moving on

just done a heap load to the bike.

slotted camwheels with 5d of + & - travel (at the crank) for checking out best cam timing with this the '01' cam and the '53 which i also have and when changed timing correctly will also be a '55' cam.

new valves, kissed seats

4mm extension to camchain tensioner-will remove after another ride and check how many clicks we've used.

new clutch basket and forked selector burrs removed-gearchange is very smooth and neutral a little easier to find.

reed valve cleaned-nothing there.

#85 starter jet in FCR. big difference. bike starts more easily** see below re: decomp.

changed to YTZ7S which whizzes the engine really fast-long term results to come. battery tray was knocked up on the front corner and the three strips of metal that the battery sits on were covered with rubber strips (from the rubber strap that covered the spokes) to balance the battery up. this helps all the keihin carb pipes to route very easily.

re-routed stator ignition wire tube through behind starter motor mount and up infront of carb-neater. rotary filed off the sharp edges to the oil filter housing and starter motor mount.

plained the inspection caps, rocker cover and top of cylinder head for good seal. re-sealed breather spigot. found the very corner where it had been leaking was the last area to clean up on both the head AND the rocker cover. no leaks-long term to follow....

auto decomp removed and manual cable fitted along with pivot bar back in head. the hand cable 'over opens' the exhaust valves so this needs addressing. i need to limit the opening distance that the cable can pull. when i got it just right the engine purred into life. #85 starter jet is a big improvement.

new cotton reels, gaskets, second earth removed, new impellor.

with the new valves the bike felt quicker-and so it should!

will do the carb breather and engine breather another time. when doing the cam timing and carb settings probably.

Taffy

Barry

it's a yuasa and even in our 'new' websites short life we have a link to yuasa suppliers.

yuasa are bought into the UK by motofax from southampton.

Taffy

weekend tests show the battery to be awesome. well impressed. in the meantime i've had trouble with the manual decompressor. most of you by now will have sussed that it's basically a half-moon shaft that sits above the exhaust rocker and pushes it down to keep the exhaust valves off their seat by a fraction.

tests showed that the manual lever opens the exhaust valves by what appears to be nearly 3mm! ouch! also the edge of the half moon is a long way from the central axial pivot point so the rocker can push your hand back through the cable (closing the exhaust valves) and you stand there holding the e-start with your left hand moving in and out like you've got ******s cramp!

(BTW ******s cramp isn't a technical term)

so i've filed a 45 degree edge that is about 2.5mm wide and this means the exhaust valve won't open so far and the leverage against my hand has now stopped! bike now starts a lot better but only full tests will tell.

report soon.

Taffy

this has to be part 1 of 2 because i'm going to look inside and find out more.

the YTZ7S is awesome, sometimes i stalled and it was so 'up for it' that it started with no decomp help AT ALL.

the manual decomp was excellent saturday but on sunday i couldn't get any feed back through the lever so i don't know what's happening there. point is that manual can work.

leak at the rocker cover. this i've had for a year, now that i've plained both surfaces i have no leak for the first time! just to remind you-i found the head and the rocker cover were out of true in the same front left corner.

finding neutral. i can find neutral any time any where. the cleaning up of the selector claw AND the new clutch drum have completely cured the problem. 100% cured.

the camchain adjuster with it's 4mm extension is already 8/15 teeth through and without the extra on the cap would already be fully extended and in trouble.

Taffy

update

after a two-day meeting mentioned in 'race report' had a roar at the top of each rev-out and it sounded like the exhaust kept splitting at 10,000 revs. this turned out to be the valve timing being a tooth out. pulled the rocker cover off and suddenly the cam follower bearings had collapsed after 2.5 seasons.

i had also used a lot of new coolant with the new head gasket. i fitted new and updated rockers on the saturday just intime for the 4 hour time card event at little hadham in essex.

the bike drank water again but ran really well otherwise.

re-torqued the head to a recommended 60Nm but when racing at north willingham last weekend it used water for the third week and was very flat at the top. turned out that i had altered the cam timing down on the clutch cover this time whilst changing the sprague bearing (see post on sprague bearing). it was too advanced and the exhaust valve had marked the piston so i replaced it.

this week i have cleaned the head with a peice of flat wood/P600, i had to do this around the outside of the inlet valve seats. new head gasket, fitted the '53' cam and timed it to absolutely spot on (see 'cam timings holy grail') using a slotted camwheel.

pleased to say that the head doesn't leak (gone from a green to a grey headgasket-don't know if that's significant) and the '53' sends the bike forward on a whiff of throttle. it has more medium high power but i can''t get used to it in my quick spin because the rev build that used to be 4th is now 5th or 6th. i'm glad the power isn't too low.

i don't suppose it had much competition given the timing was out for 2 of the last 3 weekends. FC/FX exhaust gives a little extra bark but it's still very quiet.

it now starts straightaway on the manual decomp, choke jet at #85 is now too large as i only need 5 seconds of it. i've left the nippon IXU24 plug in.

i now (think) i have the basic spec of the FS400e/FC400 etc.

i have also fitted internal reserve pipes (thanks fontana), a second overflow from the floatbowl so as to allow riding through deep water. the pipe has been fed up to the earth wire carousel, around and back down.

this week i'll be fitting a WR400 'used' breather pipe which i'll feed over the engine on the right and down onto the chain.

for a moment i think i'm almost there!

Taffy