Crisis of confidence

I've been having a crisis of confidence recently at work.  I am worried that I am losing my touch, and I am seeing people coming on line who are bigger, better and brighter than I am - I'm not so sure I can cut it for much longer.  This can make me feel a bit low sometimes, but I can usually brighten myself up with the comfort that actually I am quite good with a spanner.  Sometimes I can feel quite proud of the progress I make with projects in the garage.......  Well that was until today :-(

After spending a good hour yesterday trying to fit my new starter cable (£10 +£10 delivery from Greiner-Oldtimerteile :-(  and fettling a fastening device (that failed hopelessly) in the starter handle, I spent the rest of the day trying to start my engine.  She fires, but wont run.  Thats fine, its just a case of tuning everything to run in harmony.
I cant tell you how many times I had the carb and starter housing off.
The carb kept flooding.  I cleaned and cleaned the float valve (it always worked correctly on the bench!) until she seemed to hold the fuel in as designed.
And I kept checking and fine tuning the timing and points (which means taking the starter case off.... and putting it back on to start the thing to see if you've got it right) - its a slow old process.
She would fire ok (I had yards of spark) but I was getting some backfire now and then, and my plug was always soaking.  And after every firing (but not continuing to run) i felt like i was getting a smokey emission from places other than the end of the exhaust - was this simply oily surfaces burning off, or had I not tightened everything down enough?
I ended the day feeling a little disappointed at not having got her running, but hopeful for solving it tomorrow.
Tomorrow (thats today) came and sadly its been hopeless

I used to comfort myself that while I was feeling crap at my job, I was pretty good in the garage.  Today I realise I'm not good at that either :-(
I made a fatal error today.  A schoolboy error.  An error that I dont think I've ever made before.
So embarrassed am I with myself, I wondered wether to avoid reporting the story in this blog - I reasoned eventually that I am not trying to prove anything here so I have to add the 'moment' as part of the ongoing story (which is getting a bit boring now isnt it).

As I say, every now and then, when the engine fired I thought I saw a puff of exhaust smoke emerge from around the engine.  I tightened down the head nuts a little, and even put a little gun-gum around the exhaust pipe manifold.  I had had the spark plug in an out numerous times (to check the spark, clean the fuel sodden electrode and to air some of the wet out of the barrel) - and it was as I replaced the plug for the umpteenth time, that I felt that dreaded sensation of not-quite-tightening-down.  Bugger! (actually I think I said something far more appropriate for the moment) I had stripped the sodding head.
I have never stripped a cylinder head before, and I was well pissed off with myself that it should happen now.
On reflection, I have trying to work out why this happened.  I am sure I am not an absolute idiot, so why did this strip?  I never tighten a spark-plug harder than a 'nip', and this might well have been a reason for the exhaust leak that I was seeing (equally it might have contributed to poor compression and air-in leak), so I was certainly tightening the plug more than I had done previously - but even then it was only a 'hard-nip'.  The head was also pretty damaged in the first place - cooling fins smashed and pitted mating surfaces so it could be that the plug thread was not at its best anyway.  But the thing that really bothered me - and I hadn't noticed this before was that my spark-plug (which I believe is the correct spec, but I need to check now) only screwed in to about 66% of the head - ie the electrode was actually inside the threaded part of the head, and not the domed space, so there wasn't much thread to tighten up in the first place - is this how it was designed?  surely not.
Whatever the reason - it really got me down.
On the upside though, it would appear that I am having a crisis of confidence in EVERYTHING, and not just work! so maybe work isn't that bad after-all ;-)

I gave the day up as a 'rubbish day' - but not before I pulled out the engine that I have from that old black manurhin basket case that I and a friend bought for spares.  The head on that has been abused too, but at least it had a spark-plug thread - it might just get me out of trouble.
The picture here shows my original head with my new spark-plug along side the spare head with the spark-plug that was in it (I am not suggesting that this is the correct spec either). You can see my plug on the right does not come all the way into the head void as it does in the assembly on the left.

Time to go and investigate spark plugs (again) and see what is right.  However not before I go to a cocktail making class this evening - maybe this will be one thing in my day I can do well.  And if not...... I shall simply regain all confidence in myself by getting terribly drunk ;-)

Everything has stopped (well, it certainly cant start!)

Manurhin things seem to have slipped a little lately.  I've been away for work, I had a daughters 21st Birthday party to prepare for, and I went to a conference in Italy that ended with me on a 3 day drive back  over the Alps and through France in an old London taxi (but thats another story).
Actually, small things have been happening on my scooter whenever I can grab 10 minutes in the garage - but none of those things seem significant enough at the time to report on.

