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Ardon's Serialised CS5E AC 2 Stroke Twin Renovation!!!!!!
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Post subject: Ardon's Serialised CS5E AC 2 Stroke Twin Renovation!!!!!!
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Ardon RD/RZ Jedi Master |
This project started 2 years ago and is almost ready to be finished!...
It has been regulary included in the Aircooled RD Clubs mag and having the content just sat on my hard drive doing nowt for years and years I thought that I would share it with you lot!!
The write-up comes in 16 parts that will be added occasionally and I hope that some will find it interesting or maybe even amusing because this bike has been the restore from hell!!....... 
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon2/pic1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon2/pic3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon2/pic4.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon2/pic6.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon2/pic8.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon2/pic9.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon2/pic11.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon2/picTEN.jpg
Part 1……………………………………….
This is my first restore for a few years now and I have already started stripping and sorting out the logistics of it and I’ve only had the bike for 4 days… but it has already grown on me as I like a challenge as readers of CMM may have read in the past! I have been wanting a new project to work on for ages so I made a mate an offer of £200 and we settled on £225 for the lot with a running motor, 11500 miles and fully working leccy’s………I didn’t really expect him to relent on a potential gold mine and I was surprised when he said ’OK, it’s yours Ardon.’ Pity I didn’t haggle some more as he was really wanting to git shut of the old nail sharpish!!!!!!…………..
The bike is a 1972 vintage 200 twin on standard bores that was the direct predecessor to the RD 200 twins but that was all it shared with the later models. The CS3’s main differences were that it was piston port, had a fancy steering damper and it also had an electric start come generator…that doesn’t work on mine……yet!
Information on the model has proved to be extremely hard to find …..even on the web!
But I have managed to glean a few facts. As it stands the bike is worth about £500 whereas a mint example can command as much as £12 hundred quid!
My first priority is to try and find out exactly what paint job it should be sporting and exactly what model the machine is!…They seem to be more plentiful in the USA but their paint aint the same as the Brit models!….
A quick examination reveals that I need a few parts that a mates breakers should have as they owned the bike quite a while ago….Hopefully they will be able to help out but I have also put out enquiries in the biking press in case they fail!
The bike has had all of its pretty good condition chrome parts coated in silver spray while still in position, the frame (where u can see it) and the bodywork dowsed with Halfords orange paint…Most of the fasteners are either non-standard or consisted of roofing bolts, duct tape, wood screws and bailing twine!!
I aint after an anal proper restore of the machine but a close as practically possible with a meager budget so should be attainable, Ardon thinks! Time will tell.
Being at a loose end today I thought that I would strip a few more bits off the CS3 in preparation for the frame, swinger and other parts getting a shiny powder coating in black and silver, which should cost around £80 - £100.
Man, you would not believe what I found when I removed the tank. The wiring was in a terrible state and all the fasteners were of the self-tapper screw kind or missing altogether!
PIC: 1 and 2 professional wiring job hahahahaha
After spending 3 hours soldering and fitting new connections, instead of the block connectors, to the wiring loom in situ it was fairly safe to remove it and this went without a hitch, although the indicators copper wiring was black as arseholes and will have to be replaced with fresh stuff!
The next job was to remove the airbox, which was also held in place by a number of torn wood screws!
I removed the filter cover off the air box and was faced with a roughly contoured piece of pink sofa foam that was attempting to pass as an air filter!…….No wonder the bike wouldn’t rev out!
PIC: 3 - foam air filter!
The bike had been recently ‘done up’ whereas I would have called it ‘done down!’
Some people simply should not be allowed to ‘restore’ any kind of vehicle whatsoever!
Charlie – you are a right dick!
PIC 4: Tank Badges!
These two badges are too badly damaged to use on the finished tank so I am gonna have to find some new ones that I believe are very expensive, recondition what I have, or replace them with stickers! I suspect that the later option will be the chosen one, sadly!…
More exciting project news as the project get’s under way!
23/05/2005
Having recovered mentally from the airbox saga I carried on stripping the bike down.
Luckily for me, most of the fasteners were already loose but there were two that were a bastard. The rear lens screws consisted of 2 welded into 1 bolts that had luckily good threads on them still…..
Pic 9 welded screws
The next job was to try and release the steering damper. As you should have made out already in the picky, the bastard had sheared off while I was carefully unscrewing it while coating it with 20 litres of WD40.
My fix for the problem will be to remove the broken bolt from the bottom spacer and weld a piece of 6mm stud iron onto the end of the damper unit and the job should be a good ‘en!
Pic 8 steering damper rod
Having scored an original workshop manual and a Haynes one off Ebay for £14 quid I went about making a careful analysis of the manuals and it is certainly looking as if the bike is actually a CS5. Almost identical to the CS3 but with some cosmetic differences! One of these being the tank having a slightly different shape and differing mounting points.
