ask greeves

Hello Spencer, Sorry but can't get the picture up, just shows an X, hopefully the site owner will sort it out.

Hello, If you could show a picture of the other side of the bike, showing the generator cover/barrel, that would be an indication, as to wether a genuine 301 or a kit. The 301 was the 1st year of the tall flywheel, with the curved bottom fin to miss the tall flywheel.

I'm a little skeptical, compressed gasses with oxygen content, heated cherry red with residual two stroke oil, sounds like a recipe for a BIG BANG. I personally weld a piece of eighth welding rod to the offending dent, heat and pull.

Get yourself an old 8mm bolt (longer the better) screw it into swinging arm shaft and hit the end of bolt. 2 points come to mind, 1 if you can't remove a swinging arm spindle, what hope have you got for fitting a disc conversion and 2 why would anybody want to fit a rear disc conversion to a Seeley.

Mr Honda was an advocate of air cooling, early Honda motorcars were air cooled, then they realized that it is not possible to keep an even tempature throughout the engine, with air cooling, hot spots create unequal expansion, and as mentioned in previous postings, clearances are larger to overcome these problems. Properly designed watercooled engines keep everything constant.

The mixture screw is not a finite setting, its a infinite setting. Any numbers that people give, ie one and a half turns etc, is a starting point. Every engine is individual, therefore the mixture screw maybe different for each individual bike, of the same model. It's an adjustment screw, for fine tuning, richer one way, weaker the other, if screwing it in and out does not change the engine charactristics, at tickover, then the carb probably needs more attention, such as needle up or down or fuel level or both, or even more, such as ignition, advance/retire, there's no easy fix, just experience....

Later model 240's had motoplat, to replace the dansi, 300's had motoplat, later models had zanusi. The trick setup is the zanusi, but you'll need stator, the heavier 300 flywheel and 300 outer cover. Motoplat work fine, until they go wrong, then being a sealed unit, they are more problem to repair. All forward kick Fantic engines are externally the same dimensions, the interchangeability combined with minimal size and weight makes the overall package perfect for twinshock. The duplex chassis in conjuction with the long swinging arm makes the Fantic the most balance and user friendly twinshock.

If your engine is a genuine 240 twinshock, then it is not possible to fit both oilseals in situ. Only large clutch, straight cut primary drive 212cc engines, have this facility, 241 onwards.

What happened could be known as the 'Rudolf effect' this probably first took place around 1858. In your case the crankcase probably filled with fuel, the engine being hot, and pumped the fuel through the transfer ports and ignited through the charge being ignited by pre ignition. In Rudolf Diesel's case he almost blew himself up. He was the first to prove that fuel could be ignited without ignition. During decents specially in low gears, make sure engine is not over used as brake (can easily over rev and overun), use rear brake to slow rear wheel rotation.

Ticking over will prove nothing, your on the idle jet. Secondly using the same plug will not give an accurate reading, as the plug has been coloured , as the mixture was before. Although if the mixture now is say 'alot weaker' the plug would still turn maybe a little greyish. I personally would give it a real test, loadsa big hills , flat out in 4th touch, see how it really performs, then kill the motor, don't let it tick over, as that'll distort the reading, then check the plug. DISCLAIMER...if it blows up , flat out in 4th, it's tough... at the top !

A persons head swells during extreme physical exercise, in my case manhandling the bike out of a section, after yet another 5. I've learnt that its not a good thing to have tight helmet, also you'll be able to hear the observer, when he shouts out 'get out the section, you've already fived'. So as long as it feels comfortable and don't fall over your eyes I'd leave it.

Sounds like your only option then, is........ THE BIG BILL !

The clutch operating rod adjustment is the slot and lock nut in the middle of the clutch pressure plate (surrounded by the 5 clutch springs) backoff the locknut and turn slot anticlock to make more freeplay, then lock up nut. Easier to do with clutch cover off, although can be done through inspection hole in centre of clutch cover, the round disc about the size of 10p with slot in). I could go into clutch arm anglearity, but just back of slot half a turn, that should do it.

