After saying last time out that I only got one shift in a week, and that I definitely needed a new job, I’ve got 3 out of the 4 I put myself as available, this week. The thing is, I don’t want to put myself as available for any more shifts in case I get them all. They are generally 11 to 12.5 hour shifts, and the driving is incredibly stressful. I want 3 days off. 3 shifts of work is well enough to pay the bills, so I’ll wait another week before I have to make any decisions.
My opinion of the Harley has been swinging back and forth. I’ve fitted the wider bars, with bar end mirrors, and it’s much more useable now, unfortunately the angle of the bars means I’m now straining my wrist to pull the levers. I’ve not got around to taking the forks out to fit the new oil seals and covers yet. I definitely need to make it comfortable to ride. Some guy online has whipped off the tank, mudguard and seat then fitted Japanese motorbike components. It’s made it look loads more useable. It’s a thought. As is a Japanese front end. Just unbolt the headstock and fit a decent front end and bars. If I knew of one that was a straight swap I’d have it on my ebay watchlist.
Because we live in an arbitrary yet vindictive universe, I’m also having issues with the Bonnie. After the oil and filter change I put in the workshop manual specified 3.3 litres of oil. Which was too much. I noticed a small drip of oil and realised I’d blown a seal. Idiot. I drained some off, but riding into work I noticed it had sprayed oil on my boot and there was oil dripping on to my pipes. Very not good. I ordered a new gasket and fitted it today. It turns out it wasn’t the excess oil (well, that won’t have helped) but a broken bit of the engine casing. Where one of the alternator cover bolts screws into the engine casing, the two sides of the thread are bust apart. I’ll post a picture tomorrow, but instead of it being a circle of metal with a thread in the middle, it’s two half circles, split open. There is no thread for the bolt to gain purchase and it doesn’t form a smooth seal against the gasket. That is so not good. Especially as it’s cast alloy, so it’s brittle, I’m worried when I try to bend it shut it will snap. I’ve ordered some high heat epoxy resin (and another gasket) that says it’s good for engine blocks. On Monday I’ll whip the cover off again, clean and dry the surfaces, squeeze some resin into the split metal and clamp it shut with mole grips. If it snaps, it snaps. As long as the epoxy does its job and fixes the two halves back together smoothly, I can work from there. I can slap more epoxy on to try and build it up. It doesn’t have to be pretty, just functional. What’s done my head in is how they did it? It’s a screw thread for an 8mm bolt that is supposed to be torqued to 8Nm. How the hell do you split the engine casing open doing that? It’s a 15 year old bike, but come on, that is above and beyond level of cowboy crap. I’m a bit miffed, truth be told. The epoxy should do it, but if not, it’s not the end of the world. I will have to find a welder who can do it. It would be a small weld and it’s easily accessible. Pain in the arse though, I hope it doesn’t come to that. Oh noes. I just looked. They say you have to pre-heat the alloy to 350c to avoid shocking and cracking it with the weld. That sounds like something you’d need to have a bare engine case for. If I have to strip the whole engine for this little job I am going to be so miffed.
One step at a time.
Interesting times suck.