Slow Monster rebuild

[350TSS]

The strip down continued and the biggest issue for me was what to do first, I knew I wanted a two into one exhaust (to save weight) and I also wanted a parallelogram floating rear caliper hanger. I cannot weld very tidily as seen on the engine stand and thin stainless steel tube would be well beyond me so the exhaust would have to be done by competent others. The positioning of the anchor point for the reaction rod for the parallelogram rear brake could influence the exhaust position exiting on the RH side.
I also wanted a single seat and tidying up of the rear end.

[350TSS]

Meanwhile, after scouring the internet, I got a new clutch slave cylinder from China c£55 and an alloy clutch basket from Italia c£80.
I still needed new alloy clutch plates and an alloy clutch hub. New Suzuki GS 550 alloy friction plates were bought for about a third of the price of Ducati ones. The original steel friction plates would tear up the new alloy hub and the old steel hub was badly fretted. That was my justification for buying them anyway but the reality was that the weight saving was significant. When it is cold and not pleasant in the garage I will produce a schedule of all the weight saved.
New rear set footrests came from somewhere recommended on the Desmodue website, £110, very good quality but lacking a brake light switch position. A Chinese pressure switch was acquired for £3.50.
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[Darren69]

Originally Posted by Mr Gazza

Absolutely brilliant 350TSS. In the true spirit of "Radco"... If you haven't already read his book, you should.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vintage-Mot.../dp/0854294724

Just spotted the price...My ghast has never been so flabbered!!.. Try the library.

Were you aghast with the £80 odd version?

Check this one out:-

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vintage-Mot...ts%27+Workshop

Nearly 3k for a book!!! It can't be that valuable surely?

[Mr Gazza]

Originally Posted by Darren69

Were you aghast with the £80 odd version?

Check this one out:-

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vintage-Mot...ts%27+Workshop

Nearly 3k for a book!!! It can't be that valuable surely?

To be honest it is a rather good book...

What am I bid for my unsoiled first edition?

[350TSS]

The passenger grab rails had to go so out with the angle grinder, the first time I have ever butchered a frame and this was the point where the rebuild became irreversible. I thought long and hard before doing it- should I just do a complete original restoration? or should I build the bike that I wanted? Well it is done now!
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[350TSS]

Stupid Mistake
Stripping the engine I got hold of an alternator case removal tool from Seeley (c £7.00) and proceeded to attach it to the two 6mm screws on the outside of the casing and duly wound them in. The case did not move. ???? So I wound them in a bit more thinking the gasket was stuck. There was a horrible cracking sound and I knew I had a problem.
Before I started working on the bike I had promised myself that I would clean and de-grease everything so that I would be doing it properly. Because the bike was on the hydraulic lift and I did not want all the grit and sh** to drop onto the lift, I did not do the necessary cleaning.
There is a 6mm socket head cap screw between the two forward facing screws attaching the clutch slave cylinder. The void where it sits was completely blocked with old chain grease. The casing had split around the bolt I had not undone because I didn't realise it was there. Bollox!!!
Lesson always clean before dismantling!!!
The alternator casing on my M900 is a bit difficult to replace. It has the oil drain tubes from the barrel separate, later models from (I think) 95 onwards have the oil draining through the barrels and therefore no need for the external drain pipes.
A replacement casing would have been like rocking horse manure. Fleabay was searched but nothing forthcoming after about 2 months. I therefore had no alternative but to look for a welding repair. I thought first of trying the lower temperature aluminium "welding" available on Fleabay but friends advised that there was no substitute for doing a "proper job".
Local alloy welding "specialists" were not keen, eventually I tried T3 who took the job on. T3 used to prepare all the bikes for the Triumph Challenge, now extinct. The bikes in their workshop were exquisite. I began to wonder if I would not be better to convert a 675 Triumph.
After 2 weeks they said that the cases were done. They had to weld it twice because there was so much oil ingrained into the alternator casting (c£80.00).
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[350TSS]