I am hoping to soon get back to the garage in earnest,  So heres a little summary of where I am at right now;

new cables

I reported a few blog posts ago that my brake and speedo cables were both too short.  Well, I decided in the end to just get new ones made.  Fortunately, I found the perfect cable company only an hours drive from me in the heart of Warwickshire farming country.  JJ Cables don't have a website (no, really, they dont!) so you have to do it the old fashioned way and phone them (01926 651470)..... but its worth the effort, they have a fantastic cable capability and make any cable to any spec - by comparison to most of the stuff they do, my cables were childs play.
Within the week - 4 cables (throttle, speedo, front & rear brake) - £40.  OK, so they might not be original stock, but they are all brand new, modern materials and made to fit my scooter :-)

I have also been working on the scooter electrical circuits.  This is taking far longer than I had imagined it would - I am a bit frustrated that I dont have the correct handle bar switches, but I can live with that.  I will report on the electrics when I have something more to say than 'why have i made this so much more complicated than it looks in the circuit diagrammes??'

I did manage to get to a position a couple of weeks ago where I had rigged up all the electrics and was in a position to test them - which meant starting the engine.  Because the scooter is on a bench in my garage, I decided that in order to prevent me dying of carbon-monoxide poisoning, I would rig up an extraction system that would pull exhaust fumes directly out from the exhaust pipe.  With the aid of several lengths of flexi ducting and bits of drainpipe, I created quite an impressive adaptation of an old shower extractor fan.  The engine seemed reluctant to fire up - and every time i did get a hope of a start, I found that the engine seemed to smoke profusely - i was a bit anxious (I certainly didnt want an engine fire in my garage).  It took me about an hour of nervous engine adjustments before I realised that I had installed my extractor fan in back to front!   Doh! so instead of sucking the exhaust fumes out of the engine - I was blowing them back in!  what an idiot.

So with the fan turned round I enthusiastically attempted to start the engine again....... and promptly pulled the starter cable right out of the starter mechanism (exactly as I had done when I first started the engine several months ago) - clearly, I am unable to fit a tight enough nipple to the end of the cable.  So I gave up for the day....... and this is how the bike has remained for the past 3 weeks - though I have ordered a properly nippled starter cable, and I do have plans to get back to the garage this weekend - so hopefully a little more progress to report in the forthcoming weeks

Lets do electrics.... maybe

I had planned to "Do the electrics" this weekend just gone.  How naive can a man be?
You don't just 'DO the electrics'.  You have to DO (at the same time) the switch brackets, the grommet selection, the engine fitting, the cable routing etc etc etc.   Its all a bit 'the-knee-bone-is-connected-to-the-thigh-bone-the-thigh-bone-is-connected-to-the...etc etc"

To make things even more difficult for myself;   1) I don't have an original loom to work from, 2) I don't have original handle bar switches, 3) I want to fit indicator lights.  And so I am inventing my own wiring diagram and loom

Within an hour of springing out of bed and boldly declaring that I was "going to DO the electrics today",  I was back at the vice making brackets to hold the rubber strips in place,  so I could fit the leg-shield,  so I could calculate the cable runs......

Sorting out the electrics is going to be a longer job than I'd anticipated!

The rubber side strips that get sandwiched between the leg-shield and the chassis are held in place with 6 metal clips.  Mine original ones were rusted beyond re-use, and so I made some new ones out of mild steel sheet.  Ideally I should have had them zinc-plated, but I can tell you now - even with the best will in the world, I suspect my metal brackets wont rust away in the time I get to ride this bike! (and besides Waxoyl is the wonder rust-preventer).

And then there was the bracket for the after-market footbrake switch that needed to be made and fitted.

The more astute Manurhin geek might notice my foolish mistake in this picture (I hope there is only one!)  When making up my new rubber mounting strips, I had assumed (I should never assume) that there was 2 transverse rubber strips.  One at the front, and one at the rear.  The fact that there wasn't a rear one on the bike when I stripped it didn't seem to register with me, and it wasn't until I was trying (and failing) to bolt the body-cowl hinge-plate down that I realised that there isn't supposed to be a rear rubber strip! Doh!

