Another Ural - Daihatsu hybrid - Manchester - UK

[mark_in_manchester]

Hi -
I've been posting to John from Ireland's thread about his Dnepr-Daihatsu, but thought people might like to see my Ural-Daihatsu. This has taken me 4 years so far - project coincided with having 2 kids, so slow, incremental progress.

[URL=http://img195.imageshack.us/i/1131304.jpg/][IMG]http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/760/1131304.th.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Currently waiting on some gearbox components - I lost 4th gear. I've had a few standard Urals and lots of gearbox hassle over the years, so my frame comes in two behind engine for easy gearbox access. Hopefully not while in progress...

I'd like to hear people's experiences with DVLA and insurers, maybe at <m.r.avis at salford.ac.uk> if posting this kind of sensitive info to a public forum puts you off!

cheers
Mark

[mark_in_manchester]

Try just this bit of above URLs...

http://img195.imageshack.us/i/1131304.jpg/

[Sphere]

[smokyjoe]

Hi Mark,

Nice bike! I love those Urals and Dneprs. Is that blue thingy the fuel filter? If it is, what was it originally on? I have a similar filter with primer pump, water indicator, and fuel heater that looks very much the same. Mine is brand new and originally came from a Bosch engineering lab courtesy of a friend (they were cleaning house and he had no clue what it was from). It has a Fram filter with a part number Fram has never heard of (probably an experimental number), and I have not been able to find out what its original use was so I am unable to get a replacement filter when the need arises.

Enjoy those kids when they are young and full of wonder. My two daughters are grown up now, and many a times I long for those days when they were happy just to spend time "helping Daddy" and life was simple.

Have fun,
Brad

[mark_in_manchester]

Hi Brad -

Thanks for your encouragement regarding the bike, and family life. The latter is particularly timely and appreciated...
The fuel filter was on the car from which I removed the engine - a Daihatsu Charade 3 cyl 993cc turbo diesel from about '92. Someone is selling cheap filters for these on UK ebay, so I guess you could have a go with one of those - if it doesn't fit, I'll buy it off you! What's your bike?

Also - thanks to the reader who posted my picture so as to be visible on the forum - I'm new to this and, it seems, increasingly slow on the uptake.
cheers
Mark

[Stuart]

Nice one Mark. I'll try and add it to the site when I get some time Increasingly I'm falling behind as more bikes are built I think But good to see another UK machine come into existance

Stuart

[smokyjoe]

Hi mark-in-manchester,

I am building a bike using a Hatz aircooled E79 engine (433cc single), a Suzuki GS550 chassis and a Comet 40 CVT. I also have in cue a Honda CB1000c shaft drive chassis and a Kubota D950 3 cyl watercooled. Work is slow, as family life and other more demanding projects take the top of the list. I am trying to get things sorted out for my youngest daughter to get into college (starting in beginning of August) and my eldest to get on her feet (now 23, just graduated, and unemployed now for almost 3 months), I've been "underemployed" since the end of last summer, working my tail off but the money isn't there like it used to be. My youngest daughter and I started rebuilding an old (1970's) Honda Mini Trail when she was about 10. We never finished it, I got too busy with work, before I knew it she was getting her driver's license, she is now 18. That's what I said about enjoying the simple family life when they are young!

I bought the Suzuki about 20 years ago just to build a diesel bike but at that time couldn't find an engine I could afford. Now engines seem to be everywhere!

I like your Ural, it is about what I'd like to build with the Honda/Kubota pieces. Thanks for the tip, I'll check out the Daihatsu filters. The unit I have could have come from anywhere. The Bosch engineering facility it came from designed pumps and controls for many companies, Daihatsu could have been one of them (not all had the Bosch name on them!) I will post it as "Mystery Fuel Filter" within the week. Maybe it is familiar to someone.

