A few French parts

Im not sure if I've done the right thing here.
A short while back, I found a chap on a French website selling some parts for a Manurhin scooter.  I contacted him and enquired about a carburettor (i still needed one at that stage), rear light and switches.
He initially thought he could help me with the carb, but it didnt come off.  But he did have a whole load of other parts that I might be interested in.


He sent me some photos and asked me to indicate any bits that I wanted.  There was nothing I REALLY needed right now, but certainly some parts that I was going to need one day and so I made an offer.  We eventually agreed on a price for the parts and postage.

So for £71, I now own
1 x rear wheel hub (the sort with the cush-drive - I'm not sure if this is the sort I should have on my bike)
1 x set of wheel spokes (in case i do decide to rebuild my rear wheel with this alternative hub)
2 x brake cables (I havent checked them, but the bike came with out cables so I'm hoping these are the right ones)
1 x chain (again, i needed one)
1 x new cylinder head gasket
2 x covers for the handle bar switches (I think these were the bits that most attracted me - eventually I will find the switches I want but who knows in what condition - now at least I have some clean covers for them)

I think I have paid far too much money for these bits  (the postage was never going to be cheap coming from France) but I have them now, and perhaps I am going to have to get used to spending a bit of cash now and then just to make a little bit of head way

As an aside, all this negotiation with the French man was conducted by via 'Google Translate' translations - its not always 100% accurate, but it's jolly good and I am extremely grateful for the service.  I simply wouldn't have been able to make the communications 10 years ago (well certainly not as easily and quickly)
I have put a translation gadget at the foot of this blog for the benefit of people who might need words translating now and then

Carburettor repair

I guess that when it comes to rebuilding old (and relatively rare) motorcycles, beggars cant be choosers over the parts they need and acquire.
I was really disappointed to find that my original eBay purchase of the bike didnt have a carb on the engine.  I thought this would be a real stumbling block, but within a few weeks I had purchased a Gurtner J14 (from Roy) and I once again re-enthused that perhaps I could get my machine up and running.

However, on stripping the carb I was faced with a couple of challenges - why is nothing ever simple?
Firstly there is no fuel-in banjo fitting.  I thought this would be a simple thing to overcome, but no-one that I spoke with (from Scooters, to lawn-mowers to vintage motorbikes) could find anything that was remotely close, and so I prepared myself to make a suitable fitting (and stole a little selection of brass tubing from my dads garage)

The second challenge was to repair the bodge of someone elses doing - I find it incredible that some people think they can overcome mechanical problems with the most outrageous and inappropriate bodges (though that said, in this instance, this bodge probably did work and got some fool out of trouble for a while).  At some stage someone has sheered the top cap retaining screw in the chamber body, and to make things worse then simply rammed in an oversized screw into the remaining couple of millimeters of hole.  This has distorted the slide chamber, making the needle slide impossible to remove without filing flat the distorted chamber wall



I had a couple of options to repair this.  One was to purchase a left-handed 2.5mm drill bit and gently left-hand drill the sheered remains out - I read somewhere on the internet that using a small piece of brass tube that fits snugly in the hole can help centrally align a pilot hole.  The theory behind the Left-hand drill is that it would reduce the amount that the thread was driven futher in and might perhaps even help to unscrew the thread (much like an ezy-out).  I discounted this option as my pillar drill doesn't have a reverse drive

I decided in the end to drill the old thread completely out with an oversized hole, and plug that hole with a 4mm dia piece of aluminum rod, and then re-drill and tap to the correct M3 size

Incidentally; as I was tossing and turning one night thinking about this problem, I wondered about what adhesive I should use to bond the plug into the drilled out hole.  In the middle of the night on my iPhone i started to read forums where people had asked the same question with regard to petrol resistant adhesives.  Lots of people were saying that JB weld was the stuff to use but it wasn't easy to find in the UK.
In my local hardware store, they sold "Araldite Rapid Steel" which claims to be "Ideal for most types of metal including steel, aluminum, iron, copper and brass, and is oil and chemical resistant" ..... "oil and chemical resistant?" what about petrol?  I decided to put it to the test.
I made up a sample piece of two bits of aluminum rod bonded together with the 'rapid steel' - left it to harden for a couple of days and then submerged it i petrol for 5 days. The result?  Well, no degradation as far as I could see - so I'm going to use it.  It will certainly be good enough to get the thing running and give me time to find another Gurtner chamber if necessary 