One of the hardest things you have to achieve when trying to do up a bike of 33 years vintage is, apart from the chrome, being lucky enuff to have a perch in good condition.
Luckily for me…. a guy off the ACRD forum www.aircooled-rd.com/forum/default.asp pointed me in the direction of a guy who intends to make original seat covers and foam for the bike, and ‘Snowy’ also gave me the number of a guy who is apparently breaking a CS, and all this info came to me within an hour of posting the request on-line!. Marvellous!!
Aint that the beauty of the internet and the bay!!!!
But before I dialled the numbers. The local breakers came up with a good condition seat that was not the right one for the bike, but it was very close to the proper one. I suspected that it actually came from a RD350B and had a ‘plastic’ seat base, which I believe were aftermarket equip. If I cant get hold of the proper seat for the bike then the one I have will have to be modified to fit but shouldn’t pose to much of a problem! Simply a job of making 2 new seat brackets to fit the frames mounts and locking mechanism.
PIC 6 switch unit!
As you can see from the pic, the switch unit has a bust on/off light switch. I spent an hour down the breakers rummaging like a pig through the switch units box but there was nothing like it to be found. So I put a wanted in the forum and was pleasantly surprised when a chap called ‘Mopedman’ mailed me to say that he happened to have a similar unit off a RD50. The guy posted it and charged me nowt but it turned out that the part would need a third chopping of it for it to be any good, and after a few passes with a hacksaw the problem would be no more, or so I thought!………..THX Mopedman and the other folks helpful comments too!!!!!!
As I want this bike to at least get the asking price I’m gonna have to be plenty lucky but I’m sure that this is achievable still. And I never flog a bike unless it is 100% sorted!!
After that I don’t really care……Well perhaps that aint too true as I do give a shit about the machines and I like to hear that my old projects are still giving good service! I never rip anyone off!…..
At the moment I have 5 boxes allocated to the project. Cad plate box, powder coating, polishing, ultrasonic bath and finished. The finished box has one part in it so far -the headlamp rim. I was gonna either re-chrome or silver PC it but I decided that the existing chrome was ok ish and wrapped it up as complete.
As for the ultrasonic business….a buddy has one of the devices that just happens to fit 2 RD sized carbs in a paraffin solution. The device takes about a hour at full throttle to restore the carbs original finish by simply vibrating the dirt into submission, but you do have to employ a bit of elbow grease and a worn toothbrush!
These machines are very dear and are rare to get cheaply but they are a very good way of unblocking stubborn carb passage ways. If ya canna get the carb tubes unblocked with this machine then they are pretty knackered!
So the bike has to have a stove enamelled finish to be truly original but cuts have to be made and PC is very very good coupled by the fact that a mate does all the transporting to and from York for nowt!
The bikes fasteners, apart from the wood screws, are to be zinc plated soon and the whole lot will only cost about £20. A good tip to be had is, before you send off bolts for re-plating then it is a good idea to buff them up with a wire wheel first. The better the fasteners finish, the shinier they will be after plating!
Part 2
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon2/pic2zorsts.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon2/pic3zincplate.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon2/pic4PCoatingbox.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon2/pic5weldedkicker.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon2/pic6decentchainguard.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon2/pic7restoredwheel.jpg
2nd disc CS5 tale 20:46 28th June
Part 5
In an ideal world all of us would love to have all the shining chrome parts on our old aircooled’s being as bright as a pin, but life’s a hard old game and you have to cut corners some times and the pipes fall into this category.
PIC 2 standard zorsts reasonable condition for a 33 year old!
From the zorst pic you maybe able to make out that they are less than mint with a patchy coating of brush on silver paint. I suppose for the age of the chrome parts in general. They’ve actually faired pretty well and are in fairly good nick, so this and cost constraints mean they will have to be used on the finished bike…..unless something better pops up cheaply in the mean time. I doubt though that I will be lucky here and will have to break open the paint stripper and solvol and manually get the silver paint off them, the fork sliders, and the wheels that have also been ‘done up’.
PIC 7 front wheel with a quality silver paint job in part! L
Now what do I do with the rustyish wheel rims?
The options are:
· Zinc plate the spokes and re-chrome the rims! ‘HHHmmmmm!’
· Shiny Zinc plate the buffed up spokes and the rims!
· Plate the spokes, sand blast the rims, and finish off with a coat of decent quality silver spray!
Or:
· Leave them as they are after cleaning them up.
I think that I will choose option one if I am able and option 2 if I cant!
Now does anybody know the whereabouts of a good cheap chrome plater?? The last time I chromed a part was the forks on my NS4. They cost £140 and started rusting after only a year - tosser!
