James' NC30 rebuild

[VFR400+]

Had a delivery of parts from Rick on Tues so decided to make a start on the front end. Stripped down the forks and replaced the fork oil, springs and spacers using Ricks kit. The fork oil looked almost as if it had never been changed!! Had to wrestle slightly it one of them but other than that went fairly smoothly. (thanks to those that suggested the broom handle trick worked a treat :) )

Got a carbon yoke cover to go on but that will be one of the finishing touches.

Whilst I had the front wheel off I decided to clean up the discs.
The front wheel will be coming off again as it needs new tyres and will be replacing the bearings.

Decided to do the engine next week as got my sister and her little'en coming over the weekend and though prob not the best time to have the engine in the lounge!!

As for the rear brake thats had new seals and is now painted, just waiting on a boot seal as the one I got sent had a hole in!!

[hardnutdvd]

looks like it's going really well. fair play mate. keep up the good work :)

[VFR400+]

Well decided to make a start on removing the engine, Had bought the socket to remove the locking bolts, although it didnt take long to find out that a 14mm allen key was needed to remove an adjuster that held it in on one side. Managed to find a 14mm bolt and a couple of matching nuts so locked the nuts together and stuck the head of the bolt in where the allen key should have gone. Lucky it did the trick so work could continue.

Withing 20mins the engine was out, got a mate to lend a hand but to be honest reckoned it wouldnt be too tricky single handed. The engine must weigh 40-50kg so was easy enough to lower once all the bolts had been removed.

Once it was out started stripping it down to try and reduce the amount of oil in the flat

Took heads off. Removed the cams

Still have to remove the bottom end but the cylinder bores look pretty good, Ive got a feeling it may be a replacement engine as there are some marks similar to scrappie marks. Also it seem remarkably tidy for a 22yr old year old bike, that has been stood around for the last few years.

Carried it upstairs to the flat without dripping oil on the carpet which was a bonus.
Will clean the water ways and lap the valves, measure shims and replace all the gaskets.

[VFR400+]

So having got the engine upstairs into the flat the girlfriend then said she wanted it out as soon as possible, understandibly so!

With that in mind I pressed on and opened it up then decided to ordered a valve spring compressor and a couple of gaskets for the oil pump, starter, thermostat and waterpump that werent included in a 'full' engine gasket set. In the mean time, I reassembled the engine to spray it whilst the old gaskets were in place just in case the paint effected them at all. Got a few coats of gloss black on it which instantly smartened it up.

Once the spring compressor turned up it allowed me to strip the heads and start to clean up the valves.
Got a wire wheel in a cordless to clean up the valves. Did the faces by sticking a socket in the head the placing the valve stem in place, bit risky as could damage the head but seemed to work well. As Ritchy suggested got some tar remover on the head itself and a stiff nylon brush to clean as much of the carbon deposits off.

Went to lap the valves in but the lapping tool Id bought was too big for the tiny exhaust valves so decided to take a lazy option and fit the valve and use the cordless on the stem of the valve and lap them in using the drill!

Once Id refitted the valves with springs and new stem seals, I could refit the heads with new gaskets and then assemble the cams and measure the shim clearances all of which need replacing.

The themostat full of crud, although put it in a boiling pan and it still works

So now im just waiting on new shims and a few gaskets then it can go back in the frame and it should run better than it was before it was taken out. All the shims were out and could only use 2 elsewhere so got 14 new shims coming.

Removed the rear wheel and swingarm yesterday and cleaned them up, filled the swin arm with expanding foam to prevent more crud getting in. Then started to reassemble it. Was nice to get it all clean and start a putting it back together. :)

[Deviant400]

i really really would like to strip down my motor but she runs fine so my view is if it aint broke dont fix it ,however you've done a great job so far on that james

[Speedy]

i really really would like to strip down my motor but she runs fine so my view is if it aint broke dont fix it ,however you've done a great job so far on that james

on that; I also lack the skills to do such a major job!
Kudos to ya m'lad! Nicely done!

[VFR400+]

Cheers guys, I would say its pretty straight forward but I'll refrain until Ive fired it up!!

Little bit more progress, Got the shims all fitted so that now all the valve springs are withing the required torrelences.

Although before fitting the engine I decided to remove the swing arm and clean up the frame as would be easier without the weight of the engine involved. Would also make rebuilding the rear end easier.

I was amazed at how much crud there was around the rear sprocket and along the swingarm!! Once seperated and after alot of cleaning I dried it of and filled the swingarm with expanding foamto prevent more crap getting in. Gave the rear shock a clean up and gave it some colour. Fitted the new rear disc and sprocket. Although its all got to come off to replace the hub as it only has 4 lugs left on it to adjust the chain with.
Got the front brakes back on.
Loom in place, still needs some tweaking. Found some gremlins when I stripped it down to check it over. One of which was this, now Im no electro mechanic but there were some bodges in the electrics should be all sorted now though. :D

That has all now be repaired and fitted the koso digital speedo, although not fully wired up yet. Should be pretty trick when done!

Took the exhaust to get the pipes all polished up so they will be all shiny and like new!

Lastly anyone got any tips of cleaning carpets? One reason why its not a good idea to spray inside!! Think I better do ours before your next flat inspection!!

[Drunkn Munky]

When i got to the pic of the painted engine i thought, nice but surely he's not done that in the house then i see the carpet in the last pic

I wouldnt worry about it, i reckon she's gunna kick you out anyway

Some nice new stainless bolts would really make that engine look nice, do the ones on top of the cam covers too.

[Tim400GB]

Went to lap the valves in but the lapping tool Id bought was too big for the tiny exhaust valves so decided to take a lazy option and fit the valve and use the cordless on the stem of the valve and lap them in using the drill!

Naughty naughty.

Looks like its all going together well though.

[VFR400+]

Not an update on the build but thought Id mention that I passed my Mod 2 today, 2 minors, apparently I got abit close to parked cars a few times. Happy days. Just need to get the bike together now. Going back to my parents house next week to dig out my old spray gear and do the body work.

Also rented a rug doctor from work and have saved myself from getting thrown out by the misses!!