Sometimes only a large hammer can solve a problem

I've started to assemble body parts to the chassis.  Its all rather exciting..... and at the same time, terribly disappointing and frustrating.  Nothing seems to fit as I imagine it should!
I've never seen, let alone worked on, another Manurhin so I have no idea as to how well this bike was put together in the first place.  And on top of that I've had to source parts from various far-flung places that may or may not have been designed to fit together anyway.  And so there is a fair amount of 'fitting and fettling' that needs to be done in the assembly process.  Despite everything being powder-coated... (yes yes, I can hear the 'proper' engineers among us muttering that I should have done a 'body-in-white' assembly before powder-coating - lets not go over that again) ....it's amazing how much flex there is in the coating while gently persuading a panel to ease its shape over your knee.

However there comes a time when you realise that no matter how hard you try (or how hard your knee is) there is no way you are going to humanly reshape some bits.  My steering bump-stop being a case in point.

It wasn't until I had assembled the front forks onto the frame with the forks cowling that I realised that there was more turn to the right than there was to the left.  I measured it several times and started to wonder if there might have been some old and peculiar French motoring law designed to encourage motorcyclists to turn right more sharply (perhaps to get them off the main road quicker?)  But on closer inspection I discovered (and I really should have seen this before) that the flange bracing the frame and headstock - which also acts as the stamping for the frame number AND the steering bump-stop, was bent out of line!

How on earth could this have happened?  That is quite a hefty bit of metal to be bent so.  Surely if this had occurred as a result of an accident or some rough misuse, then wouldn't the forks / handlebars / wheel / frame also show signs of stress? I cant see any!

I had acknowledged the fact that a risk of painting too early might be having to damage paint later during fitting - now was the time to take a deep breath and accept it.  With the forks removed, armed with a 4lb club hammer and a hefty dolly, I whacked seven-bells out the flange and encouraged it back into a central position.  Paint damage was minimal, the turn equalised and I went to bed that night wishing once again that my bike could talk and tell me its story

rubber bits

There are a number of rubber bits on this bike; predominantly chassis, body, seat mountings (and an internal mud-flap) - and mine are all a bit tatty, so I decided to replace them with new.

As seems to be normal around here lately, the industrial rubber suppliers I used to know of (15 years ago) are either no longer in existence or gone all too-big-for-a-trade-counter.  But it wasn't long before Google linked me through to Central Rubber & Gaskets Ltd.  John at central rubber was great.  He had exactly what I needed and he cut it to size too (And he can diecut gaskets to order too.... which could be very useful to know about in future)

And while we are on the subject of Rubber, we have an interesting conversation going on at the moment on the Manurhin Scooter Interest Group member site.  The rear suspension on the Manurhin and DKW Hobby is nothing more than compression of a couple of 65mm diameter rubber blocks.  Mine appear to be in good condition..... but how would I know if they were as good as they were on the day they they were made?  How would anyone know if they had the same cushioning properties today as they had when they were designed?  Does rubber age-harden?
I'm looking forward to taking my scooter for a ride to see just how these rubber perform.  But if I don't like the ride quality..... What can I do about it?

Getting there!

All coming together.... almost

Its time to start assembling things.  All the parts are painted after-all so presumably its now just a case of bolting it all together right?  Well, almost.
Over the past few months I've been scouring the web for all the bits that were missing from my bike, and  I've been excited (and lucky?) to discover them from all sorts of places and sellers.  I have quite a large box now of 'parts'.  It all feels a bit Johnny Cash


However, now as I start to put bits together, Im discovering that things are not all as simple as I had hoped.  For instance;

From 4 different sources;

• one wheel,
• one set of forks,
• one speedo cable,
• one speedo drive

...... and guess what?  It doesn't all quite fit!

I'm not sure if its the speedo cable that is too short or if I've got the wrong style of speedo drive?





And then at the other end;




I've had not one, but two good-as-new spare rear brake cables in my parts box for months now, and a replacement rear wheel ready to go, but its only been this weekend when I've tried to marry them together..... and guess what?  it doesn't quite fit!

I have the old cable from my bike as a pattern so I can confirm that the lengths of my new cables are correct, and so are the ends, and I even thought the adjuster end was the same until, i went to screw it into the brake back plate.  It would appear that the thread on my new adjusters are finer than the thread on my original adjuster and the back plate - unfortunately the cables have soldered/crimped ends so I cant simply disassemble and swap the adjusters





So what have I learnt?  well, nothing really.  I've known for ages now that DKW and Manurhin clearly didn't have a master collaboration plan!  They were either extremely relaxed in their standards offices, or fabulously creative on the shop floor.  Either way, we can never assume that any part is compatible with another.