I got the replacement parts for the SRAD on Saturday, Sunday I rested, like all good Gods should do and on Monday morning I set to putting the SRAD back together.
The replacement rear end was in excellent condition and as a bonus it had all it’s bolts with it, which saved me having to go through the box of assorted used fasteners to find ones of the correct sizes.
Putting it all back together went splendidly right up until the point I went to fit the seat lock and couldn’t find it. The new one came with a lock but I wanted to use the original so there was only one key for the bike and anyway, I didn’t have the key for the new lock.
The problem arose because I had a massive clear out of the shit hole I call my workshop and somehow it had ended up in a pile of scrap. Half an hour in the cold rain did the trick and I found it buried under a load of stuff that I had decided I was never going to use. Right next to it was the rear foot peg that I didn’t mean to throw out either!! The moral of this story has to be – never tidy up half way through a job.
It really is very easy to take one of these apart, everything is easily accessible and as long as you are fairly methodical in your approach and don’t throw things away it should all go back inside half an hour.
This is a really nice looking bike when it’s in one piece, the previous owner was a painter, he has done a fine job with the Ford Panther black ans whatever shade of yellow it is. The seats look brand new, the rear sets look unused and it runs pretty well. I might have a bit of a tweak with it, I will put fresh fuel in it first. The mid range doesn’t seem quite right to me but once it’s over about 7,000 it’s perfect right up to the 13,500 red line. There seem to be a few reports of such behaviour documented on the interweb but I haven’t had time to look in to it fully, I’ll see how it goes with fresh juice first.
In the meantime I had to attend to an aged Yamaha XJ900 Diversion that had put in an appearance. I bought it cos it was cheap and had intended to put it on the list of Winter jobs and then sell it in the Spring. This happened at exactly the same tome as a load of new old stock stuff came my way so space instantly became a problem and as the XJ had to live outdoors I decided to sell it on at a very modest profit. I thought that I should at least attempt to turn it over so that I could describe it accurately – I had no idea if it was any good or not, don’t think the engine had even been turned for a good few years. So I went through my usual routine – out with the plugs, oil down the bores, cup of coffee, turn by hand, turn by starter see if oil pressure comes up. It’s only after all that faffing about that I try to start them, you can do so much damage just diving in. While I had the plugs out I checked for spark, which seemed enthusiastic on all four – splendid.
I opened up the drain plugs on the bottom of the carbs – they were all dry. In a way that was good as it suggested there was no fuel in them when it was laid up and there was a chance it would start if I put fresh in there. What was weird is that the pump was running, the tank was full but I couldn’t get any fuel to flow. These bikes have a tap under the tank that you can’t see when it is all together so I took the tank off and pulled the pipe off – no fuel. It should have been peeing everywhere so I concluded the tap was blocked. No worries I’m only seeing what happens so I will push some fuel in via my outboard engine primer that I always use for such tasks.
I now had fuel and spark so I thought I would give it a quick go – it was then that I realised the choke cable was knackered so I had to push the choke on at the carb end. Fortunately it was pretty stiff so it stayed in place.
Remarkably it fired straight up and settled in to a really smooth idle. It didn’t want to rev but as I hadn’t cleaned the carbs it wasn’t really too surprising. As it warmed up a bit it got better and the engine sounded really good.
I did a quick video, which you can see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKje073pf1U&t=15s Advertised it as is on facebook and half an hour later it was sold. Wish it always went like that.
Article provided by David Powell of Boston Bike Bits.
