Could this be the start if Sluggy II?

[Diesel Dave]

One of our local bike shows is held at the Museum of Power which is an old Victorian pumping station that houses the biggest steam engine in Essex.

http://www.museumofpower.org.uk

Our local Royal Enfield club has a stand so the new bike got to be a trailer queen for the day and I got to answer the same 4 questions repeatedly.

1) Is that a Robin engine?
2) what speed will it do?
3) what MPG?
4) do you think you will ever finish it.

Still it’s good to fly the diesel flag.

[Diesel Dave]

Right, weekends over and it’s time to get back to work.

So Sluggy 2 is back on the bench and after a full days work.....spot the difference?



No? OK so how about the other side..



Ah yes I finally got around to rebuilding Sluggys original 5 speed gearbox so it now has a standard length mainshaft and not the extended version used for the Greaves engines.

Not the easiest of gearboxes to assemble but a lot easier than a unit Triumph version.

I has to trim a bit off the outer edge of the gearbox to engine mounting plate but now that plate can be used for either the 4 or the 5 speed gearbox.

[Diesel Dave]

Progress update.....erm, a little slow as life is getting in the way.

I had to rider longer bolts for the bottom 2 gearbox to adaptor plate positions as the 5 speeder seems to be a little wider, now arrived and fitted.

The teeny tiny radiator arrived and has been lashed into place.



In order to get a decent plumbing run a fair amount of fiddling has been required, the top hose needed to run over the rocker cover so still uses the Axiam heater sandwich plate above the thermostat (blocked off with a dab of JB weld and a bolt).



Super Mario plumbing required for this bit.



And it all comes together like this

[Diesel Dave]

Progress update:

I’ve been using the new bike as a test bed for fitting a disk brake to old Sluggy(1), and it was time to transfer the setup. Upon dismantling the forks I discovered several problems:-

1) left fork leg is bent
2) left damper valve circlip incorrectly fitted jamming the valve
3) right damper top nut loose inside the leg
4) progressive fork springs fitted but without the short rebound springs so over an inch of loose movement.

So it always pays to strip any ‘new’ bike and see what previous owners have bodged with.

I had some new fork legs and springs in the spares bin so it wasn’t a complete disaster,The original fork legs turned out to be thinner 350 versions so the damper valves needed a spin in the lathe to fit inside the thicker 500 type stanchions.

The upshot of all this fiddling is the Sluggy(1) now sports a disk brake; and Sluggy(2) now has straight forks supporting the original disk brake wheel.



This problem of the bent left fork leg also answers a question that has been brooding in the back of my mind - why wasn’t there room to keep the front frame downtube intact as Steve had done in his conversion. Still the frame has been modified now and I’m happy that the front engine support is up to the task.

[Diesel Dave]

Slow progress, but I keep inching forwards.


Back end reworked


Front brake.
As I mentioned before I have never seen this type of disk brake on an Enfield, the handlebar cluster with built in master cylinder are ruined and replacements unavailable so I shall have to use a generic lever with a 10mm master cylinder bore. This left the task of rebuilding the calliper. The pistons were seized and refused to shift with either air pressure or calliper pliers so I had to use the old timer solution of replacing the bleed nipple with a grease nipple and using a grease gun to force the pistons out. It worked and the pistons were in good shape so this left the problem of finding a seal kit to rebuild with. As it turned out this was easy as the calliper is the same as a Guzzi V50.



Back to waiting for parts to arrive...

[gilburton]

Hence the rust on on the disc on your earlier pic under the tarpaulin. That is a cast iron Guzzi disc as well. Slightest drop of rain and they rust like a car disc lol

[Diesel Dave]

Hence the rust on on the disc on your earlier pic under the tarpaulin. That is a cast iron Guzzi disc as well. Slightest drop of rain and they rust like a car disc lol

At least it will work in the wet then

Could have been worse, one of those stainless Honda disks from the late 70’s

[gilburton]

Many years ago I had a near new 850-T3 California and sidecar. Compared with the average early Japanese braking they were light years ahead.
You pulled the brake on the jap bikes and, if it was raining,wait until the disc dried enough to actually brake lol
It might be a bit powerful on an Enfield though

[Rattle]

Hello Dave ,how did you find this for less than £100 ,the worlds gone made look at this link https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/royal-enfiel ... 0005.m1851

[Diesel Dave]

Progress update:-

Not much to report as I’ve been in foreign lands doing the Hamm Rally (Damn good it was too).

However, whilst I was away the new Cush drive rubbers arrived so I have stripped down the rear wheel. The bearings are all good and so are the brake shoes (although they are likely to be rock hard). There was some rust inside the rim so this has been cleaned up. The worst problem was that although the wheel was quite true the spoking was loose so I spent a good half hour tensioning up the wheel and ACF50 all the spokes and nipples.

Spot the lolly stick and blu-tak!



