Return of the Radiator

  


   Getting the radiator back from the firm that repaired the radiator was a bit of a trial. They were located about 25 miles from me so I was able to "pop over" and have a word. I finally got the radiator back after three weeks. The repair firm had got hold of a curved core. They then tried to mate it to the existing headers at each end of the core. They headers were shot. The Aluminium had corroded to a state were they would not weld. Sam, the technition, who was doing the work set about fabricating and pair of headers. The manufacteurers headers are usually quite flimsy pressed Aluminium. Sam made a set from plate Aluminium. As it was plate it is much thicker, which I guess makes it easier to weld. The welding is not machine quality but I do not mind. It is hand made.





    On the appointed day of collection I went over the Wednesbury only to find the radiator was not quite finished. I had to kick stones for a few hours. On my return the radiator was ready, paint still tacky.






   The next job was to refit the radiator back on the bike. It was then a noticed that Sam had made brackets to replace the corroded items on the original radiator. First job was to refit the fans to the back of the radiator. Stainless steel clip replaced the originals. The left fan went straight on. The right fan did not quite locate onto one of the brackets. Twenty minutes of careful drilling and filing and the bolt lined up. The lick of spray paint to protect the new cut surfaces, replacement clips and the radiator was ready to be refitted. The bolts that retained the radiator were a but rusty. I gave the a brush with the wire brush and spray of paint and they too were ready for the refit. I offered the radiator up and refitted the bolt through the top brackets. The side brackets located smoothly. Well done Sam.

   One of the my rebuild rules is that any refitted bolts get a cleaning and a dab of Copper grease upon refitting. Depending on the situation the fitted nuts get a slavering of ordinary grease. That should keep the weather off for some time. The hose spiggots lined up perefectly which made refitting the hoses a doddle. I replaced the original hose clamps with a stainless steel option. The electrical plugs for the fans were reconnected and secured to their respective brackets. The header tank was refitted to its off side position and topped up with premixed coolant. The radiator was filled with Putoline NF premixed coolant.

Running the engine up to tempreature to vent the system would have to wait until I refitted the front wheel and suspension. 

Putoline NF coolant Volume = 2.5 litres including header tank.

   If you need your radiator recored you could do a lot worse than West Mercia Radiators. They are a bit chaotic but I suspect that is because they in demand. They honoured the price they quoted even though did extra work fabrication the headers.


  

         

USBs

   Whilst the radiator was away for who knows how long I set about other jobs. I wanted to put USB ports in each of the fairing pockets so I could charge things. In order to get the pockets in a place to work on them the faing would have to come off. The fairng fastenings are notious for snapping so I sent off for a fastnering kit. A bag full of shiny stainless steel and plastic goodies duly turned up in the post.

   I referred to the manual the locate all the poppers, clips and bolts that held the fairing together. slowly but surely the poppers popped, clips unclipped and bolts unbolted with varying amounts of resistance. The near-side panel has a big electrical connecting block located on the fairing but it under the fairing pocket so was difficult to undo. I do not know how that will be refitted! Then there were lots of plastic panels filling up the garage, two large panels, two inner panel the belly pan, the front lower grill (which did not come off without a fight). Then the large panel had to have the fairing pocket removed. The upper dash fairing also had to be loosened to allow the pockets to be removed.

   Once the fairing pockets were off it was a resonably straight forward job to drill a 30mm hole in the front of the pocket and fit the USB units. Before final fit of the USB unit I coated the thread and both sides of the new hole with waterproof mastic. Having first remembered to fit the rubber dust cover, as I tightened up the nut to secure the unit to the pocket the mastic oozed from the joint making it watertight...I hope. I cleaned up the mastic then refitted the pocket back onto the fairing panel.

   One nice touch was I found a USB unit with a built in Volt meter. Now I can tell the state of my battery.


The lower front grill was cleaned up. The old clips were replaced with the new stainless steel items and heavily greased ready for refitting.

