Every job I do on my bike leads to another!
Today was my first day off of three so I set to on the bike. I stripped it down. Again. Took the carbs off, removed the seals and jets, then left them to soak in Pinesol. One of the pilot jets had blocked again. I’ve cleaned that out. Hopefully it will be running on all four cylinders on tickover now. If not, I’ll have to get them properly ultrasonically cleaned and refurbed.
When I took the rear head off I had to remove most of the exhaust system to refit it. It was blowing afterwards so I’ve chopped off the old Jubilee clips and fitted new ones, after squashing the pipers together more. Hopefully that’s fixed it.
I fitted the new cams. To do that I had to rotate the engine to T1, (TDC for the rear, left piston).
So I removed the spark plugs.
Which meant I had to move the radiator out of the way.
So I had to take off more fairing.
You see a pattern here?
Anyway, when I pulled the front, right spark plug it was covered in oil. I don’t mean a bit greasy or damp, it was soaked. Obviously I panicked. I thought I’d somehow knackered my piston rings, which would mean a new engine. A second hand engine would be way cheaper than getting a rebore, piston and rings.
I looked it up and some mechanic was saying the most common cause is just the rockerbox seal around the plug leaking. That would make sense. I had the seal off, and they are proving oddly difficult to seat properly.
I hope that’s all it is. It will be a faff, I’ll have to take the fairing off and move the radiator again to gain access, but if I’m lucky I’ll be able to do it without having to completely remove the radiator. Then it’s just a matter of slapping on some silicone sealant.
I’ll flush through my carbs tomorrow morning, then while they are draining and drying off I’ll do the seal. It rules one thing out, if nothing else. Then rebuild the carbs, fit them, the plate, velocity stacks, airbox, tank, seat, fairing and top box. Do a test run. Check the oil level ( dropped and replaced it today to try and clean out the tiny metal fragments I sheared off the old cam teeth), and see where I’m at.
I’ll take my sidestand off, clean it and grease it, while I’m there, it’s getting a bit stiff.
I’m really hoping that’s it.
Then on Thursday try sorting the Harley out.
I am feeling pretty good still. I’m happy that I’ve got the tools and sufficient experience to be able to do the jobs on the VFR. Work is giving me every shift at the moment, and they are long shifts, but I’m not panicking, just a bit sad because that’s all I can do on that day. 13 hours 20 minutes the other day. With over an hour’s commute. It doesn’t give you any time to do stuff. But at least I’m not full-on loony at the mo, and it’s well paying the bills and letting me buy a constant stream of bits for the bikes.
Once I’ve got the bikes sorted I’m getting back to running. I’ve been really slack, partly because I don’t need to as I’m not frantic most of the time now. But I’m getting fat and unfit. I need to get back to it.