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CHAPTER THREE - 15
I had a problem with
the carburettors, they were in a fairly poor condition so I couldn’t
refit them. Onto the trail again for replacements. You would think that
K301 carburettors were 2-a-penny, but no one had any – well none that
they would sell, or any that were any good.
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The only
carburettors that I could get that would look the part, and new,
were the Jikov carburettors. I liked these, as they were nice
and easy to fit. The rubber mounting should work quite well. The
only problem that may arise is that these carburettors are
larger than the K301’s; therefore the brake and gear change
levers are quite close to them. I’ve been told that its only a
matter of getting used to it, but I shall see. The carburettors
look good anyway, I just hope they tune well. |
The next problem I had
were the exhaust pipes, when I bought the bike it had on it, dare I say
the word - ‘Triumph’ silencers. These look and sound nice, but I really
wanted it to look reasonably as near to original as I could get it, OK,
the seat is a bad move, but if I could have avoided it I would have done
so.
Speaking to Chris
Marshall at C & C Motorcycles, he said that the newer type of Ural
silencers would fit, but – they are fatter than the originals. The only
trouble with these silencers is that when you’re driving along the road,
you can’t hear the exhaust, they are so muffled that I think it can
reduce the engine breathing properly. Of course there is a way to make
them sound slightly better, it’s called a long piece of steel rod about
25mm diameter with a sharp point on one end. Place the down pipe
connection end on a hard surface, insert the steel bar through the other
end and carefully place a well-aimed blow to the rod with large club
hammer, the steel point makes a nice neat hole through the baffle.
I chose a system that
has a balance pipe in the middle, which may have been a bad move as the
problems I have had getting the distance correct and the angle of the
down pipes, well lets say it’s not been too easy. In the end though I
have succeeded quite well and it has all fitted as near as perfect as I
could get it.
The fuel tank had been
sitting empty for quite some time, so rust was allowed to form. If I had
left it (the rust) I would have had all sorts of problems with blocked
jets, etc. So, I found a product called ‘Tank Sealant’. I found it
on the Internet, and strangely there was another product called Tank
Sealant,
and this was like flea repellent or something like that. Anyway, the
Tank Sealant I needed was for sealing the inside of a fuel tank with resin.
Before I found it on the Internet I asked several motorcycle dealers
about it, and all of them had heard of it but didn’t know where it could
be found. So, here is the address:
www.tankcareproducts.co.uk. It’s not exactly cheap though, I paid a total of
£17.92 or 28.78 Euros including delivery.
The fitting process is
great exercise, you must get all loose rust etc from inside the tank, so
I put a few handfuls of large gravel in and started shaking. I think it
was about 2 minutes into the job when I thought this is a bloody stupid
idea and tried to think of an easier way of doing it. Of course the only
other way is to get someone else to do it for you, and after the first
six people told me what they thought of the idea, I had to do it myself.
You ought to see the
muscles I have now! After 10 minutes or so I think that most of the rust
was off and I shook out all the gravel. Its now very tempting to wash
the tank out with something, but be careful what you put in there as it
will take quite some time to dry out again. I washed out the tank with
cellulose thinners; it then dried in a matter of minutes. |
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