Radiator - part 1

   Whilst riding the bike over the summer I decided that the engine was not coping with the heat as the raditor fans would come on as soon as I slowed down coming into town or was in traffic. This did not seem right. I check the coolant level. It look a little low. I looked at the raditor itself and found it was largely clogged with years of road filth. I decided it needed sorting.

   Removing the radiator was quite simple. Drain the cooling system, remove three hose clips, a bolt in each bottom corner and a long bolt through a cushioned bracket top centre of the radiator. The radiator has two fans so the electrical plugs for these needed unplugging. Since I was going to wash the radiator I needed to remove the fans, three bolts on each fan. Five came off fairly readily. The other one snapped the bracket. Once off copious amounts of oil and wiggling freed up the nut and bolt and remainder of the bracket was free. I decided if I soaked the radiator I would be able to loosen the dirt and would come out with a jet wash. The result in short, after several evoltions of washing and poking the dirt, was that the dirt did not budge and fins were getting bent over. time wasted and probably in a worse place than when I started. Also the paint had come off the ends of the radiator and the Aluminium was powdery where it had begun to corrode. The fan bracket broke because it was corroded. Time for a think.

   I researched the cost of a new radiator.....700 of your English pounds plus postage please. That was almost half the cost of the bike. A plan "B" was needed. As luck would have it I had attanded a classic bike show during the summer and picked up a card for a chap in the West Midlands that refurbished radiators. I gave him a call. Short conversation about estimated costs and when I could have it back (when I called him he was on holiday in Portugal) I posted the radiator off to Wednesbury. The clock started ticking.

Whilst the radiator was away I started another job. 

Now things get serious - Fork seal replacement

   The driver for this refurbishment is to replace the oil seal on the off-side front fork stanchion. That is the primary job. As I go along I will clean and refurbish anything else that needs it.

   Job one is all about the front of the bike. I have a bike lift which is handy as I can raise the bike to any working height. The bike was raised and a jack put under the front of the engine to support it once the front wheel is removed. It returned out the jack has some kind of oil leak so it very slowly decended under the weight of the bike.It dropped a couple of inches over night. Luckily not so much as to make the bike pitch forward and fall off the ramp. Finding this heart stopper made in me use a racket strap through the rear wheel and looped around the ramp base. Once tightened up the back wheel was strapped down. And it stayed that way.

Preparation

   With the wheel up in should be straight forward the release the brake calipers, remove the wheel spindle and remove the wheel. Straight forward it was not. I had taken the precaution of covering all the bolts in penetrating oil, whilst being careful no to get oil on the brake pads. The bike has linked brakes and was determined not the drop hydralic fluid out of the brake system which would require me to refill and bleed the system. I understand it is a nightmare job. I took a few pictures to see how the linkage was set up. I carefull removed all the bolts until the calipers were able to be swung away from the brake disc. In order the remove the forks the front mud guard needed to be removed. More penetrating oil on the grimy nuts that were on the underside of the mud guard and therefore exposed to years of road dirt. there were more brake related brackets tangled up with the mud guard mounting. Following a struggle and more oil the seized nuts and bolt began to give and were finally removed which released the mud guard. By the time I got to this stage it was clear, give the up grades I had in mind, That would need to remove all the front fairing panels and some of the up dash panels.


   The crimp bolts on the upper and lower yolks were surprisingly easy to access. On each side there four bolts; two on the upper yolk and two on the lower yolk. There is a 20mm hexagon key in the top of each stanchion that secures and provides compression for the suspension. These nuts are usually difficult to undo as they are rarely undone, are under pressure and when off the bike there is no purchase to counter the turning motion needed to unscrew the nut. I decided the loosen the 20mm hex bolts whilst they were in the bike. Guess what? They It undid very easily but being careful not the unscrew it completely. Each fork was slid down through the yolk, the fork cap removed and the fork oil drained out. Both sets of oil were filthy and of course there was less oil in one fork than the other. Also remember to catch the spacer, washer and spring which will fall out when you upturn the stanchion to drain the oil.

