Slow Monster rebuild

[350TSS]

I only managed one set of the machined parts because the belt broke in the belt drive of my lathe.
I was quite pleased with the finish obtained. the washers are quite hard to machine because you have to move the tool in two planes simultaneously to achieve the taper. The compressed cotton reel thingy is designed to fit inside the tray and to have 4mm bungee wound round diagonally opposite reels. This will hopefully stop any tools jumping out of the tray over bumps. The top hat piece is designed to accommodate the captive nut on the underside of the rear frame brace. I did not want to tighten the screw from the underside effectively against the strength of the weld so I inserted 30mm stainless bolt and wound down a nut onto the top of the frame brace and welded from above. Removing the captive nut below was not really an option as it appears to be projection welded and I could not get an angle grinder into the space where it sits in any case.

[350TSS]

Pictures here are of the seat under tray bracket attached, unfortunately the side view shows the return on the bracket and it looks very obtrusive. I considered turning it around so the returns on the bracket faced upwards but it will not fit that way round as the bolt holes aligning with the seat lock are displaced about 10mm to the left side of the bike. The side of the seat hump will probably hide it from plain view but I know it is there so I think I will have to make a mark 2 bracket.

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[350TSS]

I also started to think about my parallelogram rear brake hanger. The existing brake hanger is secured to the swinging arm by compression via tightening of the wheel spindle and a slotted lug which allows for rear wheel adjustment on the inside of the swinging arm. as can be seen from the picture the caliper holder has a crank on it of 10mm.
I plan to make a floating caliper with 10mm plate and 75mm aluminium bar. I do not think I can bend 10mm plate accurately (twice) so I plan to make the caliper mounting plate flat. I will spacer the disc out by 10mm. Probably cutting it from one piece of plate rather than 6 x 10 mm spacers. The caliper itself will be mounted above the wheel spindle and the mounting plate will extend below the wheel spindle where it will be attached to a spherical bearing and a reaction rod to the back of the engine. The 75mm bar starting from the inboard end will be 55mm for 10 mm then 75mm for 10 mm then 55 mm for the remainder of its length. The bar will be bored to take the wheel spindle and machined either side to take 2 x standard rear wheel bearings. I think that will work - all I need now is the drive belt to be delivered for my lathe.
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[350TSS]

Spent yesterday thinking about the rear light/indicators/number plate light, attach them to the seat or to the frame?
For to the seat attachment: ease of mounting, can be kept within the profile of the hump so possibly aesthetically better;
Against attachment to the seat: I will have to cut a window in the base of the rear hump which will not be easy to make look good, the weight of the lights/fittings will be on unsupported carbon fibre which could lead to cracking/crazing and earthing issues and whenever the seat is taken off the wiring connectors have to be parted. On balance attachment to the frame won.
I cannot mount the seat until it is made so I had to devise a means of working out exactly where the seat will sit so I can fabricate brackets for the parts.

screengrabcertificity.com

[350TSS]

Where would we be without duct tape?
I intend to use LED rear lights, indicators and number plate lights and in order to do away with mirrors altogether I will mount a rear facing camera with a 4" TV screen in the dash underneath the speedo /rev counter. All the kit came to £21 from Banggood in China, cheaper than a single mirror and almost certainly lighter. Probably it will not be very good at spotting the feds should they decide to follow but that is no change from virtually any Ducati designed mirror anyway.

[350TSS]

The angle of the seat base at the back permits the mounting of a rear light and number plate LED across the frame just aft of the truncated frame rails from which I will hang the rear number plate bracket. The camera (already in a plastic housing about 25mm deep) will be mounted centrally aft of the number plate/ rear light box on an arrangement that permits a measure of up and down view adjustment. The LED strips for the indicators incorporating a second rear light and brake light will be mounted in an arc that follows the trailing edge of the seat hump (less about 20mm). so first job was to make the rear brake light/number plate enclosure. Using 2mm aluminium plate from my scrapped under seat tray I folded this up.

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[350TSS]

The enclosure is 120mm wide x 18mm deep x 30mm high. I intend to cut a window in the lower width to allow the single strip white LED to light the number plate with a similar window in the lid (not shown) for the red LEDs (2 strips) for the rear light.
I bought the Easy weld rods to weld (solder) the corners using a propane paint stripping torch. They are not as easy to use as shown in the advertising DVD. A propane torch barely has enough heat to get the work piece up to temperature to melt the rod and even when it does when you add more rod it cools the molten pool down so the weld material freezes solid without bonding to the work piece. The first rod disappeared into sold blobs of aluminium without success. I did manage to "weld" one corner and subsequently finish it. I was working with the enclosure held in a vice with the corner uppermost and I think the vice was acting as a massive heat sink. When I try to weld the other three corners I think I will make a wooden frame to hold it and hope that enables the rods to flow better. The weld material, whatever it is made of is much harder than the base aluminium, so I wonder about its ability to survive vibration.

