So I woke up early this
morning, chain smoked several cigarettes, packed my stuff, loaded the
bike and tried to set off for Sullana. Only the bastard bike
wouldn't start.
Same symptoms as Friday
that I thought I'd solved by changing the spark plug.
I'd noticed a Yamaha
logo outside a shop round the corner from the hostal so I while I
waited for them to open, I used Google Translate to write a note
explaining what I thought was wrong with my bike (flywheel woodruff
key. I recognised the symptoms from my old RS125 back in 1985 or
so).
The first Yamaha dealer
directed me to a second who directed me to a third. Finally I was
directed to a mechanic over the road and we set off on his WR250 to
take a look at my bike.
I've never been towed
before. Well, I haven't exactly been towed now but the mechanic rode
behind me with his foot on my rear peg pushing the bike the couple of
miles back to the workshop. Quite an interesting experience in
Peruvian rush hour traffic. We even got a pull from the Police on
the way but they let us go without asking me any questions.
At the workshop we did
the usual strip down of the bike while the mechanic made sure it was
sparking and there was fuel in it and then we hooked it up to a car
battery to turn the engine over.
Finally, we stripped
down the flywheel side of the engine and sure enough the woodruff key
had sheared.
A replacement was
sourced from the car engine shop (not just engine parts, whole
engines) next door out of a Chevy V8 crankshaft and machined to fit.
I hung around with the mototaxi drivers out front drinking beer and
watching chicas walk past while he did the machining but watched (and
even helped) for the rest of the job. I've learned my lesson
concerning unsupervised mechanics.
The bearing face on the
starter cog is still absolutely flat btw. I checked while the
flywheel was off. Looks like a good job to me.
The bike started
straight away, job's a good 'un and Sullana will wait until tomorrow.
I had a run up to the ruins of Chan Chan to put a bit of charge in
the battery and I'm now sitting around drinking beer and wondering
what to have for tea.
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| Plaza des Armas |
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| Marching band |
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| Church facade |
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| Marching bands in the Plaza des Armas |
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| Pilsen Trujillo |
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| Church facade |
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| Statue |
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| Tres Cruces |
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| Watching the footy outside the TV rental shop |
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| Pisco Sour |
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| Chip omelette and Pisco Sour |
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| Engine shop |
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| Bike in the nip |
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| Old and new woodruff keys |
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| Square edge on the starter cog |
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| Workshop |
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| Test ride |
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| Chan Chan city walls |
What a mechanical saga! Had 2 reasonable problems with the mog but nothing quite so drawn out and nothing that ever really stopped me for too long. Loving the landscape photos, mountains look amazing. Getting pangs for foreign lands and the open road.
ReplyDeleteRide some good miles and have a cold one for me.
Dave beard
It´s only really been the starter clutch that has caused any significant problems, everything else has been sorted (and machined) by some very competant local mechanics. OK, the one in Arica was rubbish but the rest of them have been excellent.
DeleteHad a bit of a crisis yesterday, I thought the rear shock had collapsed. It turns out that a bolt had sheared on my rack and the pannier was jammed against the swing arm preventing it from dropping. A trip round the engineering shop part of town this morning found me a good set of bolts and I will be back on the road tomorrow. In Loja, heading for Riobamba.