We are lucky here in that there is a strong engineering base in Barrow and services a plenty. When the local shipyard was at its peak there were more ‘foreigner’ jobs going out of the gates than legit work stuff. So it is no wonder that it went into a terminal decline and so did, as we saw it, our own free personal fully equip machine shop. Collectively we must have had a few million quids worth of stuff offa them fer nowt!! J
We have been using a local zinc plater for years now and a rubbish basket full of fasteners and other steel parts will set you back a cool twenty quid a shot! Bargain! They do three finishes too - yellow (gold), Silver (blue) and the coveted black! But they don’t do the greeny/ brown colour that the LC’s use, regrettably, or they would be onto a nice little earner!!
After buffing up all the scabby components with a wire wheel. I will be plating everything silver because I think it will contrast better against the dark coloured parts of the bike and it appears that this was the standard finish anyway.
PIC 3 zinc plating The fasteners ready for zinc plating!
I intend to replace most of the rounded wood screws with cross heads where I can, and where I cant I will have to resort to allen bolts! Yeah yeah OK…. So it’s not standard, but costs dictate matters. Like I have said before - life’s a hard old game innit!
The bike was running well when I bought it so the carbs must have been of good fettle. But the external finish of them was a bit jaded and dirty. So this means that it’s time again for Ardon to bravely go into the depths of the local council estate and book a session in a Tattooist mates ultra-sonic cleaning bath.
These baths are almost a must have in anyone’s workshop. But they cost the earth and are rare to find outside of Tattooists studios, the ossies, jewellers or dental practices. Do a search for them on ebay and see what’s being asked for them….its quite shocking!
The one I use just and so fits 2 carb bodies and internal bits and the dirt just disappears into the solution after a few hours of use. The baths work by emitting agitated sound waves into the solution which causes micro bubbles to form which jostle any shit present to break down into smaller pieces that are easier to remove. It also does a good job of cleaning your hands too!
If you have a problem set of carbs that have resisted all other methods of cleaning then an U/S session is almost guaranteed to work. If it doesn’t get them working right then your carbs components are pretty much knackered!
Your actually supposed to use an expensive special solution in the machine, but bollox to that….I use either a solution of household cleaner and boiling water or I fill it full of paraffin and let it vibrate away for a few hours.
Treat the items to a quick scrub with a toothbrush afterwards and the job’s a good ‘en, spanking new looking set of carbs…..
As I am keen to keep the bike as original as possible. The chrome on the chain guard was pleasingly in fairly good nick and its aberrations could be cured with a good few mins of intense Solvoling and a Duraglitting. So I marked the unit down as an almost certain keep although I may just re- plate it with the other bits if I can afford to!
PIC 6 - Chain guard
As if finding sofa foam in the airbox and wood screws everywhere else wasn’t enough. I noticed that the kick starter had been welded onto the gearbox shaft. GGGrrrrrrrrr!! L
PIC 5 - welded kicker pic!
Bloody pain in the arse for Ardon but my only option is to buff away the weld, release the kicker, and try and find a new gear shaft. I recall someone mentioning that the early 250a and b machines have the same shafts. But this job is still in the ‘what to do’ stages of the project and has been placed on the back burner for now………
Rather than stove enamel the frame and some of the bikes components like a purist restorer would. I decided against doing this and intend to get them powder coated. Because the finish is more durable and a buddy does all the transporting to and thro from Yorkshire for nothing.
PIC 4 - the powder coating box
I’ve had a load of stuff done before by them before for my yamgam project and the jobs are faultless.
I am expecting/hoping that the job lot wont cost me more than £120 quid for the full frame and a box full of bits consisting of stuff such as the clock bracket, airbox, motor cases and the battery box!
WORD COUNT 1157
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Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 6:52 pm
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ArdonRD/RZ Jedi Master |
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon2/pic1-1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon2/pic2finmissing.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon2/pic3kstartshaft.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon2/pic4casingsplit.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon2/pic5devconputty.jpg
Part 3
You know folks. As the days have gone by I am finding myself becoming quite attached to the old CS and am really enjoying cracking on with it.
After a bit of thinking the other day I realised that I actually prefer the restoration of a bike rather than building a special. What fuelled my brief moment of rare contemplation was the sight of my YamGam still lingering about in a corner of my workshop. It’s actually been there for more years than I like to admit and I really am gonna have to finish it off one day!…….. I really am…..one day!
PIC 1 yam gam
With the motor out of the frame and onto the bench. It was time that it was given a close inspection to see if it too had been subjected to butchery without mercy. Surprisingly the motor looks in pretty good nick although the rampant silver paint can had found its way onto the barrels and heads.
As I want the engine to look good I will be removing the barrels and heads so that I can paint and polish them up the same as the original ones would have been - and also the side casings to match.
PIC 6 piston port
You’ve probably deemed from the pics that this motor doesn’t have any of the reed valves unlike latter models. This is the first piston port bike I have ever had and the previous owner had forgot to close the fuel tap just before I got it! Well, I removed one of the pipes unawares and found myself standing in a very sh*tty petrol/zorst carbon mix on the floor that still stinks after a week.
