1986 350N - Nearly There

[markhoopy]

Head cleaned and bolted down today.



New gen Yam temp sender and thermostat to go in, but then found that there wasn't a gasket for the thermostat housing in either of the gasket sets I have. I need to get three new bolts for the housing anyway so it isn't needed just yet, but shouldn't there be one in a full gasket set?



I bought a set of the re-coated head bolts from Norbo rather than attempt to clean up and use the old ones. Very impressed with these

[markhoopy]

Bought a couple of titanium bolts for the barrel drain holes that look far better than in these photos. I'll have to get some with the camera rather than on the mobile phone to show them properly ..



Powervalve pulley housing cover has titanium bolts too. Not sure whether to polish the cover or add a tuning fork badge .. the centre looks a bit dull where the old one was and seems pretty difficult to get cleaned off.

[db8888]

Hi Mark no gasket needed for the thermostat it seals on the rubber seal around the thermostat

[db8888]

motors looking spot on ..

[markhoopy]

Thanks Dave for that .. there's no wonder we couldn't find one in the gasket set

[markhoopy]

Might have to start reading the Haynes manual again after all!

[Shytalk]

Feb 13, 2013 20:56:17 GMT 1 db8888 said:

Hi Mark no gasket needed for the thermostat it seals on the rubber seal around the thermostat

If you're lucky it will, I had to use some Yambond around the edge of mine because it wouldn't seal with the rubber seal alone.

[markhoopy]

A posh springy bit for the back end ..

[markhoopy]

Rear caliper pistons were both seized solid and took a fair bit of getting out. Lots of WD40 and a fair bit of heat did the trick ..



.. but the pistons are both well past their best and will need replacing ..

[skydemon]

Ooooh way too many pennies. Do they set them up for your weight like the Wilbers ones etc

[markhoopy]

Caliper parts washed down with petrol, then dried off and given a good clean with the Dremel

[markhoopy]

Shock has just been serviced and is set up for a 12st rider so should be okay for a moderate pie-muncher ;D

[markhoopy]

After lots of work with the Dremel the caliper halves have had two coats of high temp paint.
Used some old bolts just to close off the threaded bits and will see tomorrow once the paint has dried properly whether the finish is good enough or not ..

[ozzy]

nice work Mark.... I use a heat gun to dry and harden the paint off in between coats .top thread

[markhoopy]

The caliper halves were sat in front of a fan heater for fifteen minutes before painting, so they were borderline too hot to pick up but a good temperature to get painted.

[markhoopy]

New pistons and a seal kit.



Titanium bolts that reflect the camera flash horribly.





Pads were hardly worn so just had a good clean with emery cloth and a smear of copperslip.

[markhoopy]

Front calipers are the Triumph Daytona/Trophy/Trident Nissins that fit the standard YPVS caliper mounts.



I wanted to keep the Nissin calipers but not the Triumph bit, and I found when looking for piston seal kits that the GSX-Rs used the same Nissin calipers as the 're-badged' Triumph ones, so I found a decent pair on eBay and bought those to use.
When I offered the GSX-R calipers to the YPVS fork bottoms I found that the spacing between the mounting bolt centres is about 10mm wider, so the GSX-R calipers wouldn't fit anyway.

Back to the drawing board and after sending the caliper halves to forum member Haggler for machining, the cast Triumph on these:



was removed to give this:



Unfortunately the right caliper had hit the road at some time and the damage was still visible





A bit of work with a file and a sheet of wet & dry has tidied the damaged area, and hopefully it won't stick out like a sore thumb once the bike is together and finished.

All four pistons were in good condition and just needed a good clean.
I bought new stainless bolts to join the caliper halves but got eight of the same length .. the outer ones on each caliper are only 30mm not 45mm so that's something else to add to the next shopping list!
New seals for the pistons and EBC HH pads should mean the forks will flex quite nicely ;D

[markhoopy]

Master cylinder next





Master cylinder repair kit from Norbo



And from a cheap set of Dremel heads is a sponge buffing attachment that is a perfect fit over the sight glass to cover it for painting, held on with a spot of grease

[markhoopy]

Dremel again



And more paint

[markhoopy]

Going to leave the standard 17/39 sprockets until it is finished and has been run in, then maybe alter the gearing to suit the engine when we find out how well it goes.

Rear sprocket had been painted black so cleaned off the paint and tidied it up with the Dremel.





New sprocket bolts and a new bearing and seal in the sprocket carrier.



Not going to repaint the sprocket carrier just yet because I have managed to get hold of a good pair of wheels in the standard black spokes/polished alloy edges finish so I am now in two minds whether to use these or the black powder coated ones that were on the bike when I bought it.

[markhoopy]

Tempted to polish the machined faces .. but the whole idea of the rebuild is to try finish up with something that looks fairly standard from a distance but that goes, stops and handles much better than the standard bike did when it was released.

[markhoopy]

A few weeks ago the whole shed was one big 'to do' list, with bits laid everywhere that needed stripping, painting or replacing. The 'finished' bench is slowly filling up, but everywhere else is just as untidy as it used to be ;D

[copper99]

Smashing job mate, great build..

[matt7]

Excellent progress you're making

Keep it going matey

[markhoopy]

A trip to Hull to see Clive at Rapier Paintwork to drop off a few bits for painting.

Frame will be changed from silver and put back to the original black paint, rather than black powder coating as lots of people do on their rebuilds.
Fork bottoms are silver at the moment but should be satin black, and the footrest hangers are black but won't be for much longer

[markhoopy]

The Rapier workshop .. you can look round for hours and still not see everything ;D

[markhoopy]

Clive's little collection ..

[markhoopy]

While the frame and other bits are away being painted it got me thinking about building a bench to work on the N1 putting it back together ..

Two of these from Amazon at £35 each:



Cut about three inches off each leg ..



.. so the bench doesn't finish up too high:



Used 18mm plywood, cut to fit without any overhang at the sides which gave a nice offcut for strengthening underneath.
Corners have been cut off so it all looks a bit like a coffin lid ..



Double thickness ply down the middle, plenty of glue, lots of screws:







The two tressles drop between the sections of double-thickness plywood so it all slots together easily ..



Then four coach bolts to hold it all together:



Two bolts to hold this on at the front:



And a couple of holes on the back edge so that the ramp from the bike trailer drops in securely:



Solid enough to use with the front wheel stay and sidestand ..



.. which makes putting the paddock stand in nice and easy ..





It will only take a few minutes to unbolt the tressles so when it isn't being used it doesn't take up loads of space, and it all came to less than £200 including the front stay and paddock stand ..

[Denzil]

Wow that's superb, nice build on the ramp and the bike liking it dude.

[kennyroberts]

wow, another good thread to follow, liking the work bench / table.