Removal 
   Then began the trial of removing the oil seals. Each legs was tackled in turn. There is an allen key at the bottom of the legs which secures the bottom of the internal suspension mechanism. It is in the ticklish spot. A long reach allen keys is required and potential to damage the head of the key is high. If damaged the bolt is never coming out. As luck would have it, although very tight the bolt came free. The dust cover is prized from it position revealing a circlip. The clip has to be removed to allow the seals to be removed. There are two on each side. Removal of the seal is done by sliding the lower suspension leg (the slider) down with a sharp movement until the internal suspension bush hits the underside the of the seal and slowly drifts the seals out of position. Note the anyone else tackling this job, do not allow the suspension bush to come out of the slider. It took me ages to get back in. It is quite soft so damages easily and is sprung to grip the inside the slider. With this knowledge the second legs was quicker to service. The old seals are taken off the stanchion (upper section of the suspension).

Reassembly
The stanchion then slid carefully into the slider, the spring is refitted followed by the washer and the spacer. The new seals come with a grease which is used to ease the passage of the new seal down the stanchion the preserve the sealing edges. The seals need to carefully tapped into place and the circlip refitted. The new oil is measured out and poured into the stantion. The suspension needs to gently worked up and down several time to expel any air trapped in the galleries. With oil topped up as necessary. The 20mm hex is is screwed back in to the top of the stanchion. The thread is fine and the suspension spring provides a lot of resistance so one has to be careful not to cross thread the Hex bolt. I tightened the Hex bolt as best I could and noted that it need fully tighening when it was back in the bike.

The same procedure was carried out on the second legs. It took about four hours to complete the work described. The sliders are going to be painted so were set aside and the next job got ready for another day. 
          

Starting with a service

   There is nothing really to say about the service except it is easier if you take the fairing panels off. The underside panel comes off real easy which is not something that can be said of the front side panels. Behind the near side panel you find a big electrical connector block which has a mounting on the panel. This means the panel does not want to come off until the block is released but you cannot get at it as it is under the fairing pocket. The off side panel does not have quite has enough space to remove the suspressor cap on the rear most cylinder.

   The spark plugs are deeply recessed so a little care in starting the tread is needed. I used NGK spark plugs. Despite being brand new I always check the gap with a feeler gauge. Often the plug needs a slight gap reset the gap. The air filer is a faff because it is under the petrol tank. Luckily the top tank was empty so was light. The tank has a prop which stowed in the tail unit. Unfortunately I did not find this out until I had completed the job. To make the job a bit more interesting several of the screws would not come out. I did coax them out with penetrating oil and a little time. It is nice in this restoration/upgrade that I am not pressed for time. I can oil seized screws over a period of time and work them loose. The change of air filter took 90 seconds but get the air box lid off took a week. Refiting the air box lids took no time at all.

   The oil filter was an easy job. Running the engine up to working tempreature obviously took a few minutes. I cannot run the engine whilst the bike is in the garage so the warm up took place outside the garage. The oil is not going to cool down fast so there was ample time to reposition the bike on the lift in the garage before dropping out the old oil. The oil filter is under the engine near the centre stand. Access is a bit restrictive but not as bad as other vehicles I have worked on. Fitting the new oil filter is a work of seconds.

   I figured whilst I was about it I might as well replace the oil in the rear drive bevel. That might have been the simplest job of all. Remove the drain plugs and let it drain. The oil is a heavy EP90 so it does not flow quickly. Once the oil was out. Replace the drain plus and squeeze in the appropriate amount of oil in the filler plug. When it overflows you have filled it.

Service fuilds
Engine with filter change                 3.9 litre           SAE 10/40
Final drive                                      0.15 litre           SAE 80

Spark plugs                                      NGK               gap = 0.8mm

      

Top box plate

The Pan came with a Honda top box and a mounting plate. I don't have much room in the garage so I figured I would mount the top box then it would be on the bike, out of the way. Usually I do not care for a top box when riding so it was going to be a storage thing.

