Honda NTV650

We found another project so cheap & so close it would almost have been rude not to buy it!
An early 90's Honda NTV650, with what looks like light front end damage. It runs, needs a headlamp, clutch lever, speedo, a couple of indicators & possibly new handlebars...

As if we haven't got enough projects!

We've been half looking for the parts to get this bike back on the road at minimal cost so that it can be used as a spare run-around...
Useful work done so far; cleaned & painted rear carrier, straightened handlebars, replaced headlamp, footrest & damaged indicators. The speedo was proving difficult to find cheap, so we found one from a Revere, this is similar except for the layout of the warning lights & the position of the mounting bolts. It was relatively simple to make an "adapter plate" to mount the Revere clocks on the NTV forks...

Sandwich White Mill

A couple of shots from the top of the mill today as we were showing a Dutch master miller arouind the mill.
A very grey, wet morning...

Ford Fiests 1.8D crankshaft timing

 Not having had anything much to do with the Ford 1.8D engine, & not having the Haynes book until recently, it was not clear how the crankshaft location was achieved when setting up the engine to replace the belts.

After the pump drive belt snapped & the cambelt tensioner destroyed itself, the general feeling among those we spoke to was that the engine was damaged, however it didn't seem as it that was the case as everything was rotating smoothly...

A Mondeo engine came up on ebay cheap & local which we bought with a view to swapping them over, however, the amount of work involved in doing that prompted a re-think!

In order to find out how the crankshaft is set to TDC we removed the sump from the spare engine & turned it on its side... everything then became clear..... There's a flat on the web of the crank of #1 piston, the timing pin is of such a length that when it is screwed into its hole in the block & the crankshaft rotated the flat on the web contats the end of the pin when TDC os reached...

We didnt have the Ford pin & consequently didn't know the length it needed to be (or any facilities to machine on up immediately) so some thinking was called for...

As far as we could tell the Mondeo engine was still timed, so we pinned the camshaft & made a timing pin from a length of M10 studding & three nuts. One nut was drilled out so it acted as a spacer to ensure that the setting was referenced to the machined area around the hole rather than the "as cast" surface of the block. The stud was screwed into the hole until the end touched the flat on the crank web, the two nuts were then locked against eachother & the whole thin removed & inserted into the Fiesta block in the car. As the crank was rotated (clockwise) by putting the car in gear & rotating the wheel we felt it contact the end of the stud...

The pump & camshaft were then lined up & pinned with M6 bolts & the belts & tensioners replaced...

Krys' Garage

Before it rained today we managed to get the ridge fitted, well half of it actually because we only had three pieces... need another three to finish it...

Sandwich Windmill

A varied morning at the mill today...

We're still deciding what to do about the heating oil tank that was holed by thieves who stole the contents a few weeks ago.

Before we can do anything we have to empty the remaining oil from the existing 2,500l tank... so far we've pumped out 550l & there is still some more left... we filled up all the available containers today...

 We now have the use of a De walt thicknesser too


















A large heavy vice was also in need of attention.... this originally had a quick release mechanism, but this had long gone, so I made up a steel strip (the bit diagonally accross the vice near the mounting holes). This effectively keeps the half nut engaged perninantly with the thread byforcing it upwards, which is what the spring in the original quick-release would have done...



Fiesta 1.8D '95

A tricky one this... the 1.8 Ford diesel has two toothed belts, the belt that drives the injector pump snapped a few months ago. At the same time the tensioner for the cam drive belt broke up (plastic!... I ask you?!) this left the belt slacker than it should have been (it was the plastic "tyre" round the tensioner bearing that actually destroyed itself) but I don't think it was slack enough to have jumped a tooth.

So, the remedy would seem simple... find the timing points, insert pins to lock crankshaft & camshaft, remove tensioner, belt etc, time injector pump, replace pumpo drive belt, replace cam belt... turn engine by hand to check all is well.... then start engine!

If only...

The problem is Fords way of locking the crankshaft, there is a well hidden hole in the block, accessable via a hole in the injector pump mounting bracket, through which the timing pin is inserted, after its plug is removed

This is the difficult bit as it's far from obvious when the crankshaft is in the right place!

We did this all outside in November, but when it was all back together, we thurned the engine by hand only to find it lock up tight... so obviously we got something wrong.... in the meantime another engine came up on ebay locally at £30 it was pretty much scrap value.... this one was from a Mondeo & had a turbo but it's more or less the same engine.

The plan was to swap them over, but having investigated the amount of work involved, current thinking is to investigate, on this engine, how to time the crank & then try again with the other engine...

The life & times of a Peugeot 106 1.5D

After many phone calls & searches (& several hours of my time) I finally took the plunge & removed the suspect injector pump. I've convinced myself that the pump is faulty. I've based this diagnosis on two things:

• despite the fact that fuel is being delivered to the pump, nothing seems to be coming out of the high pressure side?
• the car has been run on vegeatable oil & it would seem that CAV  Lucas pumps dont like that?

Anyway today I took it to Injection Developments near Canterbury & left it with them to, hopefully, find out what we're up against.

Krys' Garage

A wet day today left us a bit restricted... we only managed to get the other side door made (from the roof of the old shed) & hung & the smaller of the two windows fitted.
We did take the opportunity of clearing up & a trailer load of off-cuts & a few bags of general rubbish went to the recycling centre...

One thing we did notice after loading some wood into the roof space last week was that the trusses we made might not be too over-engineered! We decided to restrict the storage in the roof to light stuff only!

Krys' Garage

Really good progress this weekend... the roof is on, the awning (over the bikes in the lower picture) is done. The cladding is almost finished (using the old shed, which is now dismantled & removed).One of the side doors doors is hung. The interior now has shelves, tools have racks, motorcycle parts are being sorted...
Krys is confused as he can now find things too easily!
Jobs to do: ridge; vehicle doors; side door (x1); cladding to side & front (around vehicle doors); find glass; window cills, guttering, rainwater collection....

European Rallycross @ Lydden Hill

http://www.lyddenhill.co.uk/

Honda Deauville NTV650 exhaust

I dont know why this is taking so long.... but it is, I finally managed to remove the chrome cover that Honda put over the joint between the downpipes & the front of the silencer (presumably to hide the fact that they couldn't be bothered to chrome plate it? or that they had cut corners by making it out of mild steel!). This unfortunately involved grinding off the heads of the bolts which had rusted in.... Anyway more rusty mess was revealed... which will have to be "repaired" with some tape...

Krys' Garage

We took full advantage of the weather this week... and the time off work! to make some serious progress...

The roof trusses we put up last year now re-positioned to accomodate the change in roof cladding material (the original idea was to board & felt the roof, but cost & the need for a guaranteed run of good weather to get it all done in one hit meant we had to re-think... after much searching & thinking, the winner turrned out to be corrugated iron from a local salvage yard... Site Salvage, in Sandwich)

The corrugated iron had to be cut to length with an angle grinder...

....& fixed with galvanised spring head nails

Almost finished.... we decided to take advantage of the fact that five sheets were 10ft long and make an awning off the side of the building at one end...





Westwood Garden tractor

The garden tractor donated a few weeks ago starts, runs & drives now. After two attempts at soldering the float which was holed & filling with petrol, Krys finally managed to drive it up the garden, taking a few daffodils out as he did so! after a few minutes the flooding problem re-ocourred, so I guess we need to look for a new float?