Topic: Terry's Effing F2, return of the prodigal SOHC4?

[dave500]

man i wish you lived next door!pretty handy with that lathe,we would probably drink too much piss to get anything done though?

[Terry in Australia]

man i wish you lived next door!pretty handy with that lathe,we would probably drink too much piss to get anything done though?

Ha ha, thanks Dave, and yes, very true, the booze would be a problem, especially if I was back in the Queensland sun! For our American cousins though, I need to point out that "Piss" is another term for beer, it's not an Australian custom to drink each others urine........

[PeWe]

Now we know why Australian beer taste as it does!
Recycled beer with bubbles and ethanol added.

[grcamna2]

LOL   

[754]

We gonna have to teach you how to cut a hex head with your lathe..
 Not sure how you can stand not having a mill..

[seanbarney41]

good choice on the Ouri's...they make grabbing a handful such a pleasure, even if nothing much happens

[Terry in Australia]

We gonna have to teach you how to cut a hex head with your lathe..
 Not sure how you can stand not having a mill..

Thanks Frank, I have a Mill/drill with a rotary table that I can use as an indexing head, but couldn’t see the point in wasting time farting around making something pretty when I didn’t even know if that speedo even works? I like a little exercise, but not big on exercises in futility.....

As it is I’ve just gotten back from another 100 miler, the speedo works but neither the odometer or trip meter work, so I’m gonna look for another set of gauges, as I need the trip meter to keep an eye on fuel usage, as I prefer “the roads less travelled” and stay away from main roads so gas stations are few, and far between.

You’re right about those Oury grips Sean, they’re soft and reduce any hand numbing vibes, unlike the crappy old OEM ones I chopped off and threw in the trash yesterday.

[Tintop]

+1 on the Oury's.  Had them on every bike since the 70's & the sidecar.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Brian, yep, I have them on my K2 bitsa as well, and think they're great value for money. Because I've no room in my garage now that the K0 is becoming a bike again, I moved the F2 out of the garage and parked it under my massive Conifer tree to keep it out of the weather (with light rain, anything underneath stays dry) but as heavy rain is predicted overnight, I found my one good bike cover and put it over the old beast to keep the water out of it, even though, it could do with a wash. It's not perfect yet, but perfectly capable of doing many enjoyable rides.

K0 F2 Sunday 22 Nov 2020 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[dave500]

dont ride over that stubby on the way out,ya might spill it!

[PeWe]

A "Terry was here" sign

[Terry in Australia]

Yes boys, a ginger Joe bottle is like my personal calling card. I put up a "Temporary Carport" a couple of weeks ago to keep the Effing F2 and the stuff out of my "Sheltered Workshop" under cover, and I'm very happy with it. We had a bit of a storm yesterday, but it didn't faze it, I just took a peek and nothing was blown away, and everything is nice and dry.

Christmas Patio Cleanup 22 Dec 2020 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I'm so impressed with it in fact, I've ordered a second one to put up in front of the garage, so I can work on my bikes in the shade, or out of the rain. Will be particularly handy when I need to pull and engine out. With the two carports, I've effectively doubled the floor space of my garage.

K2 bitsa engine removal (again) 17 Dec 2020 7 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[grcamna2]

Terry,That motorcycle lift is a great tool:I miss my 'table' very much.What brand front tire is on the front wheel of the black Kawasaki next to the stacked tubs?

[Terry in Australia]

G'Day Bill, I put Pirelli Sport Demons front and rear on the big black Kawasaki. So far they've done less than 20 miles as I had an electrical meltdown on it's maiden voyage, and have since built those two new engines, and threw the GPZ1100 engine in the frame just to see if it's any good.

I might put it up on the lift and see if I can figure out mounting the engine properly before I pull it back out again to install the 1428cc engine. I have a spare KZ1000 frame that I can modify to mount the GPZ engine if I need to, or alternatively, install the GPZ1100 guts into the spare KZ1000 cases from the old drag bike engine.

[Terry in Australia]

Last weekend I pulled every wire in the F2 headlight bucket because a PO had routed the main wiring harness incorrectly, and being color blind, asked my son who was helping me to double check that I hadn't incorrectly connected a green (earth) wire to a black (power) wire, (which I did once before with a similar result) and all was good, and there were no obvious bare wires that could have caused the issue.

When the bike is running, as soon as I hit the indicator switch the engine "stumbles" but continues to run, but not when on the road, so I'm thinking the extra load from me operating the brake pedal to slow down for a turn is enough to blow the fuse. I just took the fuse box cover off and use standard car glass fuses, and carry a "multi pack" of fuses in my jacket, but I'm not happy with the situation.

Spotty was kind enough to take the left side handlebar switch off my K7 that's parked over at his place, so I'm hoping that swapping in the "new" one will solve the problem, but I won't know until then.

