Tommy and the Bandit

Finally got the Bandit running tonight, BOOM! Got the rest of the engine back together, put it in the bike, but the bugger wouldn't fire. It sounded like it was only catching on one cylinder. Anyways, alot of head scratching, diagnosis and multimeter testing later I swapped the spark plugs, fiddled around with the coils and brrrUUUUMMMM!! The bitch finally lives!!!

A few pics of the engine rebuild, cleaning up the replacement top end;

 Taking the old engine apart;

New bits painted and installed;

 Snapped a stud tightening up the camshaft journal caps (cos my hands are so strong and manly) - doh!!

Engine ready to go!

Struggling to wrestle it back in the frame;

 Dooone!

= one happy chappy!!!

And just in time for winter!! Still a few finishing touches to sort out. Controls and brakes need tweaking a bit, tank pain needs sorting, red decals etc. But for those that cant remember here's what it was like before I started;

Drive one nail...

...every day.

That's the new motto flying around, and it works. Didn't get alot done today, but made some progress, and I feel really good about it. Took my XS wheels for the new tyres putting on, and started putting the Bandit engine back together.

I had noticed some grime in the bottom of the engine so after a quick trip to Halfords for some carb cleaner (powerful stuff!) I blasted a whole can of it into the bottom of the engine. I then washed it through with fresh engine oil.

After tenderly attaching the cleaned and polished pistons, I gently lowered the barrels over the top, realized I had neglected to push the chain guide in place, swore loudly, and took it off to try again.

Second time lucky, I'm really pleased with how its coming together. Just look at that gasket face gleeeam!!!

Bandit Engine

Poor old neglected Bandit. My first project has been sat for six months pushed to one side while Ive tinkered with the XS. So it was time to sort things out. The bike was running, but not running well, sometimes on all cylinders and some times only on three. A compression test showed it to be very low across all four. Fair enough considering its done over 60,000 miles, but I didnt want to pour even more cash into an old knackered engine.

Luck would have it, I found a complete top end at Newark for the bargain price of £20!! So the plan is to completely swap out the old for the (not-so-new) top end, pistons, barrels and all. And fingers crossed it will pump some life back into the old girl.

I have spent a long time cleaning up the 2nd hand top end I plan to use. And while I was at it I thought that I might as well paint it.

Im now at the stage where I have the old engine out of the bike and stripped down to its rude bits, eagerly awaiting its younger and refreshed new counter part. Just got a few more bits to tidy up, then it can all go back together, and I can find out if this has all been a complete waste of time and precious Dremel bits!!

Sissy bar

I did eventually finish the sissy bar for the Triumph. I used 10mm stainless steel bar (316) and used a propane torch to heat up where I wanted to bend it. Using my filler rod template and lots of TLAR ("that looks bout right") measurements I bent the bar around a round file clamped in a vice.
 

After lots of holding it up to the bike and tweaking bits I eventually got a shape that I was satisfied with.

 

Next up was to weld on the lugs that I had made. Holding them in place against the round bar was tricky, especially as its not magnetic! So tape and props were used...

There was a pair of longer tabs and shorter tabs and like a birk I welded the shorter ones in the wrong place dammit! But fortunately I realized that I could still get away with it if I opened the holes up a bit more. Also it seemed to pull the bar in nice and tight next to the rear sub-frame. So the mistake turned out to be a winner!

Here it is finished on the bike. Im cutting out a few steps and several hours of rubbing, smoothing, polishing, to get a nice finish on it to go with the rest of the bike.

All in all I am really pleased with my first sissy bar! And I have since road tested it with bags/tents etc strapped to it with great succes :) Just got to find a willing volunteer to properly pillion test it!!

Trip Out

Went down to the trip out on Friday afternoon with TC. Had an awesome time, partied hard with friends old and new. Was the first time this event had been run - I will definitely be making the trip next year. The bikes just blew me away, so many badass old motorcycles!!

Way too many pics to post them all here, so Ive just picked a select few. Feel free to check out the rest on my facebook.

Tank fun

So I've spent most of this weekend working on the tank for the XS. After TC got me to chop the original tunnel out of it, it was time to start putting a new one together. First thing was to bend up some 1mm sheet steel. I do this in a very precise and accurate way using laser measurements and jigs etc.

 

With that bent up I slapped the tank on it and went round cleaning up and evening out where I had cut the original tunnel out. Running through this tank are some support beams that originally went straight through the tank from front to back and also formed the mounting lugs (but I cut those off!!). So to make this new tunnel fit, it needed a kink in it to form around these beams. Hopefully that makes sense and you can see what I mean from the pic below.

  

I'm skipping ahead a bit but I forgot my camera!! I went round to the Tinslecats house, where I could continue my work under his helpful (mis)guidance. After putting the necessary bends into the tunnel, we cut it down and TC tacked it in place for me.

  

Then I could weld the rest of it up myself.

I left the beams in originally, to help maintain the shape of the tank, but now the tunnel was welded in I cut them out!!

Unfortunately though, this left big holes in the front and back so I made some little pieces to fill the gaps and welded them in (badly).

And that is how it stands for now. As you can see I cleaned up the welds which has revealed various little holes and imperfections that need sorting out, but for now I'm happy as it. It looks great on the bike, but like a dork I forgot to take a picture!!!

Fab-tastic

TC came round this morning and finally accepted that I was determined to use the big triumph tank on the XS, so he kindly gave me a bit of (mis)guidance on how to go about ruining a perfectly good tank.

Cut the tunnel out to get it sitting right. Still lots of work to do on the tank but really pleased with how its looking on the bike. Need to get some more sheet steel to make the tunnel next.

I also cut down the original foot peg mounts and roughly mocked it up on the bike. Again, still work required to finish this but I will wait till the seat is in position before finalizing the pegs. I did copy this idea of something I found on a forum, but I like the way it recycles some original bits, and is a neat solution.

As I was in a metalworking mood I started on making a sissy bar for the Triumph that Ive been wanting to do for a while. I also nicked this idea off something I saw at a show. Started by making some 3mm stainless brackets.

The idea is that these fit between the rear mudguard and frame rails, the bar itself will attach to both of these.

My dad had the genius idea of using a filler rod to mock up the sissy bar, so here it is. I have got some 10mm stainless bar to use for this. Hoping that a good dose of brute force and propane will be enough to bend up the real thing!!

 

So basically I started three things today and finished nothing!! But never mind, it was a lovely evening.