Monday, March 23, 2009

I'm going going back back to Cali Cali...

YEAH! Flock Yeah 2 is coming up, we're leaving on Wednesday, so my travel prep is coming along swimmingly. I thought that I had prepared my pinto adequately and was riding specifically for tuning on Saturday. Everything was running good, my bike was nice and peppy, I figured that I was pretty much tuned and ready to go... and then, Murphy's Law struck.

Early in the day on my way to a job interview I got pulled over. The cop was friendly enough, he sort of fell in the baffled category, not really knowing what the law was or what he should do with me. I was pulled over for not having a tail light or license plate. I played dumb and ended up with a warning.

Later, after riding all over town, I was just about home when my moped started making the slow wind down sound. Not a sudden wind down like a seize, more like, "oh-no-I'm-going-to-break-down-please-don't-push-me-any-farther-pupupupuhhhhhhh..." So I pushed it home and it turns out that my roller bearing in my crankshaft blew up and threw needle bearings into the cylinder. It didn't really mess up the cylinder or the piston much more than it already was (I've already seized this kit twice), but it did mess up my rings pretty bad. In my down trodden state of mind I yanked the engine off and began putting a stock engine on. Later on though, Brendan convinced me that I should just throw another ring on there, replace the bearing and try to run it. I'll give that a try today and tomorrow and see if I'm taking the Hercules to LA or if Pinto will live again. I really wanted to bring the Pinto so I could show off the tillotson but we'll have to wait and see.

Blued up parts:
bluedup1

bluedup2
In the meantime, here are a couple of videos I made. Fascinating, I'm sure!

Cleaning our tent for LA:



Grinding on the Pinto:

1 comment:

  1. I like the way you use a right angle grinder like a big pencil eraser. Also, look to me for advice with roller bearings.

    http://www.mopedarmy.com/forums/discuss/read.php?f=7&i=118986&t=118856

    ReplyDelete