The fitting kit was complete. I had to visit the interweb for fitting instructions. It was not complicated. Remove the seat. I had to remember now to do that. Insert six bolts into oblong guides and insert these into the mounting plate and offer the plate up to the existing rack. Guess what? there are bolt holes that line up so it was case of wiggling the bolts into their respective locations and moving the plate around until it was square. The a bit a pin the nut on the bolt as the bolts protruded into the space under tail piece and of course you can see anything under there so it has to be done by feel. Its a faff but simply enough.

With the plate fitted, the top box simply engages with the plate and the clip and lock of the top box secure the box to the bike. I have found if a run about with top box on, when I get where I am going I can put my helmet in the top box and boot and jacket in the panniers so I stroll around without getting hot in bike gear. The other aspect is that without the top box the plate looks a bit untidy. 

Hazel the pillion reports the back rest on the box is quite comfry. As a rider I can tell it has not fallen off and does not appear to affect the handling, even with a box of honey in there.

A review

   The first thing I did after riding the Pan back from Manchester in the pouring rain in November 2018 was to go a get some new riding kit.

• A pair of Sidi adventure boots
• A HJC helmet. Aria helmets are over £400 quid !!
• An Alpinestar two piece Andres Touring textile suit. 

  

   Then I rode the thing. No problem to go fast, slow or stopping but I had trouble turning right. It really did feel odd given the test drive was so positive. So time for an investigation. It did not take long to discoved the tyres pressures were a bit low. Pumping up the tyres improved things but it was not a transformation. A further look showed the right fork seal was leaking. Job one.....new fork seals. I might as well do both at the same time. I closer look showed the radiator was pretty clogged up from crap from 15 years and of 33k of city riding. Riding the Pan in the summer had the fans coming on when tootling through the cities. It was not so hot to call for fans. Job two then. So given the fork had to come out to do the seals that would leave room to do the radiator want else should I repair/up grade whilst the Pan is on the ramp? 

I made a list:  

• I figured all the plastic fairing fasteners would break as soon as I touched them so a set of new fasteners would be needed.
• A service would be in order. 
• Tyres are OK. 
• The bike came with a top box but the fixing plate was not attached  so the top box could not be fitting to the bike. That needs sorting.
• So what about some USB ports to charge phones and run Sat Nav? That's a good idea. 
• There was a lot of corrosion of the Magnesium alloy of the engine block as I figured that needed looking at. 
• The drive splines on BMs are a weak point The that is going be part of the service for the Pan.
• I had seen that a common up grade was LED day light riding lights. They really make the bike visible in traffic.
• A heated seat would be nice. 
• Perhaps handlebar risers and liners for the panniers and top box. 
• A deep clean

Now time to go shopping
   

It begins !

A bit of background.
I have had loas of bikes. Currently I have a couple of bikes, a BMW 80/7, a Yamaha R1 and a Honda CX500 in bits. several years ago I had thought about getting a new touring bike and had been for test rides on BMW GT K1200 (The BM) and a Honda Pan European ST1300 (The Pan). The BMW had lots of toys, cruise control, remote suspension adjustment, heated grip, heated seats, motorised screen and a funny front end. The Honda had a big fairing to sit behind, a tidal wave of torque and was comfy to ride, heated grips and motorised screen. The Honda was a bit cheaper to buy than the BM and cheaper to service.

The BM seem a bit slower to turn in and a bit slower on acceleration. I was dragging the toes of my boots on the tarmac in a very short time which underlines the confiedence given by the Pan and torque everywhere. The Bm looked quiet sleek and the Pan something of a bruiser. And that was backed up by feeling you where sitting "on" the BM and "in" the Pan.

It was all moot in the end as the price tags for either bike was somewhere north of £15,000.

Then in 2018 a Pan came up for sale which looked in resonable condition and with a price tag I could afford. It is a 2004 model with 33,000 miles on the clock, so not many miles. It is a bit care worn but it goes like and train and stops like someone stuck bar through the spokes. It came with a years MOT, new battery, heated grip and a Honda top box which was a bonus. The tyres are pretty good.

So very much plug and play. Now there is Pan in the garage!