As with the "VMax pages" the trike pages also got longer and longer with more and more pictures taking too long to load, so here's page 2! And I have no doubt that Page 3 will soon follow.
Below a picture of the worst rodbearing ( actually it's the top and bottombearing jammed into each other ). This one had axialmovement as well.You can see the coloration on the rod caused by heat.
In the picture below the crankbearings ( or what's left of them ). As you can see: the copper lining is gone.
Update February 9th: Went by at the rebuilders and took some pictures of the progress on the engine. Conrods are sandblasted, checked and polished, new gudgeonbearings fitted. New pistons and oilpump have arrived.
Cranck alignment has been checked and honed as are the cilinders.
Cranck is ready to be worked on.
Head has last cilinder exhaustvalve seat removed, due to water in the engine it has rotted away around the valve seat. It needs to be welded and new seats will be installed. In cilinder #2 you can see the new valves.
On the picture below the outletseat has already been welded and is ready for re-grinding
On our weekly trip to ERAS ( February 16th ) I took pictures of what the engine looks like now. Engine is ready to take the pistons and cranck, new headbolts installed. Sump has been sprayed mattblack, camchainmechanism cleaned, new camchains and sprockets. New oilpump delivered.
Jagparts are ready to be installed next week.
February 25th: A lot has already been done again. See pictures below.
Below: because the head on this engine has been changed to an E-type head and now has faster "Isky" cams, the camcovers didn't fit like they ought too, the camends touched the inside rim of the covers. The bottom of the camcover is closed, unlike the original ones that had a recess where the endbolt of the cam would be ( right circle ), leaving a space to attach the mechanical revcounter. I could have gone on a quest for original covers but Cees replaced the end hexbolt of the cams with an allenbolt to provide a little room and made up 2 aluminum plugs that fit in the recess ( in his hand in the oval and installed in the left circle ) which will of course be cut in half so the gap is closed. Originally these are closed with rubber plugs, but these aluminum plugs look way cooler.
I've also asked ERAS to take a look at the SU carbs, and guess what: no original spring, wrong jets and needle, airintake halfclosed with a piece of metal strip, fuelfilters full of crud and loads of rust in the chambers. The rebuilder didn't even believe we had driven the trike at all!!! They'll restore the SU's to original specs as well. Cees will also make a neat copper fueltube that fits close to the carbs underneath the airfilters instead of the original fuelhose that hung on the bottomside of the carbs. The extra carbunit, providing extra fuel when the engine is cold had been removed and was already replaced with a manual choke ( which has been redone by Cees, and now works properly ). He also plugged all the tube- and bolt holes on the intakemanifold which will not be used with the engine in the trike, like the hot-air pickup and the heatingsystem connectors.
I might be going for 3 SU's, not for performance ( I don't think I'll lack that ) but for look and sound.
Looking good !!!
While the engine is out
I took out the gearbox as well ( only 8 bolts more work
), it was leaking very bad, so I had that checked as
well, just to be sure.......... which turned out be be a
good idea as this gearbox had very bad bearings as well.
I now think "
good condition" in England means that parts have no
yet been welded together due to oil loss and heat!!
Gearbox is in the frame again, I'll pick up the engine in 2 days. You can also ( just ) see the frontpart of the frame with the new paintjob by Cora: Hammerite Black, giving it a nice industrial look.
Below, the trailfit of the new rearfenders, covering almost the entire tires, like it should for the registration the trike still has to go through. Made by van Renswoude Metaal in Nieuwegein, friends of mine, who were kind enough to do this inbetween their busy schedule. There's a link to the homepage of their company on my "Links" page. ( and YES, I know it is a mess in my garage right now ).
Friday March 23rd I picked up the engine at ERAS and Reinier, Cora and me put it back in the frame. It went surprisingly easy.
I'm fortunate to have a wife that likes these kind of things too and is pretty technical to boot. In the picture below you can see the advantage of that when I need someone with very small fingers and technical insight.
YESYESYES !!!!!!! Today, March 26th we started the engine and it ran like clockwork, only a little fiddling with the carbs. Now we have to finish all the little things like adapting 2 enginemounts ( just some welding required ), replace the oilpressure gauge, make new exhausts ( silent enough to hear myself think ) and check the wiring.
Below a picture of Cees and Dick of ERAS Revisiebedrijf in Utrecht, who wanted to be there when I fired up of the engine for the first time, to check everything was allright. Nice one guys!
The old frontfender has been powdercoated black bij Floor and Herman ( the guys that made the rearfenders ). They made diamondplate sidecovers and Stainless Steel brackets.
I ordered K&N airfilters for the SU carbs, but when they came in, the holes didn't match up ( nor the mountingholes, nor the airholes for the SU-pistons ) so Cees turned up an adaptorplate, that way I could use the K&N's anyway. Pity to put that kind of work away in a place where it can't be seen.
Today- May 4th- the Supertrapp 5" disc exhausts arrived from America. I ordered them from Summit Racing, because they were helpfull in trying to find out what type of exhaust was good for my engine. Supertrapp themself could not be bothered, all they could come up with was sending me an automotive catalog! These exhausts are BIIIIG Fu***rs!!!
Allright, I confess: this page is also starting to grow too big, I'll make 3rd page!!