On Saturday morning, I unpacked the cylinder head only to discover some gouges on the mating surface – forgot to take a photo. As I could feel these with my fingernail, I decided it had to go back to the shop, if for nothing else than to get their opinion on it.
Since this meant no further progress was possible, I used the day to get a few small tasks out of the way, including returning my car hire – Darryll had offered me the use of one of his – and looking for a new tank bag as my 40-year old one had finally given up the ghost.
I spent Sunday cleaning parts and carburettors. A further irritation was a crack on the side of one previously repaired carb body. 😞
Monday 20 Jan 2025
I’ve now been here a week, more than half of the time I had allocated to get the bike up and running. My first task today was t return the head to the machine shop. “Shit!” was the comment when I showed the guys the damage. With no argument, they took it back, promising to have it fixed for me by the afternoon.
Next was a visit to the shop where I had had the bolt made up. I had been advised by my good friend, and master machinist, John Burton, that it should take no more than 45 minutes to make such an item. Armed with this information I suggested to the workshop manager that I had perhaps been somewhat overcharged. It didn’t take him too long to agree and I was rewarded with a 50% reduction in the labour charge. 😁
I spent the afternoon repairing the carb body with some epoxy putty.
The machine shop called later and advised that they had improved the situation, but they had encountered a problem, preventing them from reaching a 100% satisfactory result. When they explained this to me, short of opting for further major machining, I had to accept it.
I returned to the garage and started putting things back together, only to find that the aftermarket gasket was badly made and didn’t fit properly! I attempted to fix it, but the end result was less than satisfactory, so I have to decide whether to reuse the old gasket, or try to get another new one. Tomorrow, Tuesday, then will start with a visit to the Honda shop to see how quickly they can get me another, and a decision.
Weds 22 Jan 2025
Where have the last 2 weeks gone? Where has January gone?
The answer to the how long question was 24 hours, so there was little progress yesterday.
This last week has been a depressing catalogue of setbacks; some down to me, but others out of my control. I should be used to hiccoughs associated with bike maintenance and repair by now, but his week has tested me as several other minor incidents added to the bike-related frustration. I was becoming convinced that someone or something was working against me!! 😭
The first thing to go wrong was the skimming of the head. Although corrected, I think the head is now on its last legs; hopefully they will be long and strong enough to get me home. Next was the issue with the head gasket which caused another 24-hour delay.
This morning, while waiting for the gasket to arrive, I started preparing the dinner I had offered to make. Helenna had suggested that the inner pot from her slow cooker was probably the best thing for the job. I put the pot on the stove to heat up prior to browning some meat. CRACK!! Too late I realised that a ceramic pot should not be put on the stove. 😢
I found another suitable container and had just finished the job when I received a call to say the gasket was available for pick-up.This one was satisfactory and so I replaced the head. Once this was accomplished, I started to organise the bits needed for the next step, only to discover that one of the oil monitoring jets had vanished. I knew I had taken care to put both into a small ziplock bag, because the part is small, crucial and hard to get. Now one was missing!
I spent more than an hour moving stuff under the workbench, emptying containers full of old nuts, bolts, and other mechanical cast-offs and sieving the contents. I swept the floor, carefully searching through the dust and debris. I emptied the rubbish bin, and moved other stuff which the jet would have needed a rocket boost to fall behind. All to no avail 🤨
Finally, accepting wat seemed to be the inevitable, I called Dan, the local Honda dealer parts guy, with whom I was now quite friendly. The part had never been ordered in NZ, so he would have to arrange for it to be entered on the system and then ordered from Japan. Timeframe? Estimated 2-4 weeks! I thought I might get it quicker from the US or UK, so I said I would have another look and get back to him in the morning.
There are 6 locating pins between the cylinder head and the rocker cover. These are small – 6×12 mm – cylinders open at both ends. Thinking I would put all these small bits where they belonged immediately, to avoid losing anything else, I started to replace them when I noticed the one pin I had placed earlier looked odd; closer inspection revealed the missing jet inside the pin!
Feeling somewhat more cheerful, I went in for dinner, which was a big success; maybe I should give up wrenching and stick to cooking. 😂
Fed and watered I returned to the bike to tidy up so I was ready for the morrow. I noticed I had left a shop towel in the cam chain tunnel to prevent anything falling down – normal practice. I removed this only to see another one further down. “Odd,” I thought and tried to remove it. I discovered it was caught between the head and barrels; obviously I had left it in place while replacing the head!I now had two options: remove the head completely, clean everything up and replace it; or slacken the bolts enough to allow me to remove the towel. In spite of knowing that the latter option might result in a future oil leak because of the gasket dressing I had put on at the back of the cam chain tunnel, I couldn’t face the prospect of removing the head completely, so I took the short cut. Only time will tell 🤞!
I now have to give the head time to settle and then re-torque the bolts to ensure they haven’t loosened as the gasket compressed.
Belfast-2-Belfast-By-Bike 