Sorry!

Oops, there I was, moaning about having nothing interesting to write about during the winter, and now things have started happening, I've not had time to put them on the blog. Typical! So straight to it, wasn't feeling too well last week but managed to poke about with the other Cubbie engine donated to the cause by Kawa from the Scottish classic club. Seems like the big end is more wobbly than it should be, and I can't get clutch off or undo some of the screws that hold the cover on the gearbox - so all in all, I didn't get very far! Still, it was quite relaxing spraying bits with WD40 and half-heartedly trying to prise things apart. Out in the steading (where The Real Cubbie is living temporarily), I stripped the gearbox side down with the intention of simply replacing the bushes. Rumour has it, it might be that the old items are worn and causing that knocka-knocka-knocka sound. It was then that I realised, or should I say remembered, that someone had used a substance called Locktite to hold the old main shaft bush in place..... No matter though, before going to the trouble to extracting it, perhaps popping the new bush on the shaft would tell me if it was any better fit. Well to my untrained brain and eyes, it seems just as slack as the old one. Does that mean the shaft is worn? Or is it meant to have a certain amount of play? Who knows? Do you know? If you do, perhaps you can tell me 'cos I'm getting ever so slightly fed up with this particular Noise. And the other bushes for the clutch rod and something else (the name was reet in my head but now its gone) seem to be a bit on the small side. reckon I'm just going to have to ride it and see how things develop, 'cos Cubbies Counties is already behind schedule!

Sooooo, put the gearbox back together, popped the primary cover off to apply some fresh sealer after emptying the oil out before Ingliston (didn't want a bill for the carpet cleaning) and found it was full of water. Gave it a good rub down, wiped the surface rust off the clutch and sealed it back up. Left it over night to dry and the next day was....wait for it....the Large Lunch at Fyvie. Up early to a white out. Never mind, put oil in the gearbox and primary case, fresh fuel in the tank, freshly charged battery connected up and it didn't even bother to cough, let along start. Finally twigged that I should check the carby was clean only to find a pile of what can only be described as porridgey white sticky stuff in the float bowl, followed by a discovery of more white stuff growing on the slide and the needle. Stripped it down, cleaned it out, put it back together. Forgot to mention, I also set fire to the cork on the tap plunger the day before, on the insistence of the spares guy who said it would stop it leaking....seemed to work! So why, then, was fuel absolutely spewing all over the place when I pulled the tap to the ON position? Probably not wise to attempt to start it just yet....so switched it off, too the carby off and noticed I'd left something important out...namely...the float....
By this time, Mrs BC was getting grumpy 'cos we were late for the lunch, and it was snowing again, so I kicked Cubbie into the corner and went off in the car. Humbug. Still, the 9 hardly chaps and lassies who turned up for lunch had a good chuckle about it at my expense, yet again!

On a better, more successful note, with the compression tester removed from the MZ's engine, I took the bike for our first spin of 2008. Just into Turra to fill up and round the lanes, but it were jolly nice to be out on it again. Some nice old wifie in the petrol station came up to me and said she was curious to meet me as she likes to see wimmin riding bikes - in fact, she used to ride pillion many years ago and tried being the 'pilot' but didn't carry on with it. I offered her a wee shotty but she just laughed, said she was over 80 didn't I know!

So what else to say. Not much really. I'm sure there was something else though. If it comes back to me, I'll add it on later. Oh, John, thanks for the comments, really missed yar being away and all lol You must try to log on regularly in future.

Oh yers, thats another thing, those goggles from Davida that City Link couldn't deliver because this address does not exist...Royal Mail managed to deliver them within a day or two from the offices of Classic Bike Guide. So there.

OH my goodness gracious, lordy lordy me! How could I forget!? Captain Bill has FINISHED REBUILDING my BULTO ENGINE and I'm going to collect it tomorrow! Yeeehaaaaa!