I initially had been sold the bike with the assurance that it was on a standard bore for it’s 11 k miles. So I removed the heads to refurbish them and was faced with 2 pistons clearly marked with ‘0.5’ and one of the heads was showing evidence that it had chewed a ring at some point. It goes from bad to worse.
Who ever had done the motor repairs deserves hanging. And as for the previous owner…..grief will be given!
PIC 2 fin missing barrel
Whoever had been whirling the spanners on this bike had somehow snapped off one of the outer fins of the left barrel. And so I hear you lot thinking that things are looking pretty grim for the restoration and surely nothing more can possibly go wrong!
Well Folks…..I gets much much worse!!!!
To get the clutch casing off the motor I had to remove the weld from the kick start shaft which took me a careful 5 mins with an angle grinder and things were looking up. But it turns out that the knackered kicker itself is not original and the shaft is buggered beyond repair.
PIC3 kicker shaft removed
There’s quite an amount of damage to the casing around the kick shaft where someone had been battering it with a big hammer. It was only when I turned the cover over that I noticed a crack on the inside that had been plugged with Araldite, which flaked off to the touch!
PIC 4 - kicker casing inside cracked
Great…what a fun time I’m having!!!!
I went down to the local breakers with the shaft to do bit of searching for a used one and they found a bagged genuine RD200 shaft that had been ordered ages ago and never picked up. I said ‘how much then?’ And the reply from the t**ser who part owns the shop with Harry Triples, was a sharp intake of breath and a ‘dunno yet, they’re rare…. I will check it out with Yamaha!’
Seeing the price on the packet had me walking away anyway because it had a figure of £55 left to pay on it and bollox to paying that for one. So I will have to turn to ebay and the web again in the hope of a better deal.
The damage to the casing may be able to be repaired by a local ally welder, to plug the crack, and the indentations on and around the kick starter will be filled in with a very seriously priced epoxy ally paste called ‘Devcon’ that I acquired a while ago and that costs a reputed £1000 for a 500 gram tub!
PIC 5 DEVCON ALLY PUTTY
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Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 8:03 pm
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Billy  One-handed Stoppie! Joined: 12 Oct 2007 Total posts: 2216 Location: Sweden arise! |
That clutch cover wasn't in too mint condition!  I can't believe someone can do something that silly to a bike, hope you'll sort every raped parts out! 
Nice project anyway, interesting to see what it will look like once finished.
Btw, nice blanket on the first pic of your second post! Looks a bit tatty doesn't it? 
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Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 9:05 pm
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z1100r Ace of Spades Joined: 05 Aug 2003 Total posts: 4769 Location: Coventry |
tickled me....
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Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 11:32 pm
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ArdonRD/RZ Jedi Master |
Triggy!
Your that ugly that you could put out house fires!
As the artical has already been used Ardon thought that instead of it sitting on me hard drive for ever I'd share it with you feltchers!!!!!!!
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Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 7:41 pm
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2Smoke Rear-wheel Steering! Joined: 06 Aug 2003 Total posts: 2942 Location: The Isle of Anglesey |
I'll buy you a crate of beer if you get it on the road for the rd rally
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Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 8:42 pm
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ArdonRD/RZ Jedi Master |
| 2Smoke wrote: |
| I'll buy you a crate of beer if you get it on the road for the rd rally |
I hope to have it at Oct Staffs all finished and for sale - £800 ono!!!!
I wont be at the rd rally coz I cant be arsed!
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Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 9:55 pm
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| oakspeed |
| Ardon wrote: |
I wont be at the rd rally coz I dont want another beating! |
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Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 10:09 pm
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ArdonRD/RZ Jedi Master |
part 7
When I bought the 200 the electric starter motor - yes u have read it right - was not operative and I was informed that the bike wasn’t generating any current back into the system either. I should have really fixed this problem before I started to strip the running bike down but shit ‘appens and I tore into the disassembly with gusto anyway as it’s my favourite part of the job! J
Interestingly, the starter motor assembly is a dual function device in that it also incorporates a high output DC generator that feeds 12 volts back into the system. Clever idea but it means there is more to go wrong and guess who’s bike is gonna suffer from all these extra problems?
PIC 1 points/dyno start unit
Never the less…….. Looking at the poor state of the unit’s bushes and points I think that it’s pretty safe to say that this was the cause of the bikes leccy problems.
Under closer inspection of the genny I found that three out of the generators four brushes were not of the right type and were very badly worn as the image shows. The arrowed brush is a genuine one in good nick. What you can’t see is that the points were also looking sorry with pitting to excess and with very poor wiring, so a desperate hunt is now on in hope of finding some new bits.