Today the postie delivered the long awaited front brake pipe and of course the calliper refused to bleed down so I had to resort to reverse filling with a syringe, but it has good ‘feel’ and stroke of the lever so I think it will be a good one.

[Diesel Dave]

Sometimes things don’t go my way....

I’ve been trying to work on the wiring loom so I can match together the new motor requirements to the existing loom without needing to remake the whole thing.

Sadly I’m admitting defeat, most of the loom is showing high resistance and chopping back from the connectors is showing rotten copper dissapearing back into the nether regions.

So it looks like it’s time to make a new loom - bollox.

And I’m still waiting for the alloy plates to arrive for the primary cover.

[alexanderfoti]

Just caught up on this, looks really good! Sorry for buying up all the Kubota stock

(although I have never bought a 2 pot kubota, plenty of 3 cylinders though). Still plodding along on my D722 superdream, but I am wanting to turbo it, starting that long journey now.

This build looks great, a turbo would set it off, I can do 67mph on the flat with my 722, the CVT is a pain though and I long for a proper gearbox. Still havent found something straight forward that would fit in the superdream frame, it is very tight!!

I have a D662 in a crate here that runs well, and has done few hours. I bought it when I thought my 722 was not going to be revived from the dead, but turns out its been fine.

I might post it up here for sale.

[Diesel Dave]

Alloy - that wondrous light material that's soon easy to work with.....yeah right!

So I have a sheet of 3mm alloy to make up the covers for the fan belt and primary drive, also various other bits that always seem to stop up.

Firstly there is the matter of the front mudguard, with the disk brake forks the usual Enfield mudguard with long stays is not an option so I needed to make up some side plates.



I've run out of M6 domed nuts at the moment so they will need swapping out later.

This thought me 2 things:
1) Cutting alloy with a jigsaw and metal blade is hopeless.
2) You need a specific alloy cutting wheel in the angle grinder.

So with this new knowledge in hand, I made a start on the fan belt cover:



The holes needed to be chain drilled and filed out by hand as I wasn't going to splash out on hole saws.

The flanges are cut from the same sheet material and bent over a welding gas bottle and then MIG welded together.



Everybody told me they would need to be TIG welded - I've tried TIG welding and I'm hopeless as it (so much so, I sold the kit I bought), but using the stiffer 5356 alloy mig wire, and pure argon with the wire speed turned almost all the way up - it seems to work. You do have to be quick with the travel speed and I'm still getting a fair amount of soot but there is plenty of penetration.

Nearly there now, the bottom and top corners are done, just the front alternator pulley cover flange to complete.



The grey goop is some JB weld to fill in the odd pin hole so it will smooth out nicely for painting.

I've been wandering around the house and supermarket eyeing up anything remotely cup shaped that I could use to cover the crank nut and water pump pulley - I'll fine something I'm sure.

[the grinch]

its looking good.
You could make the cover with some good old bridge a gap filler just get a foil pie dish from the local chippy. put some tape around the top of it put a layer of bridge a gap on the inside and up to the top of the tape. you would only need about 3-5mm layer you can get the aluminium mesh at halfords if you want to reinforce it where you are going to attach it. it will set strong after a day the dish should peel away after that. it would save searching around.
but its a good effort so far.

Alex

[gilburton]

Wilkinsons are good for stuff like that . I used a stainless pet bowl on my CVT lol

[Diesel Dave]

Well I decided to make my own cover for the crank nut - the welding is on the outside for a change so best not looked at too closely..



So when I get fed up of 'alloy work' I revert to the electrics and making up the new loom - it's a little more confusing than just a bike loom.



14Ah is the biggest battery I could fit - without the Enfield toolbox in place



And the Left toolbox is full of relays:



I did have a big head scratching event over the wiring for the radiator fan and the associated warning light - there is a sensor on the head that earths when the temperature 'trips' over. I had thought to use this to earth both the lamp and fan relay. Every time I applied the power the relay would trip although the light would not illuminate. I finally worked out there was enough voltage drop between the two sides of the circuit to activate the relay. Putting a diode in the light earth was enough to stop this.

Then there was the starter circuit, this 'of course works the opposite way to a bike system where the button on the bars 'earths' completing the circuit to the remote heavy duty relay. ( you can see the Enfield on in the toolbox picture but I have used this for the glow plug circuit as a normal 40a relay would be too small). On the 'car type' system you need to apply 'live' to the starter relay on top of the starter motor itself. This can draw up to 30 amps initially so wiring this directly to a small push button on the bars is not really a good idea - enter yet another relay.

As they say - electrics are simple; until you have something unexpected trip you up.

Of course all this 'busy work', is actually a delaying tactic for the big job of making the primary casing.......

[gilburton]

When I did mine I used a classic car "smiths" type ignition switch in place of the MZ ignition switch so twisting the key started the engine.

[Diesel Dave]

Welcome back everybody, progress report.

Short version - we have an MOT and are on the road.

Longer version.

It took me a long time to build up the primary case, also this was my first temporary exhaust.



