Slow Monster rebuild

Originally Posted by 350TSS

Slob: I think the theory is that with 6 cups and springs there is the possibility for the pressure plate to move outwards on its splines at an angle or more likely as the clutch is released and the pressure plate starts to bite on the stack of plates for the spring cups to wander around the post causing the pressure plate to cam into the splines on drive take up. By effectively connecting the cups together rigidly it limits that possibility. Probably that is complete bollox.

On the other hand, I've seen it suggested that unequal pressures on the springs can promote some wobble and aid the un-pealing of the plates as the clutch disengages, and presumably help with a smoother engagement rather than an in-or-out action. Perhaps that concept hails from a time when men were men and their 'bike engines dribbled oil!

Nick

[350TSS]

Hard day today, lots of little jobs none of which are photogenic, e.g. shortening bolts x 10 so the nyloc is fully engaged but no more, making earth leads, rubbing down all the parts that will be painted mat black ready for a final top coat, making up the petrol pipes and the real PITA re-fitting the throttle cables which I eventually abandoned unfinished.
I did not realise until I checked them for broken or frayed strands that the two throttle cables were different lengths and when I took them off about 3 years ago I did not mark them as to which went where. It is obvious that the cable ends going into the twist grip are different because they have different diameter threaded adjusters but not at all obvious at the carburetor end.
Getting the cables routed into the twist grip itself was very frustrating and I finally gave up for the day when confronted with trying to fit the other end of the cables to the quadrant on the carburetors. I had run out of love for Ducatis at that point.

[350TSS]

Incidentally the Delboy's garage tip when shortening a bolt to cut a hacksaw cut across one flat of a nut and hold the bolt and nut in the vice via two flats of the nut really works. The bolt to be shortened is gripped sufficiently for it not to turn when the hacksaw blade is applied and the thread is still good enough to clean off the end of the thread when the bolt is shortened.
Afterwards I usually put the bolt head in my battery drill and spin it at 45 degrees to the running grindstone to provide a clean lead in.

[350TSS]

I struggled for about 2 hours trying to get the return throttle cable engaged in its quadrant, I just had to keep walking away from it and doing other little jobs. Stupidly I had engaged the pull cable first which was a piece of cake to fit but this severely restricted access for the return cable. Eventually, I took the pull cable off again although it still took me another half hour to get the return cable located.
In between buggering about with throttle cables I made up and routed the starter cable, on the left side, adjacent to the alternator cable, I also mounted the switches on both clip-ons. I decided against drilling 5 mm location holes in the bars but rather filed off the locating pegs on the switches, they seem to grip the bars adequately without rotating. The decision was partly because I do not like the idea of 5mm holes in the bars but mainly because it would have been a right pain to strip it down to drill the hole and I was nervous that once located it might have needed to be changed which may have necessitated another hole or filing down the locating pegs.
The rear caliper got the lugs countersunk, but I could not fit it as it got scratched so it had to be repainted.
The clutch slave cylinder also got fitted not without the drama of removing the powder coating from the locale where it sits.
I am now down (again) to c 120 hours on the ETTC.
Installing the wiring is next.

[350TSS]

Started on the wiring install today and found a few issues.
1. Using S4 master cylinders as I am (instead of the M900 "coffins"), the front brake light switch is different and I have already wired up to the old type.
2. Changing the position of the battery has meant that most leads to it or associated with parts of the loom that join with them are too long.
3. Whilst I made up a jig which was a reasonable facsimile of the frame and the positions of various electrical switches and then built the loom off the bike, in most places I have been far too generous with the cabling to those points resulting in quite a lot of gash loom. I have two choices here: 1. take the connectors off, shorten the wires and re-make the connectors or leave the connectors and just chop lumps out of the wires and re-join them (solder and sheath them with heat-shrink sleeves)
Option 1 is the right way to do it but will take me lots and lots of time
Option 2 I will always regret doing but is probably the way I will go, given that I want to finish this bike before they nail down the lid.

[manwithredbike]

Maybe you could draw the slack back and fold it somewhere out of sight in the loom? I think soldering multiple joints can lead to trouble later on, the copper adjacent to the solder will be brittle and prone to break where has been heated and annealed to some degree.

[350TSS]

MWRB: you have hit the nail on the head - precisely why I am reluctant to do it. Folding and hiding is not really possible, I just cannot bear the thought of having to make up all those AMP connectors and the undoubted time it will take. I avoided doing anything on the wiring today while I cogitate on what I should do - which I already know - I should do it properly.

[manwithredbike]

Originally Posted by 350TSS

MWRB: you have hit the nail on the head - precisely why I am reluctant to do it. Folding and hiding is not really possible, I just cannot bear the thought of having to make up all those AMP connectors and the undoubted time it will take. I avoided doing anything on the wiring today while I cogitate on what I should do - which I already know - I should do it properly.

I know how you feel man, and you know that in a few weeks or months time, the few hours of doing the proper job will be lost in time -- and you'll be glad you did.
Many jobs that i rushed in the past ended up giving me more trouble than they were worth in the long run.

