MT Riders Club

This has been an ongoing project since September 2017 that I kept meaning to update on the forum but ended up posting various stages on Facebook..
But I've found some time to sort out the photos and a write up, so here goes:

Back in September my sprag failed en route to a camping weekend, not wanting to kick her over all weekend I took the bike home and jumped in the car, thinking that the bike would be an easy fix the following week. Upon inspection, it was a broken sprag spring, easy, been there done that before. What I wasn't expecting was the small handful of shrapnel that was hiding behind the clutch cover and later in the sump.. After checking the possible culprits (camshaft bearing cage, etc..) with no sign of failure, I asked Gary if he could have a look and if he would pick the engine up from Stu's weekend in November.









Seeing as the engine was now out the bike and I was bikeless for the foreseeable future, I took the opportunity to piece together a 350 kicker that I've had sitting about in pieces in a box for the last year. I printed out the workshop manual and began tinkering in the workshop (and kitchen) every evening after work for about a week and a half until I had something that resembled a very beat up rotax. It went back into the frame, with a freshly painted shoe and was ready for a test run. I struggled to get her started on the kicker, but put this down to lack of practice; as I've always had the push button! Eventually I developed a knack (or so I thought) and she ran, but ran poorly.. But enough for me to attempt the ride down to Hailsham for the November gathering. Those of you who were there will testify to how shit this engine was and Gary's ankle is probably still swollen from when it kicked back on him.. I missed out on the off roading, but stayed back and tended to the camp whilst trying to find out why this engine was running so incredibly badly.
But the weekend was a success, because Gary now had my electric start engine and it was on its way to Oxfordshire













TBC

Enjoyed reading your post. Thanks. I've found the secret to kick starting my 350 is to make sure no body is watching!

The 350 kicker limped back home after Stu's weekend with Mick (Bandit) following in his van just in case it threw a hissy fit.. This kicker engine would tick over fairly okay, but as soon as it was under load it would start to splutter, run erratically and generally be a pig; it was like something was fundamentally wrong, but the timing was spot on, valve clearances had been checked too many times and the previous engine ran fine with the same carb and electrics! I became fed up/bored with this engine so began preparing for when the 405 came back from Gary..

My back brake had been a bit feeble of recent and I reckoned that I would need some better stopping power for the rebuilt engine, so I stripped and rebuilt the rear caliper and master cylinder with fresh seals.



I also found a thread somewhere on the forum about improving the front brake by replacing the original master cylinder with another Grimeaca master cylinder from a Honda NSR 125. I found one on ebay for about £20 in reasonable condition and rebuilt it, because who trusts an ebay seller who breaks bikes..
This seems to be a good mod, my front brake now works better than it ever has done before and the brake light switch is far more robust than the original MT part!



And then the day came! Gary had finished the engine and it was ready to be collected and put back in the frame





Typical, January was wet and cold and the prospect of fitting an engine outside didn't thrill me...
Thankfully, a mate's Dad let me use his shed for as long as I needed. Now in the warm and dry, the kicker engine could be removed and replaced with the 405.





TBC

Well done Laurence!