Sunny morning this time and we were both excited to get to work on the scooter, but not before we made pancakes for breakfast. We for sure not going to get sick of that any time soon. I set up a tarp for shade and we had a workshop right inside camp. It was time to put the scooter back together.
The first few steps were hazy to me because that’s what Jon and Dan had worked on while I had been playing the role of supervisor, but we managed. After a thorough clean of the crankcase, we were ready for assembly. We put the piston on first since we were so excited to have the pin sorted. With the crankshaft assembly complete, I figured out that I’d put the piston on backwards by 180 degrees. I had a 50-50 chance of getting it right but I’d got it wrong. This meant we had to pull one of the circlips out to turn it around. It wasn’t too much trouble, but as soon as we’d put the piston back in place, I checked the orientation again and figured out that we’d had it right in the first place! Whoops. Another round of taking the circlip off and this time, the worst happened. The circlip went “Ping!” and it was gone. I feared this would happen, especially in the dirtbag workshop where it would be difficult to find something so thin and small. Both of us didn’t move a muscle, scanning the ground where we thought the thing had landed. When neither of us spotted it, we started gingerly moving things around in search. Thankfully, Dan shouted success when he found it amongst my sockets. We couldn’t afford another mishap like it so I double- and triple-checked that we had it right this time, which we did. Piston was on and staying on.
After we put the crankcase back together, we noticed the crankshaft was moving side-to-side. We were both pretty sure it hadn’t been doing that when we pulled it apart, but couldn’t figure out anything we’d forgotten either. After a quick Google showed up that the likely cause was bearing damage, we played it safe and pulled the crankcase off and found that the bearing was fine. It was as if we were missing a shim or something. Hmmm. We decided to carry on anyway. It was time to put the piston rings on and we weren’t sure the order in which they were supposed to go, especially when the piston had three grooves and we had three rings. Dan got on the phone with Christopher, the Ebay guy who sold him the kit. Straight off the top of his head, he told us which way everything went together, a very helpful guy happy to give his advice. I fiddled away with them as Dan worked on cleaning some gasket surfaces. I continued fiddling to slide the new cylinder over the piston and after a lot of wiggling around and prodding with a screwdriver, it was in! Things were going pretty well so far!
With the cylinder on, we consulted Google again and found that it was probably necessary to measure the end gaps of the piston rings to ensure we had the right amount of compression. Not wanting to pull anything apart again, Dan gave Christopher another call and he confirmed that the rings would be fine, since they were made to the correct size for this kit, instead of being generic rings that required measurement. Getting to the last stages now, excitement was building as we installed the head with new gaskets. According to a website we found, we aligned top dead center with the camshaft and installed the rocker assembly. There was something weird about the rocker assembly though, it didn’t quite fit, even with the tappets wound all the way out. How could this be? I kept asking Dan if the kit came with a new rocker assembly but he swore it didn’t and he was right. Another call to Christopher and upon hearing about the problem, he understood immediately what had happened. Dan had ordered the wrong kit. There were two scooter kits, one for 69mm valves and one for 64mm. He had a 50-50-chance of getting it right but no dice. Bugger. That was the end of our progress. We’d both been so optimistic that we would hear the sound of a single-banger scooter in the valley of our canyon, but it was now clear it wasn’t going to happen. We both felt downhearted knowing we wouldn’t be able to go any further with it. I sealed up the engine so at least everything was contained. All we had to do now was fix the engine back into the scooter frame, put the bike back together and with a new rocker cover, it would be a quick fix. Neither of us had the enthusiasm to do the bike attachment, so we called it a day. We mumbled around, a bit lost now that our purpose for the day had fizzled out but eventually made a late lunch (another salad).
Feeling dirty, we walked down to the creek which we hadn’t visited yet, carrying our soap to have a creek shower. It was a scramble down a bit of a wash, but nothing a pair of flip flops couldn’t handle. Cleo did well, only needing to be carried over one jump that was a little too big for her tiny legs. The creek was flowing healthily so I got right in, wanting to savour as much of the day’s warmth as possible. Dan followed me in, not managing to get very deep into the water because of the temperature. I wasnted to dry off in the sun so I climbed over a big pile of washed up logs to get to some rocks that were just catching the afternoon sun before it dipped below the canyon walls. Dan joined me, climbing daintily in his towel with his e-pen in his mouth. The sun didn’t last long, but it was just warm enough to dry us off.
Back up the wash, we tidied up the workshop and sealed the engine, then Dan took on the role of chef, cooking sausages on the fire for dinner. Simple food, but brilliant considering our dejectedness. Sausages, onions and sauce in a roll and our spirits were lifting again. We stood and ate our food so that we could admire the stunning sunset behind us. This camp just kept getting better and better.
We sat by the fire for more talking and I caught up on some blogging. Dan left me to it for a while, retreating into the Presidential Lounge to give Cleo some much needed cuddles for a while. Cleo and I used to be close friends, but she is no longer impressed that I’m around, wanting Dan all to herself, so I’ve been getting the cold shoulder, understandably. Dan has to be careful to manage the needs of both of his bitches.