349 rebuild take 2

[fox889]

With the frame back from the powder coaters I set about assembling the fork yokes, simple job......nope!😳

The problem from day one, was, that ‘someone’ had been at the bike before me, previous owner intended on restoring it (bought most of the bits) but then moved it on to me. Everything is either loose or on the wrong way round. Looking at the front wheel for instance, the brake drum is on the offside, scouring dozens of photos on the ‘net, everyone shows it being on the nearside, no drama, just annoying that everything has been moved.

Back to the yokes, new tapered head bearings & races fitted to the headstock, everything adjusted ok, top yoke on, fine, then I found the chrome nut that secures the top yoke had only 3 or 4 threads to attach to! I couldn’t put the washer on as well as the nut but if I left the washer off I wasn’t comfortable in using just 3 or 4 threads to tighten the nut down. Everything apart again, thinking I hadn’t tapped the races down enough, checked those, fine. Scratch head time......and the answer is, I don’t know! The conical nut that adjusts the bearing free play, I decided to mill off 3mm from 6mm of the hexagonal part, still leaving 3mm plus the threads inside the cone. It’s not a stressed nut, not torqued so figured that’s all I could do. Local engineering firm kindly shaved 3mm off & the yokes all marry up lovely! I got round the problem but didn’t solve the problem. Pyramid parts confirmed the bearings were correct, the only thing I can think of is, the original ball bearing bearings & races were fractionally different?

Swinging arm is now on, the shock absorbers look very “road like” to me? Not sure what you think? After 40 years I’d be very surprised if they were the originals. Could be wrong.

The forks are on as well, not sure if I like the gaiters or not. The only reason I put them on was to protect the “new” stancions that have been totally refurbed. A hassle to remove them, unless I use a Stanley knife, might just keep them on while I carry on slowly.

Front wheel has been married up & I need a 27mm spacer between the fork shroud & the hub, it wasn’t with the bike, just copious amounts of washers to ‘bridge the gap’ which seems to be the order of the day with this bike from years gone by. I keep forgetting, it’s 40 years old, things break, things get changed, things get bodged! Oh well, onwards & upwards!

 

[turbofurball]

Yeah, those looks like cheapy chinese road shocks, trials shocks usually have a lot more potential travel.

When I first got my TY it had shorter than stock road shocks on the back and it made for an unrideable bike ... there's loads of info on here about options for good shocks, I opted to push the boat out with custom Rock Shocks on the TY, and my 349 has some very old rebuildable Betors.

[fox889]

I thought they looked like an '80's Jap shock Honda-Suzuki etc etc.

When funds allow, I'll look around for some new shocks, engine is still away & an unknown quantity money wise!

Thanks for your input.

[turbofurball]

The cheapy Chinese shocks look similar to the old Japanese ones, but even the shocks on my other half's Virago have more travel than what those appear to have!

If you keep your eyes open you might be able to find some useable ones second hand, try asking at a local club it's the sort of thing people have kicking around in their garages "just in case"

[fox889]

👌👍

[fox889]

33 minutes ago, turbofurball said:

The cheapy Chinese shocks look similar to the old Japanese ones, but even the shocks on my other half's Virago have more travel than what those appear to have!

If you keep your eyes open you might be able to find some useable ones second hand, try asking at a local club it's the sort of thing people have kicking around in their garages "just in case"

In motion have a budget pair for about a hundred pounds, which isn’t that bad, this is never going to be a competitive trials machine, nor is the rider 😜, just want it looking it’s best & be able to keep up with the others!