Terrot Workflow with (Email Conversation)

I am going to use this blog as a testament of how a vintage motorcycle can be recommissioned fast and efficiently with plenty of dialogue between the owner and me, you will note from the dates of the to from dialogue through the emails that I am committed in sharing information while I work through the project. You will note with my emails that they are sent after work hours as I do not like to pass the costs on to the owners.

I can kill two birds with one stone by writing a report on the work being carried out and using the report as a blog on the website. By doing it this way I hope to show honesty and efficiency to suit both parties, honesty is confirmed by the speed I report back with what I have completed and the owner can see how fast we work by the dates of my reports contained in the email. As this bike is not a restoration but a recommission, after the machine had been sitting unstarted for at least 40 years in a museum I could do the work in house and hastily, as this will impress the owner and hopefully will generate the attention needed from blog readers to keep work coming in to our company. The emails are as follow and pictures are before and after email conversation.

On 2020-02-28 martin wrote  
The Terrot will be arriving at your workshop on Tuesday 3rd March at
about 1pm. I will be there as well. Hope this is OK with you

On 4 Mar 2020 terry wrote
you have bought a gooden. i have removed the barrel and measured the piston gaps on the rings and found them to have over 2mm gap. i have made a set of new rings and an exhaust valve guide that was wildly out of tolerance by at least 1mm, this is the worst i have seen and the bike would never start with these two anomalies . all has been fitted and put back on the bike. the magneto was solid with melted shellac from the magneto windings that had been overdosed , way too much had been put on the windings and over the years with a lot of hot weather it melted the shellac and locked up the workings. I took it to david in letchworth as this is where i live who remagnetized it and , boy it gives a punch now, i dont know much about electrics but he said that 17,000 volts was good to go. The tank is nearly cleaned out and i am going to do the ignition timing tmoro and make up the missing cables and replace some knackered ones. can i use your terrot in a blog with no names or reg.

On 2020-03-04 martin wrote
Excellent news and thanks for the speedy service..!
Feel free to blog the Terrot or whatever you want really.
I’ll get some tyres that will look right

On 5 Mar 2020 terry wrote
throttle cable modified to fit and operate correctly as well as the choke cable which you will find has to work properly on this age of motorcycle. The clutch has been cleaned and the loose screws that came out with the clutch springs have been attended to. The tank is really clean inside. I have removed the petrol tap and unblocked it of its old fuel residue as there was no way it was going to work. the carb has been stripped and cleaned and adjusted to take the new cable set up. New tank mounting rubbers have been made. The dynamo now operates as it should but i need to check the output voltage. the primary chaincase now has a new spacer in place that was missing. The petrol tank crossover pipe was jammed up with shxxt and the two union nuts had splits in them due to age and over tightening .The tube has been cleaned out and two new nuts and two new olives have been replaced. On the timing side of the engine there is a rubber washer that was missing or it totally eroded away, this has been replaced. There are only a few jobs to be attended to such as the front brake with no cable and and when i operate the brake plate lever with my hand there is absolutely no braking at all. The oil tank bracket needs repairing. The forks are really baggy and unresponsive and need tightening up. The rear sprocket is the only sprocket that is knackered so i will rework it. Your model terrot has not got a hole in the cylinder head to stick a rod down it to find top dead center so i can set the ignition timing so with the timing cover removed i counted the teeth on the timing gear and found it to be 40 teeth so i got the engine on compression stroke and guessed where top dead center was and a hole drilled it the timing gear seemed to point due north, i divided the number of teeth by 360 degrees and found that one tooth of displacement was equal to 9 degrees. I assumed that your bike being a 250 cc side valve would have an advance spark of about 36 degrees before top dead center with the advance and retard lever in the fully advanced position and the points in the magneto just opening to give the spark required to set things in motion. The fuel tank was replenished with new fuel and a few kicks showed a few pops but nothing giving permanent life , so we are on the right track. I will keep you informed.