Christmas present to myself was a custom made exhaust by the professionals.





It's running like a champ but flat out for more than 10 minutes means overheating - the radiator is too small so I have an SV650 version arriving soon. I always knew the one I fitted would be pushing it hence it's only been cable tied in place and I haven't welded on any mountings to the frame.

So far I have about 450 miles on the clock.

Onwards and upwards

[alexanderfoti]

Looks great, good result.

I too use the professionals for exhaust work. I never have any luck and I have Campbell Customs on my door step (http://www.campbellcustom.co.uk/)

Their work is pretty good. He is in the process of making up a turbo manifold for me, which is a tall task considering the tight quarters It has to go in!

I never had any luck with the rear mounted rad, I ended up moving it to the front and putting the biggest one I can in. I also put an oil to water heat exchanger in, my oil temps in winter were in the teens! Now I can get them up to 50ish in the same ambient temperatures.

[Diesel Dave]

I did manage another test run at full chat today; even managed to hit 65mph at one point without boiling the coolant. so the rad must be very close to the required capacity.

I did have the tiny fan wired on all the time and just plain water as coolant.

So just awaiting the arrival of an SV650 radiator and that should take care of the cooling requirements, after this more testing miles to cover however the winter salt is playing havoc with the alloy parts.

[alexanderfoti]

What have you achieved top speed wise?

I would be interested to see, as yours is 5 speed z482 and mine is CVT (with top ratio blocker) and D722.

[Diesel Dave]

65 mph is my maximum so far - off the sat nav.

[alexanderfoti]

I managed 77mph on the superdream (digital tach calibrated to gps speed).

That is with the CVT blocking past a certain ratio, so at approx 3900 rpm.

I was pretty happy with that. I am in the middle of fitting a turbo, but dont think I will re-gear for more top speed as its a bit sketchy up there.

[Diesel Dave]

Why is it that we get the coldest weather whenever I have testing miles to do?

My front forks have turned into a salt crusted mass too.

[alexanderfoti]

I have chosen 28th of Feb to get the turbo work done, so will need to pull the rad etc off so he has space to work.

Will probably do that when the snow clears!

Not to bad to ride in these conditions, but windchill on the M25 can be a bit horrible.

[Diesel Dave]

About a 1000 miles under the wheels so far.



The good bits.
1) the motor is fine, doesn’t burn any lube oil (carefully worded that bit).
2) clutch and primary seem to work fine with just a drip feed.
3) initial cooling problems have been solved by the bigger SV650 radiator.

Work in progresss.
1) gearbox up changes are problematic (it’s my old and very worn 5 speeder and is in need of a new stop plate pin).
2) radiator is a tad too wide and when feet down the left plumbing touches muppets leg.(useful for knowing the coolant temperature.
3) I didn’t check the headset bearings when I got the bike as they turned easily and smoothly, I encountered some very wierd handling foibles when rolling off the throttle over 50mph so I checked them only to find they had been over tightened. Slackening off had cured the problem but for safety’s sake I’ll replace the balls and cups at some point.
4) throttle action is ‘not nice’ it takes two motions to fully open and shortening the action makes it graunchy. It may benefit from a twist grip that pulls more cable as this would both quicken the action and smooth out the graunch.

General.

Handling is very good despite that rather dodgy front engine mounting and I can easily touch the pegs down, that’s at the limit of the Speedmaster tyres too.
Fuel consumption so far is around 115mpg (UK imperial gallon), that’s 95.7 US mpg or 2.45 litres per km. that’s a little disappointing but judging by my tool bag hanging off the tail end getting covered in soot - I may need to turn down the max rack setting.

Onwards and upwards.

[mark_in_manchester]

That sounds really good - thanks for posting. If I were starting today I think this is the way I would go, but having nearly 3 Charade engines around the place it seems I am rather committed in a different direction!

[Diesel Dave]

Right, where are we up to...

Radiator number 3 has arrived from China, all 25 quids worth of brand new VT250 sized cooling power, I also have a couple of 140mm computer fans to add to it.

Mileage is climbing,



Gearbox woes continue, but this is a design flaw rather than anything to do with the diesel conversion, I shall need to make my own stop plate pin.

I did manage a 114 mile trip yesterday on mostly dual carriageway so I know it runs well at full pelt although the 21t gearbox sprocket may be a tad high. Runs along nicely at a true 65 and I'll need to transfer over the Tiny Tach so I can keep an eye on the revs. MPG for yesterdays run was almost identical at 114 mpg (115 for the first measured tankful).

Anyhow, Sluggy the first has now taken pride of place on the lift bench as I'm finally getting around to swapping out the gearbox (the replacement has been on the bench for 2 years....)

Guess why a gearbox swap is needed....



Always busy in the diesel bike garage...

[Diesel Dave]

Cush drive rubbers didn’t last long being 27 years old..

https://youtu.be/VcAqYj_QSEM

But I did manage to fit a new sexy alloy rear brake plate.