I was lucky to score a very nice speedo and tacho off a guy on Gumtree for $150, only think I didn't like was the bezels had been (poorly) painted a fetching shade of gun metal grey metallic.

K0 F2 Friday 8 Jan 2021 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I loved that the painter hadn't even removed the making tape before he replaced them into their chrome cups. I didn't feel like painting them, so I ratted thru my bins of new parts, and found a pair of aftermarket chrome bezel covers.

K0 F2 Friday 8 Jan 2021 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

They were meant for K1-K6, so no hole in the side for the trip meter knob. No biggie, I measured twice and cut once (unusually for me) and managed to punch a nice clean 15mm hole in exactly the right spot. I was actually pretty stoked with the result.

K0 F2 Friday 8 Jan 2021 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

This bike was always just gonna be a "patina bike" as a daily rider, but with every job I do, it looks so much nicer.

K0 F2 Friday 8 Jan 2021 7 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I took it for a short ride remembering not to use the blinkers, and was happy that both gauges actually work, which is a bonus. Hopefully the switchblock will sort out the fuse-blowing, as it's more than an inconvenience, it could be deadly if my engine dies mid turn in heavy traffic.      

[grcamna2]

The faces of those meters look clean Terry.
You did a clean install on those chrome covers.

[dave500]

ive always thought that factory chromed guages wouldve looked nicer,but they would never have lasted as long as painted ones?

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, yeah, those new gauges are really nice, not sure why the owner took them off? He knows me, thru these forums, so maybe he's built a cafe Racer and wants different gauges, but I'm not compalining, all the ones I had were sh1t. If Honda chromed anything properly back in the day they would have held up Dave, but they went cheap back then, no "triple plating" (Copper/Nickel/Chrome) and that's why their chrome was sh1t. It's easy to tell a restored CB750, just looking at the chrome.

[dave500]

yeah they were pumped out fast,sold before the chrome was even buffed?

[Terry in Australia]

yeah they were pumped out fast,sold before the chrome was even buffed?

Yep, and a guy I know who worked at a dealer told me the reason CB750 pipes rotted out so quickly was because Honda didn't flush all the chemicals out after they'd chromed them, so once they got moisture in them again, they rotted quickly.

[dave500]

ahh,early japanese chemicals,so much better than the new chinese ones?

[754]

They skip a step in chrome... it's production work.. part of why Japan bikes are cheap. .

[Terry in Australia]

As folks have read in my earlier posts on this thread, I've had a problem with my Effing F2 ever since I got it running, in that when I put the indicators (blinkers/flashers etc) on, the engine skips a beat, and has on several occasions blown both the lighting, and main fuse. This can be very exciting @ 60 MPH, during an overtaking move, so today I decided to sort it.

Spotty was nice enough to take the left side handlebar switch off the K7 or K8 that I have safely stored in his garage, but to my dismay, it has a different plug on it. No worries, a rat thru my Honda 750 electrics tub located another switch for an F2. No idea where it came from, but I was happy to have it. I swapped them out, and was 'rapt that everything worked perfectly. I unplugged all the old wires and plugged them back into the new switch, turned the ignition on, and fired it up. Apart from petrol pissing out of #1 and 2 carbs that didn't stop when I tapped the float bowls with a wrench, it fired right up. I put the blinkers on and no issues with the engine like before, nor did it blow any fuses.

F2 switchblock by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Sweet. I decided to disconnect the accessory light switch (it has the "American" throttle/switch with no headlight on/off switch, annoyingly) and volt meter that I'd installed as I've decided to sell the F2 (funds needed for my upcoming K1 build) and the new buyer probably won't want them, but they are not connected to any wires to the left hand switch anyway. I turned the ignition back on, and nada. Not a fcuking thing. By this stage it was getting late, so I just left it as is, and walked away. I'll go back tomorrow and sort it when I'm not so pissed off.

[oz750]

Glad you like the speedo and tachometer I sold you Terry. I didn’t paint them, but bought the bike off a ‘spray painter’, who sprayed everything randomly , frame, engine, guards without removing from the bike!   Hence it was a mess, and you’re right I  cafe’d it and went electronic.

[Terry in Australia]

Glad you like the speedo and tachometer I sold you Terry. I didn’t paint them, but bought the bike off a ‘spray painter’, who sprayed everything randomly , frame, engine, guards without removing from the bike!   Hence it was a mess, and you’re right I  cafe’d it and went electronic.

Thanks again mate, the gauges are just so much better than the ones I had here, and the chrome covers hid the sins of that "spray painter". I need to raise the funds for my upcoming K1 build so the F2 will get sold, so whoever buys it will benefit from all the new and good used parts I've had to buy for it, but will save them a lot of work trying to find them, F2 stuff is a bit thin on the ground. Make sure you start a build thread for your Cafe Racer so we can follow it's progress, and if you need any engine parts (F2's are notoriously fragile) let me know, I've got lots.