W/E 9th February

Something’s missing…

First week back using the Atlas for work but predictably all was not well. The bike seemed mainly to be running on one cylinder and despite fiddling with the carb it wouldn’t chime in on two. Infact adjusting the pilot screw on the left hand carb made no difference at all. I wondered if it was because the carb I was using hadn’t been cleaned prior to sitting in a box for a few years! I decided to take off the carb and found that the left hand side was black as was the case when I came back from the Scottish Rally. I’d put this down to the split inlet rubber but now think it was the inlet valve burning out. I can’t be sure but looking down the inlet track I can see the inlet valves are wet and black. This doesn’t surprise me because before leaving for Scotland I could hear this loud ‘clack’ from the left hand side so in one sense it’s good to finally think I have diagnosed the problem. Of course I won’t know for sure until the head is off and that may not happen for a long time…because I have the spare engine.

Ready for installation…almost

I’d hoped to be able to switch engines in a weekend but in the end this turned out to be too much. What finished the dream was my inability to get one of the cam cover allen bolts out – this’ll need a bit for my impact driver + figuring out how to remove the cable clutch actuation system. Progress was also slowed by the inability to get the right hand exhaust off – managed it eventually and I will have to spend time now separating the exhaust from the mid-section of the exhaust system.

Stainless link pipe

On the subject of exhausts I took delivery of a connecting pipe from Star Parts in Holland. This connecting pipe is the key to putting on an aftermarket system – they only have one of these left – expensive at €120 including postage but a real pain in the arse if (when) the original system rusts through.

Still this aside I have cleaned the engine ready to go in and swopped over the inlet rubbers and oil feedback plumbing. I’ve also taken the time to clean the frame so that when the engine goes in it should look okay. I have time after Thursday so anticipate it being back in action and maybe better than ever pretty soon.

Three Nations Award

Finally the Three Nations Award arrived from the ACU. This Award is for completing the Welsh, National and Scottish rallies and kind of brings down the curtain on 2013 – good memories, check out the write up’s in the ‘Trips’ section.

Nick 🙂