Take care,
Brad

[mark_in_manchester]

Brad -
It's a bad time to be graduating (or come to that, underemployed!) at the moment - I work in a university, and the contrast between the number of companies looking for new graduates as late as summer 08, compared to this year, is really very marked. Having said that, there's still a steady trickle of job adverts coming through in our area (engineering) - I hope things work out for your eldest. Hey, if she's living at home, maybe you could set her getting started on your project #2 (or completing the Honda) in lieu of rent, and tell her it will look good on her CV ;-)

A suggestion for your Honda/Kubota - on my bike I used the Ural clutch and flywheel complete, since the machining required to fit onto Daih. crank was fairly easy, and it made mating the engine with the gearbox as easy as possible. I was worried since Ural flywheel is 30-odd% lighter than Daih., and I thought it might not tick over - but it does, even at 0 deg C (about as cold as it gets here).

Good luck -
Mark

[johnfireball]

Hi Mark,
I read on another page that you have a manual for the diahatsu engine. I was wondering does it include a wiring diagram for the car. Mine had a seperate regulator for the alternator with I replaced with an aftermarket lucas replacement. Now when I first start the bike the alternator strains too hard and causes belt slip it appears to be getting full voltage to the rotor winding it stops after about 1 minute. I think there must have been a resistor in the circuit which I am missing. I am about to fit a 10 ohm resistor on the rotor winding supply to lower the voltage and hopefully cure the problem but would like to know if the car was fitted with one.
Thanks John.

[mark_in_manchester]

John -
I'll have a look for you, but I haven't studied the manual for a wiring diagram...I disposed of alternator and control box, and used a Lucas item off a Reliant. It's got an internal rectifier / regulator, so one wire comes off and goes to battery +. Belt doesn't slip. My battery's off a Hawk jet - someone working at RAF Valley gave it to me...

I saw you used Daih. flywheel and BMW clutch. Johnny Flatau tried to persuade me to do this, but I was too tight to buy BMW bits, and Ural clutch rattles like hell! Maybe I'll wrap roofing lead round the 'legs' which attach gearbox to engine, to quieten it down...after all, bike's not heavy enough already...

M.

[mark_in_manchester]

JOhn -

Afraid my manual doesn't have anything in it regarding electricals. Seems odd that there's much load at all on your alternator...guess it just squeeks when the glow plugs are on?

M.

[johnfireball]

Hi Mark,
thanks for looking, I fitted a resistor into the circuit and it is much improved but I think I need a bigger one. Bike is going really well now and getting better at handling the rig every day. Seems to do 69 mpg over twisty hilly Wicklow mountains.
John.

[mark_in_manchester]

John - you mentioned twisty roads of Wicklow - reminds me that about 10 years ago I had a nervous few moments on a LH bend on the way back from Sally Gap to Enniskerry, where the road surface was so corrugated that it lifted the chair wheel and nearly sent me into the bog. That was on an MZ250 with lightweight chair - I guess your outfit is heavy enough to smooth the road surface as it goes...Did you buy your Dnepr in Ireland, or from UK? I wondered if they had ever been imported there. On another holiday I ended up by chance in the middle of a BMW owners club run near Sligo, and none of them seemed to know (or want to know...) what a Ural was...

[johnfireball]

Hi Mark,
Yea there are some great roads in Wicklow (where they resurfaced for a section of the tour de France bicycle race) and equally some apalling rutted tracks, all part of the challenge. I have covered 600 miles on my rig and am getting better at handling it all the time. I cruise on the motorway at 65 mph and occasionally get her up to 70. When the turbo kicks in it pulls like a horse and feels much more powerful than the claimed 50hp.I bought the bike on Ebay and shipped it over disassembled on a pallet, I did likewise with the sidecar. In Ireland the sidecar can be put on either side and there is no bike mot testing required (yet). Insurance in Ireland has changed somewhat over the years with the advent of competition and a simple phone call telling them what engine I fitted was all that was required so they added it on to my royal enfield for an extra sum of €200.00. As I'm sure you are aware BMW riders are in a world of their own and fail to get the agenda of the idiosynchratic biker types. Anyway all going well I hope to make the bulldog bash this year.
John.