New to Silk Ownership

[Jimbob]

Hi, I have just joined the club! I have acquired a very nice green 1978 Silk Mk2 with 20,000 miles on the clock. The previous owner had never ridden it in the 2 years he owned it and just said a friend had sold it to him and ridden it to his house. He just parked it up and left it. Previous MOTs showed the bike had covered less than 100 miles since 2007. I gave it the once over and rode it to MOT station, delighted to pass with only an advisory for slight fluctuation of rear brake. I have now ridden it a further 50 miles and a few further issues have need sorting. Rather alarmingly the throttle can stick for a couple of seconds when accelerating and revving to 5,000! Do I need to drill a small hole in the plastic carb top to stop a vacuum? Looks like it still had the original air filter with the spring but the owner reckons a mouse chewed the foam cover and could have been nesting in there! I have ordered a Ramair until I see if I could get a new foam cover made. The air inlet rubber in front of the carb looks quite perished, can you get replacements as it could split if I have to remove the carb to drill a hole? The clutch is a bit juddery on starting off but does not slip otherwise. There were signs of previous overheating so I will see how it goes as the weather warms up, the grill on the radiator looks quite restrictive and may not be standard. Front brake is wooden and there is evidence the master cylinder has been leaking taking some paint off the radiator and frame down tubes. It has a single ap Lockheed caliper. What seals will I need? I am Brighton based so if there are any other southern Silk owners it would be good to meet up.

[gasman]

Hi and Welcome to the Silk Owners,
Firstly are your frame and engine numbers in known bikes if not could you send them to me thanks.
Carb, if the slide is free then yes I would drill a small hole in the top just to make sure the slide will not cause a vacuum and stay up.
Front brakes are known to be wooden, but check all pistons are free to move, should be if it was a good m.o.t. I personally fitted a twin master cylinder of modern type on twin front disc's and did not get this wooden feeling, so I suspect the cylinders used had too much bore which delivers too much fluid making the lever very stiff but no grip on pads.
Surry Cycles for the carb connecting rubbers.
Clutch judder also a known problem, as the bike is quite high geared you tend to have to use the clutch a bit more pulling away which in turn heats up the clutch disc's and warping them slightly, or you need to adjust the clutch pins very carefully to make sure the plates are lifting evenly, Triumph 7 plate clutch conversion is popular.
Lockheed should be able to supply seals without looking they might be listed under parts in the Silk website.

Kev

[Smokey_Paul]

Hi I maybe your closest owner I am in Hampshire remember there is only 40 plus of us

The Ram Air filter is perfect and works well on the Silk they do one which is a perfect replacement and they may now even have it listed as fitting the Silk. Dont fit a K&N cone type as they dont work well at all.

Welcome to the happiness of Silk ownership

By the way I see you have the engine bars fitted can you please measure them as I was having some sets made but the chap making them had lost the diamensions so that would help us grately.

Cheers

[Jimbob]

Hi,
Ramair arrived this week and was promptly fitted prior to a run down to the seafront yesterday to see the bikes arriving on the Pioneer run. The clutch did not like the heavy traffic and definitely needs looking at.
I was surprised by how many people knew about Silks but had never seen one before.
I will have a go at measuring the engine bars this weekend but exactly what measurements do you require?

This 101 year old origin of the species didn't make it to the finish under its own power.

[Smokey_Paul]

You will find a lot of people who know an awful lot about your bike ... most of it wrong as you will find out as people tell you everything they know or not as the case may be

If you can and dont mind as many measurements as you can even pictures so that we can get some more sets made that would be great. My email direct can be obtained from Kev if you want to chat direct about the bars?

Thanks

[hendred]

Hope you are enjoying your Silk!  Andover Norton are stockists for AP Lockheed parts.  Had all the parts needed to to rebuild my master cylinder.  Give them a call, they are very helpful.  The master cylinder for a single disc front brake has a smaller diameter piston than the one for the twin disc.  I believe these are the part numbers for the master cylinders:

APCP2215 for single disc 0.625" bore

APCP2410 for twin disc 0.7" bore (this is the master cylinder fitted to my twin disc Silk)

The brake caliper on my Silk is a CP2195.  The numbers are cast into the body.  Again Andover Norton has the repair kits.