This is a new phenomena, trying to change a class to suit the bike, with sub classes and year breaks etc, and I think its all wrong. A twin shock is a twinshock, if you think your particular bike is uncompetitive, get a competitive twinshock. Trying to make sub classes creates extra work for already overworked secretaries of meetings and its not necessary. Maybe for some reason certain individuals have this urge to beat the system or just like to cause friction and conjecture. A twinshock should be within the spirit of the class, no disc brakes, no hydraulics. Keep it straightforward and look forward to big entries.

I am seriously contemplating purchasing a frame kit to convert my old and worn out rtl mono into a twinshock. I was wondering whether anybody has a completed bike that I could maybe try, or at least recommend a venue where I could watch one being ridden in a competitive trial. As these kits are quite expensive and I wouldn't like to commit without seeing and trying a finished article and also what problems they encountered during the build. Any help or ideas would be appreciated.

Don't forget brake fluid is like paint stripper, it will spoil paintwork etc so make sure you keep it off those parts, if you do get it on paintwork, use loads of water to dilute, straightway on the affected parts.

The trick way seems to be , have a 2 person seat centrally mounted, this allows enough room to put a rear wheel either side of the seat, with the holding strap, from the handlebars to the mounting point directly near the rear light, putting the forks under tension and pulling the bike on full lock, towards the door hinge on the same side.

The engine has got coolant in I presume, the fan comes on when hot. As a last resort, if the plug caps an anti-interference type, i would change it for a normal type.

I think your best bet, is to explain to the readership exactly what the symptons are. We know the end result is a super rich/chocked spark plug, but you haven't exactly explained what the engine does in the 30mins, before the spark plug expires. Are you replacing the damaged plug everytime, or just cleaning and replacing. I would have thought the engine would have gone into 4 stroking before stopping maybe ! Does the engine idle properly. I personally would explain the symptons and I'm sure somebody out there with a similar bike has had a similar problem.

Please excuse my ignorance, but what exactly is 'dry fouling'. Surely either the spark plug is not working due to the insulation surrounding the middle electrode braking down, due to a contaminant or it's useable. Dry fouling is a new expression to me, can you explain.

There's no hard and fast rule for the spark, but if the spark is a blue colour, as opposed to an orange, then the blue spark is more likley to fire the charge, are you plugging the spark plug into the plug cap and earthing on the cylinder head, or are you unscrewing the plug cap and get a spark directly from the ht lead., as either way can produce different results.

The swing arm spindles are 2 different sizes, back kick 16mm and forward kick 20mm. As far as I am aware, all frames were threaded. The back kick clamps the thread on the left. The forward kick clamps the plain rod on the right. Hope this helps.

I would do as Lee says on the magneto side oil seal, but on the clutch side i would remove the whole assembly, which is held on with 3 alan screws, also change the large outer o ring and the small inner o ring behind the inner spacer. The chief mechanic is pointing at where the oilseal and retainer is situated.

Fantics are so good, you don't even have to know the amount of oil necessary for the transmission, haven't you ever changed the transmission oil ! there is an oil level plug just below the gearchange lever. When you remove the cover you'll see it. Unfortunatley rransome your asking all the wrong questions, you've got no idea off the basics, like the amount of oil, but your prepared to attempt the difficult. Personnally I started my mechanical engineering with mechano, then progressed to lego, then push bikes, then motor bikes, then cars now aeroplanes. I've found the secret is, put it back together in the reverse order that I took it to bits and never force anything. Cleanliness is of utmost importance, not personal cleanliness, some of the best trials riders have been known to whiff abit, but cleaniness of the reassembled internal engine parts. I personnally think that your best friend will turn out to be Big Bill. To get the job done properly with all the correct parts Big Bill will probably work out cheaper in the long run.

Good on you Mr RRansom, Sorry for my abrupt bedside manner. Be careful you don't fall into the usual bad cenario, strip down something were it's not necessary. I personally would have tried the obvious fixes before taking the drastic step of removing and stripping the engine. 1/ Make sure the carb was snapping back closed 2/that the engine wasn't 'loaded up' with fuel/oil and on starting 4stroking giving the impression that the revs were rising, as the engine cleared. 3/all these things assume that you've correctly fitted the new barrell /piston 4/ Have you got a flywheel extractor to remove the ignition flywheel, these engines were designed so that the main bearing oil seals can be changed in situ. Bill Pye probably's going to love you, when you turn up with a basket load of 309 engine. Just a thought, why did it rev up in the 1st place, did you catch the throttle cable !