My MKIII rebuild

I've had a thread about this going on the Jockey Journal for some time so it's only fitting I post some pics here.

I bought a MKIII a few years ago, rode it 3 times then proceeded to really clean it as it was a bit dirty and ratty. Well, I basically cleaned all the parts off of it the more I dug in and found things that were basically wrong and should have not been done.

What started as a bit of a cleaning job led to a few upgrades and then I basically said "screw it" and completely tore it down. Now, I'm not that smart as I didn't even take any pictures of the bike when I first got it. I think I was so excited that thought never even crossed my mind until I was well into the tear down.

This was the first motorcycle I've bought. My brother passed down an old beat down frankenstein RD400 to me. I saw a Commando in Brit Bike magazine and knew right then that I needed one. I sold off the RD for peanuts and hunted for a MKIII. This all leads to where I am now. My very first mechanical venture with a motorcycle that led to a restoration and rebuild. Trial by fire at it's best.

Pics will be posted in a few hours as I forgot to dump them into my photobucket account this morning.

Really looking forward to this thread. I've been following Coco's rebuild over on the JJ Forum and I've got to say he's done some truly amazing things with his bike!!

Thanks, Coco....cheers!!

cmessenk said:

Really looking forward to this thread. I've been following Coco's rebuild over on the JJ Forum and I've got to say he's done some truly amazing things with his bike!!

Thanks, Coco....cheers!!

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You'll have to thank CNW as well as they did the major stuff like the engine and sold me some nifty parts like the brake kits and other items . They've given me a lot of help and Matt is a truly awesome guy and has been helping me out with the trivial stuff as well as this Forum. Without Matt and everyone here I'd be lost for sure.

The paint, along with the motor will be the crowning jewel though. I'm getting some chopper guy in Wisconsin (Blue Moon Kustoms) to do the metal flake on the fenders and side panels so it should be pretty cool.

I'm looking forward to it also. Love pictures... :lol:

This is how it looked after a few rides and I started pulling crap off of it.



later on

I was doing all this at my work place. My boss let me store it there and work on it whenever I wanted since I have keys. At that time I had no garage space and was going to reassemble the thing in my furnace room at home.

The electrical was a mess and was part of the inspiration to tear the bike apart.

The bike was absolutrely filthy when I got it. I don't think either of the two previous owners ever cleaned up any oil spillage from around the oil tank opening. I'm a bit of a neat freak so the grunge really bothered me and I could not understand why no one ever cleaned this bike. O)n the other hand, some of the greasy dirt did protect some of the parts from corrosion and once cleaned they looked good as new. That can't be said for the stock z-plates. A leaky battery really made the left side look terrible. Forks were decent but could use a rebuild. Brake calipers needed a rebuild as well. The bike rode pretty good but after a few rides the carb was acting funny and the Boyer took a crap on me.

Did I mention yet that I don't know what I'm doing?

After getting the frame stripped, I noticed the two front down tubes had slight bends in them. I'm guess one of the previous owners had crash bars on and the bike got dumped. Two dents from mounting brackets on each tube in exactly the same location led me to my conclusion. After a small and bfief freak out session, I sent the frame off to a guy in Vancouver to get the frame aligned on a jig and the dents fixed. There was also a small crack on one of the seat lock/shock mounting tabs that had to be tig welded and sanded down before the frame went for powder coat.



Pic is small. Colour is a nice metallic silver with lots of tiny flakes. It's subtle but looks the business I think.

This was taken at my old house before I bought another one WITH A GARAGE!!!!!! Yeeehaaaaa. Notice the water filter on the wall behind the bench. I really hated doing this stuff in my furnace room.

Ok, on to the good stuff. CNW did an outstanding job on the engine rebuild. The rocker covers and valve inspection covers were bought off ebay. Some old guy made some one-offs so I figured they would look pretty cool.

Grinding off powder coat for the isolastic mount bolts and studs was a pain in the arse. next bike I build will be painted for sure.