On 2020-03-05 martin wrote
Top job..! It sounds like she will be up and running very soon. I have
ordered tyres and inner tubes, to be delivered directly to you.
Thanks for the daily updates

on 2020-03-05 terry wrote
Today in between a host of other work i fitted a new old stock clutch cable and a new old stock front brake cable. The front brake i feared had no operation due to pad wear but on removing the front wheel i found that there were no shoes fitted so miracle upon miracle i fitted my spare EMC split single shoes as they are 130mm diameter when fitted to your brake plate and the brake drum happened to be the same bore diameter, pics to follow when i drop the wheel out to fit the tyres. By the way, the original brake shoes were crap as i have done terrot brake relines before. The rear stand that had been poorly welded gave up the ghost while i gave her a couple of kicks to try and start her. Carburation is good and spark is cracking so it must be a timing issue. I fear that my timing was not good enough regarding the tooth counting. Here is what i did and it was an old trick that my grand father taught me as he was an avid motorcyclist until he bought a Datsun sunny in the 1970s and kissed goodbye to 60 years of riding bikes. First we get some fairy liquid and water in a cup, we then remove the spark plug and then we look at the valves so we know when we are on compression stroke. We then wipe some of our liquid on top of the spark plug hole and turn the engine over by its rear wheel very very slowly and watch the bubble grow bigger until it pops. We now apply some more liquid until it pops again. We now know that the engine is in its compression phase and we need to keep going until we see the bubble starting to retract. Back the wheel up again and inch forward again until we see the bubble at its biggest, hey presto, Top dead center. We now need a reference point to work from. On your particular model we have an aluminium fly wheel at the left hand end of the crank that friction drives the lighting dynamo. We can mark this wheel with a pen mark and tape a bit of paper with a line drawn on it to the primary chain cover to coincide with the line on the flywheel. We can now turn the rear wheel backward about 45 degrees and inch it forward to about 35 degrees before top dead center Now set the points so they are just opening on full advance position, put the timing gear cover back on and set the choke lever to to fully closed and the throttle lever to fully closed and first kick chug chug chug. She starts all the time with no issues. A big smile on my face when this happens. New rubber washers were fitted to the petrol tank. The forks have been adjusted but there is a little wear in the fork bushes but this will leave a little more room for grease. Tomoro we will fix the rear stand and drop the rear wheel out so we can see what we can do about the rear sprocket and restore that bracket that holds the oil tank to the frame and in turn holds the rear mudguard steady. I will have a shot at fitting the wiring to the dynamo but i dont want to rack up any undue costs messing about with things that can be done by a host of friends over a few beers in the garage.

On 2020-03-06 20:31 martin wrote
Terrot tyres will come direct to you
Tubes will come to me, so I will either post them on to you or nip
down with them.
Don’t bother with the wiring, it’s something I would like to do myself.
What’s the oil like?
Looking forward to seeing it running..!

2020-03-06 terry said
The latest update is that the rear stand has been done professionally by my son who works for me. The oil tank mounting bracket has been repaired and the rear mudguard bolt has been replaced with the missing one. The clutch cable now works. I decided to jump the gun and remove the rear wheel and remove the tyre ready for the quick tyre change but i thought i would have a look at the rear brake, pics to follow as the condition was laughable but they have been resurected and the original linings are very good and will work fine. The forks have had the split pins fitted to the castle nuts so that puts them to bed. All that needs doing is the tyre change. cheers terry

On 2020-03-06 martin wrote
Hi Terry,
Terrot tyres will come direct to you
Tubes will come to me, so I will either post them on to you or nip
down with them.
Don’t bother with the wiring, it’s something I would like to do myself.
What’s the oil like?
Looking forward to seeing it running..!

on 2020-03-06 terry said
Hi Martin , you ask what is the oil like. Other than it is a slippery lubricating substance and there is plenty of it in the crankcase and your bike smokes like fuck, The oil is ok. Your bike runs on a non scavange system, there is one pipe that comes from your oil tank and this is fed to the engine and is burnt off with the fuel. Eco friendly honda and testla eat your hearts out. Top up with Halfords 20/ 50 classic oil.

