JL3 rubber mounts

[Knowledge]

Hi,

I've aquired a JL3, but without the rubbers that hold the main body to the shark's fin bracket fitted to the front of the chain case.

I've done a quick search on ebay for these, but only come-up with a rubber from WSP which does not seem appropriate for my exhaust. My JL3 bracket has 18mm ID holes, so I assume the correct (ideal) rubber would be about 25mm OD, with an 18mm waist and take a 8mm ID steel sleeve through the middle.

I can make the steel sleeve, but has anyone sourced an appropriate rubber?

Martin

[coaster]

Martin, the JL3 uses nylon bobbins on the sharks fin and another on the tail mount, they are stepped to fit the large holes in the bracket on the exhaust. Andy Francis stocks them, I bought one from him at the Euro in Belgium as I'd mislaid the one on the tail mount and had to use a rubber car exhaust bobbin instead. 2 years on and I've not bothered with changing the rubber bobbin as it's performing just fine.

Colin

[Adam_Winstone]

The JL3 is the old Taff Road pipe. The original JL pipes share their mounts in common so Kegra's K pipes were also designed to use rubber bobbins with short steel spacer tubes inside them, with Kegra supplying me with both the rubbers and the spacers the last time I wanted to source replacements for my Taff JL 3.

Yes, later JL pipes and Franspeed pipes changed to nylon spacers (no spacer tube) and these can be sourced from Andy Francis and others.

The choice of replacements is up to you. Do note that the later nylon mounts are available in different lengths, which can be quite handy to mix and match to avoid stress.

Adam

[Knowledge]

Thanks guys. You have confirmed my suspicions, as I was sure that I had seen nylon bushes fitted to these pipes, but the only one I had looked at recently had rubber & sleeve fixings.

As it happens, I had already made some nylon spacers on my lathe, but I was reluctant to fit them as I thought that they might hold the pipe too tightly, leading to stress fractures elsewhere in the exhaust, such as the header pipe.

I have acquired a scooter loopy John rear bracket, which features a large rubber bobbin. I assume I can use this with a nylon step-down insert which fills the 18mm hole in the tail-can flange?

[coaster]

.....I have acquired a scooter loopy John rear bracket, which features a large rubber bobbin. I assume I can use this with a nylon step-down insert which fills the 18mm hole in the tail-can flange?

My rear bracket is similar to an SLJ one and I used to use it just with the nylon spacer but the rubber bobbin is more than twice the thickness and the bracket on the tail can flange pushes tightly up to it. Therefore, I just have a penny washer on the outside and it's been absolutely fine, the whole system must have covered well over 6k miles with no cracking or loose nuts/bolts (kiss of death now)

[Monty]

Are you sure you looked at the correct one on WSP ebay page. they have lots to choose from

[Knowledge]

I was short of time and only viewed the WSP ones listed on ebay.

Clearly, there are many ways to apporach this one, and all seem to work.

Last night I used the nylon bobbins to fit the JL3 pipe properly but I will have to wait until tonight to give it a test ride. It's already run on JB's dyno and I saw an extra 2bhp and 40% more torque on the JL3. I think this is a reflection on how poorly my previous pipe performed, rather than the dramatic effect of a rather ordinary JL3.

John Balcomb's words to me were "that will tranform your scooter", and I think he's right. Tonight, I will know for sure.

[Adam_Winstone]

JL3... rather ordinary?!

Is that the same as saying a good all-rounder, without the rev limiter/wall of some pipes with good low rev torque/power, or without the struggle to get to (and keep in) the powerband of many high BHP revvy pipes?

The JL3 is a great pipe... although the ground clearance gets on my ****!

Adam

[Knowledge]

OK, so perhaps I was rather quick to call it ordinary when I haven't even ridden the scooter yet. Perhaps "not exotic" would be a better description.

Anyway, I'll tell you later if it is ordinary, or extra-ordinary, later.

[Adam_Winstone]

Yep, I know what you mean and it is true, the JL3 doesn't lead the board on many factors but IMO it is a nicely balanced all-rounder. Whether it suits your motor's porting and gearing has yet to be seen

Adam