 Things have been progressing slowly here at Tim Towers. That track day date is looming and I might just about make it. I’m not sure that the car will be in the state where I could race it though.
First thing here is that I finally got the banjo bolt for the clutch slave cylinder. This is wierd size (M10x1.25) and it took a while to find a supplier who actually had one. Still it’s in now as you can just about see in the photo. (At the top end of the silvery braided hose.) |
| In fact, with the clutch hose in I could finally fill the hydraulic system and bleed everything. Oh joy, I really love getting brake fluid on my hands. I always try avoid it but something always goes wrong. Still, it was done eventually and I even lubricated the brake bias adjuster which had got a but clagged up as a result of being out in all weathers.I made a bit of an informed guess as to the size of the clutch master cylinder at 5/8″. However, from prodding at the pedal it seems about right. What’s more, it does actually release. It’s hard to tell how it’s going to feel with a size 12 left boot though.With the fluid in I also got stuck in and filled the lubrication system. Interestingly the CBR1000 seems to take less oil than the CBR900 in that a 4-litre can is actually sufficient. That makes a nice change as it was previously very annoying to have to buy more than a single can for one oil change.
I’ve also had a bit of a brainwave with respect to the oil cooling. (Well, to be honest, I think it was Adrian that made me think about it.) He essentially reminded me that I already had a filter sandwich plate oil cooler take-off for the CBR900. As the filter is that same beast for the CBR1000 then the same plate fits the CBR1000. (I checked, it really does.) As such, if I decide I need to cool the oil it’ll be easy to do so. With the engine in this state I spun it up on the starter (that’s another bit of the loom that works!) to see if I could get some pressure. As was normal for the CBR900 it took quite a while to prime everything as I’d had to take the pressure relief valve out when fitting the baffle plate and that lets all the oil out of the main oil gallery and the pump. However, the usual CBR900 trick also worked here in that by cracking the filter off the pump has a slightly easier time of it and seems to be able to self prime. While doing this I’d connected up the data logger and the data display (more working electrics!) and eventually I got a small pressure reading (about 10 psi) which indicates that the lubrication system is making a good attempt at working.
Drip. Drip. Drip. It said. B*ll*cks. I said. After some grovelling under the car it was clear tha the leak was coming from the water pump. I worried for a while about the welding that we’d done to the cover plate having warped it so that it didn’t fit any more. Whatever, there was nothing else for it other than taking it all off again, mopping up the inevitable mess, and seeing if I could see what the problem was. So, with the pump off I filled it with water and indeed it dripped again. At least that meant that I could test the pump. Taking the pump apart it might have been the case that one of the sealing rings (bendy O rings, like the black line in the out of focus photo above) might have been displaced. So, I put it back together, taking lots of care to make sure the rings weren’t dislodged and tested it again. Relief, it didn’t seem to be leaking. So, I put the cooling system back together and refilled it. Annoying I’d lost a fair bit of coolant on the floor in the process so I’ll have to buy some more. For now, it’s sitting in the garage and I’ll have a good look at the floor (which I mopped(!) before closing up for the night) in the morning to see if there’s anything leaking. And, as it is now the next day, I did look and all appears fine. Good… |