The AP Racing website is good too.  Look under Motorcycle/Classic, I believe they re-manufactured some of these obsolete parts following a demand for them caused by the fire at the National Motorcycle Museum.

Hope this helps

[hendred]

Had the same problem with my throttle sticking open, the bike hadn't been used for 19 years.  I polished the slide with Auto Sol to remove the oxide layer and doubled up the spring with one from a MKI concentric.  Amal don't supply a stronger spring for the MKII carbs.  Makes the throttle slightly heavier but doesn't stick any more.

I'm told the heavier chrome plated brass slide for the MKII gives a long time cure - need to be sure of the required cut out before ordering as they are quite expensive.  Available from Surrey Cycles or direct from Amal.

[Jimbob]

Thanks for your help on this, I have ordered the bits for the master cylinder overhaul from Andover on Thursday so hopefully should arrive soon. They were very helpful, same bits fit the Commando.
Will order a new carb inlet rubber from Surrey as the existing one is perished and will probably split when I remove the carb.
Next job will be to remove the plate to look at the primary chain and tensioner, there is some noise from the chain particularly at low revs but I am not sure what is expected. Bike shows 20,000 miles. Will I need a new gasket when replacing this plate and what if the rubber on tensioner is worn?

[Hendred]

Search the forum for Primary Chain Tensioner - there is an earlier discussion on this topic.  My tensioner looks like it has been modified with a thicker baseplate and a rigid tensioner more like the one fitted to some Triumph T160s.

The base gasket is easily cut from gasket paper if needed.

Be careful with the allen bolts holding the tensioner in place, it is easy to strip the fine threads in the alloy chaincase.  Suggest you make sure there is no tension on the tensioner before slackening the bolts.

[JJ]

Hello Jimbob, I too am in the South- near East Grinstead. Mine is the Blue one on the home page.
Went to Brighton on a 1914 Wall for the Pioneer Run, but not been there on the Silk recently. I've owned mine since1982. While building houses having kids and all that stuff it sat in a shed, now thanks to Clive it is up and running and looking better than ever it did before.No longer standard but all the bits to put it back if anyone wanted to. Be good to meet up. Rare sight if two ar together hereabouts! I'm off to TT week on it so contact me soon or it will have to wait to June

[Jimbob]

Hi John,
Not far away at all, email me a contact number to [e-mail] and I'll give you a call.

[Smokey_Paul]

If anyone is up for Popham Mega meet in the summer I have free tickets and we could have at least 4 Silks together maybe more? Let me know its a fantastic weekend out and is an all weekend event with free camping Saturday night too if wanted. Sunday is still the main day. 16th & 17th August 2014
Two Silks can often be seen together

[Smokey_Paul]

Please remember those to new bikes check at your first chance the kickstart housing outer bearing as this will be cracked and breaking up. This is easily reached on the outer gearbox cover and I think we all have found this breaking up, mine had snapped the cage completely on the rollers. There is a thread already on this with part numbers but I am sure Hendred will be along soon with the details if required

[Hendred]

It's worth checking the bearings because the gearbox tends to get a lot of condensation in it and if the rubber gaitor on the clutch cable is not in good condition down the through there when it rains.

The Gearbox Bearings thread at the bottom of the second page has all the part numbers and the caged roller bearing is as cheap as chips.  Get two while ordering then you'll have a spare when you need it.  I use Simply Bearings - very reasonable prices and overnight delivery.  Can't ask for more.

There could be three Silks at the East Hagbourne British Bike Night in July - two 700S's and the one and only 500.  Spoke to the owner recently and he said he would take it along.  

[Jimbob]

Looks like there will be quite a few Silks out and about this year, but doubt if many have seen rain for many a year.
I am checking the checking the primary chain at the moment and going to be replacing the tensioner blade when the replacement arrives.
Then I hope to do a few more miles but will look at the bearings after that.
Will check my dates but Popham looks a possibility.

[Smokey_Paul]

Yes West Hagbourne sounds good I go to that.