[350TSS]

Avoiding wiring meant I had quite a productive day, first I made up some clips to hold on the front mudguard. The original plastic abominations that came with the forks were not recoverable so I made some out of 1 mm stainless steel. Originally I intended to simply pass a set screw through the 2 x 6 mm holes and put a nut inside.
After about an hour trying to locate the top most nuts I decided to drill all the inner holes in the clips out to 8.5 mm and fit rivnuts which aided assembly enormously. I had to trim about 4 mm off the front mudguard to clear the front fork gaiter. Picture below before the final trim of the guard as it just kisses the gaiter.



The chain oiler reservoir got fitted with quite a bit of buggering about getting the bolt length just right.
Finally I checked the alignment of the rear disc and this is the result.


It is about 1 mm out so tomorrow I will strip it down again and fit a 1 mm washer between the caliper and the brake plate and that will be as good as it needs to be.

[350TSS]

Or better still fit 6 x 1 mm SS washers between the disc and the hub

[Luddite]

If it wasn't for the loose wires dangling in the background, that could be the front wheel of a completed bike! Those carbon Dymags look proper special.

As you're running gaiters on your forks, have you removed the dust seals from the sliders? I know the racers run without them to minimise stiction and, since your gaiters are effectively doing the same job, they're not really necessary now.

[utopia]

I was hoping you'd given the wiring a miss today.
I was going to post this earlier but I held back.
It seems like it might be ok now though, so here goes ....

Sometimes its all in the mind, so why not think about the wiring this way ...
Making the loom off a jig was always going to be an approximation as it always looks slightly different when you get down to the real thing. You were never going to get them just right first time.
Therefore, making the wires too long is actually the perfect outcome because now you can shorten them 'til they actually are just right.
Making them too short initially would have been disastrous.
So this is a good outcome. Don't spoil it at this stage.
Think how dissatisfied you'll feel when you're halfway through cutting and soldering with only a second rate outcome to look forward to, having been so close to perfection.
Compare that with the warm glow of satisfaction that will come as you look forward to a job well done if you refit the connector terminals.

[the lodger]

I feel your pain. However as it's ready to go I would connect it up as it is for now , bunching any excess wire somewhere temporarily. This is so you could check everything is working as it should. You could then, at your leisure, shorten a few at a time over a period of time and it might not be such a ball ache. It might even facilitate some finesse to the job, which may not be apparent if you do it all now.

[Darren69]

Originally Posted by the lodger

I feel your pain. However as it's ready to go I would connect it up as it is for now , bunching any excess wire somewhere temporarily. This is so you could check everything is working as it should. You could then, at your leisure, shorten a few at a time over a period of time and it might not be such a ball ache. It might even facilitate some finesse to the job, which may not be apparent if you do it all now.

Yea, thats exactly what I would do, test it all first, then tidy up later or even make a complete new v2.0

[350TSS]

Thanks for the sympathy guys - I hadn't considered doing a temporary tidy up and testing it all and then going back to it, the danger for me with that approach is that I would never get round to it, particularly with 6 other un-started projects in the garage that would take priority over a working bike.
Started this morning with getting the rear caliper central on the disc. I chose to fit the washers between the disc and the hub rather than spacer the caliper even though that meant 6 washers rather than 2, mainly because the caliper bolts were exactly the right length and the addition of washers would have made them too short,
I had the choice of stainless washers at 0.9 mm or BZP washers at 1.5 mm, It is virtually impossible to measure accurately and I chose the stainless and was rewarded with absolutely central disc/caliper relationship. Result!!
I then thought about the wiring and where best to start reducing the lengths on the limbs of the wiring harness, the headlamp/head stock/battery area is a complete nightmare, a tangle of knitting Where you start obviously affects whether some particular wire is too long or too short. The MU unit, immediately behind the head stock, has about 18 wires going into it, all relying on a 3 or 4 mm grub screw to hold them in place and a crimped on aluminium terminal end on each wire that I consider very marginal. So best not disturb that until I devise a system of supporting the wires, short and long term, so that the connection does not rely totally on the grub screw and the extremely marginal strength of the aluminium end connection. Rightly or wrongly I chose the rear tail light to start as it was the easiest, something I shall probably regret later.

With the rear brake hanger now in position it was now possible to incorporate the speedo sensor wire into the main fore and aft harness. The CoG of my wiring harness is and forever will be the point where this joins the main harness.

The sub harnesses for the rear brake light and the neutral switches both got shortened. Both of these were not without drama, the hydraulic switch to be fitted to the rear brake master cylinder was about 8 mm too long and would not grip the brake pipe union before the thread bottomed out in the master cylinder, 10 minutes on the grindstone sorted that.

The neutral switch should have been installed before the engine got put back in, access and visibility are extremely limited otherwise. I have a large box of old chewed up spanners and screwdrivers that can be modified to make special tools if necessary, a cheap old 1/4" Whitworth ring spanner had a slot cut out of the ring to pass over the cable and this allowed a rather laborious one flat at a time tightening of the switch into the crankcase.
That was as far as I got today