I was very positive last post, thinking I’d managed to bodge the stripped thread in the cylinder head with helicoil and metal paste. Not even. I left it overnight, but when I came to tighten the nut the post just span. I gave it another go, but no.
I went online to get that £30 cylinder head, but it was from an earlier model. The next best one was £70, with all the internals coming with it. I ordered that and a gasket. Then I thrashed the workshop manual, and it’s a good job I got the dearer one, apparently the cams are specific to the heads, you have to buy them as a unit.
Today I had to get up early to wait for a ‘phone call from the doctors’. They’ve doubled my dose of loony pills, yay! I was already a ton better, that should finish the job off. Then I had the guy coming around to buy the Bonnie at dinner time. That was a farce. Because he was an old guy his banking app stopped his instant payment as a potential scam. But didn’t say that was what it was. After many attempts to get it to work he finally rang and had to jump through all the hoops to get them to clear it. He was grumpy when he got here, by the time he left he was jumping. It was funny. Job done. Money in the bank. Then I set to work on the VFR. There is so much donkey work to do just to get to the cylinder head. Tank, seat, airbox, carbs, radiator, fairings, downpipes, engine bolts, all had to come off. Lots of the little jobs were just fiddly and time consuming.
I’ve got to here:
Everything is off, I just have to set the cam position, undo a bunch of bolts, take out the cams, and lift the cylinder head off.
I was getting tired and it’s not a job to rush so I left it there and had another read of my workshop manual. That should be an hour’s work in the morning. Then spend a good while cleaning up the surface, pop the new gasket on and wait for my head. Damn ParcelForce! 48 hour delivery, received on Monday at 09.30, say they are delivering Thursday morning. How is that 48 hours? It’s such a pain to strip it far enough to get access that I’ve ordered a new set of plugs while it’s stripped. I might as well swap them. I really don’t want to take it apart again. I’ll do a leak down test on the valves of the new head, if no oil drips through I’ll pop it straight on. Really I should do the valve clearances while it’s in bits. Hmmm. I might do the rear valves tomorrow before I take the head off. I’ve just reminded myself by watching some videos. It’s not too terrible. I might as well.
Bugger. Just looking, I can do the checks but I may have to strip it down again to fit the shims. I can’t see a next day delivery. That is a proper downer. Nope. Frantic search and the soonest is a week. Ah well. I’ll do the checks, hopefully it’s all clear. Or I’ll be able to swap the ones from the head I’m removing. Meh.
That aside, it’s been a good day.