After the carbs were sorted the NC30 was due an MoT. I was pretty confident it would pass, but that would’ve been too easy, and it was – it failed on a sticky front brake light switch and a binding rear brake.
I sorted a new front brake light switch from what is fast becoming my favourite website, Wemoto. The rear brake was a bit of a strange one because when I got it back home and got the back wheel off the ground to test the brake, it was working. The only reason I can think of is that because the bike had been sat for a while it just needed some use.
It passed another MoT a week later, but it was bittersweet because it refused to start when I collected it. No amount of trying to bump it or get it going with Start Ya Bastard (at the time it was more like ‘Start you useless piece of shit’) would work so I admitted defeat and came back the next day to see what the problem was. It spluttered for 10 mins and sounded like a Vanessa Feltz on the bog after too much cake. When it eventually started it ran like the aforementioned fatty boom boom too, but I managed to get it home.
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It felt like it wasn’t getting enough fuel so I checked that side of things first. Putting fuel directly into the carbs saw it run properly so I checked the breather hose that goes into the top of the tank and that was ok, but routed incorrectly, so I changed that. Next thing was the vacuum hose that attaches to the fuel tap. When cranking the engine I could feel a good vacuum, which then led to me taking the fuel tap apart and discovering it had been messed about with to bypass the vacuum operation. It was bodged, the spring was missing and the rubber diaphragms were perished.
I found a company called NRP Carbs in Manchester that sell replacement fuel tap and carb parts and got a new set of diaphragms and a spring for the fuel tap. With the fuel side of things sorted the bike was still not happy so I checked the electrics and found that the regulator was knackered (a common problem on NC30s) and charging the battery at 19v at 4000 rpm which was totally cooking it, not good. I bought a new regulator from LM Spares and it arrived the next day. Since fitting it the NC30 has been on top form and has been behaving properly, which has only highlighted how shocking the rear shock is…
Pip
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