spacemonkey
I see dead people.
- Joined
- May 11, 2003
- Messages
- 1,469
- Bike
- M900
Cool, good to know! Any ideas on how much paint I will need?
Well I want another bike and it has to be something totally different to the Monster, which will never go, and the Monkey which likewise is a keeper. I've tried the faired sporty thing and I just don't like it. 916/900ss excepted.
Never really been in to Harleys, but the 48 is lovely especially in this retro scheme:
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But the Indian....
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So it's a big toss up between the Scout or something like a Tiger 800 XCx or 800GS. I think the Scout would win then get a cheapy F800 GS for commuting.
re. the bits of crud in the cases....
Whether or not the system can deal with a few bits and pieces in the sump, if you know there were any left in there it will dig at your nerves for a while.
Maybe its best to make every possible effort to extract as much as you possibly can while you have the chance.
To which end I was thinking that if you taped a longish piece of thin, flexible tubing into the hoover nozzle you might be able to use that to get at the more inaccessible areas.
Make that four!![]()
OK, finally got back on track with this. Last year by the time I had got the paint together the weather had turned and the temps dropped and humidity raised, so covered it up for the winter.
As a temporary fix, I bought a 25k mile mk1 1200 Bandit with full Akro system, rearsets, hi lift cams, dynojet/k&ns, GSXR shock and stuff I don;t know about for £1k as well as all the bits people add to these including new Bridgestone 023 tyres. And it's black and gold.. Changed fork seals and uprated the oil to 15w and fitted new chain, sprockets and Renthal gold Streetfighter bars. All good and got me back in the big bike groove. More or less same riding position and suspension feel as the Monster, but weaker brakes and no engine braking in comparison. Much faster once wound up though- hit 90 in top and twat the throttle and it goes all Millenium Falcon on me. Quite addictive but reminded me how much I miss my Monster. I'm also planning on buying a new bike later in the year to join the Monster for eternity and number one choice by a zillion miles is the Indian Scout. Absolutely love it....
So today I got the heads and barrels off. IN the end I opted to keep the pistons in the barrels after reading so many reports of ring damage trying to reassemble. I reckon I can just tape up the bores to mask and the pistons will stay in place nicely. Gonna be fun re attaching to the con rods but I'll sort that when the time comes. Thanks to my cousin holding heavy things while I unclip etc.
Now the slight worry- as soon as I could, I put paper towel in the crankcases to stop dirt and clips falling down there but I'm worried that inevitable some crud from around the barrel/crankcase openings must have gone in the vertical. Any advice on what I can do to try to flush anything out? The oil was drained last year but I wondered if it was a good idea to flush through with some very thin oil to try and flush any crud out?? Or shouldn't I worry?
The plan is to mask off the openings and then start removing paint. I have lots of small brass brushes on a dremel thing and that works quite well. Then mask up and spray. The heads need the oil seals doing and to get them generally checked over. Desmo is fine as only recently done before lay up. More worried about valve seats or stems. Probabyl; fine though as I always had it fully serviced bang on time and up to now has FSH by various Ducati specialist. It ran fine only a little smoke from the oil seals IMO. I'm going to use brass brushes on them then to get the paint and oxide off and paint them seperately before refitting.
So to recap, any advice on cleanign potential crud from insde the crankcase or not to worry? It's dirt from around the barrel bottoms.
Hi mate, no, leaving the bolts in for now.
Heads away having the valve stem oil seals done and a general checkover. Not much else happened to it as I bought yet another bike- this time a 95 VFR750FS. Always wanted one and it's ideal for my 200 mile commute. Looks damned fine too! Just gave it the 4 step Meguirs treatment and it positively glows! Ok, so the forks are soggy as standard and dive like a mafia backed boxer, and the brakes are sliding twin pots and have as much bite as my dead granny despite a full refurb, but it's great to ride and that 4 four is lovely... Just needs Firestorm forks with revalve and upgraded springs and Firestorm calipers and the standard shock rebuilt and that cures that. A dynojet kit, filter and hi level can relases a nice fat chunk of midrange and a sound like a Yankee V8. Oooh yeah.. and 53mpg even when thrashed over my run giving a nice 250 mile range easily. Came with a nasty fliop screen which I have changed for a standard one as it gives me a nice support at speed to stop my wrists aching and lets me feel a bit of the wind. Also got rid of some noisy turbulance on my lid.
Pics before polishing...
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That's right- Alton it was!
I have a build/inspection ticket that I found in the bike somewhere years back and it is dated 10-03-93 at 14:38 hrs. I'll keep an eye out on bike parts as I strip them. Still suffering 'down below' so nothing happening to the bike yet....![]()