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CHAPTER FOUR - 20
After I stopped
sobbing down the phone Chris suggested that I wait for a few weeks until
he was due to be in Southampton, then he could have a look and try and
see what the problem was. The one thing that we were worried about was
that the timing could be 180 degrees out, not really a problem if it
was, Chris rebuilt the engine, I would just break his fingers. So, I
left the bike and went onto other vital work, such as checking the
inside of my eyelids for holes, you know, important stuff.
I had a phone call
from Chris one evening to say that he was at a friend’s house near
Southampton and if I could get the bike to him he could have a look. So
I loaded up the bike on the trailer and borrowed 6 ratchet straps to
secure the bike on the trailer and off I went. As you have seen in the
previous sections of this rebuild I have taken great care on the
paintwork, and now I have to put it on the trailer and drive it 25
miles. Of course I was a bit apprehensive about it so I took great care
in strapping it down. I was doing fine until I got close to the bottom
end of the UK; I was rapidly running out of road and would soon be
driving over water, so I phoned Chris for the final directions.
What I didn’t realise was that the road I have to go down was one of the
type of roads that has been repaired 500 times. The bumps had bumps on
top and ruts had ruts. I carefully drove down the road and in the car
all seemed OK as the suspension took out most of the movement. I looked
in the rear view mirror to see the poor bike leaping up and down. I
slowed, so did all the traffic behind me. You could almost hear what
they were thinking and calling me!!! All of a sudden I saw the bike lean
to one side and a strap fly over the top. This had an immediate reaction
from both myself and the other drivers following me. I stood on the
brakes 100th of a second after all the other drivers did. I think they
could see this very blue bike sitting on their bonnet and the look of
sheer terror or the face of the driver directly behind me was something
to see.
Of course, there was
no danger of that happening as I had made sure there was no way the bike
could fall off. What I was worried about was that the strap ratchet
might have hit the paintwork. Fortunately it didn’t but it made me and
other drivers give a great deal of attention to the now long forgotten
‘Highway Code’ distances from each other. Fortunately I only had to go a
few hundred yards, so no damage had been done.
After various
deliberations on why the bike would not start I left the bike with Chris
and went home. After a few days Chris rang me and said he had found the
problem. It was the back-plate on the points, it was bent, enough to
touch the front plate as it turned. Consequently the points were
shorting out on every turn. Easy problem to solve once you’ve found it.
Remedy:
Solution 1 (emergency)
Take out the points
and dismantle. Place back plate on flat steel surface, hit with (Russian
essential tool No. 1) - large heavy hammer. Once plate is flat
reassemble and refit, problem solved.
Solution 2 (Best)
Replace entire point’s
assembly.
Its always
embarrassing when someone else finds out what’s wrong with your bike, I
looked for days checking all the usual known faults, and I think that is
the problem, you only think of the normal things and not anything that
could be out of the ordinary. I was almost convinced it was the timing
that was wrong, I had checked the points earlier and made sure the gap
was correct, the contacts were in good condition, the springs were all
attached and the condenser was all right. Those done the points were now
out of the equation in my mind. But I must admit I’m not the sharpest
tool in the box when it comes to engines.
I now had to go and
collect the bike, so once again I set off to the bottom end of the UK, I
was getting a bit worried while driving as I realised I was again
getting closer to the Isle of Wight chapter, and there are some very
strange Russian bike owners there, but we try not to talk about them
very much. |