[350TSS]

My first thought about the lid for the enclosure was to cut a piece of 2mm aluminium about 8mm larger then the enclosure and panel beat the 4mm surplus on each edge to fold around the box. I cut a piece of 18mm plywood the size of the box + 4mm on the length and breadth and then tried it. FAIL.
Possible reasons for fail, lack of skill with a hammer (surely not my mates say it is the only tool I have any real skill with), wooden former too soft and changing shape with each blow, wooden former moving in the vice. Whatever when I took it out of the vice it did not fit so I tried to recover it by stretching the aluminium which resulted in no dimensional change and a lot of dents on the surface.

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[350TSS]

Plan B is to cut the aluminium lid as a flat piece exactly the same size as the top surface of the box in 1mm aluminium, cut the window for the rear lights and then cut a piece of 3mm Perspex to just fit inside the box and araldite the two together. The perspex will provide a register for the lid to fit and I will cut a rubber gasket to go round the perspex between the vertical sides of the box and the lid. 2 aluminium spacers drilled and tapped 5mm will be soldered on either side with stainless studs projecting through the number plate bracket and with ss button socket cap screws to hold the lid on. I may need an internal segregation piece of 1mm aluminium to prevent bleeding of red light to the number plate.

[slob]

I may be teaching 'granny to suck eggs' here as you seem to have a vast array of skills... Annealing the ally may help stretching, as it work hardens readily (I'm guessing you're using 1050). Convenienly this happens at the temperature that sharpie marker ink evaporates, scribble all over it and hit it with your blowtorch, when the ink's gone it's good to work again. Glancing blows across the surface helps reduces the marking from the hammer.

[Darren69]

Originally Posted by 350TSS

Where would we be without duct tape?
I intend to use LED rear lights, indicators and number plate lights and in order to do away with mirrors altogether I will mount a rear facing camera with a 4" TV screen in the dash underneath the speedo /rev counter. All the kit came to £21 from Banggood in China, cheaper than a single mirror and almost certainly lighter. Probably it will not be very good at spotting the feds should they decide to follow but that is no change from virtually any Ducati designed mirror anyway.

I'm interested in the camera idea as I had considered doing something similar for some time. If you've any links/pics? That would be great. Thanks

[Mr Gazza]

Originally Posted by 350TSS

I also started to think about my parallelogram rear brake hanger.

Did you know that you can get a brand new fully floating calliper hanger from Moto Rapido? They will also supply the bronze bush and two steel top hats to make the swinging bearing... The whole lot weighs less than two wheel bearings and is very slim and neat.

The tolerances and clearances are VERY fine and also allow for in and out float as well as radial movement.

You can also buy the torque rod and front anchor plate, but I'm sure you can make those.

[350TSS]

Slob,
I did anneal the aluminium but by rubbing it with soap and heating it until it turned brown. I did not re-anneal it before trying to stretch it hence all the dents, also by this time I knew I was onto a loser so was taking my frustration out on the work piece! I think my flush fitting lid will look better anyway and does not involve the use of a planishing hammer.
Darren,
I have no idea how to post links - sorry! Just google 12volt rear view cameras, the caravan and camper vans fraternity seem to use/like them. I obviously have no idea how good/useful or reliable it will be especially as it will be on whenever the ignition is on. I bought mine separately about 6 months ago from Banggood (needs a bit of searching on their website because they sell just about everything from knickers to drones) from memory the camera was about £7 and the 4" screen about £14.
Gazza,
Thanks I did not know MR sold the kit, conceptually I am attracted by the low weight but if it is the same as the 851/888 design then I am not so happy as the geometry does not look right on those as the reaction rod attaches to an extended caliper attachment bolt which is not central to the pad area and is not the same distance from the swinging arm as the lug (now threaded on mine ) on the crankcase. A phosphur bronze bush and two top hat steel bushes would certainly be lighter and I think I will go with that rather than 2 x wheel bearings, that will allow the hub holding the caliper mounting plate to be a lot smaller and therefore lighter. All suggestions gratefully received though - thanks. I will be making my own because that is the object of the exercise expressed in the opening post to do as much of it as I can myself, as cheaply as I can.

[350TSS]

Darren sorry - I will post some pics next time I am in the garage - Wednesday

[Darren69]

Originally Posted by 350TSS

Darren sorry - I will post some pics next time I am in the garage - Wednesday

No worries, I think I found some on the site you mentioned. there are quite a few different ones. The prices are really cheap too. I need to think up where to mount the screen really.