Started second kick. If this becomes a problem, I'll Loctite it. Or weld it.

I won't really weld it.

Still got to tune it, get the carb setup right, and I've a long list of cosmetic jobs I want to do, but I'll settle for running at the mo. Hopefully, I'll get another shakedown ride in at the weekend, and maybe, just maybe, make it to Billing Bike Meet on Wednesday.

It's Dead!

3:30pm Take the bike for a spin

4:00pm Bike dies, refuses to restart

4:30pm Give up trying to restart it, call the RAC

5:10pm RAC attend. They can't start it either, so call for recovery, ETA 6:20pm

6:10pm RAC report ETA now 7:50pm

7:30pm RAC report ETA now 8:20pm

8:25pm Recovery arrive

9:15pm Home

9:16pm Beer

I only wanted a quick shakedown run in the sunshine yesterday :-( Bike was running fine until I took it up to WOT, and it felt like fuel starvation just before it died, so thought maybe the float height needs tweaking. Pulled over, tickled the carb, no bueno. Great time to NOT have more than a Leatherman on me - d'oh! Sparkplug was sooty (I think I need to go down a size on the main jet) so that was cleaned as best as I could and retried - still no go. Checked to see if the previous timing work had slipped at all, nope, that was in the same place I'd put it.

When the RAC arrived he checked the same things I'd already looked at, but gave the sparkplug a better clean, checked the gap, and heated it with a blowtorch before putting it back in. Still no go, so he orders a flatbed for a recovery.

4 sodding hours later, I'm home. Could have pushed it home in half that time.

I have compression, a spark and fuel comes out of the tickler. Current guess is a blocked jet, or the magnetic rotor has come loose and shifted. We'll see.

It's Alive!

Well, not at first :-)

Attempting to start had the bike kicking back, which according to the instructions is low voltage. The battery was checked, and with the headlight on full beam it was still showing 12.2V so that was OK.

The spark can be checked by disconnecting the stator, then shorting the black/yellow and black/white wires going to the black box. With the sparkplug out and resting against the head, it sparks every time you short the connection. So far, so good.

I moved the stator plate back to the position that the online PDF stated, and it started on the second kick. It wouldn't idle cleanly, revs were high, and only got higher when when releasing the air slide.

Since I'd not started the bike since putting the Amal on, I had an additional factor working against me. I checked the pilot screw, and found it was almost fully out. Pretty sure I had checked that when I put the carb on, obviously not. Screwed it all the way in, and back out 1.5 turns as a starting point, much happier, although the revs were still high.

The cable adjuster at the twist grip end had looked bodged when I put the carb on (I don't think it's the right one for either the Mikcarb nor the Amal - not even the right thread for the twist grip), and gave virtually no slack. I removed the adjusting ring which gave me about 5mm of adjustment to play with. This let me drop the idle down to something a bit more palatable, albeit not quite smooth yet.

And then the rain started.

Pretty sure that the timing will need a final tweak, and that the jetting/float height/needle height will need playing with, and the correct cable adjuster procured, but it's all back together now and running, and that makes Shaggy happy.

I'll figure out how to do a decent video one day.