Hi, newby here, might be asking questions later

[mattm]

Hi, as the title suggests I'm new to this forum. I have been abusing petrol engined motorbikes for a decade and more as regular transport, have finally given in and gotten a car and am suitably horrified by the costs and as a long term idea have had the idea of a diesel bike in the back of my mind for a while, and a beady eye on ebay, now I am at the stage of having a decent 28 inch swing lathe, and a few welding bits in the shed and am thinking that some of the accumalated bits in the shed could possibly become a diesel motorbike.
At the moment I'm in the process of getting running a selection of small diesels actually running, a rotorvator for my dad will get one, the others might wind up on either a morgan inspired trike or possibly one of my bikes.
So what engines have I got to pick from in the shed?
2 x lombardini ld820, electric start - one with dammaged flywheel and starter plate fixed revs governers I think, one good runner, the other promising but got to weld up the starter mount plate.
2 x rope start ruggerini rd80, both start but just run flat out, will not turn off or respond to throttle.
1 x Honda diesel V twin generator. 4 kva as a generator - think 8hp at the flywheel? Starts and runs well, looks nice, responds to throttle well.
1 hatz id60 hand start, believed good runner, working on fitting a bellhousing, or could bung on a 3 speed and reverse dumper gearbox very easily.
My bikes, honda cb500/4 sidecar outfit, love it as is but suffering from 180,000 miles plus of all weathers commuting, really fun in snow. Got a couple of bmws, r90 sidecar outfit and r80 ex plod - both very likely candidates for diesel engine I reacon. Cb550, stripped, might be good candidate? Ntv650, my current commuter, a rat but very good mechanically. Rebel 125, and kh125, ns125r all in bits. Kl250, but spent too much on engine to dieselify.
So that's me.

[bf109v7]

Wellcome here. I am looking foreward to see what you are doing.
Alex

[mattm]

Realistically I'm afraid anything diesel bikewise is going to be slow progress as being a parent comes first, but looking through this website I am getting a few ideas, most likely involving a bmw based diesel sidecar, though since mouse from this forum arrived at my gaff to buy a car engine on a kubota diesel twin in a bmw chasis and it was rather a neat conversion I may well decide to attack the issue sideways and sell on the hatz id60 and both lombardinis as runners once fixed, and use the proceeds to buy a shorter engine with more oomph. Being as my favourite riding expirience is sidecars and they are also far safer on ice and I now work a job where I need to get to work before we see a gritter out where I live, it looks very likely the bmw sidecar is going to loose it's reconditioned twin plug motor after only a years actual use. Sacrilidge I know but mpg wise it wasn't great and I would see loosing everything bmw from the electrics as no bad thing, bmw have about the worst electrics I have seen on a bike and are basically why it only did a years service in my ownership. The chasis on the other hand is excellent. I was interested to note there were instructions on the new piston rings packaging about how to install into a diesel. Anyone know if a bmw airhead boxer could be diesel converted?

[mattm]

Well, wasted another few precious hours trying to get the ruggerinis to start, they are not exactly easy to get going using rope start, my petter dumper and hatz road roller both put them to shame but both use handles. One of the ruggerinis has a self engaging decompressor similar to the hatz roller but it is fairly ineffective at making starting easy. Both engines are bled of air, getting fuel and making smoke. Possibly the injectors need a decent clean, I shall try to leave them running with injector cleaner added to the fuel as this has done wonders on the dumper which now normally goes first swing even in a frost and was so stubborn it wouldn't go even with a blow lamp pre heating it's air at anything under 10°c. Not sure if the fact they are nice and light doesn't mean there just isn't much flywheel help. Compression seems very healthy, got both engines G clamped to a pallett and a blacksmiths swage block on there too, and still need to brace a foot on the pallet to stop it skidding accross the floor when pulling on the starter string. Allegedly these engines came from a reconditioner and were barn stored but never used. 8hp claimed output, might be worth dropping one into a rebel 125 frame with a sturmey archer 3 speed box? Going to need to get the starting easier and sort out throttle responce - I suspect the governor rod might be stuck on both engines, if they were meant to be mono speed then shut down is still not working, not found the proper manual online but similar manuals seem to point at it being a possible issue. Vainly hoping if they do start again I can leave them running long enough to get hot and see if they then free off, if I am lucky the issue is just the liberal layer of green paint pasted over them jamming something and it will free off with minimal intervention - I already have a petter ac1 , lister lt1and a lister ld2 in bits to souce bits for and rebuild so would rather not get into bitsaising these.
Did I mention I also like messing around with light plant machinery? Got a few tracked dumpers and hydraulic power packs with road breakers in the shed getting various repairs. Sounds exotic but these got here as wrecks and I hope to fund one good one for myself to run a log splitter off the proceeds of selling the others once fixed.

[Tetronator]

Welcome to the forum Matt,

If you're going for the BMW r80-Kubota, check out Mouse's build here;
https://www.dieselbikeforum.com/view ... =31&t=2101

I'm doing something similar but with an Dnepr. My tread;
https://www.dieselbikeforum.com/view ... =31&t=2873

Good luck!

[sbrumby]

Have you tried giving them a squirt of easystart, if they wont go with a squirt of that then no amount of rope pulling will be any good.

[mattm]

I went a bit further then that, and ran them on a 1 hp electric motor via belt drive, no go until I re bled the pump. It was shifting fuel out of the injector pipe when the union was opened, but apparently not enough. As a rule I am getting stinky black whiffs of smoke every time I pull on the rope and they do fire every so often, easy start produces little more reaction unless running the motor to turn it over. They are still nearly totally unrespnsive to the throttle though by adjusting the stops right back and eventually they shut down but in a way that suggests that it is probably more to do with air getting into a leaky union. I plan to drag them outside tomorrow and run each out of a half litre of fuel or so and get them properly hot. I noticed both have issues with the fuel line from the tank - not sure of the thread but I think m14 fine being Italian. Also in addition there is a painted up plunger above the throttle, I have freed it off and wonder if it is the shut off, though tucked right under the fuel tank out of view or easily accessible would seem an odd place to put it. With no manual it is a dull matter of trail and error. I have added silencers as there were just blank stubs of pipe, sound levels are much reduced with some nice cheap ebay find harley davidson silencers.

[sbrumby]

Open injector pipe at both ends, remove injector, reattach outside engine ( put bean can over injector for safety) engine will now turn easily and you will be able to see if the injector is spraying.

[mattm]

They are getting air in due to dodgy tank to pipe union and having to shut down by starving of fuel whilst I figure out why they don't respond at all to the thottle. So starting getting better, still smoke a lot, which might be hopefully either post rebuild oil or stuck rings / bedding in. Out of respect for lifestock in the barn and not wanting to smoke them out I have yet to give them a real long run to warm up properly. A projectile vomiting toddler put an end to play fairly early today.
I have started however to select bits of scrap to cobble up bellhousings and driveshafts from, looks like a mini / sidecar wheel and the end of a scrap convayer drum will do those jobs for the rotorvator, the mini wheel idea might provide a dirt excluding bellhousing on a bike too, chances are things will be nice and close to concentric on wheels and leave me with not too much work to get positive location of engines to gearboxes. I am getting quite tempted by the idea of a ruggerini engine in a honda rebel 125 rolling chasis after seeing that someone here managed to get a diesel into a rebel. I have a 3 speed burman or possibly albion gearbox - that few ratios and the number of hills where I live might put me off though.