feetupfun

I agree with nigel and can add that to get close to that ideal setting while you are still in the workshop, set the clutch spring preload so that you can just get it to go over compression with the kickstart. With 5 Barnett plates and the ideal preload setting, you may find the need to shorten the nuts to provide clearance to the casing.

The dots on the nose do look odd. I'm not certain but those dots might be what I was talking about earlier when a change in fuel type can loosen existing carbon deposits. Also you flogging the Alpina hard may also have loosened existing carbon deposits.

It may not be lead fouling. It may be the change in fuel type causing existing carbon deposits to be released and which then stick to the plug. When we (in Australia) changed to unleaded "pump" petrol in 1986 from leaded petrol, fouled plugs on two strokes were suddenly very common where they hadn't been a problem previously. After a short time of running on the new fuel, the frequency of plug fouling went back to normal. You could see carbon deposits on the plug nose that looked nothing like a deposit that had formed gradually. Some but not all were like whiskers. I will be interested to see your photos.

I tried Acerbis white plastic barkbusters on a TY250A twinshock trials bike while setting out an enduro course and decided that for me, the increased inertia in the steering when I did some trials-type riding outweighed the potential benefit of avoiding lever damage. If I was only using the bike for trail riding I would have left them on.

Sounds like normal symptoms of clutch drag caused by the clutch plates touching when they should not be touching. Usual causes are: Plates might not be flat. Plates might not be moving apart parallel. Less common causes are: May be side float in the gearbox shaft. May be grooves worn into the clutch basket fingers. Maybe the bearing that the basket spins on has started seizing.

why do you mix it with E85?

If you use a pre-65 electric motor instead of a pre-65 petrol motor it would be hard to argue against riding in pre-65 class but you didn't ask that. If you could hide a modern EM electric motor inside a pre-65 petrol motor and hide the cells inside a pre-65 fuel tank, then it would meet the eligibility criteria for pre-65 where I live.

I used neutral cure silicone rubber sealant which has worked pretty well for about 15 years so far

An angle grinder with a 100mm disc will work - I know because that's what I did, and didn't have to take that chain guard off either. The sprocket will pop loose when the disc gets close to the shaft

Replacement sprockets don't have a keyway and work fine so yes, it was overkill to have a key. The swingarm bushes may be rubber isolastic bushings. I have found them in a couple of bikes and got them out by burning the rubber away. This allows you to get the centre bushing out then carefully cutting through the outer steel casing of the bushing with a hacksaw blade. You can replace them with either new isolastic bushings or more conventional steel inner/brass outer bushings

The TY250A when standard has a different rear rim to other TY250 twinshocks. X11 tubeless tyres usually stay on TY250A bead seats. The bead seats on the A model are wide and it is also a wider rim than the later TY250s. The A model is the 434 model. Many other 1970s era tube type rear rims can give problems with X11 tubeless tyres though. The standard KT rear rim is the worst I've had for fitting an X11 tubeless, but if you do what "still trying" says, the X11 will stay on the KT rim bead seats nicely. The IRC tube type rear is fine on any of the old rear rims but where I live it is very hard to buy them, so I buy Michelin X11.

I'm thinking the 247 engine covers changed to being the same as the Cota 348 when the Cota 247 UKR came out but I'm not certain. For the sprocket, if it's on a taper like a 348 sprocket is, use a 100mm disc on an angle grinder. It will fit in there without the disc having to touch anything else. A bigger disc won't. I found that when I got to about 1 mm from the gearbox shaft the remainder of the sprocket sprung apart when a crack formed. For the cylinder nuts, heat them up with an oxy-acetylene welding flame. If you have a steady enough hand you should be able to get each nut very hot without melting any aluminium. You can buy new nuts easily so don't worry about damaging them

Mitas has stiff carcass and low aspect ratio. When they first came out, I bought one, tried it on a modern trials bike for a few minutes and then on a twinshock trials bike for a few minutes and then gave it away. The only place they grip is on a smooth, hard surface

Well done Wufdog. What you've done may be more reliable than the Scorpa version.

Yes. But which one is better and why?

Spares availability is best with Bultaco by a country mile. All the Spanish twinshocks are great to ride but there are big differences in how they feel so you may have a preference depending on what you like a bike to be like to ride. My favourites to ride are any late model Bultaco and the Cota 348

It's very odd for an engine to start from cold without using the starting circuit. This may sound silly but are you sure you know which way the starting lever should be for on and off?

Wow fabulous to see those Homerlite tanks like that Glenn. Thankyou. They are very rare over here. Yes the 124/125 frame is the later style. The earlier style frame design (where the tank fits on) was 10,27,49,80 and part-way through 91/92. While the frame design change that happened during the production of the model 91/92 would probably have required changes to the tank/seat design, that bulge doesn't really fit the changes. Maybe they did make tanks for the models with the horizontal muffler but I'm thinking there would have only been a very small market for it by the time Homerlite started making Sherpa T tanks. If anyone was still riding a M27 or M49 by then, surely they would have converted it to the sloping muffler arrangement (kit campeon). Then again, maybe Bultaco were still selling Lobitos in the UK and Lobitos had horizontal mufflers up until about 1975

If you fit a foam piece around the top frame tube to support the tank it assists holding the tank in place but the main rear attachment is the front end of the seat

That looks fabulous Carl

Does look nice

I just read the bike log for my hotrod TY175 but no mention of the advance curve. The records are only about testing different combinations of head gasket thickness and the timing of the spark at low RPM.

The one I put on a TY250D motor is a John Cane and I have not bothered putting a timing light on it. I just fitted it with the backing plate in the centre of the slots and the bike ran beautifully. The one I put on my hot rod TY175 is also a John Cane and I did look at the movement of the timing with a strobe but it was so long ago I don't remember details of how it moved. I do remember moving the backing plate to give me timing a bit later than standard at low RPM and that the timing did change as the RPM increased. I'll have a look in my bike log and see if I wrote something in there. A friend fitted a Rex Gaunt ignition on his TY250A recently and I can say that his motor performs pretty similar to my TY250D motor at low to medium RPM but seems to have a bigger hit at medium to high RPM

The fancy modern fork tube coatings are on there to reduce friction, not to protect the tube from crash damage

The cam that the points heel rubs against is normally kept lubricated by a felt wiper. I usually wet the wiper with light oil when I'm servicing the points. If you have good quality points and a working condenser, you probably only need to service the points at intervals of 100 operating hours or so. I've got a few TYs that are still running the original points and condenser and which are still working perfectly. My other TYs that now have electronic ignitions still had the original points and condensers working well when I fitted the electronic ignitions 5 to 10 years ago including one TY175 engine that has been mechanically rebuilt 3 times (due to high run hours) since 1975 but still had the original points when the electronic ignitions went in.