Blind alley
I thought about the positioning of the battery/coils/electrics generally. On a 94 Monster, as standard, they sit on/or above the battery above the rear cylinder, so quite high in the scheme of things. The wiring is all over the place. Ignition is at the headstock, fuse box is under the seat, coils and relays under the tank. You obviously need the rear light wiring to be near the rear light but everything else could be centralised, thereby reducing weight and complexity.
You read all this stuff about mass centralisation and its importance to making the bike "flickable". My objective was always mass minimisation, but if I could centralise the mass, as well as reduce its overall impact then that would have to be a good thing - surely.
I always intended to fit a LiOn battery to reduce the overall mass by about 3Kg. The dimensions of most of the LiOn batteries are considerably smaller so it could be moved to a lower position, nearer the centre of mass.
Others have been happy to put the battery in the seat hump, but I have always felt that this location compromised the balance of the bike being high and a long way beyond the wheelbase and also suffered because the battery leads would be excessively long and unnecessarily exposed. In my view the battery had to be as close to the starter motor as possible and preferably as low as possible.
With this in mind I thought about putting every single bit of the wiring behind the steering head bearing. The battery could sit behind the cross frame brace and the coils could could sit above an alloy plate that sat below the lower frame rails.
Immediately behind the steering head would obviously be subject to severe water ingress from the front and from the periphery of the front mudguard. My original design was to make an aluminium plate to attach to the lower frame rails.
Some months ago the council left a road sign propped against my front fence. The angle iron frame for the sign was missing so it was basically a 3' x 3' x 4mm aluminium shee (slightly buckled)t. Absolutely perfect for a battery box / waterproof electrical container. Removing the plastic/reflective front label proved very time consuming. I also found that bending 4mm aluminium accurately was quite difficult without ending up with big dents from the 2Kg hammer and vice used to do so. A bending device was needed so I built this from some 3"" x 2" scrap box section, some 1.5" x 3/8" scrap and some old dexion.

[350TSS]

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[350TSS]

Sorry got duplication of one of pictures
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[350TSS]

The hardest part was working out the position of the pivot point and ensuring the axis of the two hinge points were parallel with the edge against which the material would be bent across the whole width of the sheet bender.
Needless to say they were not quite square after I finished welding but not more than 0.039" (1mm) out over 30" width,.
I spent a disproportionate number of hours removing the plastic reflective stuff from the dishonestly acquired road sign and even more hours shaping it to fit the lower frame rails and then to bend over the lower head stock frame cross brace. Satisfied that it fitted without huge water ingress issues I bent it up on my recently fabricated sheet bender. The shape required a specific bend profile. When I came to test fit it I realised I had bent it absolutely the wrong way round. Basically upside down. Bollox!!!!!!!!!!!!
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[350TSS]

Not in the least discouraged by this I started on the single seat base. I decided I would build a carbon fibre seat. I had watched the videos posted on the Easy Composites website and thought" How difficult can that be?"
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[350TSS]

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[350TSS]

The seat base was formed of 9mm plywood, as was the "skeleton" for the hump. The infill between the ribs was made from polyester foam cut (similar to the sort of foam used to stick flowers in) into 2" wide slats and glued in with wood glue. The profile for the seat was determined by eye, I wanted something that looked like the 1967 Honda 500 4 ridden by Mike Hailwood from the side view but was wider at the rear end to accommodate an LED rear light/indicator assembly sitting almost unnoticed underneath the base of the hump.

[350TSS]

Whilst working on the seat hump I thought that at some point I would have to spray it. It was never my intention to have any CF parts I made as bare CF with the weave showing through an immaculate clear gel coat.. This would not be in keeping with the age of the bike and anyway for CF to look really good it has to be 100% absolutely perfect and I was not confident of achieving that. If I painted it I could mold it/cast it and subsequently prime and fill it and then paint it to get a reasonably good finish in a solid colour (to be determined). With this requirement in mind I made a revolving table from two sheets of ply (formerly doors on a bedroom cupboard) and a belt pulley with an internal bearing from a derelict ride on lawn mower.
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[350TSS]

Realising that I would spend an awful lot of time making an aluminium battery box that fitted behind the headstock and it would probably in the end only fit where it touched, I had a re-think. If the battery box was going there why couldn't the coils and relays and fuse box go there as well. The wiring harness would be half the weight if I could do that (but I would have to remake the loom completely and I would also have to protect all the electrical components from water ingress).
This thinking also fitted with my view of what to do with the petrol tank. I had originally envisaged trying to make an aluminium tank (because I had never made one before) but I was not confident of welding 2mm sheet aluminium without it all going into holes or weeping from every seam. Also getting a good finish on the surface of the tank would challenge my panel beating skills beyond what was likely to be possible.
I came up with a design that placed the coils and relays into an enclosure that fitted in the triangle behind the headstock and projected through the lower frame rails. I would then make a lid covering this enclosure upon which I would mount the fuse box. The coil enclosure would project down towards the front wheel spindle about 80mm. The fuse box would be protected by 2 infill panels either side of the head stock. The coil enclosure and the infill panels would be made from carbon fibre.