Drilling the hole out to 4mm is a maginal job, Ive just about avoided breaking the wall of the slide chamber, but it has distorted it a little.  
After flatting back with needle files and emery paper, the job is quite neat but it has exposed a patch of the 'rapid steel' adhesive.  If my test piece is anything to go by, I shouldn't have much to worry about.  I'm guessing also that petrol shouldn't really get up the sides of the slide.  We shall find out.

In the meantime - while Ive been thinking about and fiddling with this repair I was having a little email paper-chase too.
Klaus Faak of Faak-Tilmanns UG had come back to me saying that he could supply Bing carburettor parts, but not Gurtner carburettor parts, but suggested I speak with Jean-Noel Benech in Toulouse who might be able to help.


Monsieur Benech came straight back to me with a Gurtner J14 parts list and asked me to identify the bits I needed.  I was amazed that I could simply pick the bits I wanted from a parts list.  I sent him my wish list and I await his reply with prices.  Maybe I wont have to make my own banjo after all


UPDATE; I never did hear back from M. Benech, but I did manage to buy another Gurner carb - and used that as a donor for the banjos

Crankshaft pin still challenges me

I was delighted and extremely grateful to Roy, Reg and Bernie who all had something to contribute to my enlightenment of this odd flywheel/crankshaft alignment pin.  A little flurry of phone calls and emails gave me much encouragement.  My understanding now is that it is certainly a little pin that sits in a blind hole on the shaft that locates the flywheel keyway.  Apparently other DKW motorcycles have used this arrangement.

Reg modified his shaft and had a keyway machined into the shaft.  I still have to work out my solution as I had originally intended to try and start the engine without splitting the crank case.  I tried drilling the sheered pin out the shaft, but it would appear that its hardened and the drill bit wont cut it.  So I am left pondering.

It was during these conversations that Roy pointed out to me as to why those starter ratchet sprocket (as mounted on the flywheel) might have been so heavily damaged, and so dreadfully knocked off center.  He wondered if the engine might have been seized at some stage and an enthusiastic bodger had tried to free the seizure by hammering a cold chisel (or more likely a screwdriver) onto the ratchet sprocket.
Aha! a mystery solved perhaps.
However this raised another really important question - and one that might be influential on wether I should split the crank case.
If the crankshaft had been whacked and whacked to the extent that it buggered the starter sprocket like it is...... had the crankshaft itself been bent?  Up until this point I hadn't thought about wether the crankshaft was true or not.

 I dont own a dial micrometer so I couldn't accurately measure this immediately,  but i was curious enough to get a feel for how true the crankshaft was.
I rigged up a bit of stiff wire on the engine case and bent it to shape so that it was gently touching the crankshaft.  Rotating the  crank sure enough revealed that there was indeed a slight oscillation.  But in my opinion only slight.
In order to give myself an amplified sense of the oscillation, I placed the flywheel onto the shaft and nipped it up.  Spinning the crankshaft now and measuring the movement on flywheel in relation to the engine case didnt really give me a sense of horror.

I concluded that the crank was good enough.  It was certainly good enough to continue with trying to start it without splitting the case yet........ if indeed I could solve the alignment pin without having to take the crank out and to a machine shop.

I am going away for a few weeks now for work and so this is going to be perfect thinking and decision making time.

Replacement Cylinder Head Stud

I am a true believer in the power of WD40 and its ability to release anything that has got stuck.  However, people often forget the other magic ingredient in getting things unstuck with WD40...... time!
WD40 will unstick anything if you give it enough time to penetrate.  A little squirt of WD40 daily for a week or two will in my experience unstick pretty well anything.  
So why oh why didn't I listen to my own mantra when it came to unbolting the cylinder head a number of weeks ago when I started to strip the engine?  In my excitement, I sheered one of the cylinder head studs.  I was very annoyed with myself and have wondered for a few weeks how I was going to replace it.

