Return to Chapter 2	Chapter 4

Chapter 3

Having thought about the seat fitting problem for some time, I came to the conclusion that it would cost me far more to have the seat support welded into position, rather than putting in a different seat.

	I went for the Royal Enfield seat as I think that was intended, the lugs had already been welded onto the sides. The only unsolvable problem that I came across is that when the springs are secured onto the lugs, they are tilted backwards, as you can see. Other problems can be sorted out - as you may notice the springs are normally the other way up, but the fittings will not allow this so a few adjustment were needed to the seat.
	I had to bend down the brackets the springs fix to on the under parts of the seat. They normally are horizontal but now the springs are upside down they had to be bent vertically. I had to take off all the seat springs as the blowlamp may have rendered them useless, mind you there’s not a lot of give in these seats, so one or two springs may be removed for the comfort of my delicate rear end. Having the seat in this position doesn’t really cause a problem but it may turn out the seat is higher than it should be.
	The bracket on the Enfield seat is basically the same as the Ural except in one vital area - it’s narrower. I didn’t want to start attacking it with the blowlamp again so I made two flat plates, painted them added a spacer and hey presto, an adjustable front seat. It’s quite nice really, it will allow for a greater comfort once I get it adjusted to my rear end.
	There’s the finished seat, it took a while and it look’s radically different, but it may just work. It’s a shame that I couldn’t keep it original, but I don’t really mind, as long as it is a practical motorcycle and looks reasonably OK, that’s good. As it is a bit higher than normal, it should be a bit more comfortable as my legs will not be so bent. The picture looks a bit strange, but when you look at the whole motorcycle, it’s not too bad

Having been pleased with the seat I thought I had achieved a large jump forward, but I was disappointed (putting it mildly) when I went to do the final tightening of the gearbox to the engine. I had just fitted the lug for the clutch cable to fit onto, the one on the right ride that fits on the stud for the engine and gearbox. Having fitted it and tightened up the nut I thought that I had better check the other nuts holding the gearbox on. Off I go with my trusty spanner, tightening everything I see, when I get to the top nut, gave it a tweak until the nut was tight, then gave it a final twist, all of a sudden it went loose. Yes – you got it! I stripped the thread, but not on the nut, it had to be the thread inside the housing on the engine.

Many words were spoken when I realised what I had done, but it only really dawned on me as to the problem that I had when I tried to take out the stud. I thought that it would just pull out, but no I hadn’t thought that the other end of the stud was fatter than the top half. The only way to get this sorted was to take out the engine again. Once I‘d stopped crying!! I got on with taking out the engine, which was not easy, as I had to be careful not to chip and scratch the paint on the frame. Again out came the trusty pipe lagging and wrapped the frame up again. I had to take out the diff first, which now was quite easy as once the nuts were off it just slid out. But it took another hour or so to manoeuvre the engine out of the frame.

Having parted the engine and gearbox I could see the problem, the stud wasn’t tightened in the body enough when I attacked it with the wrench, consequently the threads were just ripped out. I now had several thoughts on who to blame, the first to get it was 'next doors cat', it looked at me and I looked at it, cats must be able to read human thoughts as it ran off very quickly when I scowled at it. The next thoughts were how to repair it, one - liquid metal or two - Helecoil it. To make a proper job of it I went to see Zak in Salisbury who just happened to have the right kit for the job. I think Zak has the right kit for just about everything, if he hasn’t got it he’ll make it!

Never having used a helicoil I was quite impressed how they work. Once you screw them into a hole they won't unscrew, a good piece of kit that I shall acquire.

Now, before the engine is returned to the frame I check all studs and nuts for their strength  (you tend to learn very quickly from your mistakes), all was well and a new confidence returned. I won’t bore you with the traumatic events getting the engine back into the frame without chipping the paintwork as I’m sure you’ve been there - only to say the truss needs replacing for a tighter one, given rest the voice will come back down to its normal level and the red colour in my face should change once the pills take affect.

I quickly re-fitted the diff and placed the back wheel into place. I thought that was it, all was in place and my confidence was fully charged again. After working on the various parts of the bike I noticed that the rubber drive coupling was quite close to the frame, in fact it was very close. I sat there and pondered what may be the trouble and it dawned on me that the drive shaft was not in properly. The spring clip on the end of the splined end was on the bottom adjustment and allowed the ends in the coupling to slide backwards. OUT came the diff again! And I pushed the spring to the top of the three adjustments, and to my surprise when the dif was in place it was right. There now is a good ¼ inch between the coupling and the frame, problem solved.

