Disaster management

Ok, so the spate of things going terribly wrong has apparently subsided. Only lesser thing have gone wrong since then, and a recovery plan is in operation.
After checking things over after cracking the head i realized the head gasket and one of the power rings were doomed. being an unusual type of gasket i doubted being able to get one at short notice and set about producing a CAD drawing so i can have one water cut. However getting the right type of copper sheet in the right thickness's was going to be tricky and so i gave up, made a phone call and got hold of a gasket first time! With any luck it will be here before weekend.

Initial assessment of the cracked head turned into a plan to patch the crack on the outside with epoxy putty. But after speaking to a couple of people and a quick call to Stu Crane at warpspeedracng, the head was dispatched off to Norfolk for some welding. Stu got the head today and within a couple of hours it was welded, skimmed and put back in a box to be returned to me via courier. Top stuff!

Moving on to the cylinder head stud that pulled out along with a timesert....
Thanks to Bob Brooks for helping me out with this one. he very kindly loaned me some taps and dies, and pre -threaded a piece of steel bar to use as an insert and posted the lot off to me. I got those yesterday and spent several hours trying to make the repair as straight and clean as possible. I masked averything off thouroughly, stuck plasticine on the inside of the engine around the bottom of the stud hole just in case when i drilled it out i broke through anywhere and it would catch the swarf. I made a jig of sorts to keep the drill and tap straight and it was mostly quite successful. I made it adjustable by having bolts that grabbed the studs and gave a couple of mm of adjustment. The steel insert Bob made was going to double as a locating dowel, this meant i could gain several extra mm's of thread by having it threaded right up to the gasket face, and the insert itself could also be threaded to the top of the dowel. Overall the result should be effective but i won't be able to tell till the head is on and i try and torque it down.

Stuart is going to come up on Saturday and help me finish off the engine and get it back in the frame. plus there's everything else to refit like exhaust, carbs etc. Ideally i want to fire it up and check all is well too, so fingers crossed .

The Easter thunderball is just one week away now. There are an incredible 13 entries in comp bike so far, and there is a great variety of machines. If the recent good weather can make a return that weekend, and my bike is ready and stays that way it will make for a fab weekend!

And finally, I've all but finished the Back brake modifications with caliper bracket and wheel spindle spacers. Final finishing can wait!