Being a legendary tight arse, my plan is to visit the local wiz auto electrician and see if I can get some new parts of the right type. Failing any luck there I will have to visit the dealers and see if they can get hold of the genuine parts. I’ll also be changing the 2 condensers as well as a matter of course. But as with the other parts, this all depends on the availability for a machine that aint really a spring chicken anymore with more than 33 rings on its trunk.
I’d never noticed it before but the fork sliders happened to be chrome plated, or were. I’ve never come across this before but I doubted that anyone would go to the unnecessary bother of plating ally parts. But I should have guessed by the weight of them that they are in fact steel. I double checked this with a magnet and it’s confirmed.
PIC 2 forks ready for blasting
PIC 3 devcon repaired casing
You may recall from an earlier instalment that the crack in an engine casing needed a quick fix so I decided to plug the gap and fill in the large outer indentation near the kicker with DEVCON Alloy paste. The image of the case may look a bit scruffy but I intend to spend some time with a burr reshaping the casing so it looks like new (ish) and then it’s off to be finish polished and sent off for powder coating.
Take a look at the kick starter shaft hole. It looks like it has just done 10 rounds with a pissed off Mike Tyson (who?). When I was stripping the case the shaft rubber seal came out with no problems, helped by it being in 5 pieces held together by black paint! ……..Look at the hammer marks on the kickers shoulder joint – Shocking!!!
PIC 4 bare frame brake lever
The last part of the stripping down was the rear brake pedal which didn’t look as if was going to be a problem. With circlip pliers in hand I approached the pedal with anticipation of a pain of a job, but the clip came out easily….in fact too easily!! Hmmmmmm!
The lever should have just slid off the shaft with little force but this one didn’t! The previous idiot owner had peened the edges of the shaft over with a hammer to get the pedal to stay put. L Oh Well, yet another job to do.
I have two options to choose between here. Grind the end of the shaft off and hold the lever on with a large washer and Allen screw. Or I can try and split the levers splined bit with a grinder and weld up the gap before plating.
Looking at the job afresh it is gonna be the 1st option I’m gonna take as the frame is in the way and I wont be able to fully split the shaft. Pity that, as I would have preferred that method.
PIC 5 Brake lever, grinding off shaft…………………
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon3/PIC1dynostartpointss.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon3/PIC2forksblastings.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon3/pic3devconcrackrepairs.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon3/pic4barebonesCSs.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon3/PIC5grindbrakeleveroffs.jpg
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Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 7:51 pm
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| p51bombay Joined: 23 Jan 2004 Total posts: 9910 |
[quote="Ardon"]
| 2Smoke wrote: |
I wont be at the rd rally coz I cant be arsed! |
Billy-no-show 
Think yer mum's looking for her tablecloth.............or is that yours?
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Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2008 12:09 am
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Post subject: Re: Ardon's Serialised CS5E AC 2 Stroke Twin Renovation!!!!!
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ArdonRD/RZ Jedi Master |
| Trig wrote: |
| Ardon wrote: |
This project started 2 years ago and is almost ready to be finished!...
It has been regulary included in the Aircooled RD Clubs mag and having the content just sat on my hard drive doing nowt for years and years I thought that I would share it with you lot!!
The write-up comes in 16 parts that will be added occasionally and I hope that some will find it interesting or maybe even amusing because this bike has been the restore from hell!!.......
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon2/pic1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon2/pic3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon2/pic4.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon2/pic6.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon2/pic8.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon2/pic9.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon2/pic11.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon2/picTEN.jpg
Part 1……………………………………….
This is my first restore for a few years now and I have already started stripping and sorting out the logistics of it and I’ve only had the bike for 4 days… but it has already grown on me as I like a challenge as readers of CMM may have read in the past! I have been wanting a new project to work on for ages so I made a mate an offer of £200 and we settled on £225 for the lot with a running motor, 11500 miles and fully working leccy’s………I didn’t really expect him to relent on a potential gold mine and I was surprised when he said ’OK, it’s yours Ardon.’ Pity I didn’t haggle some more as he was really wanting to git shut of the old nail sharpish!!!!!!…………..
The bike is a 1972 vintage 200 twin on standard bores that was the direct predecessor to the RD 200 twins but that was all it shared with the later models. The CS3’s main differences were that it was piston port, had a fancy steering damper and it also had an electric start come generator…that doesn’t work on mine……yet!
Information on the model has proved to be extremely hard to find …..even on the web!
But I have managed to glean a few facts. As it stands the bike is worth about £500 whereas a mint example can command as much as £12 hundred quid!
My first priority is to try and find out exactly what paint job it should be sporting and exactly what model the machine is!…They seem to be more plentiful in the USA but their paint aint the same as the Brit models!….
A quick examination reveals that I need a few parts that a mates breakers should have as they owned the bike quite a while ago….Hopefully they will be able to help out but I have also put out enquiries in the biking press in case they fail!
