If you had as many cars as I have from years ago, you would have collected several shitty aerials...... Depends on the diameter.......stainless can break when trying to bend it into a tight loop, so I would guess a maximum of 1.5mm for the 'wire' loop type, but the larger ones could be 2mm. A tip........when forming the bends and loops always use a smaller diameter tool to bend the metal around it.....say if you need a 6mm loop for an M6 bolt, use a 5mm (screwdriver)...,and form the small fixing loop before any other bends.
what about heating up the stainless with a blowlamp to make it easier to bend think its 2 mm ones I have
OK - here we are... Back at home with minimal damage from the NYE celebrations... So - here's a picture of the bike before work began. Senna colour scheme, and 2002 spec. The Termis sound nice, but are pretty tatty and are almost falling apart...
... and here's a view after an afternoon's work in September. Still looks like a bike (just about). This photo has proved very useful as I've reassembled... I was surprised how little time it took to take the bike to a condition where it really wasn't a bike at all. Disassembly was pretty straightforward - the only thing that really had me scratching my head was how to take it off the Abba stand. In the end I just used a big block of wood under the engine block. Worked fine except that the wood (a nice solid chunk of oak) proved to be rotten int he middle and split, dropping the engine and frame over and bending one of the fairing mounting points (dammnit!).
Got the same model as you. Chunky Swingarm, 5 spokes, ohlins. Just sold my low slung silencers for £200 and got brand new high mounts from omnia racing for £460. Baaaaaaarrrrrrp
... and here's a picture of the shelving in the garage where the parts lived whilst I worked on the machine.
... and this one is a less useful picture of the wiring location. (wasn't very useful, since it didn't stop me from putting the air box back with the main loom underneath it...) The bike was very much more grubby than it looks in these pictures - everything I touches left me black.
I nearly just got the old silencers moved to high with nice new steel but that would have cost over £150 including hangers and they were Remus, not termi. Anyway, point being, if the carbon is in good shape you could get the steel worked on if they are tatty?
So... once I had the engine on the bench, I removed the heads and took them into Luigi Moto for a refurb. (not comfortable with these desmodronic valves, and don't have the tools to to this). ... and here's a piccy of the clean and shiny head. Rich at Luigi Moto said that this head was particularly grotty - you can still see some pale tan deposits that even acid bath and blasting didn't manage completely to remove. Both heads needed new exhaust valve guides, but were otherwise in good mechanical nick. (it still cost me more than the new purchase price of my first bike to have this work done, though!). Meanwhile, I was stripping off the alternator and clutch covers and components, cleaning (and re-cleaning, and re-re-cleaning) and masking up ready to paint the engine. More later - am being reminded that there's more to life than the bike...
Hi richgilb, No final pictures - it's not finished yet. It's now a rolling chassis, but I've yet to refit the exhausts, chain, refill with oil, put the fairings back on and so on. Was just putting up some pictures, as people asked :smiley:. There are a few more interim photos - I'll try and put them up tomorrow or Sunday. But completion won't be long now that Christmas is over - but work only at weekends, sadly.
some good work there and good piccies must get some work done on mine still haven't sorted the conversion back from solo seat and high level pipes just been a lazy shit lol
Clean and nice looking engine following the engine respray/ rebuild. I was surprised about the cambelt adjustment - a mixture of 'this is really critical' (need a special tool/ frequency measurement) and black magic (either '45 degree twist' or 'fit an allen key in like a feeler gauge'). Anyhoo, it's all together now and back in the frame. Finding the right allen screws to fit all of the different cover lengths was a bit of an adventure as well. Ended up with too many longer screws, but sure that I used appropriate lengths (all screwed in by the same length).
Here's a picture of my notchy old clutch basket. You can see the wear pattern well, and it's easy to understand how the trick of fitting an old plate into the bottom of the pack would take the contact from the worn point to the unworn portion. Now, with hindsight, I reckon it's not too badly worn. Will hang onto it so that when the new one's knackered...
Question time... I'm puzzled. The spring clip that fits to the brake caliper (see pic) isn't a sprung fit at all. It's a rattly fit and I can't really see the point of it being there (except perhaps to stop crud from falling into the brake/disk space). I can't see another way of fitting it. Ha it 'unsprung'? Should I re-bend is so that it's a sping fit? Should I replace it?
Oh - reply to Rich's question. Yes, the bodywork's good. A few scratches, but it's not been dropped, so far as I can see. It's been fitted with crash bungs though, which is a shame, I think. I'm wondering, though.... the frame is darker now than it was, and is closer to the colour of the bodywork... So I'm thinking about painting it a darker colour - something like a carbon grey/black - a couple of shades warker than the Senna...
