Bluezulu49

Will do. Many thanks Shade.

Back on to the original topic!. Turbo just came back from holidays with the mower and there is a light film of oil on the camshaft cover. It appears to be coming from a failed o ring on the exhaust valve rocker shaft. I note that there is a reference in the manual to grinding the rocker arm dowel pins and removing them with a special tool. Is it strictly necessary to do this or is there another way to get the pins out? Thanks.

This is another of Turbos projects. Our house was built in 1953. The main structure is built of 4" concrete blocks on their flats which were probably cast on site. Some time in the 1960s the standard for 4" solid blocks here changed to a smaller width and height. So for anyone repairing an old wall there is a problem as the older blocks were both longer and higher. Our boundary wall was damaged by a combination of wind, time and inadequate supporting pillars and as a result it cracked from top to bottom and could be moved by hand. Turbo has had no work since Wednesday so he decided to repair the wall. Fortunately he was able to obtain sand, cement and blocks through his work. All of our hardware stores are closed at the moment so he was lucky to be able to get the materials. He solved the problem of matching old and new by inserting a vertical expansion gap in the wall with supporting pillars on either side of the gap. His mother and me are very lucky to have such a multi talented son. With some luck we will have the gaskets for the tappet adjusters next week and we will then fix the oil leaks in the top of the engine. In the meantime I am taking advantage of Turbo's presence to repoint our patio which I constructed 30 years ago. As an over 70 individual under mandatory cocooning (lockdown) it is now four weeks and one day since I left our house and gardens. Really looking forward to going fishing again and I hope it will be this year. We hope that all of you are safe and at home, as we are.

It turned out that the suspension units from the old trailer are seized solid. I managed to remove the grease nipples ( two per hub) and spray the pivot points with rust killer but could not get them to break free, even with heat. So we bit the bullet and bought two new Knott-Avonride 550 kg suspension units with hubs. It turns out that they were out of stock so we won't have them until tomorrow week. So trailer construction goes on the long finger for a while.

Winter in Australia is warmer than summer here. Our temperature rarely exceeds 20 centigrade or 68 farenheit.

This is what Turbo is currently working on in his spare time. The quad is still away with the mechanic. The blowtorch for popping bubbles is in the top left corner. More spalted beech.

I discussed this with the mechanic who is used to servicing this model. He said that when it is working correctly, the fan operates in very short bursts and is not rated for continuous operation. If we wire to a toggle switch we have no way of knowing how long to run it or when the oil temperature is low enough. There is also the distinct possibility of forgetting to turn off the fan and burning out the motor. There are also the problems of the non operational kill switch and reverse light not working, both of which seem to point to loom issues.

Happy 2020 from Ireland.

This table top has been finished with epoxy. Very difficult to do here as our ambient temperatures are quite low. The blue bits are epoxy impregnated with glow in the dark powder.

A couple of years ago Turbo was given a piece of spalted beech about 5' X 12" X 6". When he got it home it took three of us to carry it around the side of the house. About 18 months later when it had dried out he decided to cut it and found that some of it was quite rotten so he made small rectangles out of the good bits and used them to put a new top on an old table my late mother got for a wedding present. The original table top was veneered and over the years it suffered some damage. I attach two pictures, one of the table while it was being repaired and the other of the finished job. I'll let Turbo put up the pictures of his other projects. Turbo bent the beech edging with a steam bender he made out of a piece of sewer pipe and a wallpaper steamer.

Unfortunately, I do not number woodworking among my meagre talents. Turbo is the woodworker in our family. He will probably post more when he comes back after the New Year.

We can get new guns ok. I use the Cogswell because I shoot better with it than with any other gun I have tried. Turbo uses the Brno for similar reasons.