I had to go into inventive mode for the brake light switch as I could no longer get the original one. I have been told that they are as rare as “chickens teeth” or “rocking horse s - - -“, anyway I can’t find one, well not the same size anyway. Having a few small sheets of stainless steel plate around, and it is proper stainless. Some so called stainless metals tend to rust after a few months, but I have got some of the good stuff – (sounds like moonshine liquor,   “The Good Stuff”), sorry I digress. I happen to have a few brake light switches around and the one you see is off a Royal Enfield, it is slightly better quality than the Ural switch, but I have a Ural switch just in case this ones dies.

Using the rear footrest shaft I bent a piece of the stainless into a few right angles to get the right distance and to align with the rear brake linkage. I then drilled and tapped the pivot on the brake linkage and inserted a screw that fitted over another fashioned piece of stainless. As you can see the spring that came with the switch fits neatly onto the pivot. Now when the brake is pushed the brake switch is activated. I awarded myself a silver star for that. To keep in Russian mode, fine adjustments on the switch require the use of a large pair of pliers and bend the spring to suit.

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.

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. It’s 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.

Before I mixed up the resin I blocked all the holes, the crossover and fuel tap holes. What you must remember is that you should use a material that the resin won’t stick to. I found a piece of poly tubing worked well, you know the tube that is used for fish tanks, and it was just the right size for the fuel tap hole. I now had to find something to go in the crossover holes, that’s when my brain, shut down and went on holiday. As the tubes sticking out from the tank were angled half way I couldn’t find anything that would go in, except for some nylon rope that was just the right size. Of course I pushed that into the holes thinking that it would do the job – WRONG. I sealed up the holes and proceeded to mix up the resin, read the instructions, which said to swirl it all round the tank until it sets. So, I sat there tipping the tank to one side then the other making sure that every part was covered. This took around 5 minutes, I then repeated the process over and over again, after a hour at this I was getting quite bored with the whole thing, but if I left it, all the rest of the resin that was still in a big blob would settle to the bottom of the tank.

In the end I succumbed to weariness and put down the tank, but I made sure that the remainder of the resin would settle at the front parts of the tank. The next day I had a look at it and surely enough it had hardened, but not completely. I came back to the tank about three days later and the resin had cured completely. I shone a torch inside the tank and l saw that 95% of the resin had settled at the bottom, but it had also done its job of coating everywhere else. Great job I thought, removed the plastic tubing from the fuel tap hole, and then went to get out the nylon from the crossover holes, but it wouldn’t move.

After some time trying to get it out it suddenly occurred to me that the holes were completely blocked with resin. After I stopped swearing at myself, you know what its like when you know you’ve screwed up, I had to think of a way to get the resin out. Of course, the only way to do this is to drill it out, which let me say here is not easy, especially when you have to drill round a bend.

The morale of this story is – make sure you can get out what ever you put in any hole.

Now the inside of the tank had been done, it was time to do my ‘Tarzan’ act; I have to fit the new rubber band round the tank. The old cream coloured strip was not good enough to put back on, so I had to get a replacement, which is black.

When I first got the rubber strip, I fitted one end into the holder at the front of the tank and hammered the securing clip in place. I was then confused to see that it didn’t stretch round to the other clip. I tried pulling and pushing but there was no way it was going to stretch.

When I asked for help the first suggestion was that I had to heat the rubber strip in boiling water to make it supple, connect one end and it would then stretch to the other clip. I pulled and pulled, sweat started to bead on the forehead, but there was no way I could get it to stretch.

Second suggestion was to connect both clips and stretch the rubber over the tank like an elastic band. This suggestion should become a new exercise for all the keep fit people or developing weight lifters. After trying this for 5 minutes my arms were aching like never before, again sweat not only was on the forehead but now running everywhere. This nearly worked, but I caught my finger under the rubber at full stretch, which was extremely painful, as I couldn’t get my finger out for quite a while. TIP: Don’t’ place fingers under the strip when pulling the rubber strip over the tank ridge. IT’S PAINFUL!!

The third suggestion worked well, place the rubber strip in the microwave and heat it up that way, but be careful when getting it out of the microwave. If you grab it, the rubber will never shine again, as your skin that has been melted onto it takes ages to wear off. Always put on gloves of some kind, as the strip will be very hot. Now, you can connect both ends into the holders and hammer the securing tags into place.

Using a thin coat of lubricant, rub it on the inside of the rubber. It was now quite easy to pull the rubber strip over the tank ridge, but at the same time keeping your fingers out of the way. When the rubber strip cools down it tightens leaving it a tight fit round the tank. Phew!!

The last thing I tried to do was to start the engine, to see if it was good, the wiring being bypassed. The only trouble is, it won’t start. I kicked and kicked, but nothing. I have covered it with a cover and have left it in a very despondent mood.