Update

It's been a while (again) but I have been doing bits on the bike, the main one being the footpeg brackets and centre stand so for the first time since I've owned it, the bike can stand up on it's own!

A previous owner had cut one of the brackets off, and the other was badly welded on at the wrong angle. I looked at various pictures online and worked out a rough idea of where the bracket should be, although it would be a little bit trial and error.

IT RUNS!!!!!!

If you've been following on instagram you'll already know the bike runs and made it to Eroica Brittania, but here's a run down of events and issues for those that haven't been following

After I took the flywheel nut and ignition module to the shop for them to get it going I made it very clear I had a tight deadline, they could get the ignition module to work consistently but they put the original coil back on and timed the points and managed to get it going! I got sent this video via text 8 days before the bike needed to do it's thing at the event

After owning the bike for 4 years, it was a relief to finally hear it running and even better to see it moving on it's own! Obviously it wasn't perfect and I still had some adjustments to do to other parts of the bike but it's still a massive milestone hit so I'm very happy

Making a new Flywheel nut

When the old flywheel got stuck on the crankshaft, the nut ended up getting damaged removing it. I'm not actually sure what happened as I wasn't there but a new one was required so I ordered some material and a tap and die and got to work. First up was a CAD model so I knew what I was working towards

Basically it's a 24mm nut with a plain section to fit inside the extraction threads of the flywheel, with an M12 x 1.25 thread through the centre. Nothing particularly difficult but it's the first time I've milled flats on anything. 

Here's everything ready for some fun in the lathe. I started with a 30mm bar of EN8 steel, bottom left,  as I've been lead to believe that can be heat treated relatively easily (more on that later). 

Now here I have to own up to a bit of an error, you may notice that the piece of steel in the next pic is rusty, when I've just shown you a piece of bright bar. Well, this pic is from my first attempt which ended in a parting disaster on the lathe and I only took video of this stage on my second attempt which as we know from my last post, I am too stupid to get on the internet properly. This step was exactly the same though, turn down the relevant diameters, including a long narrow section that could be held in a collet for the next step. After this pic it was parted off leaving a little extra length for facing after the flats have been machined

Using a hex shaped collet block in the horizontal mill, the first flat was machined while checking the dimension from the flat to the opposite round edge. Once the first edge was in the correct place, a note was made of the y-axis so each subsequent flat would be in the same place. Each face was done in a couple of passes, checked, then the block was rotated to the next face

I did take a time lapse of the process on my phone and I also have the mental capacity to get that on the internet so here's that process in all it's glory

I have to say I was relieved when I first slipped the socket on and this happened! My first attempt hadn't been so successful and had needed extra passes on a couple of faces to get the socket to fit, second time round I must have been more careful and it just worked out right

Next it went back in the lathe held by the stub to be drilled and tapped and have a chamfer machine on the outer face. Then the stub was cut off by hand (didn't want another parting disaster!) and a mandrel machined with the matching thread so the nut could be threaded on the wrong way round and the last remaining face machined true to the thread. Again, this is all on video that will never see the light of day!

Next it was heated to a cherry red and held there for about 10 minutes before being plunged into old engine oil. I know this won't have been a perfect process but hopefully it's enough. Worst case scenario I'll be making another one! After a quick sand blast it looked like this:

Then a quick sand with some 240grit. I decided to leave the faces 'as machined' as I don't think a perfect nut would look right on the bike. After this it was tempered in the oven at home.

The nut and electronic ignition module are back with the bike at the shop so fingers crossed it will run soon!

Chain case rust removal

If you've been paying attention, you'll remember I was going to try cleaning the 'new' chaincase with CLR to remove some of the rust. If you haven't been paying attention, here are the before shots:

Small part deliveries (part 2)

Following on from part 1, here's part two! The new oil can needs holding on somehow and another stroke of luck means I have the strap from a very similar Peugeot in my hand. I think its too long but I'll only find out once I've got the bike back, if it needs shortening that won't be a problem anyway

Small part deliveries (part 1)

The last post was a bit wordy and not very popular (I do occasionally look at the reader numbers for this thing!) so this one is going to be pics with a few words to balance things up. Whilst the ignition saga has been going on I've had searches set up for various parts, but also been checking every site I've looked at for ignition parts to see if they have anything else I need and I've come up trumps

First up, the oil can that sits behind the engine. I never thought I'd find one of these and I think this might be from a Peugeot and a little bit smaller but it's going to look better than the blank space I had before

Safi SSY Ignition; the bane of my life

I really should have learnt by now with this bike not to make statements like:

" I'm really hopeful for an update this side of Christmas"

As that was clearly never going to happen. To cut a long story short, staff changes at RCK have meant that the custom made electronic ignition idea was shelved and an attempt was made to get the old points ignition working on the basis that it's simple and should be fairly reliable and easy to deal with. At this point, the ignition coil was believed to be dead (more on this later) so a separate coil was set up running from a battery, the points were adjusted and the bike was rolled outside to try to start it. Unfortunately I wasn't there when this all happened but I'm told the bike did start, but stopped after a few seconds. A minor victory that at least proves the engine can run