Newbie - 4th Le Mans

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1

Happy New Year. I bought my bike in November, but waited until today to join.

I have acquired a 1976 Le Mans, one of the very early bikes with the rounder tail-light. I have a few questions which will appear in the technical section.

This is my 4th Le Mans although it is ~ 25 years since I last owned one. My first was bought in 1979, then sold when I got married (!), the second was when I got divorced in 1987 but as I was serving in the Navy I sold it before I went off on a deployment, 3rd in 1999, but I sold it when the kids started arriving, and now this one is my retirement project.

My garage is shared with a Suzuki GSF650 Bandit 2010 with only 6000 miles and nil rain miles. The Le Mans will not be seeing rain either !

The Le Mans has been partially restored although that owner concentrated only on the externals, so on the surface she looks good, but looking behind the panels revealed her to be quite neglected.

All the brake caliper main retaining bolts had been loosened by some idiot so most of the brake fluid had gone, the wiring was awful, so I am now 90% through a full re-wire. I have also replaced all the brake seals, but fortunately apart from one pair of servo pistons with some external corrosion, internally all were sound.

As part of the re-wire I am replacing all the bulbs with LED versions. I am not a purist so where common sense offers an improvement I will apply these. The left side switch block had already been replaced with a Japanese switch cluster, and I have bought a new right hand cluster (start and run/stop) to replace an awful original start only button.

Once the wiring and brakes are sorted the next job is to drain the oil, drop the sump tray for a new filter and internal bottom end inspection. I have an endoscope to inspect the cylinders and piston tops, and will adjust the tappets before I attempt to start her. I will also change the gearbox oil and endoscope check the clutch plates.

I expect to have her out for her first run by March or sooner if the weather is OK.

Loomies cafe on the A32 / A272 junction near West Meon in Hampshire will be her first destination.

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2

Sounds like it’ll be sweet as a nut by the time you’re done (I like the ‘non purist’ approach too :+1:).
Welcome back, I’m sure you’ll enjoy your Le Mans ‘Close Encounters of the Forth Time’.!

3

Welcome back, it sounds like you are giving the bike a good and thorough going over.
Unfortunately you won’t be able to see much of the clutch plates with an endoscope as they are hidden behind the flywheel inside the bell housing.
Don’t replace the charge light for LED as the current through this lamp provides power to energise the rotor magnetism.

4

Don

I have used a canbus compatible LED with a built in 150 ohm ballast resistor, but if it doesn’t excite the alternator I will wire in parallel another 300 ohm resistor, which should give it approximately the same power and current to excite the field coil at start up. They are much brighter in the display head than the original tiny filament bulbs.

I’ve also bought LEDs for the indicators, tail & brake light and H4 headlight.

Its a while since I had one of the engines to bits so I will give the clutch inspection a miss at this stage.

I haven’t started her up yet but she spins freely on the starter. I have bought a 30 AH 330 CCA battery from Halfords. It easily spins the starter, and has plenty of spare room in the battery compartment.

Trevor.

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