The saga of the starter clutch. Huacachina 6-6-12

So then, getting the bike out of the hotel in Nazca I noticed the bike wasn't starting as easily as before. I thought the battery was flat and didn't really pay too much attention to it. A good day's riding with Delbert but I was starting to get a lot of grinding noises when starting the bike and by the time we got to Huacachina the bike wouldn't start, the starter would turn but it just didn't engage the engine.

A bit of faffing about sorting out a hostal and finding a place to put the bike and ended up on the phone to a mechanic who was round round ten minutes later with his teenage, female and cute apprentice on pillion and proceeded to dismantle the bike.

Between us (Juan the mechanic, Delbert and myself, not forgetting the cute young apprentice who is probably a far more competant mechanic than either Delbert or myself) we worked out that the enigmatic and permanently unavailable “Gear 3” had become worn to the point of being useless. Juan claimed that this wouldn't be a problem and set off to a machine shop to fit a stainless steel sleeve over the existing bearing face. He claimed the bodge wouldn't last forever but would certainly keep me going for a while.

Come the morning, Juan turned up with the newly machined part and his cute young assistant in a strappy top and we sat around trying to fit it.

It all started well but we made little progress. The first thing we noticed that was wrong was that “Gear 3” had been fitted without bearings. That fecker in Arica had sent me on my way knowing there were no bearings fitted to my starter clutch.

Juan took a trip out on the bike and in due course some bearings were acquired. We put everything back together and no matter what we tried, the flywheel would be too tight against “Gear 3” to give any slack.

We tried all day. Juan and his little helper were back and forwards to the machine shop to shave another 0.1mm from the “Gear 3” surface, we tried wrapping aluminium around the crank to push the flywheel out a few tenths of millimetres and still there was too much friction between the flywheel and “Gear 3”.

Many hours and many trips out later I took a look at the pictures I'd taken when the starter clutch first failed, there were quite a few differences between the pictures and what I had on the bike. Turns out that fecker in Arica had fitted the sprag bearing the wrong way round, worse than that; he'd left the bearings out just so he could get the thing to work knowing full well I'd be too far up the road to give him any comeback.

We turned the sprag bearing round, put the bike back together and it started first time. If you're looking for a mechanic in Arica, I can tell you one to avoid.

Changing chain (and maybe sprockets) tomorrow, back on the road the day after. I shall be ordering a kickstart kit from a certain Mr Lambeth before I hit the road.

Pictures mostly courtesy of Delbert
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