Re: I -still- want one of these.

The Older Gentleman wrote:
JackH <jackhackettuk@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Good good... apologies about the above issues you've found - Pater
bought this bike 'as is' so to speak, and didn't really use it until
quite recently when he sold the other Superdream he had, off.

So whilst oil levels etc, have been checked on a regular basis, he's
not had cause to do much else to it other than ride it now and again.

Oh, and I will ask about the indicators - the old goat never
mentioned any issues with these to me, and had I known about this,
I'd have either mentioned it in the ad or fettled it myself to
ensure it was as it should be prior to its sale.

Nah, no worries whatsoever.

Ok. Cool. :-)

All usual stuff to be expected with a 30
year-old bike.

Indeed.

The indicators: someone has fitted pattern ones (identical to OE).
These have a separate earth wire, as pattern ones usually do. That
should be secured, via a loop connector, on the *inside* of the
plastic housing, so the bolt that goes through the housing and its
metal earth strip into the mounting point on the bike can crush the
loop connector nicely against the earth strip for a good contact.

Some genius had mounted the loop on the *outside* of the plastic
housing, relying on the conductivity of the bolt to make a contact
with the earthing strip inside. And (a) the bolt was rather smaller
than the hole and (b) the bolt had got a bit old and corroded, so it
was only making an intermittent contact.

The fact that *both* front indicators were not working was a Big Fat
Clue that it was an installation problem and not a flasher unit
problem, and once I'd sussed it was an earth wire issue (which I
suspected right from the start, as I've encountered problems with
pattern indicator earths before) it took just a few minutes to sort.

I don't get this though... whilst Dad is starting to smell of stale wee,
he's still reasonably with it and would have mentioned issues with these.

Thinking back, ISTR him muttering it was going to fail its MOT on an
indicator not working, and that the tester did a tweak or something to get
it to work.

The oil filter bolt is more of a bugger, and you can't get Mole grips
on it because it's recessed in the finning, but welding a socket head
on is a well-known fix.

Aye, well I nearly had to resort to the weld method to get a snapped exhaust
stud in a real PITA location to get at with grips on the VFR recently, and
the smallest stud extractor socket I had access to was just a tiny bit too
big to get a bite on it.

Managed to borrow a set of 'the smallest mole gripes in the world' to get
just enough bite on it to free it up. :-)

Glad to hear its running sweetly though, and once it's all as it
should be, be nice to see some pics of it. :-)

I'll be taking some pix this afternoon. It's come up really well. I
T-Cut the tank, which cleaned it up no end, as well as as much of the
frame as I could reach. I've polished the engine side casings and the
alloy footpeg hangers. The chrome looks great. You'd hardly recognise
it.

Excellent - I'll forward the link to them on to Dad, as he'll be interested
to see how nice its come up. :-)

--
JackH

98 Honda VFR800FiW
05 Sachs Madass
03 VW Passat TDI Sport
89 Vauxhall Nova 1.3 Pearl


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