Serious MT500 Surgery

[arceye]

Dont forget to use a good quality welding helmet.

[Mr Kay]

The main thing i have found welding Ally is to make sure it is spotlessly clean.
Use a zirconiated tungsten to get a good ball tip.
Ally soaks up the heat so you need a lot of power at the start, gradually decreasing as the ally heats up. Any large parts its best to pre heat before welding.
Sorry if i am telling you how to suck eggs.
Your welding is looking great mate.
Oh, and if you need any rods ect, give me a bell.

Thanks Phil. I was welding some ali this evening and the main thing I found was that if the tungsten was contaminated it had far more of an effect than with ferrous metal.
I could really do with a pedal for fine control but so far I've baulked at the £300 price tag.
I've pretty much finished amassing a collection of rods and tungstens in different grades and sizes but thanks for the offer.

[ZIP TIE]

Please Sir! can we have some more?

[Mr Kay]

Please Sir! can we have some more?

It's 0730 on Saturday morning and I'm about to go out to the workshop for a weekend of solid graft.
There'll be a progress update soon!

[Mr Kay]

As promised...

Ziptie, you were quite right - while I was chopping the frame up I figured that it'd be rude not to convert it.


I've used a chopped up MT500 oil filter canister and found that if it's shortened, I can squeeze it in the same position as the 350's. I'm keen to keep the primary filter in case I miss any swarf when I do the final clean out of the frame

All oil fittings will be AN8 as can be seen on the filter body.

I've found that the smallest Odyssey battery is recommended for the CCMs and BMWs and is about half the size of the 350s battery. It will also fit nicely in front of the swinging arm, low down and close to the bike's centre of mass.



The battery box is aluminium and is attached to a new subframe with anitvibration mounts. The peg mounts are included in the subframe so that the whole lot can be dropped out in one piece. Once I've whacked a bit more bracing on the peg mounts, they should be stronger than the originals.



And finally, a bent CBR400 fork stanchion was sacrificed to make a neater, wider, better sealed oil filler cap:



The usual blog post is here.

[bth2bth2]

some very interesting mods going on there mr kay.

brian

[Mr Kay]

Hands up all those who enjoy removing the carb and airbox from an MT500, or worse still, an MT350?

I've made a mould:


A pressurised mould release system:


Laid up some fibreglass:


Spun some flanges:


And thrown them together to make an airbox:


It mounts on a peg underneath the rear tank mount:


And lifts straight out of the top of the frame:


I need to make some rear mounts for it, give it a coat of paint and seal the flanges. This should make the Dyno Guy's job easier!

Full story on the blog.

[Franc]

Wow, that is some seriously amazing engineering going on there.
I love it!
You are very talented. I am very impressed.
I would never have thought of the pressure release mould, hats off to you for that one.

[Mr Kay]

Wow, that is some seriously amazing engineering going on there.
I love it!
You are very talented. I am very impressed.
I would never have thought of the pressure release mould, hats off to you for that one.

Thanks Franc

[Minter]

I got the chance to see this in the flesh so to speak the other day and it is indeed a work of art Well done alex!

Can you make a mould for a gas gas rear mudguard next!