It's been a while.....

Sorry it's been so long since the last post but for a while I wasn't making any progress so had nothing to write about but that's all changed now! The last post was about stripping the rear suspension down to sort the perished rubbers, they've been a real headache as spares for this bike are non existent. After a lot of searching and headscratching I came up with a few possible solutions such as casting new ones, making them up out of sheets stacked on top of each other (worried they'd separate and get mangled) and I even had an offer of 3D printing them but that came to nothing. In the end I've found some bushes that are the correct outside diameter and the inner diameter is too small so I'm going to have to enlarge the bore, probably using a grinding wheel mounted in a dremel mounted on the toolpost of the lathe. They're also too long but that should be easy to sort with a large knife. They have just been ordered so the project can start moving forward again.

I have made some progress with a few other bits whilst I've been thinking about this though.
The main progress has been with the wheels. I ordered new tyres and trued the wheels before mounting them. Amazingly the 64 year old brass nipples turned with no fuss. They aren't perfectly true but they're better than they were (plus I'm comparing to my bicycle wheelbuilding tolerance of ±0.2mm which was never going to be realistic on these wheels). The new tyres look really good, I went for 19x3 on the rear (as was originally fitted front and rear) and a 19x2.75 on the front, hopefully I made the right decision.

I also sent the brake shoes off to be relined by Villiers Services and got them refitted. There was a bit of an issue with the front when I put the wheel back in, the tab that locates on the fork was bent towards the spokes so when it was forced into place it deformed the back plate and pushed the shoes out, locking the wheel. I 'adjusted' the back plate using my fine adjustment tool (hammer) and got it all back together fine. The front wheel is now back in place with the front brake cable connected so I have one of the 5 controls (Front brake, rear brake, throttle, clutch, choke) working again. Sorry, no picture until both wheels are back on.

I also had an investigate into the electrics and discovered that the headlight bulb dates from 1954 and that the whole system is pretty simple. Although the bike currently only has a headlight and nothing else; no key, indicators, rear light, brake light etc. I will probably put some of these on at some point. The most likely setup is headlight, rear light and a key. I also managed to get the ignition timing set to what I think is right, I'll only find out when I try to start it once it's back on it's wheels.

Another thing stopping me from starting it was the knackered thread for the gearbox drain plug. This was solved with an M12 x 1.75 helicoil kit which I really wish I'd done before I reassembled the gearbox. Ho hum, hindsight is always 20/20.I had to tip the bike on it's side and take half the gearbox apart to stop me drilling into the gears. Once it was done and the bike was back upright I found that it wasn't forming a proper seal, fingers crossed a copper washer has solved that.

I've also made some 'art' out of the old numberplate but all that's doing is reminding me I need to sort all the paperwork out to get it registered and insured.

Considering I thought this post would be short as I hadn't made much progress, it's turned into a bit of a monster. Hopefully next time I'll have the rear suspension bushes modified, installed and the bike back on it's wheels ready for a few last bits and pieces before I can finally try to start it