It has been a long journey to get this one back on the road.
First thing I noticed when I got it home almost two years ago was that both mudguards were rotted out above the bridge pieces so both guards were blasted and primed, new pieces were welded in and filled and sprayed.
The oil tank cover was missing but I managed to get a NOS oil tank cover in black from Les Myers.
The wiring was shot so made up a new loom for the bike and sidecar and fitted a new DVR regulator, battery, headlamp reflector and LEDs all round including the sidecar. I stayed at 6 volts and with everything including headlamp on the drain is only a few amps so can be used for daylight running.
Next job was an oil leak from the head gasket so replaced with a solid copper gasket which seems to have fixed it. I do still have an oil leak possibly from the crankcase centre so I will live with that until the engine needs to come apart.
I suspected that the engine was not breathing correctly and after inspection I found the crankshaft end "flapper valve" breather was gummed up and not operating so this was thoroughly cleaned.
Next job was the front hub. When stripped cleaned and inspected a broken roller was evident, also some Brunelling on the bearing cages so a second hand wheel was sourced which had a good bearing and a reasonably new rim.
New rear shocks were fitted from club spares.
New K70s fitted and a trailer tyre on the sidecar with the rim resprayed.
New chains fitted and a new crankshaft sprocket one tooth smaller than solo with a new gearbox sprocket one tooth smaller. The overall reduction seems about right.
Forks were rebuilt with new stanchions, bushes and sidecar springs and the steering head bearings replaced.
The tank was rubbed down and resprayed with POR15 gloss black aerosol which came up quite good. Gas taps were fitted for fuel cocks together with appropriate adaptor bushes and an in line filter fitted.
A new seat from Leightons was fitted.
A test run round the garden resulted in a snapped speedo cable and the bearing adjuster unwinding so a strip down of the rear hub revealed incorrect assembly, wrong sized spacers and a wrecked speedo gearbox so that was rebuilt with new parts - at least the bearings were OK.
The sidecar was seperately purchased so it was a real ordeal finding fittings - and expensive. The body was removed, chassis stripped, blasted and repainted with POR15 chassis black. The hub was stripped, cleaned and rebuilt and the brake cleaned and rebuilt.
The sidecar mudguard had kissed a few trees in the past so needed a lot of hammer work and filler and spraying. A new set of Wipac lights were fitted front and rear.
It was impossible to find a correctly sized small tyre so a trailer crossply was fitted with a good speed rating. This involved adaptaion of the mudguard mountings as the tyre was about an inch bigger diameter and was fouling.
A new heavy duty 2.5 mm sidecar brake cable was specially made by JJ cables and does not stretch like the old one.
All I have left to do now is spray the sidecar body black and apply the Watsonian decals - I managed to get the last "Monza" transfer on the planet from Watsonian. Then refit the body trim, windscreen and tonneau cover.
Having written all this, I am beginning to ask myself what this resto has cost me but I don't think I will go there and spoil my day. I certainly won't get my money back on this one!
We trailered it to the MOT station so I will be out for a run on it tomorrow as thanks to the on-line DVLA site the bike is now off SORN and taxed.
I wanted to do a final check on the sidecar alignment but according to the MOT tester (an ex-sidecar man), after gunning it round the factory estate where the MOT station is with the sidecar wheel in the air for about 50% of the time, he reckoned the alignment was spot on.
Time to buy another one – winter is coming and the bike lift is empty
Jim
