Those winter projects....
It's winter over here now, and I am into those now. It is amazing how one thing leads into another, and every action has an equal and opposite reaction; and what needs doing that wasn't planned for. For instance, I have just installed a new centre stand that I bought from Jordan off this site. In itself that process has gone well, apart from doing my neck in trying to get the bike up on a stand; mine has only had a side stand before, and there is obviously a knack of getting it onto a centre stand that I don't have...
I was aware that the side stand was loose, had delayed attempting to fix it until I installed the new centre stand so that I didn't have the bike on the side stand while I was trying to fix it. I found the top bolt of the side stand had fallen off (like the bolts on the after market oil filter and the reflector under the fuel tank - I clearly don't use enough locktite and spring washers...) so that only one bolt was holding it to the frame - a bit scary given the pressure of kick starting the bike on that.
A simple enough fix, but in the meantime I have replaced the two in one exhaust that was on the bike with the original roadster exhausts and twin peashooters that were given to me by the previous owner (after yet another $1000 of chrome....)I haven't been able to get the exhausts lined up properly - one sticks out further to one side than the other - which looks really terrible and amateurish when viewed from behind, and the issue is that the exhaust on the side stand side has to stick out further than the other side (which needs to be tucked well under to clear the kick start) as the bolt on the side stand extends out and forces the exhaust out. I thought that I would reverse the bolt, so that the bolt head would be next to the exhaust and provide some extra room so that I could push the exhaust nearer to the frame. However that means that the other end of the bolt fouls the side stand spring (I have a non standard triumph side stand mated to the Norton frame, and I think mated to the lug (? correct term?) which bolts to the frame. A pretty simple fix, but I have now been to 3 outlets trying to purchase the right size UNF bolt and nut; it is something like a 5/16 UNF bolt between 1 and 3/4 and 2 inches long; and will have to take time out of work to travel to a specialist fastener outlet...
A similar story with the installation of my new sparx ignition, which requires three male female bullet connectors – acquired by mail order so that I don’t have to use the crap ones available at local auto stores, and requires me to make up a bracket to fix the regulator to the frame, which in turn means that I have to shift the aftermarket horn (which I installed after my brand new stock horn vibrated off – I still have it for what it is worth). Do you think that, in a city of a million people, I can go down the road and buy a strip of aluminium half an inch wide so that I can cut it, bend it and drill four holes in it to mount it to the frame and bolt the rectifier onto it? Seemingly impossible to buy from a retail outlet; I think that I will have to drive to specialist trade metal dealer during work hours...
The wire connecting the two coils vibrated off during my last trip, and I was stuck in a gorge (Karanagahake Gorge for those that know- at least a scenic place to break down….) without pliers, and managed to break the cheap spade connectors on the wire while trying to put it back on by hand. I was saved by a good Samaritan with a better tool kit than me; but I have been trying to find some decent spade connectors so that I can do a proper fix on the bodge that we did in the gorge. Again, no local auto supplier has decent ones; I found some female spade connectors at a marine supplier yesterday, but they had no matching male connectors; I don’t need them for that wire, but need one to make up a new connector for my harness when I install the new sparx alternator, the original harness connected with a spade connector to the original rectifier and was earthed from there; as I am taking out the rectifier I need to earth it directly.
So three relatively straight forward little jobs made frustrating by the lack of the right size fastener, the right electrical connectors, and a piece of plain metal; by the time I am done I am sure that I will have spent more time acquiring these parts than actually doing the fixes.
As regards the oil filter, I ddi at one time spend some time on the net lookiing for a narrower version; given the rantge that are availabl I have little dobut that there is one there, but it is a matter of tracking it down, which I haven't done yet.