After stripping the engine down to the bare bones it was a quick trip to my man, Steve Smethurst in downtown Salford in Manchester.
I have known Steve since the late 1970s and have been using his cleaning and polishing services since. No finish is as good and durable as the finish that Steve obtains on these old aluminium engines. And even if it is £400+ for the basic engine parts, it is still worth it. Like I said about the frame in the last instalment, these motors are getting on a bit now and they need more and more TLC with every passing year.
With this is mind, Steve is offering an extra polishing process on the outer fins of the top-end and parts of the crankcases themselves. This really makes a difference to the finished product. Steve worked his magic and all on a 10-day turn-around.
I picked the parts up and set about inspecting them for any thread damage. Again, the days of a perfect set of bolt and screw holes are far gone.
They looked okay when I dropped them off with Steve but they were covered in 45 years of corrosion and dirt and now, looking like new again, I could see the odd stripped thread and a few broken bolts, so it was off to Tony at Pitstop Motorcycles again: he does a great job.
With the engine on the bench ready for assembly, the first job is fitting a set of
