The Firestorm Diaries

[Storm in a teacup]

Thanks for the info lumpyv and wicky

Sorry to hijack your topic Wonkey.

[Wonky Donkey]

Thanks for the info lumpyv and wicky

Sorry to hijack your topic Wonkey.

No bother, pal! All good advice.

I confess I splashed out on teh reg/rec and went for a MOSFET unit form the States - cost me about £80 all in in the end. I'll be fitting it myself (will post up how I get on).

As for CCTs, I went for Krieger ones (from here http://www.exhausist.com/ Rob de Hoo is a member on here). They came in at about £80 too incl post and such (seems to be the standard price for VTR upgrades... ). I probably could fit them myself, but as the bike's going into the shop for a full-on checkover I'll get them to do it (the mechanic - whom I use for anything I can't tackle myslef - reckons it'll only add a few quid to the bill). Besides, my already small garage is full of a three-quarters-finished project and a trackbike, so not really got the room to do the VTR too.

On the plus side, a Goodridge rear hose arrived in the post yesterday, so I'll get that on and refresh the rear caliper whilst I'm on. I also managed to clean up the downpipes a fair bit and remove a ton of old oil and crud from around the gear lever/crankcase/chain slider and so forth. Not massively noticeable, but I feel better having done it. I'll post a photo when I get home later.

MICK..

[leevtr]

Thanks for the info lumpyv and wicky

Sorry to hijack your topic Wonkey.

No bother, pal! All good advice.

I confess I splashed out on teh reg/rec and went for a MOSFET unit form the States - cost me about £80 all in in the end. I'll be fitting it myself (will post up how I get on).

As for CCTs, I went for Krieger ones (from here http://www.exhausist.com/ Rob de Hoo is a member on here). They came in at about £80 too incl post and such (seems to be the standard price for VTR upgrades... ). I probably could fit them myself, but as the bike's going into the shop for a full-on checkover I'll get them to do it (the mechanic - whom I use for anything I can't tackle myslef - reckons it'll only add a few quid to the bill). Besides, my already small garage is full of a three-quarters-finished project and a trackbike, so not really got the room to do the VTR too.



On the plus side, a Goodridge rear hose arrived in the post yesterday, so I'll get that on and refresh the rear caliper whilst I'm on. I also managed to clean up the downpipes a fair bit and remove a ton of old oil and crud from around the gear lever/crankcase/chain slider and so forth. Not massively noticeable, but I feel better having done it. I'll post a photo when I get home later.

MICK..

Make sure your mechanic knows to set each cylinder at tdc before changing its cct....not all do believe it or not.

[Wonky Donkey]

Make sure your mechanic knows to set each cylinder at tdc before changing its cct....not all do believe it or not

Yeah, we'll have a chat before he gets his tools out. He's quite old-school, and I know he's done a few of these before so it'll be reet. I'm in their often enough to pull up a brew and have a natter about the job, which is a big bonus.

Now, about some cleaning:
Before



After (not the best pics, but it's dark!):



Coating the wheels has jumped up the priority list as they have features such as this:


MICK..

[Wonky Donkey]

So I had a bit of time and set about fitting a Goodridge hose to the rear brake (personally don't think it's warranted at the back, but it looks better and the old hose wasn't in great nick) and cleaning up the caliper.

So old hose disconnected and fluid drained/pumped out. The two screws that hold the reservoir cap on were treated to a WD40 bath and a scrub with a wire brush, and the cap cleaned up. I thought it would need a sand down and paint, but it cleaned up nice enough so no need.

After about an hour of struggling with the stupid screw-in "cover" for the pad retaining bolt (and compulsory swearing), I managed to get it off with the last screwdriver I had that might have fitted - the head's knacked so a new one required. Then caliper mounting bolts off. Front one is fine for reuse but the rear one is well and truly welded inside the boot/sleeve it sits in so that'll have to be replaced:


Caliper itself isn't too bad but needs a good clean:

"Hello, is that David Silver?":

and yes, the little cap came in that massive bag....

After a good clean, and inspection, the piston is fine and I didn't feel the seals needed replacing so back together it went with the clips and pad retaining bolt cleaned up OK:



Caliper remounted - let the bleeding commence To be fair, I've never had any real bother with this - just a bit of patience and plenty rags. I'm happy enough with the pressure I have in it for now, but I'll bleed it a bit more after a few rides.

Cost of this job: £40.61
Cost of mods to date: £62.75

Next up reg/rec.

MICK..

[Wonky Donkey]

Can anybody tell me whether the front caliper mounting bolts (M8x25) need to be high-tensile or not? The OEM ones are trollied, and I need new ones. I can better Honda prices on either ss or h-t, but I'm not sure if they need to be h-t really.

Cheers,

MICK..

[Duffy1964]

I think someone on here recently changed their ones for stainless ones.

It was lloydies thread on engine bolts iirc

[Wicky]

Replace the brake pad pin cover grub screws with stainless steel ones up front and on the rear caliper - these protrude a bit more, have allen heads but make removal less hassle in the future.

http://www.westfieldfasteners.co.uk/A2_ ... t_M10.html

[tony.mon]

Yes, but are they lighter?

[Duffy1964]

No but these are

http://popular.ebay.co.uk/collectables/lighters.htm

[tony.mon]

No but these are

http://popular.ebay.co.uk/collectables/lighters.htm

Mmmmm.
I wonder how many you'd need to fill the tank, and what grade of fuel's in them?

[Wonky Donkey]

I'll take all that as a "we don't really know" then...

[tony.mon]

The originals are high tensile, but I'm not sure why. The torque settings aren't THAT high, and all of the forces acting on the bolts are shear forces, that's not affected much by high tensile treatment.
On single sided calipers, maybe, as there's more likelihood of side loading.

Lastly, if you do happen to shear one, the standard ones are a lot easier to drill out.

I'd use stainless bolts happily enough.
On the other hand, why change something that Honda thinks is necessary- you pays you money and takes your chance.

Any other opinions?

[Wonky Donkey]

finally got round to fitting the new reg/rec. As ever with such jobs, it's much easier than you expect - or it would be if you didn't have to rush to fit it in between other less rewarding household tasks....

After some advice (and some amusing, pointless banter ) I shelled out for a new Mosfet unit from the States, thus:


Old reg/rec disconnected and off, and wires freed from the connector no bother. Spade connectors sorted out and new connector (grey) on the three yellow wires Then for reasons that only became apparent some time later, I could not get the second (black) connector to fit on - more to the point, I could not get the spade connectors to sit right inside it. Turns out it had been damaged - I assume by me storing it amongst piles of other stuff on my tiny excuse for a worktop in the garage. Plan B was to dispense with the connector block and plug the connectors direct into the unit. Mind and get the red and green the right way round now.. D'oh! Anyway, flasher unit moved a wee bit and new reg/rec bolted up - no drama:


Seems to test out OK - though getting my old man to give it a proper once over with multimeter this weekend.

Cost of this mod = £104.92
Spend to date = £167.87

Front calipers next - if I can get the last seized piston out.....

MICK..

[Duffy1964]

Good job matey

I think I have found the stainless steel caliper bolts you were after too

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/151170814566? ... 1423.l2649

Let me know if they are ok as may get a set myself