The VT600 Shadow

This customer came to me through the website. The reason for his contacting me was because the bike had no spark and could I have a look please.

Of course, no problem :)

So off I went to go and collect it.

While I'm there we're talking about stuff, and I'm looking at his two son's bikes, all jolly biker talk, you know how it goes......

Turns out this VT600 had been in storage in Evesham some time back when the floods hit. Apparently the water picked the bike up and flipped it on it's side where it lay for a while until a neighbor righted it again.

Some time later, the owner got back to it. How long after the flood I don't know. He changed the oil and filter after draining all the water out of it. But he still couldn't get it going......that's where I come in to it.

So I have this back in the garage, start going over stuff, when I think to myself.......this has been in a flood for an unknown period of time................I wonder if the engine has been stripped and cleaned...............has all the river silt and crap been dealt with........................phone call...................NO....................oh crap, I'm not going to even attempt to try and start this...................

So I asked the owner to pop down so we could have a chat. After I told him about the down sides of vehicles being in floods and what could happen if river silt and crap isn't properly removed, he agreed that it needed to be completely overhauled. Oh, tell you what he says.....you may as well do the whole thing, respray included.

So off we go with the resto.........

Barrels off.................holy mother of god!

The rings are stuck solid..................Now I'm starting to think the worst..................

So I now know what the top end looks like and my first thoughts are that I can't recover this, it's gone too far.

After cleaning and de-glazing the barrels, there is some light staining remaining but they came up nicely, but my thoughts are still to source a replacement engine complete because this is shot to hell.

On to the block then..............

This is the reason why any engine that has been under water needs to be completely stripped and overhauled.

Everything HAS to be cleaned, every bearing HAS to be replaced regardless, even if it feels like it's good. You will never get all the river silt out of a bearing so the safest thing to do is replace them all.

On to the carbs then...............

So I've now got my back against the wall. This is in a really bad state. Which way to jump...................

Now me.......I'm a sucker for a challenge and I don't give up easily....................

Lets have a look at those heads, because if those are gone it's more than likely I'll grab the replacement lump I've sourced

I forgot to take photos of the pistons, however, after 3 days of soaking in paraffin, cleaning crap off and gentle persuasion, the rings finally freed off, and they didn't break which is a god send because they're not cheap.......

I used some old rings as scrapers and small wire brushes to get all the nasties out the grooves in the pistons, but again, they cleaned up nicely.

So now I've got decent barrels, clean pistons and clean heads.

If the next stage goes wrong, it'll cost me a gasket set and a lot of time.................

a chance I decided was worth taking....................

I cleaned the engine internals, stripped all the gearbox components, replaced all the bearings and gaskets, and re-built the engine with the original parts.

Then I had a call from my powder coaters.......my parts are ready.....WOOHOO

My customer and I had decided on a black engine............

With the engine all built up, it was time for the compression test. If this failed then it was a definate replacement engine.

185psi............I'm a happy spanner...............

Lets get this thing back in the frame and move on some more.

I had to put the carbs through the ultrasonic cleaner 3 times to get them clean, then blast them through with thinners at 100psi, works though......

So, with the engine now in and running, it was time to move on to the brakes. Can't have it go if it won't whoa........

On to the front end

After a good few weeks, dare I say months of cleaning, stripping, refitting, painting, polishing, cursing, it was finally ready to go for the MOT.