Spanners out again..

Having bolted the clutch etc back together (when you have done it half a dozen times it seems easy) it felt like a collective pat on the back was in order. As always though pride comes before a fall or in this case a free fall from 30'000 feet!

Hooking the chain back up to the rear wheel I’d deliberately left the chain case cover off the clutch so that when I set it up finally i could see the plates lifting etc, what i saw though on turning the rear wheel was the clutch case wobbling and the primary chain tightening and slackening,, 

Neither to any great effect but i could see it and it seems clear that the main shaft from the gearbox must have been 'tweaked' when the drive chain wrapped around it at the last trial. Hey ho so put that on the list of things to do,  then starting the bike and giving her a gentle ride down the lane to check the clutch worked okay ( which it did now better than ever silky smooth) stops to talk to a neighbour and go to kick the bike back up again and doh no compression!  Still starts and ride okay but the kicker has virtually no resistance.

Having taken a moment to count to ten, I made a couple of calls and the mainshafts do occasionally get bent and indeed do snap clean off in some cases.

So a call to Simon Bateman at Nametab and he has all the bits in stock and not just bits from some old bike but brand new bits and reasonably priced but most striking is his service. I telephoned at 11.25am on the Monday and at ten past 9 Tuesday they were landing on my doormat. Real customer service.

I had whipped the barrel and head off and frankly, there were no obvious signs of distress. The head had very little carbon and the top of the piston only had a paper-thin covering of dry carbon. The piston and barrel were un marked although the piston had clear signs that the rings had been blown past so I suspect that the new rings will cure the thing. Piston size was 67 mm so at least another rebore possible yet when required.

Simons delivery was so quick though that although I’d cleaned the barrel etc up I’d not actually had time to buy the paint for it as I expected to wait a day or two so would have freshened up the appearance. As it is within an hour the barrel and head were back on and ready for the off.

Now the next task is replacing the main shaft. I have not opened up a gearbox before so am hesitant but others say it is not so difficult indeed one tale I was told was of it been done in a field during a trial that the guy went on to win!

So with a fair wind I may do this later in the week if not certainly next week as this weekend the Yorkshire Classic have thier biggest trial of the year The Captains at Castle Carr near Halifax an absolutely perfect piece of trials ground ( woods, gullys, streams hill climbs) and I dont want to not start. due to not been able to get the box back together!

In the mean time  a small length of 28mm alloy rod was purchased from ebay ( no name check on this as it took 3 weeks to arrive!!) and it has been swiftly dispatched to my favourite enginner to turm up two alloy spacers for the rear axle one to go twixt the bearings in the rear hub and the other also for the rear hub to move the chain line slightly as it wasnt quite straight.