Up to date!

Hooray, that was all of the previous items I'd created and saved to the memory stick promising myself I'll set up a blog "soon"... So now you're up to date, apart from this weekend...

Well, yesterday. A trip to Halfords yielded a can of 3-in-1 oil and a nasty plasticky modern version of the oil can I was on about. It works, but isn't as aesthetically pleasing as the old-fashioned variety. Oh well. Still haven't tracked down any barrier cream though. I NEED to get some of that, it takes days for my hands to be clean again after a proper session, and I'm supposed to be doing an audit in the Netherlands early next week. Ah well, they'll just have to think I'm slightly mad. They won't be far wrong, will they?
On to the work. I realised I'd made a basic mistake with the brake caliper when, after an amount of huffing and puffing and leaning on spanners etc to get it apart, I realised I'd need to push the pistons out from behind in the normal way (ie with brake fluid, which would mean putting it all back together and rigging up a master cylinder & lever etc). Biscuits. I don't wan't to damage them by pulling out from the front if I can help it. So I spent a lot of the afternoon taking the front brake setup off the 251 in the corner, getting that caliper broken down properly & rigging the 125 caliper to its brake line. I'm not sure it's ever going to bleed through though, as there was a lot of a kind of waxy substance in all the channels in the caliper, and of course I'd disturbed the (rather dry and old-looking) seal too. At the time of writing, the system is hanging from the garage ceiling with the lever cable-tied open and the bleed nipple open to see if the fluid will just seep through given enough time. I seem to be getting more fluid out of the joints in the brake line than the bleed nipple though. We'll see next weeked I guess. If it hasn't made any progress by then I'll have to think of another plan. I also got the exhaust off, broken down, cleaned and bagged up. Now I've got the oil can, all the components that are going into bags are getting a smear of oil so hopefully at least won't deteriorate any further. Many of the nuts & bolts etc probably won't be used again, but it's a useful discipline and it'll be good to be able to identify them for replacement purposes... That was about it for yesterday, aside from formally christening the kettle and getting the CD player to work for 2/3 of a CD, until I started hitting things on the bench which put it right off its stroke. It still hasn't forgiven me. Will have to keep an eye out in charity shops etc for a new one...


Today, 20th April. Thinking back on the day, I don't seem to have got very much done. I faffed around with the brake caliper some more, and got that rigged up to the ceiling to gravity bleed over the week. I made a bit more progress towards getting the engine out - carburettor and generator cover off. This engine is the ETZ version (I think of as the "old" style) with the clutch actuator on the right hand side, and a pin all the way through the engine to the actual clutch on the other side (no, I don't know why, either). So I'm struggling a little to break down the clutch actuator assembly inside the generator cover itself. I need to fabricate a tool as the retaining system for the arm is, um, interesting. I'll try to remember to double-check the manual before doing too much more next week. Haynes are quite good at suggesting alternatives to the "special" tools.
The carburettor is all broken down, oiled and bagged up. It wasn't in bad nick really, there was a bit of jellified fuel in the bottom of the float bowl and bottom end of the main jet, but that'll clean up with some brake cleaner (something to add to the list there) apparently. It could have been a LOT worse. I couldn't get the idle adjuster screw out though, will have to attack that again sometime.
I also had to spend some time fixing the chain on the Skopion again. It had managed to lose the retaining clip of the joining link... I seriously didn't think it was a good idea to ride the bike, knowing it was like that - obviously I must've ridden it a bit before I saw the problem - but I have no idea how far. So Justin (bless him) took some time out from finishing coursework and starting revision to help me out with that - the chain tool just doesn't have long enough levers for me! I made a good stab at it myself first though, I promise. Then Justin wanted a lift up to town to go in to the Uni for a while, and (cheeky sod) a lift home too when his friend wasn't available for a beer... Still, he's cooking a bacon and mushroom omelette for tea, so perhaps I shouldn't complain too much.
Taking the generator cover off also confirmed my suspicion that this little bike was once well cared for, under the rubber bung that hides the end of the clutch mechanism on the outside, was evidence of a generous smear of grease last time it was assembled. I'm impressed. A lot of the alloy is furry, but it cleans off fine and hopefully the oil should stop it coming back while in storage.
Basically I ran out of time today. I was in the garage until after half past nine last night, and as I'm going to be away for three days this week I figure Justin deserves some of my time tonight. So when I got back from picking him up from town I really only tidied up and called it a day. I do prefer to finish the component/assembly that I'm working on, but I can see that clutch actuator taking a while to extract. And it's going to have to come out if I'm going to repaint or otherwise refurbish that cover...
TTFN
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