Hanging my head in shame with such a basic question but the two arrowed chromed "discs" on the cylinder housing are badly pitted on my Thunderbird 1600. Are they just decorative or do they serve a deep mechanical purpose? If I wanted to renovate them, would I need to take off the cylinder heads or do the "discs" unscrew/prise off? Engine mechanics are a dark art to me, unbolting something usually involves a lot of swearing & so I would probably mask and spray them (black) in place....
That dosen't look good mate. Not sure what you can do to repair that sort of damage. Lets us know what you finally do to fix it.
Sounds like your fettling skills are as good as mine mate so unfortunately I can't help but hopefully you will get the answer soon At the end of the day it really depends on how much it bothers you as to what you're going to do about it
It's weird since the discs seem to be made of plastic not metal. It is just cosmetic but with those long winter months of just looking in awe at the bike, I'll get itchy fingers to sort it.
Just to finish this off, took heed of DD, I wandered in and spoke to the good folk at Mitchells of Inverness who identified the "discs" as being part of the gasket set (£30 plus) for the cylinders. They are "T" shaped internally, held in place by the cylinder head (glad I stopped trying to lever them off with a screwdriver...oops).
I just had mine replaced at the 12k service.....top has to come off anyhow to check the valve clearances.