The bike has had all of its pretty good condition chrome parts coated in silver spray while still in position, the frame (where u can see it) and the bodywork dowsed with Halfords orange paint…Most of the fasteners are either non-standard or consisted of roofing bolts, duct tape, wood screws and bailing twine!!
I aint after an anal proper restore of the machine but a close as practically possible with a meager budget so should be attainable, Ardon thinks! Time will tell.
Being at a loose end today I thought that I would strip a few more bits off the CS3 in preparation for the frame, swinger and other parts getting a shiny powder coating in black and silver, which should cost around £80 - £100.
Man, you would not believe what I found when I removed the tank. The wiring was in a terrible state and all the fasteners were of the self-tapper screw kind or missing altogether!
PIC: 1 and 2 professional wiring job hahahahaha
After spending 3 hours soldering and fitting new connections, instead of the block connectors, to the wiring loom in situ it was fairly safe to remove it and this went without a hitch, although the indicators copper wiring was black as arseholes and will have to be replaced with fresh stuff!
The next job was to remove the airbox, which was also held in place by a number of torn wood screws!
I removed the filter cover off the air box and was faced with a roughly contoured piece of pink sofa foam that was attempting to pass as an air filter!…….No wonder the bike wouldn’t rev out!
PIC: 3 - foam air filter!
The bike had been recently ‘done up’ whereas I would have called it ‘done down!’
Some people simply should not be allowed to ‘restore’ any kind of vehicle whatsoever!
Charlie – you are a right dick!
PIC 4: Tank Badges!
These two badges are too badly damaged to use on the finished tank so I am gonna have to find some new ones that I believe are very expensive, recondition what I have, or replace them with stickers! I suspect that the later option will be the chosen one, sadly!…
More exciting project news as the project get’s under way!
23/05/2005
Having recovered mentally from the airbox saga I carried on stripping the bike down.
Luckily for me, most of the fasteners were already loose but there were two that were a bastard. The rear lens screws consisted of 2 welded into 1 bolts that had luckily good threads on them still…..
Pic 9 welded screws
The next job was to try and release the steering damper. As you should have made out already in the picky, the bastard had sheared off while I was carefully unscrewing it while coating it with 20 litres of WD40.
My fix for the problem will be to remove the broken bolt from the bottom spacer and weld a piece of 6mm stud iron onto the end of the damper unit and the job should be a good ‘en!
Pic 8 steering damper rod
Having scored an original workshop manual and a Haynes one off Ebay for £14 quid I went about making a careful analysis of the manuals and it is certainly looking as if the bike is actually a CS5. Almost identical to the CS3 but with some cosmetic differences! One of these being the tank having a slightly different shape and differing mounting points.
One of the hardest things you have to achieve when trying to do up a bike of 33 years vintage is, apart from the chrome, being lucky enuff to have a perch in good condition.
Luckily for me…. a guy off the ACRD forum www.aircooled-rd.com/forum/default.asp pointed me in the direction of a guy who intends to make original seat covers and foam for the bike, and ‘Snowy’ also gave me the number of a guy who is apparently breaking a CS, and all this info came to me within an hour of posting the request on-line!. Marvellous!!
Aint that the beauty of the internet and the bay!!!!
But before I dialled the numbers. The local breakers came up with a good condition seat that was not the right one for the bike, but it was very close to the proper one. I suspected that it actually came from a RD350B and had a ‘plastic’ seat base, which I believe were aftermarket equip. If I cant get hold of the proper seat for the bike then the one I have will have to be modified to fit but shouldn’t pose to much of a problem! Simply a job of making 2 new seat brackets to fit the frames mounts and locking mechanism.
PIC 6 switch unit!
As you can see from the pic, the switch unit has a bust on/off light switch. I spent an hour down the breakers rummaging like a pig through the switch units box but there was nothing like it to be found. So I put a wanted in the forum and was pleasantly surprised when a chap called ‘Mopedman’ mailed me to say that he happened to have a similar unit off a RD50. The guy posted it and charged me nowt but it turned out that the part would need a third chopping of it for it to be any good, and after a few passes with a hacksaw the problem would be no more, or so I thought!………..THX Mopedman and the other folks helpful comments too!!!!!!
As I want this bike to at least get the asking price I’m gonna have to be plenty lucky but I’m sure that this is achievable still. And I never flog a bike unless it is 100% sorted!!
After that I don’t really care……Well perhaps that aint too true as I do give a shit about the machines and I like to hear that my old projects are still giving good service! I never rip anyone off!…..
At the moment I have 5 boxes allocated to the project. Cad plate box, powder coating, polishing, ultrasonic bath and finished. The finished box has one part in it so far -the headlamp rim. I was gonna either re-chrome or silver PC it but I decided that the existing chrome was ok ish and wrapped it up as complete.
As for the ultrasonic business….a buddy has one of the devices that just happens to fit 2 RD sized carbs in a paraffin solution. The device takes about a hour at full throttle to restore the carbs original finish by simply vibrating the dirt into submission, but you do have to employ a bit of elbow grease and a worn toothbrush!