Its a M6 x 120 stud.  I thought other scooters might have something similar, but Gransport scooters werent aware of anything this size, and nor was my local lawn mower repair center, so when I popped into Vale Onslow the other day to ask about a possible carburettor banjo (they couldnt help), I hesitatingly asked about cylinder studs - I say hesitatingly because the old fella there behind the counter has a clear distain for scooters and, I think, amateur hobbyists like myself, however to his credit, he went off to have a search through his Aladdin's cave of vintage motorcycle parts.
To my delight he came back with a brand new M6 x 120 stud (albeit a little narrower on the shank).
"Wow! Thats great" I said, "Thank you, what is it off?"
"A Yamaha" he replied
"What model of Yamaha?" I asked thinking it would be a useful reference for anyone else foolish enough to snap a Manurhin cylinder stud.
He looked me in the eye, "Just a Yamaha" he said pointedly.
He is a wise old man and I am not worthy to push him further.  As I left the shop £2.40 lighter, I think we were secretly both pleased with the transaction and if I am not mistaken I am sure there was a twinkle in his eye.

Another Manurhin on the UK market

Only a few days after the Taunton located DKW Hobby was sold on eBay for £360, A Hampshire located Manurhin comes up for sale on eBay.  Whats going on?  Is it that time of year when people clear their sheds out?

I was attracted to this one as is was a Manurhin (and not a DKW) - again there were lots of parts missing.... but lots of parts that I could do with.
I decided that £295 was as much as I dared bid without having to ask the wifes permission first.
After a week of 17 bids by 6 people, it sold for £297.  Damn - missed it by 3 quid, I am going to have to man up a bit and take a nagging on the chin in future.

Once again its good to see that Manurhins are coming out of dusty sheds, and who knows perhaps it means more parts about to come onto the market

Another shed find sees the light of day

For a week no one seemed to have noticed this bargain on eBay (well thats what I thought).  Being no bids, I had planned to slip a last minute offer in and do the seller a favour by taking it off their hands for them.  What an idiot I am.

To be fair, this wasn't really the right scooter for me - its a DKW Hobby after-all, but it did have a handful of bits that would be useful to me, AND it was in the UK so pick up costs would be reasonable, so despite the fact that I would have to sell 75% of this scooter, I was rather excited that it was on the market and with no bidding action happening.  Bernie had contacted me in the week to say he had seen it and was possibly interested, but I sensed that he probably had other projects to finish first?;-)

So Sunday came and the auction was within a couple of hours of closing, and I was convinced it was mine, but blow me, other people had ideas of their own.  A little bidding frenzy saw 5 people thrash it out over 11 bids with a closing bid of £360.  I was amazed!

I was amazed firstly that 5 people wanted it..... who are those people?
and I was amazed that it went for as much as it did - Way above what I think its worth in that condition;  I can buy a complete manurhin for 380 euros in France at the moment.  It made me think that perhaps my original bike was a bargain.
Congratulations to the winning bidder and I wish them the best of luck with their project (and would be happy to hear from them if they have any bits for sale that I'm after)

To buy or not to buy?

Bernie sent me a link to this Manurhin for sale, suggesting I should cut my losses and save the ripped knuckles and loss of sleep and just buy it.

As advertised on www.cotswold-classics.co.uk

I must admit it is tempting.  At just the cost of a handlebar switch under a thousand pounds, I think this is a great price.  It makes me think that my own project is really just a hobby and certainly not an investment.  I am currently up to £321 on my spend, and there is plenty more to go - the powder coating on my Vespa cost £300 alone! So there is not much money to be made in resuscitating an incomplete non-runner (I should have listened to my dads advice who told me to never buy a non-runner)

I tried to justify to Bernie my reasons for not simply buying a running machine.  I didn't have a rational argument (and I hope my wife never puts me to the test on this - she always wins our arguments) other than;

1. I like a mechanical challenge - it keeps my mind occupied
2. I like an excuse to tinker in my garage - it is my escape and is good for the soul
3. I've rather enjoyed talking with the people I've met so far on this project - I don't think I'd find the same community simply by just being an owner.  I think you have to earn your badge :-)