mike wilson

I was following a Rocket III on the motorway at the weekend. Sounded like a giant Hoover. On the overrun, it sounded like a giant, broken Hoover. Sad. m

I built a spud gun over the weekend. Didn't know you could have such fun with drain fittings and hairspray.

You need to grease them. Not the shoes, a la Velocette, but all the cams, nipples, spring hooks and pivots, followed by lubing the cable. Don't forget the bar lever. Then centre the shoes. With decent rubber on the rim, I can lock any of my MZ front wheels. All the ones I have seen that did not work well were bone dry. Scared the owners stiff when I had at them with a tub of grease but the results squeak for themselves. You just need to be sure to not put _too_ much on.... Best of all, after doing that I would get a solid year (over 19,000miles once) before having to do any more major work. My V50II, with allegedly superior discs, was a regular once-a-month job in the winter and got through at least two sets of pads a year. m

Different model names for different markets = disaster for internet quizzes. Maybe we should assume a convention of home market model names only? And no bleeding backyard specials, or I'll cobble something together and change the name every day.... 8-))) m

No - but marshalling at it would..... 8-)

Loctite and Devcon make products specifically for this purpose. In the small block workshop manual, the block of Devcon putty is the No1 tool listed...... mike

Prices _should_ indicate whether they include the (17.5% here) VAT. You should be quoted a non-VAT price, as this tax only applies to EU residents. m

Messrs Letts and Littlejohn are both classic examples of that which they claim to despise. Littlejohn by name, Littlejohn by nature. What they both fail to see is that _everything_ Mr B and his cohorts do is planned in detail to maximise revenue. The maunderings of some brain-dead "journalists" are the least of their considerations. Given the choice of becoming a journalist or a professional footballer, I'd probably kill myself.

Be aware that some contact cleaners will have a very adverse effect on some plastics.

I'm not sure you need to apologise. "...stayed there for several seconds..." sounds horrifying to me. Damped or undamped, that is a very clear indication of what is going on. The question now is whether a simple windage tray - which is not intended to prevent oil from slopping around - will do the job. Maybe some vertical baffles on the underside will be necessary. It may be better to attach them directly to the floor of the sump. mike

My response to that would be that I wanted the heads servicing, not replacing. Outbleedingrageous. I really can't be arsed with all these dilletante machines. Sorry, it's excessively hot here. I'm going to lie in the refridgerator for a while....... m

Cynical? Moi? Perish the thought. Anyway, _we're_ first in line to join up, if old poodleface has his way.

In the UK, the local authority would be completely liable for this unless it could prove that it (reasonably) had no prior knowledge. That's why we pay road taxes. Lawyer case, I think. A 6'x10'x60' hole would definitely cause road closure here. None of our roads are that big.... Hope you heal well and all goes well legally. mike

Oh goody. It's a long time to November 5th. Just hang on a bit, Pete, till I get my camera. Bell's adverts were $10. Must be inflation.

Sprint style? http://www.sprintmanufacturing.co.uk/broch...htm#sprintstyle (I had to click on the box to make the picture come up)

Probably for strapping to the front forks as ballast.

The gauge is probably damped as, otherwise, it would fluctuate with pressure variations. The oil pressure varies quite a bit as the crank swings because the velocity of the crank (and therefore everything else rotating in the engine) is not constant over each cycle. Quite a bit could be anything from a few percent to as much as 20%. Don't forget, liquids are not compressible so there is no "spring" effect to soak up fluctuations. Probably only noticable at lower revs. It may be that just the inertia of the mass of the needle is enough to soak up very small cyclic changes at higher engine speeds. I'm beginning to wonder just how anal this thread can become. 8-)))))

Nobody would be seen dead on anything other than the newest, swoopiest Peugot Streetfighter or some such. In other words, we're in the middle of a scooter boom. Twist and go, you can dive down pedestrian ways to avoid the coppers, given away with cornflakes. Everything a teenager obsessed with fitting in should want. Given the way they're ridden (like pushbikes, you _never_ look when exiting a side road) I'm really suprised the fatality numbers have not shot up. Shows how good modern car brakes are. It's the born-again dads on Honda Blackbirds that seem to end up in pine overcoats.....

Raleigh Runabout? Phillips?

You mean "where did I go wrong?" 8-) Not enough thrashing. Get stuck in. 8-)))

You may be able to find an old-style auto electrician that can remagnetise the magneto. If they have pole pieces that fit, etc, etc, etc. Rewinding the coils with modern insulation would also be effective, albeit expensive. Sometimes you can get away with re-insulating with penetrating varnish from somewhere like RS. Sometimes. If you dismantle it, the rotor and stator might need to sit together to keep the magnets up. Magnet technology should have eliminated that requirement by 1960-odd but better to be safe (and magnetised) than sorry. m

There's a mistake in those diagrams. 8 & 9 are transposed in the legend. Pretty obvious but I would check the rest of it, just in case. m

Do I have to do everything around here? 8-))) http://www.thisoldtractor.com/guzzi007/sch...Stornello_5.gif Apparently not. Are you really going to give that to a 17 year old? m

Not. The pictured machine is a factory sold ISDT replica, for its time scarily fast and handles well. More suprisingly, it's very reliable and capable of being ridden in a docile manner on the road. Its biggest fault is the, er, healthy crackle from the exhaust. The Jawa has a number of excellent attributes but it is not easily compared to the MZ. Rather like comparing a Quota to an ISDE machine. mike