1982(3) - RM175 Full Floater

[BETRIC]

THE BEARING DEALER AT MARYLANDS COULD NOT HELP ME SO I HAD TO PAY THE $$$ FOR THE BEARINGS FROM SUZUKI

[Grunter215]

Hey Bahnsy, I brought some a few months back in Bayswater...$50 each. I to hunted everywhere,no-one helpful until this shop. Will find invoice...get back to ya.

[YSS]

Are they 22 mm OD ? If yes we have them.

[Grunter215]

Bahnsy, did Anthony pass on the details. 0412394102 if need more info.

[BAHNZY]

Well its been a slow process getting the bits and peices together, but we are back on track again.
Got the seat back from TopLine it looks as trick as a dog with 2 dicks. Mario does a ripper job and the artwork was couretesy of the bikes owner and stenciled on by Mario.  Thanks to Kiwi we now have some new bearings for the suspension linkage and with a little more help from LWC we will have a new set of spokes as well. This weekend we plan to have the frame painted, the front suspension in and start on the engine.

[BAHNZY]

The next step in the installment.
The front spokes have turned up from LWC3077 which meant that i had to pull my finger out to get the hubs finsished and the rear spokes shortened and re-rolled - (Using Talon Blanks) Dipped the rims in Caustic Soda to get rid of clear anodising in preperation for a polish of the rims. Should have this done by the weekend.



LWC3077 also put me onto a ProX rod kit from a TS185 that fitted a treat. The engine now has a fresh set of bearings, seals gaskets, RM ratios and a new rod, piston, etc etc.



So we are looking good to get the bike to a roller within a fortnight, getting itchy feet to see what it will turn out like.

[LWC82PE]

so does Caustic soda strip annodizing off properly? if so what brand did you use? if it does then that will save me some money sending mine away to be stipped.

[BAHNZY]

Leith,
Common garden variety caustic soda works well for me. I use a kitty litter tray (as per the picture) that i picked up for a couple of bucks at the plastics joint. I buy a container of caustic soda crystals from the hardware and add enough water to the container that will cover a rim over a 8-10 inch section then add 1/2 a container of the crystals. I then dunk the rim in the solution. How long is determined by the make of the rim and how old it is. Old rear rims don't take as long, generally as they have been sand blasted from track work over the years. I usually leave the rims in the solution till they go jet black. I them pull the rim out and clean the black goo off with some steel wool and soapy water. This is twofold, one you need to stop the reaction on the alloy whilst you dip another section of the rim (that’s why you use the soapy water) and secondly using steel wool will tell you that you that you have stripped the anodizing off as you will scuff the alloy up strait away. If you can’t then you need to dip it longer. You then complete the process again on the next section of the rim. When it is all finished I drag out a fine file, get rid of all the rock, tyre lever and tyre machine gouges that have made their way onto the rim over time then get into the rims with 600 wet and dry before i polish them on the bench grinder. Polishing them is another thing altogether that I won't bore you all with for now.

Bahnsy

[LWC82PE]

thanks i reckon i can give this ago. it will save striping costs and $14 of freight back and forth to adelaide if i can do it myself. i also picked up some fox air shox today and i wouldnt mind re-doing the annodizing on those. yeah there was no need to tell me how to do the polishing as i know all that part, but maybe some other people would be interested in that.

would caustic acid be what the annodizers use when they strip stuff?

[BAHNZY]

So the bike is finaly finished, but not started. It was decided that we would take the bike to the VCM/Viper practice day at Broadford  and give it a start there for some significance to mark the moment. So after getting a 17 year old female out of the deep slumber on a Sunday morning, a difficult task at the best of times (if you have a child at this age you will understand) and we head to Broadford with the bike on board along with a few of it's older siblings, namely the 400C. We get to Broadford, pit beside the Bakers and unload the bikes. Mixed some fuel, showed her the ritual to starting a 2 stroke from cold and got her to wear a boot on the right foot, "just in case"

Three kicks later the bike lets out a massive backfire and in typical Suzuki fashion lets you know that it will start on the fourth kick. So it is with utter dissapointment that the bike gets its fourth kick with no compression at all. After some quick diagnosis we find that the headgasket is leaking big time. I tension down the head bolts and re-check and the same result. In frustration we throw the bike on the trailer and decide to have a look at it when we get home.

[BAHNZY]

Get the bike home, and get strait to pulling the head off and really could'nt see much other then the head studs were not flush with the top of the barrell and there was no crush on the copper gasket. I decide to pull the head studs down and find that they won't tighten in the barrel. So i pull them out alltogether and find they are completely stripped and (and get this) the studs have been superglued in.



Challenged with why the head bolts tensiond but the gasket still leaked, i delved further and realised the step on the head stud had come upagainst the underside of the head and the nut would then tightened down on the opposing side and give the impression that the nuts had been tensioned and this given me some understanding how i missed it when assembling the engine, but why were they all stripped?



I then realised that when i bought the bike the previous owner he had told me that a bike shop had bored the engine, fitted a new piston and it never ran properly since. As you have got to remove the studs from the barrel the penny finally dropped.
So i rip the barrell of the bike and fit 6 new helicoils to right the wrongs of the bike shop and we are back to square one.

[BAHNZY]

So the bike is now ready to give it a start. Thought i'd capture it on a "YouTube" moment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXzR8T0xqnM

[BAHNZY]

And some pics of the completed bike with it's proud owner.





Thanks to;
Anthony Coxon (Bumper McGunn) @ PowerHouse Motorcycles for finding the bike in the 1st place.
Kiwi64 for a line on parts.
Chris Cormack for the donation of some near impossible to get parts.
Mario from Top Line upholstery for the seat.
Vintage Suzuki for the new plastics.
Leith for the Spoke Kit
Gazza Hacking for the sweet deal on the fuel tank
The crew at Byrners Suzuki for the genuine bits.
Top Gear Mototcycles for the consumables
Forum members for thir tips.

[Hoony]

looks good Bahnstormer !

[Wombat]

That was a lot of work. Great outcome, looks good well done!