A trip out to Hooton Park Show

I'd been provisionally booked in to display Gloria at a small local show, dependent on me getting her running OK to make it there and back, and I finally had her running reliably (fingers crossed!) the day before. 

Given the myriad of little gripes I've had to overcome to get to this stage, I half expected to try to kick her over in the morning and find that she wouldn't run, but she fired up first time and settled into a smooth steady idle 😀.

It was less than a 30 minute ride up to Hooton, but the sun was out and I was on quiet A roads all the way for a lovely ride in the Spring sun. All went well and I slowly got used to her individual character - things like getting to know the "sweet spots" and gear/speed combinations she doesn't much care for.

I pulled up and was parked up next to a beautiful old Vincent, so everyone ignored Gloria on the way past! There was a good mix of British, Japanese and American bikes there but it was fairly small - maybe 25 bikes and a similar amount of classic cars and buses.

Hooton Park itself is an important site and contains three remaining WW1 hangars on the former RAF airfield, which was subsequently built on by Vauxhall Motors. The three original, Belfast-trussed, hangars are Grade 2 listed and interesting to see this form of construction if you have had anything to do with construction, together with the historic aircraft collection inside.

Anyway, I stayed into the afternoon and then as things started to wind down, made my way back home with an equally uneventful return journey in the sun again. The whole thing was less than 30 miles, but these little first journeys are what helps to build up the trust for the longer ones. 

So Gloria is back under her cover now, waiting for our next adventure, and I am moving back onto the long term restoration project - my Royal Enfield Crusader 250.

Fine Tuning

The first ride went quite well - 15 miles around a "long block" close to home, so I didn't have too far to push if I broke down! I would say that the performance was at 6/10 - definitely some rough edges there to smooth out.

Most concerning was not running smoothly when transitioning from low to mid rev range and then, as I arrived back home, she started running on one cylinder again - but this time with the right cylinder missing. Ho hum - the joys of old bikes!

So the next two jobs are a thorough strip down and clean of the carbs and I'm also going to replace the coils, as then I'll know that all of the ignition side has been replaced and hopefully will build in some reliability.

I'm getting quite slick at removing and replacing the carbs now, so half an hour had them on the bench.

After stripping down, I had a set of mucky bits that I gave a good soak in carb cleaner and then loaded  into my little ultrasonic cleaner for about an hour. I did each carb separately so I didn't mix anything up.

I cleaned the main body of each carb with a toothbrush and carb cleaner and they came up pretty well. I had bought a set of jet cleaners and used the very finest one to dislodge any bits but most were clear, although I did find a couple of partially blocked passageays which I was quite glad about really - helps to excuse the rough running.

I reassembled, full of hope and ..... not getting any fuel to RH cylinder - AAAAARGH!

Removed again and I checked the fuel delivery / float settings etc again. I reset them to standard Honda settings (18.5mm) rather than the 16.5mm that I'd seen on a Common-Motors video and then I tested everything off the bike to check that fuel was getting through, which it was.

Reassembled, again, and .... fuel not getting through. At this point I was ready to give up and call in the professionals. As a final throw of the dice, I thought I would get another gallon of fuel, as it was getting toward the reserve position. My logic was that a bigger head of fuel may help. Clutching at straws at this stage - can you tell?

And it worked! I quickly put everything away for the day to end on a high.

The next day, I balanced the carbs (again) and went out for local loops totalling about 15 miles. She was running much better - I would say 8/10 compared to the earlier 6/10. The mid-range was especially improved and smoothed out. 

However after about 15/20 minutes, as the engine got hotter, she started misfiring and then eventually ran down onto one cylinder again. After leaving to cool down for five minutes she started again and ran well enough to get home. 

I am now convinced that this is either a problem with the new condensor I fitted (hopefully unlikely) or more likely one or both of the ancient coils/cables breaking down under heat/load. The new coils are due to be delivered in the next couple of days, so we'll see how that goes. But this was a big step forward. For the first time today, Gloria has started to feel like a bike that I can bond with and enjoy and hopefully have some great summer adventures on.

The new coils turned up and were quickly fitted. Out with the old....

...and in with the new ...

I also resynchronised the carbs as I figured that both sides should be working pretty optimally now. They were a surprising way out, so suggesting that one side hadn't been performing as well as the other.

I took her out for a spin and there was a big improvement...until about 15/20 minutes later when she started misfiring etc again. It all felt like fuel starvation and, when I checked, there wasn't a steady flow of fuel from the tank, even though there were at least a couple of litres in there. I drained the tank - nice and clean - and stripped the fuel tap. This had been recently replaced by the previous owner with a pattern part and all looks clean etc. I also put another gallon of fuel in.

She was running better now but quite poorly at low revs. In the end I went back to basics and checked the timing and points gaps (yet again!), and found that the left hand cylinder was retarded by a couple of degrees. I can only think that the heel of the new points has worn in sufficiently to affect the timing that much. Anyway, I fired her up and straight away there was a massive improvement. I then got 30 miles in around my local area and she ran fine all the way at last! There is a slight flat spot at about 4000 revs and she is running a bit rich but otherwise she felt great. Just in time for a first trip out to be displayed at a local show the following day.