Well... I have had a pretty productive day in the shed, albeit with 3 jerseys and a beanie on to beat the cold. I had a session on the airbox on friday night. I cut it in half, then cut the filter holder off, and put a gauze over it. I Cut a cover for the gauze, gave it a lick off paint and made a new hanger for it. Kinda looks like it has a heart now, Iron man styles!! I've been looking a making some new foot peg hangers for a while, but wanted to incorporate a new set up for the rear brake, which are sloppy and ineffective at best. I found some 5mm ali and made new hangers in a similar shape to the last ones, but mounted the new pegs back about 15mm. I made a brake lever out of the same sized ali and made it pivot through the foot peg bolt. I cut the existing brake arm down to fit. Now the brake actions from above the swing arm instead of below. I'm going to need a new rear wheel as the slop in between the sprocket and the hub is pretty bad now. The drums on the rear brake need looking at too, but I think when I open it up it's going to be a replace job, not a fix up job! I pulled the front brake lever off and put a small brass bolt in to help push the top piston a bit further when the lever is pulled. This worked a treat!!!...until I noticed a drip of fluid from under the calipers. So the bolt worked as I needed, but I'm obviously losing pressure from one or both of the seals around the caliper pistons. It will work but will need topping up after a few races till I sort it out properly. So a good few hours! Just got to thread the new brake arm and fit it to the new lever and I'm back on the track, hopefully a bit better off.
I've got a rear for you. I think it is identical to the one you run at the moment. the other option is to look at the bolts that mount the sprocket, they should have a rubber sleeve around them in the hub (this is what f##Ked), you might be able to make some new once with garden hose or something ???
So a good week end on the bike. Not as monumental as Jubba or Bert, but still good. Made a dummy hanger for my foot pegs. Made a new brake lever system(mark 3!!) Used the center spindle out of the old brake drum, and will use it as the pivot rod joining the foot lever to the brake arm. I'll post photos later. So the job list looks like this... 1. Add 2 links to chain to allow for larger rear sprocket 2. Make 2 new foot peg hangers 3. Make 2 tabs to get welded onto frame to hold new foot hangers 4. Get bolt welded onto newly cut down foot pegs 5. Assemble hangers and brakes 6. Oil change 7. Put on rear wheel spacers 8. Pack out rear axle on right side so nut doesn't hit muffler 9. Paint over previous crash marks!! 10. Feel like I should have a ten, but I don't think I do.
Done and done...I think!! Haven't got to ride the damn worm since the list above, but I figure, what's the worst that could happen!! Lol. See you all in a few hours. An hours sleep, then the rugby, then 2 more hours sleep, then off!! AWESOME. This bucket thing is like a drug!!!
So I have a new enthusiasm for the Tape Worm!! Not that I needed much more, but there you go. So after Bert and I had a minor brake issue in the enduro, but Mumford Luck would have it that they are now better than ever!!! It would seem that because the caliper is different to the forks, and I've made a new mount to join them together, that when the caliper is mounted in it's new position, there is a spot for an air bubble to sit somewhere inside. I've be struggling with spongy front brakes for ages. I've always bled them while attached to the forks, creating the problem. We had the brakes off while fitting the brake pad back in, and dislodged the bubble, creating epic front brake pressure. AWESOME!!!!! Sooooo... Now I want better back brakes too. To do this, I've pulled the brake lever and foot peg off an FZR400 along with the hanger. I've cut apart the hanger I made last week and will use it as a template for the new one that will hold the new brake mechanism. I want to make the rear drum cable operated (thanks for the idea Bert!). I'm going to get a mountain bike front brake cable and adapt it go the FZR lingage. I'm also picking up another swing arm from Skunk from his old AX. It has had an extra bar welded around it to hold a mono shock. I won't do this (yet) but will instead use the extra bar to run the new brake cable down. I ran 96 octane gas in the bike on Sunday too at 30:1 and it ran so sweet. So much better than 91 octane. All systems are go. 27 days to prepare for slipway!!
So the latest update on the Tape Worm... The rear brakes are fixed!!! I now have a rose joint at the end of the brake arm connecting to the brake lever. This has reduced the arm flex down to nothing. I had to shorten the arm by 50mm, so that helped too. I put a reinforcing arm between the swing arm bolt and the hanger (right side only). So now it is a bit stiffer and doesn't flex towards the swing arm nearly as much. As soon as I find some 10mm ali plate, I'll bend up some new hangers and paint them up, but these are going to work sweet as!! Photos to come. Next...???
Having a mare trying to get the photos on here!! Might just have to put them in the RAG photo page
Photos are on the RAG page. Can't figure out how to load pics to here. Oh well
End of a ERA... the worm is gone. Tell us how you feel Dave.....
