I haven't posted for a couple of weeks. Once we hit the deadline and made it to the Thundersprint, I've had to catch up on all those other things that had been sacrificed to finish her. It's also been a busy time of year for "adventures" - with weekends away cycling and then a day away to the TT.
I finally found some time to investigate the oil leak from the base gasket today, having done the sensible thing and bought myself another torque wrench with a lower range. What did I find? Well, I had over-torqued, not under-torqued the bolts for starters. More seriously, there is also a residual issue from the previous owner. One of the long bolts holding down the head/barrel must have previously stripped a thread and had been replaced by a stud and nut, which had similarly stripped the thread and was doing next to bugger all :(.
Hmm this is turning into a big job now. I'll get proper Honda base and head gaskets if I can now and a replacement head bolt, but I'm going to have to strip all the top end down again and heli-coil the stripped thread, which I've never done before. The "how to" articles I've read about it look fairly straight forward though.
It's likely to be a few weeks before Doris is back on the road, so the VFR has been pressed back into service. Hey ho - no one said this would be straight forward......
I've booked a ferry ticket for passenger and bike for a few days at the Manx GP in the Isle of Man at the end of August. It would be nice if Doris could use the ticket :)
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