I've heard a few say this I have 1 on 1 off my bikes with a few lines in it must be when it comes out the mould they look crap any chance off a photo?

Hello all.

I distinctly remember that I said I wasn't going to do a shiny restoration, I was just going to sort everything out mechanically and have a rat bike to ride around on, I definitely wasn't going to strip all the paint off and repaint the frame .........

So here it is all primed and ready for paint 

I had some time to think over the winter when progress was slowed and decided that the old adage of "If a job's worth doing, it's worth doing well" was a good idea  

Expect the idiotic questions to start flooding back into this thread  

Frame all painted 

As I'm on a limited budget I just couldn't justify £10 for postage for actual Bultaco grey from a well known shop in Egham, so it's BMW "Space Grey" from Halfords.... 

Let me know what you think.

Stupid question time  

 

I am attempting to replace the fork seals with the forks off the frame. As per the manual I have remove the fork oil drain plug and the allen bolt at the bottom of the fork leg and the retaining circlip. From what I have read the leg should slide off the tube but it's not proving to be that easy.

Is it a case of using a bit of brute force to separate the two parts or am I doing something wrong? Is there a tip or trick I am missing? Please don't say heat it with a blowtorch as I haven't got a blowtorch  

Thanks.

14 hours ago, speshal said:

Stupid question time  

 

I am attempting to replace the fork seals with the forks off the frame. As per the manual I have remove the fork oil drain plug and the allen bolt at the bottom of the fork leg and the retaining circlip. From what I have read the leg should slide off the tube but it's not proving to be that easy.

Is it a case of using a bit of brute force to separate the two parts or am I doing something wrong? Is there a tip or trick I am missing? Please don't say heat it with a blowtorch as I haven't got a blowtorch  

Thanks.

The damper rod is stuck in the bottom of the slider. Pull the top plug and the spring out if you haven't already, push the tube into the slider then pull it out sharply, like a slide hammer. A few quick blows should have it apart.

Be careful pulling the old seals out - don't pry against the top of the slider as it's very easy to damage. Use a slide hammer or sheet metal screws to extract the old seals. I find Ariete seals to be better than any others I've tried. Put the spring and cap back before reassembling to hold the damper rod down. Sometimes when you're tightening the bottom bolt the damper rod turns in the leg, preventing you from fully tightening the bolt. If this happens you can screw a long M6 bolt into the drain hole and this will push against the side of the damper rod, holding it in place while you tighten the bottom bolt.

On 4/17/2017 at 0:10 AM, oldjohn said:

The damper rod is stuck in the bottom of the slider. Pull the top plug and the spring out if you haven't already, push the tube into the slider then pull it out sharply, like a slide hammer. A few quick blows should have it apart.

Be careful pulling the old seals out - don't pry against the top of the slider as it's very easy to damage. Use a slide hammer or sheet metal screws to extract the old seals. I find Ariete seals to be better than any others I've tried. Put the spring and cap back before reassembling to hold the damper rod down. Sometimes when you're tightening the bottom bolt the damper rod turns in the leg, preventing you from fully tightening the bolt. If this happens you can screw a long M6 bolt into the drain hole and this will push against the side of the damper rod, holding it in place while you tighten the bottom bolt.

Great advice Thanks. it worked like a charm  

I have started bolting things back to the frame 

Admittedly I have bolted things on, then realised I have put them on backwards......

Oh and then there's the paint scheme..... I shall leave you guessing on that one for the moment, let's just say, it's not factory colour  

I don't know if this is a stupid question or not but here goes.....

I have been cleaning 40ish years of mud and grime off my engine and as per the engine number I reckon it's a 199-A from 80/81ish.

Just by the drain plug on the left side of the engine by the left-hand shifter spindle there are some numbers stamped into it and one of those numbers is 199 so I was just wondering if at some point half the engine has been replaced or if this is standard (I know in the later years at Bultaco the numbering system went a bit awry  ) oddly enough on the bottom of the engine the 2 halves don't seem to match.

Cheers.

A few pics of the mystery numbers...

The step in the bottom of the engine case....

Edited July 19, 20179 yr by speshal

All cases have the 112 number. Not sure the reason for that.  It isn't a part number. Could have been a reference number that the foundry used when casting the parts.  Cemoto sublet all their parts to other companies.  Many parts were produced off site and then assembled at the bultaco factory.  

What you're thinking are mismatched cases are not.   Again this looks to be something that was done during the casting process.  All cases have these.  Especially 199's. All three of mine do.  On the older engines that drained the gearbox oil out the bottom of the case instead of the side like the 199's they had a protrusion on the bottom of the case.  This protrusion was simply removed on the 199 cases and what you see is the remnant of it.  Remember bultacos used a large number of same or similar parts.

The 199 on the case simply denotes that they were likely lined bored and set up for 199 parts only.   This was important because the 199 uses a different gear cluster set than say a 191 model before it.  Later model 199's also had the stroke stamped on top of the case too.  

 

Steve 

12 hours ago, stevem75 said:

All cases have the 112 number. Not sure the reason for that.  It isn't a part number. Could have been a reference number that the foundry used when casting the parts...........Steve 

Wow thanks so much Steve, most helpful

Here's a pro tip.

When spraying your engine with VHT paint from Halfords, despite the can saying black on it and the cap lid being black and the assistant in Halfords reassuring you that it's actually black when you ask, you might really want to do a test spraying because as I learnt to my cost the contents of the tin MIGHT BLOODY WELL NOT BE BLACK......... 

 

It dried to a very fetching matt ash grey.........................................

Although to be fair to Halfords, when I went and explained the problem they did replace the paint with no hassle, I think they may have been aware of this problem beforehand. 

A small progress update photo

Just a quick question for those in the know, can anyone recommend me a good gearbox/clutch oil?

I've read through this thread - 

But am none the wiser  Can I use an ATF in both gearbox and clutch? and if so how much in each or is a 5w fork oil a good choice?

 

Thanks in advance

 

 

There is a real debate on which primary oil to use in a Bultaco on here. I don`t like ATF but most of you love it. I just found the primary chain doesn`t last as Iong. I use a 10/30 motorcycle gear oil in all of mine. In the gearbox use a 90 weight gear oil. Most of the older owners manual said to use a 140 weight oil in the gearbox but almost everyone uses a heavy gear oil. Use 300ml in the primary case if you have rebuilt the bike or 250ml if only changing the oil. Same in the gearbox. Use 600ml or 550ml if only changing the oil. Graham.  

Edited August 15, 20179 yr by bullylover

Great, thanks for that info Graham, I'll give it a try

 

I was also wondering if anyone had a picture of how they have mounted an electronic ignition (the one from InMotion) - I have an idea but it doesn't look very neat and wondered if anyone else had a solution before I go hacking at the HT lead to shorten it

Cheers