MK Indy GSXR Build Diary: Cooling hoses and decelerator cable

My 25mm alloy pipe arrived today so I made a start on making connector pieces with beaded ends. This worked well with my homemade beading tool.

I then bolted the new gearshift bracket in position so I could see how much room there would be for the hose to the water pump. Next I laid out the silicone hoses to get the correct lengths before cutting.

The hose from the thermostat to the top of radiator needed to bend quite a bit and when I tried with a straight length of hose, the hose would occasionally kink. This wasn’t ideal so I remade a couple of the connector pieces but I made them curved (I did this by using a 25mm pipe bender). Adding these two bends made the route a lot easier to make with silicone hoses. I used a homemade P clip to secure the hose to the engine cradle.

I made another curved connector piece for the hose from the water pump, which will ensure that the hoses from the pump are not touching anything, so aren’t at risk from wearing through.

Last job was to start on the decelerator cable which will help close the throttle bodies and give better throttle feel. I had seen an idea on Locostbuilders where a spring on the end of the cable could be used so I had a go at that. I bought a set of compression springs from Screwfix and chose the one that would give enough tension – the spring was a bit long so I had to chop it down. Next I made a couple of spring guides from 1.2mm aluminium. The photos show how these are used, along with a cable clamp, to attach the spring to the end of the cable. I need to make some adjustment to the throttle cable as the decelerator cable now stops the throttle opening all the way.