big jim

A productive day, my brother came over on his motorbike and had a look at the Lexmoto, a bit of a come down from his triumph RS Sprint! we got to the bottom of the non starting issue, basically the choke cable was loose so when the choke was fully open the butterfly in the air intake wasn’t shutting completely, it was closing about 2/3 of the way allowing air in, once I shut it manually from the side of the carb it fired up first time from Stone cold and has managed to do so all day since, it was just a case of adjusting the slack from the cable so it closed the air intake fully, to be honest it was something I’d noticed earlier in the week but I didn’t think the valve needed to be completely shut for it to fire, in my head it was “no air no spark” but obviously not! he took it out for a spin and discovered the rear brakes were seized far worse than we thought so he had the back wheel off and stripped the brake drum down, the operating arm was solid in the drum, after a lot of to-being and fro-ing and WD-40 the arm is now completely free in the drum (even able it be removed) and the rear brakes now work perfectly, we’re just in the process of putting it back together but he’s stopped to have his tea with us! the only other issue is the little switch for the brake light that is attached to the brake foot lever has broken but I’ve bought another from Amazon that will be delivered tomorrow so the new buyer can fit it themselves unless I can find a bit of time tomorrow to fit it myself

Surprise surprise 196s cancelled, ended up conducting the Trafford park train via Macclesfield then working it nuneaton to Leamington spa stockport leamington conducting it again tonight (and the rest of the week too)

Faye acting all soft earlier! if you rub her toe beans long enough she will nod off! the start She’s going and away!!

Another suggestion is the spark plug gap, I didn’t adjust it when I put it in and it should only be 0.6mm, I’m sure it’s at least double that out of the box, I have some feeler gauges so I’ll have a look tomorrow my brother said he might be able to come over and have a look, I forgot he has 2 motorbikes himself so have just spoken to him about it, he suggests the mixture may need adjusting as well as the idle one way or another it’s not going to beat me

I don’t think so as it will fire with the eeze start in it so there is a spark tried that too but no luck I've just given up and put in the listing that it needs a proper service and I’ve offered the winning bidder the opportunity for me to remove his bid or give him a little bit of a discount towards getting it serviced, it’s certainly not a huge issue as I’ve had the damn thing running like a sewing machine this afternoon. and it’s most likely very easily fixable (probably for no expense) but I’m certainly not letting the bike go for pennies for the sake of a 10 minute tinker by someone who knows what they are doing! just so frustrated by it!

the plug was dry when i took it out, im not entirely convinced the spark is that strong either also took the air filter housing off while ive been looking at it, no issues there

I suppose if I didn’t turn the fuel tap off it could have flooded it then? I’ll pop and take the plug out and have a look in a sec

Well I’m at a loss now, shut it down and left it for a few hours, came back to it and it won’t start again, really getting to me now as I’ve done all I can I think I’m going to have to take it off sale I think while I get it properly looked at, annoyingly it’s got a bid and 60 odd people watching it on eBay

Drained the tank down and added fresh fuel as well as stripping the carb down to have a look inside and clean it out Bit of rust/gunge in the bottom that I’ve cleaned out injectors are clear too Got a fresh spark plug too, got it to fire but again a few minutes then it would shut down the I had a thought, the idle screw, I wound it out and back again and it fired up ok and it’s currently been sat running for 15mins idling about 1200-1500 revs so I’m hoping that once I shut it down later and try and restart that may have been the issue, a simple lack of fuel as it was wound too far in heres hoping!

The consensus from a couple of other people I’ve asked is the fuel is probably the issue as it’s been sat for so long, I’ve just started draining the tank but I need a bigger Jerry can so I’ve got a 10l one to collect tomorrow from Screwfix, along with a smaller one for the fresh fuel as I don't want to use the one I’ve just put the possibly contaminated fuel into! I don’t think it’s anything as serious as engine damage, the bike is only 18 months old and 900 miles on the clock abs was fine when it was dropped off, it’s just not moved since, the only other issue I can see with it is the drum brakes need freeing up a bit as again they have been stood static for months

I’ll try some of that tomorrow, might buy a new spark plug too just to be sure, as the spark seemed to be off to one side of the electrode when I checked it out of the cylinder i might drain the fuel first though and put some fresh in

Now I’m struggling to get it to keep running, I can get it to start with a bit of ezee start and it will fire up with very little choke in but it just won’t run at idle for any length of time I did however get it to run for a good 10 mins earlier at idle and also stood on its stand in 1st gear revving it with the back wheel turning but when it eventually cut out it just wouldn’t restart, it’s turning over but not firing up, I have had the fuel pipes off it and they are clean, as is the sample of fuel I poured into a jug so i know there is clean fuel getting to the carburettor if nothing else any thoughts?

Just 2 from today, road learning loco again bescot rugeley supposedly 196 testing tomorrow if it happens

@RedgateModelsits taken me a year but finally got the B1s on the mini

she started to get quite bad arthritis so struggled to get in and out of low slung sports cars, her last car before she died a couple of years back was a BMW Z3, that hadn’t seen much use for a few years before for the same reason and as she was having chemo she had to be driven to and from the hospital by my stepdad, that trip was from llwyngwril (near towyn) to Bangor almost on a daily or at least twice weekly basis, luckily before she got really ill they invested in a lovely VW T5 that they had converted to a camper so they could travel comfortably and if they wanted to stay over somewhere nearer to the hospital, after she died he got shut soon afterwards as it had too many sad memories for him and he said it felt wrong being out in it on his own as for the Z3 my stepdad still has it as he doesn’t want to sell it as it was my mums car, and is in the process of getting it fettled up for summer, having new trailing arms fitted as well as cosmetic work sorry to bring the mood down

As I’ve mentioned before my mate had the 220 coupe turbo......Insane car!

She had an MR2 and a RAV4 between them....

she had one of these before the rover!

Her plate was K2 VEE but she got it 2nd hand from James edwards in Chester, it was sold on to my sister and I don’t know where it went after that

Another Amazon deal, don’t know how to do a link from the app but if you search for Hornby Gauge Going Home 70th Anniversary of The End of WWII Train Pack it will bring up the black 5 and 3 coach set for £289 but there is a used one listed below for £120 plus £4.02 postage, seems pretty reasonable going by eBay and google prices

Exactly the same as my mums old one!

And some from the walk back to the car Is the BG in the background the one Bachmann are doing for the collectors club Lots of 365 units Spot the odd one out

@russ p anyone you know at LSL?

Just 2 from today, crewe to east mids gateway, booked to take the loco back to bescot but it turned out it was staying there, couldn’t have moved it anyway is it was blocked in at the dead end of the terminal by other trains on the run round roads so a nice early finish! Also ran early so got in there and was in the car back before we were even booked to arrive! Crewe a view of the terminal from the taxi to derby station

best not go for the 2.7 ecotec version then!