Vintage Grumble

Suuuuper keen to try get up the Nukuhou River/stream at some point. Guess you would have to start an hour or so before hightide? I was quite surprised how quickly the water fucked off.

If the bearing is chooched, I know a guy that can get four point/QJ bearings for reasonable prices.

So I got this ^ pump from @datlow (chur my bay) which arrived overnight, and I slapped it on in a temporary fashion for testing purposes, AND ITS FUCKEN FIXED IT!!!!! Praise be to Allah, it ran beautifully. We drove up to a bridge, and I did a few laps of some farmers paddock, and then we drove back, all without issue (until it ran out of gas, as in tank was bone dry) such a relief, I'm so happy I could shit a rainbow. @keltik should have some media for your viewing displeasure. Regards, V "fucking stoked" G.

They did look super cute together, and that's the most important thing. Pity J5 didn't get the Jimny in green as he originally wanted, that would have been adorable.

Aww chur, yeh keen.

Hopefully I can find a 3/16 or 1/4 one, most mowers are about 5/16 I think?

Aww chur, probably worth a crack.

Example pwease?

So the two spare motors had little diaphragm pumps on their intake manifolds, so I cracked these open to see if they were OK. One was turbo fucked/perished, but the other looked OK, just felt a little hard. I gave the good one a jolly good scrub up, as it was a bit grot, I slapped it on the boat and ran it, but it doesn't seem to pump at all, the diaphragm and one way flaps must be too hard. I also confirmed 100% that the choke sticks, and that it starts very well with a dab of engine start. So yeh, pity the pumps poked, I'll have to try the toat tank idea, and pump the primer if it loses power, to see if that helps. If that does help, then it's new carb time I guess.

I only just fit in that boat as it is

Moar testing this afternoon. Tried different float needle, didn't really change anything. We think the choke plunger may be jamming on, causing the "not wanting to start under 70% throttle, and then hardly running, and then after a fiddle starting sweet as" issue, and it was still doing the "running out of gas after a period of full nangs, but then OK again if you idle around for a bit" thing, which was a bugger, but I have a couple of plans on solving this. Float needles, spot the rooted(er) one, Mr Jones going for a nang, Weed make boat go slow, I also have a plan to enhance my boating pleasure, so cunning, you could put a tail on it, and call it a weasel. Regards, VG.

Ha, that's what the dude now runs on his BMW. I haven't had much luck with the smaller knock offs, are the bigger ones OK?

Yeh, it was a bit durp of me, but these carbs have lots of little weird things I've never seen before, so tricked me good.

So, when I cleaned the carb out a while back, I noticed the float needle had a groove in it, which didn't seem right, so I checked the other carb, and that too had the groove, so rather than deciding they were both fucked, I decided that was some weird design feature, as the groove was so perfect and right angled it looked machined. Anyways, I was looking for a carb rebuild kit, but according to the company that made the carb (Bing) the particular version of a type 53 carb I have don't exist. The closest one I can find came on old BMW air cooled motors, so you have to buy two kits, as they have two carbs. Also the kits (and carbs) are fucking expensive. I can actually buy a new genuine mikuni for half the cost of a rebuild kit, so I may go that way. I also found, while looking for kits, that these carbs often fuck the float needle and seat, that's when I knew for sure the grooves in mine weren't meant to be there. BUT, I hit up a customer/mate who has an old BMW bike, and he happened to have a pair of type 53's he wasn't using, so gave them to me. I popped them open, and the float needles look sweet, so hopefully they fit in my carb for testing. TL;DR, I'm mildly retarded, but sticky float is very likely my problem. Bimmer carbs, Healthier needles, (are these even called needles?) Regards, VG.

Long time, no update, mainly because I haven't done fuck all lately. So I had an issue with and oversized drum on the front, got a hot tip that the hub from another bike was the same. Got one in from Thailand, went to lace it in, and noticed it was quite different/wouldn't work, so kept an eye out, and after a while got my mits on a mint front wheel, Another major advance was getting the seat covered (like 18 months ago, lols) by some chap that likes ice creams, from a place called midday upholstery or something, he spent ages getting the foam shaped, and did a lovely job, So it's basically done, apart from finishing/shortening the wiring, and putting a speedo on it. I have been thinking about selling it, as I really should get the RD going, so if anyone is interested, PM me. I've spent well over $1800 on it, open to offers. P. S. I'll get a pic of it together to show where it's at currently.

Well I'll be, so a seal can seal intermittently, ha. So, instead of fixing the running issue, I fixed the being able to get it in and out of reverse issue. The last Barry made a lever, but put it in a cunt of a position, and it's quite hard to yank on. The other day I couldn't get it out of reverse and near on backed up a beach. So I recycled his lever, and made it prettier and more accessible. I also made up a new mounting board, I just need a few more screws to finish it off. Before: (can't even see the lever it's so far forward) After: In regards to the running issue, as mentioned earlier, ima try running on a tote tank, and see what happens, but after lots of thinking, I am now nearly 100% sure it's a sticky float that's causing my issues. Regards, VG. XOXOX

No shit, this is borts bike atm.

Yeh its above, and it has a breather in the cap. We tried running it with the cap open too, just to be sure.

True dat.

I'm nearly 100% sure it's not the crank seals, as the tune was spot on when it ran properly. Seals either seal or they don't, and this problem is way to on and off and abrupt to be caused by them really.

So I took this out today, with mixed results. Firstly it didn't want to start, then when it did it would only just run with the throttle near on wide open. The wide band was saying turbo rich, which is understandable as it wasn't combusting well. I then changed out the paper filter for a sintered bronze one, but that made no difference. I then changed the angle of the carb (you have to turn it round to drop the bowl) and cleaned out the bowl, and checked the float needle was working, all seemed OK. After putting it back together it started way easier and ran really well. The wide band indicated the tune was pretty much spot on. It ran well for a while, but then started a sharp intermittent miss/loss of power, like it was running out of gas. (this was a very different loss of power to what was happening last time) I put more gas in it, and it ran well for a while again, but then again started the on/off loss of power, like it was running out of gas again. It was also going suddenly lean when it was doing this, as you would expect from lack or gas. It had heaps of gas in it, so it has to be a delivery issue, either somehow in the tank, or possibly the float needle being a dick. tl;dr, its not running lean, until it is, because its not getting fuel. Current plan is to try a tote tank next time, and see if that helps. If it doesn't, then it has to be the carb. Pic4fred: 3 1/2 men trying to hold 26 wet horses back,

Will you take her out in the boat aswell?

I popped the exhaust off to weld the oxy sensor bung in, and by hoki, she's a dead set pearler! Behold it's magnificence,

One of my customers (also mates with our rep) has an old jet sprint boat with a moo motor in it, and I think his mummy lives across the road from you. ANYWAY, he mentioned to me he might hunt you down to be a jet boat buddy, as he's just got his, and is worried about reliability/wants a tow buddy, puhuhuh. So yeh, if a big hairy guy in bib overalls and a stockman hat approaches you, he's not hostile. Yet. Regards, VG/Pointless sharner.

You'd be amazed at the ways Dave has killed himself over the years. Actually, one of those outboard jet unit doofers would make anything a jet boat.