on 2020-03-07 terry said
I am not sure if i responded to the question of what is the oil like ?. your bike runs on a lean non green total loss system. There is only one pipe that comes out of the oil tank. This is a good pointer that it only goes one way. If there were two pipes one of them would be the return pipe from the engine. The single feed pipe feeds the oil pump that can be adjusted via a small round dial with numbers on it that roughly correspond to a certain amount of drips for a given amount of time. This system is called the total loss system. The oil is burnt up with the fuel. This condition causes a certain amount of combustion smoke. The dial when turned to one of the lower numbers will produce less smoke. We need to know that the engine is being lubed so we set the number at say 6 and leave the machine running on idle until it gets hot. On side valve engines it only takes a short time before the workings get up to temperature. What i will look for on acceleration is a slight mist of burning oil, not a fog. If a fog occurs we will need to dial down on the numbers to give a slight mist on acceleration. Halfords 20/50 will be needed for your Terrot. Running the bike with a lot of smoke will eventually cause it to miss fire due to an oiled plug. It can also cause a certain amount of wet sumping which is a bugger on the Terrot to get rid of as there is no drain plug in the sump. The oiling will be set up to give optimum performance before you collect her. cheers terry

on 2020-03-10 terry said
Hi Martin tires came in today. I have fitted them with heavy duty dunlopair inner tubes as the inside of your rims were a little rusty, we have removed as much live rust as possible to give a smooth finish for the tire to bead onto the rim. I have also fitted to the front rim a heavy duty rim tape. The reason for me side stepping your inner tube delivery is that new tubes are not as heavy duty as the ones i had in stock. I look forward to receiving the inner tubes as replacements for a more modern bike. I am going to do a trial start tmoro and see how she behaves.

on 2020-03-11 martin said
Hope the Terrot starts and runs ok. If she runs ok, perhaps I could collect it one day next week and settle up with you. Looking forward to seeing and hearing it ..!!

on 11 Mar 2020 terry said
Martin i am doing a test run this saturday and will report back.

on 2020-03-15 terry said
I took the terrot to the farm where i keep my car and gave her a run. she starts so easily but smoked like a bastard, the farmer said when i was pulling away it was like the startup of our local traction engine rally. I am going to have to educate myself on getting the sump clear of oil before i can put the pump feed on. if you dont get the starting procedure right it will give you a good kick back as this proves the compression and rings are top notch. give me a couple more days to try and get rid of the oil and the pump set up.

On 24 Mar 2020 terry wrote
i showed your pickup man how easy it is to start and how critical the lever positions were. First tickle the carb. The top right lever is the choke lever. On starting this lever must be pushed all the way away from you and the lower lever is the throttle, this should be in line with the handle bar. Pull the lever that operates the valve lifter and kick the engine over two times gently if you are on the rear stand, there is another lever on the left bar , this is the advance retard lever and this should be set so the cable is in tension , ie all the way anticlockwise. If she dosnt start on the first kick try ticling the carb again and replicate the above. She will smoke a bit as there is oil in the sump that still needs burning off but this oil is still lubricating the inner workings without the best and loyde oil drip feed on. I would suggest running the bike until she starts not to smoke as much as she was, keep an eye on this as no smoke at all is not good for the new piston rings. Get your self armed with a tin of halfords classic oil and fill the oil tank up and set the numbered dial ring on the pump to number 6 and see if she smokes a lot. If she is still smokey turn the dial down to 5 and run for a minute and look for smoke. after setting the dial for a couple of mins you will find she will only give off a smokey haze, not a fog on moderate acceleration. She is a lovely bike.

On 2020-03-24 23:10 martin wrote
Thankyou for your info re. Starting and the oiling. I think she is so
very cool..!! And I wonder if she could tell a few tales, perhaps a
member of the French resistance?
Did you take photos for your blog and website? If not I will send you some
Thanks for your work in the recommissioning.

On 2020-03-25 terry wrote
When i saw her on the back of the flat bed for some reason the whole
bike screamed at being a v twin. It truly is a great bike and i must
say i am a little envious. We have hopefully got some pics.

On 2020-03-27 terry said
by the way check the tyre pressures as they will be up bigtime to bed the beading onto the rims. If there is any chance in the future of dropping off the new inner tubes that you bought to replace the ones i put in that would be great.