Comet Smoking After Rebore Is the Bore Glazed ?

[brian gains]

I had the top end off my comet for work when I bought it, I was confident in bore condition and only had light hone and had guides replaced. On rebuild I noticed intermittent smoking particularly stopped at lights.
Considered it may be oil pooling and so bought the metering wires ( although most seem to suggest these are not necessary with modern oils). Have not got around to fitting them although following several high speed 25mile + motorway runs (boring) the condition appears to have alleviated.

Not a big believer that there is an easy fix and these things remedy themselves but you may be fortunate.

My experience is :Yes, I would think that glazing could possibly be a problem. With all bikes following rebore or hone wash out with soap and water and only use the most mininimal of assembly lube, when assembled give it a good thrash and let it go through a couple of heat cycles allowing motor to cool right down.

Fingers crossed, thanks for motivation, I've yet to venture out on bike this year.

 

[Matty]

The temperature here in the South of England was around 7Deg C by 10 this morning so I went to play golf.
When I came back in the afternoon it was down to 3.5Deg C and the roads were white with dry salt which I did not think would harm the bike much. So being of an impatient nature I decided to give the Comet a harder run of about 40 miles on fast roads at about 60mph to find out if this maybe cured the smoking.
By the finish the machine had done 110 miles since the rebuild and there had been no signs of the engine tightening up.
While riding I had not seen any smoke from the exhaust, and when I stopped outside the house the engine ran cleanly until I blipped the throttle a few times, after which it puffed out quite a bit of smoke as I opened the throttle.
I had hoped the run might scrub off some of the glaze if this is the problem, but I am afraid the jury is still out, though the bike runs beautifully.
Think I will run it for say 1000 miles to see if things improve and if not, take a look inside even though at my age I find it very hard on the back even doing this simple job now.

 

[vibrac]

Hard on the back:
I cannot believe how I managed all those years before I got a bike lift (well two actually) any job now done off the lift seems an absolute chore, I only built one car just to prove I could do it - I found it a horrible exercise, all that twisting and bending

 

[Matty]

Unfortunately my garage is a one car area integral with the house, and has always been used as a workshop with the cars outside.
As well as the Vincent, I have a Honda VFR 750 in it and 2 workbenches, so there is not enough room for a bike lift, though I have been offered one or two by friends who have given up bikes.
It would have been nice to have had a lift when I was doing up crashed modern bikes for a hobby (I did around 60 of almost all makes) but I'm afraid those days are gone and I consider myself lucky just to be still able to ride the VFR which is the last one I rebuilt and the Comet which I bought in 1956 for £150 and have used ever since!!!

Matty

 

[vibrac]

Must have been a good Comet to pay that much in 58

 

[vibrac]

Not even a small one like this? (name removed)

 

[bmetcalf]

How is a Vin stable on one of those? I thought about getting one, but couldn't see a good way.

 

[BigEd]

Unfortunately my garage is a one car area integral with the house, and has always been used as a workshop with the cars outside.
As well as the Vincent, I have a Honda VFR 750 in it and 2 workbenches, so there is not enough room for a bike lift, though I have been offered one or two by friends who have given up bikes.
It would have been nice to have had a lift when I was doing up crashed modern bikes for a hobby (I did around 60 of almost all makes) but I'm afraid those days are gone and I consider myself lucky just to be still able to ride the VFR which is the last one I rebuilt and the Comet which I bought in 1956 for £150 and have used ever since!!!

Matty

Like Matty my garage is also integral and you could just about squeeze a car in if it wasn't full of junk (Also known as desirable motorcycles and parts thereof.) The lift up work bench takes up about the same space as a motorcycle so the bike in use is next to the up and over door and the bike being worked on lives on the bench leaving almost enough room to walk about amongst the junk.

 

[Howard]

How is a Vin stable on one of those? I thought about getting one, but couldn't see a good way.

Bruce, You only put one bike at a time on it, not the whole stable!!

Most of the damage I've done to bikes over the years has been when they fell over in the garage (probably literally) I dread to think what I could have achieved by dropping them off a lift, but my back and knees tell me it may be time to find out.

H

 

[timetraveller]

Regarding Bruce's query in #16 above; yes a Vin twin can be stable on one of those if you use one of my fibreglass engine/gearbox stands. My Knight engine/gearbox unit currently is sitting on top of one in my new workshop I am still fitting out. Do you need a photograph?