As I live in Ireland, firearms ownership for self defence is not permitted. The commonest firearms licenced here are shotguns for bird shooting and .22 rimfire rifles for small game. A lesser number of people have centrefire rifles for deer and fox shooting. Since 2008, no applications for short centrefire firearms ( pistols and revolvers) are accepted here. My main firearm is a 1902 Cogswell and Harrison 12 bore side by side assisted opening boxlock ejector. Turbo and I also each have Lanbar over and under single trigger multichoke shotguns with adjustable comb raisers. Turbo has a Brno model1 .22 rimfire made in 1947, and I have a CZ 452 made in 2009. We use these for rabbit shooting. I attach pictures of the Cogswell and the Brno. The Cogswell is now in better condition than it was when I took the attached pictures in 2015. It broke both of its firing pins in 2016 and when I had new ones made I had all of the metalwork reblued.

The brush repair kit arrived yesterday so I re-assembled the starter. The bush in the inboard end appeared to be ok with little or no slop so I left it even though I had a new one. The oil seal in the outboard end was perished so I drove out the bearing with my trusty gutter bolt, replaced the seal and put the old bearing back in. ( The needle bearing in the kit did not fit) The outboard O ring that fits between the starter and the crankcase was perished so I replaced it too together with the two rubber seals for the main body. It rained cats and dogs all day yesterday here with gale force winds so I left the quad after I had assembled the starter. Today I put the starter back in having first taken off the starter cover. I pushed the starter in with difficulty as the new O ring made it very stiff. Initially I had it in too far and could not get the cover on. A bit of judicious levering with a flat screwdriver got it into position so I bolted it to the top of the crankcase. Once that was done I put the starter cover on. We have bought a new gasket for this cover but it appears that it is not in stock in Holland as the estimated delivery date is 6th January 2020. Having tightened the five bolts in the cover I attached the positive lead, reconnected the battery and tried the starter button. Unusually the quad required half choke and started. It will now start every time on the button so Turbo and I are both happy. Pictures of brush kit and assembled starter attached.

Many thanks toodeep.

Hi Guys, I find that I cannot edit a post after I preview it but before I post it. In other words when I type a post I preview it and, if (mostly when) I find a mistake or something I need to add to, I cannot edit what I have done as the previewed text appears not to be editable and the post itself is not visible. The only workaround I have come up with is to copy the post before I preview it, then preview it, go back one page in the browser history, paste the text in again and then modify it. I am using a mid 2012 Macbook Pro running OSX Mojave 10.14.6 and my browser is Opera Version:65.0.3467.62. Otherwise the site is working very well for me.

Photos attached of what Turbo got done last night.

Hi Shade. If we were not in the middle of our shooting season, one of our main usage times for the quad, we would consider buying a D&B starter but our experience with delivery from the USA is, sadly, very poor as it takes more than a week to get from supplier to whatever international gateway is used to send items here. It can then take up to three weeks to arrive on our doorstep. This might be acceptable if the transport cost was trivial but it is not. D&B quote $41.03 for the starter but $69.00 for delivery here. What would happen then is that because the cost of the item plus postage is greater than €23.00, Value Added Tax at 23% is levied here on the cost of the item plus postage. The delivering company then charges us an extra €12.00 for collecting the VAT. In the case of the starter our charge from D&B would be US$111.03 or about €100.12. The VAT would then be €23.69 plus €12 for collection = €135.81 or about US$150.60, more than three times the price you guys pay over there. I did try to source a kit here but the cost was €30.00 for the points unit alone or €50 for the rebuild kit. There would be a courier charge of €8.00 for delivery This makes it a no brainer to buy a "premium refurbishment kit" from the UK. We bought the one pictured below. Because I had it on my watch list on Ebay they offered me a small reduction and I got it for £14.39 for the parts and £9.86 delivery. This cost me €17.78 plus €12.19 or €29.97. This equals roughly US$33.23. As the UK is still in the EU there is no duty or VAT to be levied and in addition we can expect delivery in about a week. ( It can sometimes be quicker. I bought a new Snowbee fly rod in Plymouth, England on last Friday and it arrived here today). We await the outcome of the British election tomorrow with bated breath as if they vote for Boris and exit the EU there will, in all likleyhood, be new tariffs and VAT to be paid and we will have to source our online stuff elsewhere such as CMSNL in Holland. But their postal charge even for the smallest item is €19.50. So to sum up Cost of a new starter from USA €135.81. Cost of a refurb kit here €58.00 Cost of a refurb kit from UK €29.97 I have had to do this type of calculation for every item I bought for the quad since Turbo bought it. I did find a repair kit in the USA for about $10.00 but it cost €38.00 to ship it here and it would have been subject to VAT here on arrival. Do you guys in the USA have to pay a lot of money for postage?. I notice D&B offer free delivery over there.

