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CHAPTER FIVE - 23
Once most of the
wiring was complete I had a feeling of great satisfaction when I
connected the wires to the battery, as there were no tell-tale shorting
sparks from the terminals as they touched. I allowed myself a small
smile, an only a small smile, I felt like if I shouted ‘YES’ it works,
in front of it the damm thing would catch fire or something. So I went
in the house for a cup of coffee, shut the door and when I thought the
bike couldn’t hear me, then came the ‘Yes, I’m bad’, I can do the
electrics – easy!!!!!
But I only said it very quietly.
The battery clamp on
the original was designed for a much larger battery than the modern ones
you get now, so another bit of modification is required. I have the
original clamp and to be quite honest a baked-bean-can is stronger and
less flexible. So I have filed that part in the R & D section (rubbish &
disposal) and again I have raided the stainless steel draw, which I must
say is now getting smaller by the week.
For this part quite a
long piece is required, as I have to start from the bottom connection up
to the top of the battery, then across the width of the battery then up
to the original securing plate.
Using the format that
the original piece was styled in, that is the clamp is held under the
battery plate with a steel rod. As the steel rod will do what most
Russian bikes like to do best (rust), I have replaced it with brass. If
you are going to attempt to do the same, keep in mind that stainless
steel and brass do not like to be soldered together. I took all my
powers of persuasion to get them to understand that they will be stuck
together if they liked it or not. In the end I won.
The strap needs to be
quite wide as I intend to stick a Ural badge on it at some point, it
should make it look quite good. To put a final touch to it I have used a
brass wing nut, of course highly polished at the moment, so I may have
to lacquer it eventually.
 I
carefully marked the stainless with a pencil exactly where the various
bends would be, and when I was satisfied that they were correct I
proceeded to bend the steel across the marks. When it was completed I
was a bit confused to find that all the bends are crooked. The word
‘plonker’ suddenly went through my mind, but then I thought that I’m not
that stupid so I placed it up against the battery, and it fitted quite
well. This really confused me and I started to look for a reason. I sat
there for some time just looking at the bike and it suddenly occurred to
me that when I stripped the bike down I commented that the battery plate
was unusually close to the ‘Doughnut’ and maybe at sometime the frame
may have been adjusted. The battery plate is as straight as Elton John’s
bum and trying to read the ‘battery level’, well! I’m not going to do
anything with it now and I’m sure that it may well be a talking point
when it’s out.
There seems to b a
shortage of 6 volt Ural horns in the world, and no matter who I try, the
last one was sold a couple of weeks ago. So, I have fitted a Dnepr horn
for the time being, it makes a funny sound when the button is pushed and
when travelling at 30 mph somebody may hear it about 1 second before the
bike uses their bum as a parking space, but it works.
Before I can start
the bike I have to sort out the nearside exhaust and side stand, if I
leave it as normal the side-stand touches the exhaust and hangs down. I
couldn’t understand what the problem was until I went into thinking mode
with a few cups of coffee and just sat on a box and looked at it. I went
over the problems I’ve had with this side of the bike:
1 – The exhaust would
not fit at all, why? The new silencers pipes I bought are the more
modern ones, therefore are slightly thicker. When placed into position
the sidecar ball joint got in the way, this I thought at the time was
strange and it should have fitted but it didn’t.
2 – The exhaust pipe
when placed into position was hard against the side-stand bolt, which
put it out-of-line.
The only way to get
the new silencer into position was to cut off the rear sidecar ball
joint, to allow the silencer bracket to sit flat against the frame where
the rear footrest is attached. |
