Saturday, April 13, 2013

Restoration Begins



M18 Bultaco El Bandido MK1 1968

Belonged to a family friend who regretably Passed away many years ago. His toys remained tucked away in the garage for the last 20 years. I doubt the bike had been started for almost 30 years, and his wife, a very good friend, asked if I wanted his old bikes (Combat Wombat came as a package deal).

As out of the garage:



Cleaning up nicely. Got the carb looking good...lotsa, lotsa varnish. Gas tank cleaned up nice. Cleaned the petcocks...lotsa baked on grease/dirt.



Petcocks dissaembled and restored.


Degreased and power washed the engine/chassis. 30 years of caked on, an hardened, grease. Will take a lot of detail cleaning to complete the job.


Engine is free. Can't say the same for the clutch. Reinstalled the carb and fed some gas/mix temp. Did fire a couple of times, but I need to get a manual before I start tinkering with ignition etc. 'Tis a beast to turn over, lots of compression. I also want to do a full leak test before I go too much further (seal exhaust, build a test gauge/pressure valve for the intake to test seals etc.)

11;00 UPDATE: We have sustained fire. Won't idle. Need the manual (Ebay - shipped today), but proves out the ignition/spark. Clutch plates freed up. Ran just enough to blow out the spark arrester and fiberglass. Needed cleaning anyway. And upset my wife & her favorite 10-11 show plus the horses across the way. Won't idle. Suspect plugged pilot jet.

Lesson for the day. Put on your MX boots before kicking this beast over.

Update 4/9/12 Received a rebuild kit for the Amal 392 that I was waiting for. Pulled the carb back off and as I suspected, the Pilot jet was clogged which was why no idle. Not much to the rebuild kit, Just a bowl gasket, banjo bolt gasket and two o-rings for the idle and idle mix screws. BUT now it runs, starts easy, idles, and the idle mixture screw works as designed! Just the temp fuel feed so I did run it under power on the driveaway before the temp fuel source gave out. I will have to remount the tank, air cleaner, seat to give it a better go then set up to do a crankcase air leak-down test to see how the crankcase seals are and move this to its own thread under 2-smokes.

The tank and seat back on to test the tank and fuel system.
 
Note the individual clamp on handlebars.

Yes, of course I had to take it down the road and back! Sits terribly low compared to modern dirt bikes. Was afraid to get too much speed. Not that the brkes don't work, they do, but it has been 40 years since my last right hand shift, left rear brake bike.

Even given that handicap (right shift/left brake) I took it easy, but it is a natural wheelie machine in first at most any engine speed. Only got into second on my short runs. I can see why the reviews from its time said it was a tough beast to tame. Fuel system is a go. Clutch/drive train are a go.

Now, to what degree do I do a restore? The forks need rebuilding, as does the steering head, I can feel the bearings lumping along in the steering head. More story for another day. And I need to start working on my right shift skills (not as important as left brake skills, though).