I used a plastic bristle brush in the dremel to clean up after I took the picture. Now reassembled so all the pieces are in the right place. Brush kit was posted in the UK yesterday so we should be good to go next week.

Took the day off yesterday. This morning I had a look at the air filter housing and it was bone dry and dusty so I think this is likely not the source of the water in the oil. Given that our relative humidity on the east coast of Ireland has been over 95% for the last few weeks I think condensation is the most likely source. Turbo was in the even wetter south west last weekend. I took the starter apart again and mounted it in my Wolfcraft drill attachment lathe which I acquired from my neighbour some years ago when he was clearing out a deceased friends house. I started working on the commutator at the drills lowest speed with 240 grit sandpaper, on to 360, 400 and finally 600 grade. This seems to have worked quite well as the worn marks are no longer evident and there is still plenty of copper left on the commutator. Pictures attached. I notice that the final picture is not very sharp so I will take another when I am carrying out final assembly.

Will check this tomorrow and report back.

Condensation seems to be a likely culprit ok as the water was high in the engine. When I took the starter cover off I could see that the lower engine oil was as clear as it was when we changed it. Since then the motor has moved probably less than 20 miles. The bolts were in the correct places ok, two long ones in the centre, two short ones in the top right corner and the shortest one bottom left.

Turbo took the TRX300 away for the weekend to do some visiting and treecutting. On Saturday he rang me to say that the quad was refusing to start on the starter. Pressing the start button results in a loud click from the starter solenoid under the seat. The quad will start on the kick starter. He came back last evening but he was late and the weather was very windy so we left it in his van until this evening. He demonstrated the click and I suspected that the brushes in the starter motor were worn. We loosened the two retaining bolts but could not free the starter. So we undid the five bolts on the starting gear cover protector. As I loosened the bolts some white oil dripped out so it looks like some water had gotten into the engine. Once we got this cover off we were able to disconnect the starter. When we got it apart we found that one of the brushes was worn out and the other was quite worn. I bought a new starter motor repair kit this evening and should have it in about a week. I am wondering if the water in the oil is likely to be getting in through the starting gear cover protector as the gasket was pretty bad. Turbo says he did not travel through water which was deeper than a tyre depth. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thats right TBRider. Makes it difficult to transition to Hondas when your right foot automatically twitches to change gear even after 40 years. I never got it up to its claimed top speed because after about 85 mph everything was vibrating. All of the nuts and bolts had at least to be loctited and the petrol tank bolts were drilled and cross wired, otherwise they just fell out after a few miles. My first shooting dog used to go with me on that bike. I would put her in a rucksack with her head sticking out, place the bag on the tank rack and put the bag straps over my shoulders. That dog was the best passenger I ever had on the bike and would lean with me on the bends.

This was my Triumph Tiger T110 made in 1954. The last bike I worked on before Turbo's TRX300FW. I owned it from 1973 to 2014. The black and white picture shows it in the period when I ran it from 1973 to 1977 and the colour picture was taken in October 2014, a month before it was sold. I still have mixed feelings about this bike. It was great when it was running but was not very reliable. Having said that it would do 60 mph in second gear and gave a tremendous feeling of power as even in the 1970s when it was 20 years old it would easily out accelerate any car. Having lain in my garage from 1978 to 2014 I was "persuaded" to get rid of it and having sold it in the UK for three times more than I would have gotten for it here, I used the proceeds to buy a boat which I still have.