Jerry's IT175D moves on apace
You've all done very well!
Jerry Rulf
Dum dum dum dum, doobie doobie
I still call them Marathons. And Opal Fruits (go on, sing the next bit). Anyway, on another subject, there have been yet more shocks and horrors regarding this blinking IT175...
Far be it from me, and unaccustomed as I am to public speaking, and pardon my French, but many people don't realise the mental determination and stubborn focus needed to mess around with bikes.
Just saying.
As an example here is an illustration in words-
I wanted a brake light switch on the front brake, and facility for a mirror.
So I bought a perch from an XT500.
I found a brake light switch that fitted the hole.
Then I found a pattern lever that fitted the perch.
But it had a bigger hole than the pivot bolt.
So I found a bigger pivot bolt.
But it wouldn't go in the perch.
So I drilled out the perch hole.
I changed the bolt to an allen bolt.
Done.
What a load of hassle.
You have of course noticed also the gorgeous and fascinating and glamorous throttle.
It's a Tomaselli job, and you can see the wheel go round when you blip the gas.
The bonus is that it now doesn't have a stupid long cable all hanging out the front, it's all tucked in and tidy.
I had to shorten the throttle cable and replaced the nipple with a screw in type, and crushed a little copper ferrule behind it as belt and braces technology.
All bits from Wemoto, god bless 'em.
Gonna tell you a story 'bout a man named Jed, (name that programme!)...
This bit is about oil (Black Gold! Texas Tea!), and the lack of it in a motorcycle engine.
When running, black oil splooge was seeping out of the joint between the exhaust pipe and the manifold. I thought it might be a leaking crank seal on the oily (clutch) side, so decided to have a look.
Lucky I did.
There was no gasket, just a bit of silicone.
The clutch case was virtually devoid of oil, and the nut that holds on the drive gear on the end of the crankshaft was not even finger tight! Yikes!
Former owners eh?
When I had recovered from my swooning and fainting fit (I was wearing an empire line dress and had been reading Jane Austen), I checked the clutch plates, all ok.
The black dribble here is the entire contents of the engine, not quite 650cc I'd say.
The nut here shows corrosion, not a good sign- it should be constantly covered in oil... oh dear...
Engines eh!
I love a bit of the old engineering, me.
I, like you, have spent time thoughtfully considering the meanings and messages contained in that excellent Holbein painting “The Ambassadors”.
But I can't help feeling that the National Gallery would benefit from more pictures of engines.
Well folks, I made a nice lovely proper gasket (a pleasurable activity to me), and put it all back together, properly this time.
It started first kick, and I had also sealed the exhaust with heatproof silicone, and it is now less noisy.
The only faults now are the small end and stoplight, which makes the tail light conk out when on..
I've emailed Yamaha UK for a dating letter to get it registered.
More next week!
Anyone got any motorcycle former owners horror stories they would like to relate? Go on get it off your chest...
We would love to hear them - email them to us at
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