Here is the front engine mount/iso assembly in polished stainless.



Here is the rear iso/transmission cradle with the swingarm all ready to be mounted.





To anyone following the Old Britts guide for blanking off parts for powdercoat, don't adhere exactly to the swingarm instructions. You can see the large area near the pivot that is a darker silver. That is touch up paint as the space needed to be blanked off is actually much smaller than they suggest. :cry:

Coco said:

Grinding off powder coat for the isolastic mount bolts and studs was a pain in the arse. next bike I build will be painted for sure.

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You can put bolts, nuts and washers of the correct dimension in the mounts to prevent them from being coated. As shown on the Old Britts site.

I'm not sure why the large masking around the swingarm. I'm not sure if I would have followed Fred's picture there.

The next task was getting the engine in the frame. I seem to enjoy doing things the hard way so I figured why get the engine in easily? I mounted the front iso/motor mount and mounted the cradle and swingarm. I was ready for the install.

I managed to persuade my girl friend to help me do this. Guys, always warn your significant other that you may raise your voice and freak out a litle bit during this procedure. Those engines are heavier than they look and after about 3 attempts with tired arms I managed to get things in there, yelling at my girlfriend and smashing a finger or two in the process but all went in without scratching anything shiny or damaging the powder coat. I remember looking at her in sheer panic because I thought I was going to drop the damn thing and saying " I don't know what I'm doing!" It's funny now but scary then as I thought for real I was going to drop the engine. She laughs at me now but I was crapping my pants there for a bit.

Last thing I did was a couple of days ago and that was getting the shocks monted as well as the z-plates. This project is now starting to look like a motorcycle again. Once I get the bike onto a lift, I'll make more progress as I still have to get this thing off of my work bench. Stock type SS shock bolts will be swapped out for polished SS button head allens as I'm not using the stock seat. The polished button heads will clean everything up nicely and not stick out like the stockers.



That's it for now. I've got the next 5 days off work so I'll light a fire under my ass and make some progress.

Here is a shot of the new CNW reed valve breather set up.

delays, delays and more delays. Waited for a top tranny mount bolt I forgot to order. The bolt finally got here so I went to slap the tranny in and I have to remove some cradle to motor mount bolts to fit it in. The CNW breather is in the way. I have to remove some bolts to enable me to swivel things out of the way as I only need an extra 1/4" of clearance to get the tranny in.

2 steps forward, one step back. Either way I'm getting the tranny in tonight if it kills me.

Coco said:

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Did you make the engine stand? Is it better to have the barrels vertical? I assume so but want to ask someone too.

Very nice, Thanks for sharing it with us Coco. I really like the color of the frame it looks super clean. Can't wait to see the final pictures. AAAAA++++++

swooshdave said:

Coco said:

Did you make the engine stand? Is it better to have the barrels vertical? I assume so but want to ask someone too.

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That is simply the bottom of a shipping crate with sides knocked off and bracketry still attached. I got the wooden crate and the stainless angle brackets sent back from CNW with my motor. I think it's a crate someone sent in that simply got recycled back to me.

It does make a great engine stand. As for the angle of the motor.....who knows. That's just how it came to me.

Hortons Norton said:

Very nice, Thanks for sharing it with us Coco. I really like the color of the frame it looks super clean. Can't wait to see the final pictures. AAAAA++++++

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Thanks. It's a nice metallic powder coat but you can't get the whole effect unless you're up close. It's not crazy like metal flake but more like the metallic paint of a nice sports car. Although there will be some heavy metal flake going on the fenders and side panels, the seat hump and tank are polished alloy. Lot's of shiny silver on this thing...............maybe too much.

Next time I'll go with paint. This powder coat is rather thick and is quite a pain in the ass to deal with.

Very nice Coco. I'm working on a 75 myself, but it won't look anywhere near that good when/if I get done.
Very pretty.