These machines are very dear and are rare to get cheaply but they are a very good way of unblocking stubborn carb passage ways. If ya canna get the carb tubes unblocked with this machine then they are pretty knackered!
So the bike has to have a stove enamelled finish to be truly original but cuts have to be made and PC is very very good coupled by the fact that a mate does all the transporting to and from York for nowt!
The bikes fasteners, apart from the wood screws, are to be zinc plated soon and the whole lot will only cost about £20. A good tip to be had is, before you send off bolts for re-plating then it is a good idea to buff them up with a wire wheel first. The better the fasteners finish, the shinier they will be after plating!
Part 2
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon2/pic2zorsts.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon2/pic3zincplate.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon2/pic4PCoatingbox.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon2/pic5weldedkicker.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon2/pic6decentchainguard.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon2/pic7restoredwheel.jpg
2nd disc CS5 tale 20:46 28th June
Part 5
In an ideal world all of us would love to have all the shining chrome parts on our old aircooled’s being as bright as a pin, but life’s a hard old game and you have to cut corners some times and the pipes fall into this category.
PIC 2 standard zorsts reasonable condition for a 33 year old!
From the zorst pic you maybe able to make out that they are less than mint with a patchy coating of brush on silver paint. I suppose for the age of the chrome parts in general. They’ve actually faired pretty well and are in fairly good nick, so this and cost constraints mean they will have to be used on the finished bike…..unless something better pops up cheaply in the mean time. I doubt though that I will be lucky here and will have to break open the paint stripper and solvol and manually get the silver paint off them, the fork sliders, and the wheels that have also been ‘done up’.
PIC 7 front wheel with a quality silver paint job in part! L
Now what do I do with the rustyish wheel rims?
The options are:
· Zinc plate the spokes and re-chrome the rims! ‘HHHmmmmm!’
· Shiny Zinc plate the buffed up spokes and the rims!
· Plate the spokes, sand blast the rims, and finish off with a coat of decent quality silver spray!
Or:
· Leave them as they are after cleaning them up.
I think that I will choose option one if I am able and option 2 if I cant!
Now does anybody know the whereabouts of a good cheap chrome plater?? The last time I chromed a part was the forks on my NS4. They cost £140 and started rusting after only a year - tosser!
We are lucky here in that there is a strong engineering base in Barrow and services a plenty. When the local shipyard was at its peak there were more ‘foreigner’ jobs going out of the gates than legit work stuff. So it is no wonder that it went into a terminal decline and so did, as we saw it, our own free personal fully equip machine shop. Collectively we must have had a few million quids worth of stuff offa them fer nowt!! J
We have been using a local zinc plater for years now and a rubbish basket full of fasteners and other steel parts will set you back a cool twenty quid a shot! Bargain! They do three finishes too - yellow (gold), Silver (blue) and the coveted black! But they don’t do the greeny/ brown colour that the LC’s use, regrettably, or they would be onto a nice little earner!!
After buffing up all the scabby components with a wire wheel. I will be plating everything silver because I think it will contrast better against the dark coloured parts of the bike and it appears that this was the standard finish anyway.
PIC 3 zinc plating The fasteners ready for zinc plating!
I intend to replace most of the rounded wood screws with cross heads where I can, and where I cant I will have to resort to allen bolts! Yeah yeah OK…. So it’s not standard, but costs dictate matters. Like I have said before - life’s a hard old game innit!
The bike was running well when I bought it so the carbs must have been of good fettle. But the external finish of them was a bit jaded and dirty. So this means that it’s time again for Ardon to bravely go into the depths of the local council estate and book a session in a Tattooist mates ultra-sonic cleaning bath.
These baths are almost a must have in anyone’s workshop. But they cost the earth and are rare to find outside of Tattooists studios, the ossies, jewellers or dental practices. Do a search for them on ebay and see what’s being asked for them….its quite shocking!
The one I use just and so fits 2 carb bodies and internal bits and the dirt just disappears into the solution after a few hours of use. The baths work by emitting agitated sound waves into the solution which causes micro bubbles to form which jostle any shit present to break down into smaller pieces that are easier to remove. It also does a good job of cleaning your hands too!
If you have a problem set of carbs that have resisted all other methods of cleaning then an U/S session is almost guaranteed to work. If it doesn’t get them working right then your carbs components are pretty much knackered!
Your actually supposed to use an expensive special solution in the machine, but bollox to that….I use either a solution of household cleaner and boiling water or I fill it full of paraffin and let it vibrate away for a few hours.
Treat the items to a quick scrub with a toothbrush afterwards and the job’s a good ‘en, spanking new looking set of carbs…..
