Recent content by Grewth

I was under the impression that any sort of acid had a bad reaction with Aluminium or Aluminium Alloy castings. I was thinking more about giving the brake plate a gentle roasting in the gas oven

Just bought a spare front hub/drum c/w the brake plate. Not actually seen it in the metal yet, only photos, but it's all looking salvageable, except for the speedo drive, which is looking too far gone in my guesstimation. Is there any way to save this ? Or am I looking at a GPS Speedo...

Now that you know exactly which cylinder is seized you could use one of these to exert quite a bit of hydraulic force on the piston crown. Also it could probably force some of that ATF/Acetone mix past the rings etc. Obviously you'd have to refit the head and valves, and get a gasket to seal the...

I got hold of a gallon of "non brewed condiment " once upon a time (probably thirty years ago), it's the concentrate that they make vinegar from in Fish and Chip shops. Now that stuff was not safe to work with, but I bet it would dissolve rust in minutes. Probably impossible to get hold of now...

Yeah I had that problem when I tried to buy "aircraft stripper " It was still available in the US at the time but banned in the UK, and nobody would ship it from the US

I've got quite a collection of chromed parts, where the chrome is in presentable condition, but the reverse side has a good layer of surface rust. Both the mudguards ( just picked up a nice rear one), the headlamp rim, rear unit shrouds (XS1B), and the tail lamp mounting. Lots of bits in fact...

Whoohoo ! Just got a brand new Heiden tuning seat for £160 shipped. Made in Taiwan, so I'm assuming that this is the same seat that XS650.com sells. Price from Heiden is €246 plus shipping, and I think that VAT would have to added at 20%. It's very good quality, but still not as good as the...

I think that all of us get ahead of ourselves at some point, myself, I think that I'd have a go at freeing that seized engine, just for the hell of it. It's worth more in bits than it is in one piece, so nothing to lose except maybe the skin off your knuckles.

Don't ship outside of the USA. What a bummer ! Same seat available in Europe for about €300 I think, plus shipping, plus VAT

Thanks for all the input, guys. I'm afraid that I've been tied up with something else the last few days. I've got two sets of those pipes in bare steel, and I was going to grab another set in chrome (the price seems to go up with each new batch) but now I'm having second thoughts. I'm thinking...

So everyone thought that you were an obnoxious jerk did they ? Well obviously they were right then, and nothing has changed since !

"Snuff or nots" I've got to admit that I'd never heard of them before, and I've been pottering around with motorcycles for fifty years now. I don't think that I've ever seen one here in the UK, I guess that they just didn't catch on here. So, the concensus of opinion seems to be that zero...

I'm thinking of running high level open pipes on one of my 650 Specials. I'm going for the "Street Scrambler" look like the old Triumph TR6C. I'm just wondering if the standard BS34 carbs will be able to cope with the lack of back pressure. I don't want loads of popping and backfiring on the...

That will work ! Many thanks ! Not sure if I'll need to bias the slide hammer effort to the left, or just a straight pull in the middle. I'll just have to take it easy, and see how it goes. The tank is now plastered with a thick coating of paint stripper, it will probably take a week for me to...

I've bought another '70 to '72 fuel tank. It's got some issues that you'd expect with a fifty year old tank, but one thing that I never spotted before bidding was that an impact on the filler cap has bent the filler over about 10° to the left. Having had some previous experience with these...