Bits falling off

[mark_in_manchester]

I read Diesel Dave's latest problem with bits falling off, somewhere on here today. I was hoping to go on an epic (for me) trip to Scotland later this month, but yesterday on a trial run to Blackburn, it boiled up and covered my left leg in rusty water. When I stopped fretting and started thinking, I saw the fan belt was no longer there - so the trip to Blackburn turned into a tour around car spares shops. On the way home, the temp seemed stable, so thinking (with some surprise) that I might have got away with it I went to give it some stick...and the steel ring around the rubber drive donut blew up and tried to take my right foot off. Ho hum. I start looking at ads for 20 yr old Hondas when I get a run of luck like this.

[Diesel Dave]

Ah ha, see it’s never the building time, it’s the proving miles that chew through the hours/days/weeks...

[alexanderfoti]

You have to trust that evenntually things will stop falling off (and they will). I went through the same thing,

[Diesel Dave]

I beg to differ...Sluggy the first has 201,000 miles under his belt and things are still disappearing down the road.

[mark_in_manchester]

I haven't covered that many miles, but I am 10 years in with this. Oh well...

(Anyone know how to break Loctite 243? I have some M8 fine bolts set in with it, with countersunk slot heads. The impact driver is not moving them, just making a mess. Lots of heat?)

[Stuart]

Heat sounds good yes. I doubt freezer spray on the screw to shrink it would work. Perhaps try those reverse cutting tools that dig into the metal of old fixing heads?

[mark_in_manchester]

Well, In the summer I did make it to Durness and back, much to my surprise. But the other day I stopped it with too much chip-oil mix in the pump, and would it re-start? It would not. That will teach me not to switch back to DERV a couple of miles from home.

So a hint from a veg-oil fuel forum to share on here - apply wallpaper stripper steamer to the injector pump. 10 minutes of heating like this, and in a big cloud of steam it was off.

[Diesel Dave]

Did you do the run to Durness and back in one hit Mark?

So far on the Kubota Enfield I’ve chewed through one primary chain, a battery and quite a bit of coolant - all in 4500 miles.

[mark_in_manchester]

I took 5 days over it - Manc-Mallaig was a long-ish shot and on the way back I did Iona-Manc in one go (well, with a couple of ferries), most of it in heavy rain. It was...damp! I ended up with no front brake, but apart from that nothing more unusual than the normal not-quite-right cooling situation and slight water useage. One day I'll take the head off... Here's a couple of pics, 1400 miles in all which is a long way for me. You sound a bit pissed off with your kubota option - is the increase in power not worth it? Womble who just showed up on here is my mate, and is planning to build a Z482-superdream - I keep suggesting he buys an enfield and follows closely in your footsteps! And another friend near here, Adam the Pole, has a Z482-V50 which has been all over the place, but like me no chains (primary or otherwise) to deal with. Does make gearing it correctly, expensive though.

[Diesel Dave]

I’m actually very pleased with the Kubota powered Enfield, the primary chain demise was my own fault as the oil drip feed pipe had failed and I didn’t notice. Really it does need a belt drive so I’m saving up my pennies as they are rather pricey.

It is the biggest motor I would fit into an Enfield though.

The gearbox and clutch cable issues should now be solved, early 5 speeders are known to have these problems and this one has done an awful lot of miles.

Keep the faith

[Tetronator]

Having ridden Dave's Sluggy the Second I can tell you the poweroutput is worth it.

When I was following him on my Shadow I had a moment where I was suprised by the accelleration of the thing and had to open the throttle to keep up.