Apr 102010
 

Monday: Today was one of those days when I had a chance to ride with friends in the sun  and declined  as I, hopefully,  only have a couple of hours work left to do before the rebuild is finished.

First job re-fit the exhausts. Easy get the new set of gaskets out OOPS too big won’t go in the opening in the head, must be the wrong one. B….. Fleabay. Now I will have to wait at least a week whilst I get some from the stealer.

Second job fit the kick stand. Can’t get it on as the jack is in the way, have to wait till I can get an assistant and re-position the jack.

Third job re-route the front brake lines and the throttle cables as I fitted them wrongly  :'( Good job I saw a friends Valk yesterday and realised. That went off without too much of a hitch.

Fourth job re-bleed the front brakes. Ran out of new brake fluid and all the shops shut as it is a public holiday.

Fifth job fit the airbox. Thanks to everyone who says that this is a PITA job it certainly is. Got the airbox in between the frame rails relatively easily after a lot of effort and about 20 minutes pushing and pulling I got the small pipes refitted and  the rear two hoses on to the carbs. After about another 40 minutes of struggling to get the centre and front ones on I called it a day.

Today was quite clearly a day when I should have gone riding rather than working on the Valk.

Saturday: Nothing done all week waiting for the exhaust gaskets to arrive. I decided to have another go at the airbox.  First off I removed it again. Checked the location of the wiring and repositioned it just to make sure there was enough room for the airbox to drop down fully. I tried removing the rear carburettor brace plate as suggested on the VRCC forum to get my hand in under the airbox.  I got the nuts off the plate and got it loose but could not manoevre it out between the carbs and the engine hangers so gave up and put it back. I tried pushing pulling swearing and in the end had managed to get one of the rear tubes correctly lined up. I was getting ready to hit it with a hammer but decided not to and so have left it until next week when I will have a go with the ratchet strap method.

A really annoying, frustrating unproductive week this week and I am so close.