'89 Snotter

[Tony B]

Well, I thought I may as well start a thread on this bike I bought last week. It is what we here in the UK might refer to as a 'snotter', you know, a bit of a rat bike.
At first glance it looks ok, and when we got it out of the van I started it up and rode it 100yards down the road. She went ok, doesn't idle cleanly, (sounds familiar!), and the front brake is spongy.
Anyway, into the back garden and take a closer look, previous owner said that the exhaust was blowing at the downpipe / silencer joint. Well, as the clamp wasn't done up, that would explain it ! I took off the lower fairing parts, and found the headers are totally rusted, with a hole near the balance pipe. Also the header clamps were laying at the bottom of the headers, and on closer inspection the reason was clear. Take a look at the picture and you can see the lower exhaust bolt boss on the head is broken off.
I have a spare head, (from the other '89 I bought last year and has been in the garden stripped down ever since). I started to swap them over, but don't have a new head gasket, and although I went ahead (groan - terrible pun), I got the cam timing ok, but seem to have a problem with the chain tension, the chain goes slack, and the exhaust cam skips. I need to strip it all down and start again.
I have a factory manual, though I've found one problem with it, every single step is handled separately, and it is easy to miss a vital point if you don't check back and forward all the time.
Anyway, here is a couple of pics, including the nicer carbs I'll be fitting.

[Tony B]

Oh, forgot to mention the better set of header pipes I have .....