As I am keen to keep the bike as original as possible. The chrome on the chain guard was pleasingly in fairly good nick and its aberrations could be cured with a good few mins of intense Solvoling and a Duraglitting. So I marked the unit down as an almost certain keep although I may just re- plate it with the other bits if I can afford to!
PIC 6 - Chain guard
As if finding sofa foam in the airbox and wood screws everywhere else wasn’t enough. I noticed that the kick starter had been welded onto the gearbox shaft. GGGrrrrrrrrr!! L
PIC 5 - welded kicker pic!
Bloody pain in the arse for Ardon but my only option is to buff away the weld, release the kicker, and try and find a new gear shaft. I recall someone mentioning that the early 250a and b machines have the same shafts. But this job is still in the ‘what to do’ stages of the project and has been placed on the back burner for now………
Rather than stove enamel the frame and some of the bikes components like a purist restorer would. I decided against doing this and intend to get them powder coated. Because the finish is more durable and a buddy does all the transporting to and thro from Yorkshire for nothing.
PIC 4 - the powder coating box
I’ve had a load of stuff done before by them before for my yamgam project and the jobs are faultless.
I am expecting/hoping that the job lot wont cost me more than £120 quid for the full frame and a box full of bits consisting of stuff such as the clock bracket, airbox, motor cases and the battery box!
WORD COUNT 1157 |
YAWN |
Trigger
If you turn up at Uttox then Ardon is gonna send your pig ugly homo torso to the nearest NHS surgeons student school!
TWAT! 
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Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2008 8:29 pm
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Post subject:
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ArdonRD/RZ Jedi Master |
PART 8
PIC 1 Freeze free off Loctite spray can
On a bike of this age I was expecting to find plenty of fasteners that would be a pain to undo, but pleasingly most of them succumbed to the usual methods of removal, except for a couple of really corroded mudguard bolts.
I’m always on the look out for good tips and products to make Ardon’s life easier…and a mate recommended I try ‘Loctite freeze and release’ spray. He has had plenty of success in the past to justify the products effectiveness in helping him outta the crap.
You maybe thinking that I am pulling your plonkers but I really am not!
You spray it onto the stuck bolt and wait a few seconds. This freezes the screw to minus 43 degrees C and allows the penetrating fluid to seep between the unions. A few minutes more and then a bit of careful spanner work see’s the two muddy screws removed in one piece!
PIC 2 Blasted heads
13 metal parts, including the swinger, that I sent to a local guy for blasting and etch priming at a cost of £80, have arrived back so now I have to spray them all in black. The barrels and heads are gonna be coated using a mates auto spares shop spray cans as soon as the local polisher has shined up the heads outer two faces as per standard, as I cant be arsed. The spray paint I got from a local car parts supplier actually cost me £1.79 for ½ a litre can which is a whole lot cheaper that the Halfords stuff and just as good.
Note the marks in the comb chamber where a ring has been thrown sometime in the past…
A tip that I use when using spray cans is to leave them in a tub of hot water for a few minutes and then make sure to give them a good shake. I’ve found that the paint sprays more uniformly and also dries quicker.
PIC 3 Edge polished barrels and heads
‘Si’ the polisher has just brought round some parts I gave him to shine up - the switch gear, the brake hub covers and some other crap. And all for a meagre nothing… as he knows I’m on the bones of me arse and just wanted to help the project out....Thx Si.
PIC 4 Polished parts
PIC 5 Standard tank badges
As ya may be able to make out, the original tank badges are totally knackered and the chances of finding a decent set being next to impossible. So I called in at a local repro graphics company and asked if they could duplicate the badges including the thickness by using a gel sticka. But it turned out that their gel had gone off and they weren’t prepared to shell out 120 sovs for some fresh stuff just for this job. So, conventional vinyl copies were made up including the false screw heads inserted for originality. The man then put an extra 7 layers of clear vinyl on top to give the decal some of the originals thickness.
Here are the cheap £15 results………
PIC 6 NEW sticka tank badges
PIC 7 Front brake drum cover bust
Now, I was gonna leave the hub and the snapped bit as it was but it was mentioned to me that it may be a MOT failure point... So off it goes to a pal’s workshop to be ally welded up, re-shaped and re-threaded before it goes into Si’s dark and very dusty shed for a good buffing up.
PIC8 bust front hub welded up, polished and re-threaded
Wupppssss!…I’ve just realised that the barrels and heads are supposed to be ally coloured on the CS5 as standard and not painted black as they are now…..So off go the barrels to the blaster again to be stripped……..Duh! But after further research it now turns out that the barrels are actually painted black after all...
Stay awake at the back there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon3/Ardon4/PIC1spraycans.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon3/Ardon4/PIC2blastedheads.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon3/Ardon4/PIC3Finishedbarrelsheads.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon3/Ardon4/PIC4polishings.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/Ardon1/ardon3/Ardon4/PIC6-stickers.jpg
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Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 9:56 pm
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