When You Start a 'Ten Minute Job' Which Ends Up Taking Hours.

All witty comments above, love it. Have a reference training book of the first admiralty where radio transmitters were spark gap ( DC to Light ) and power was equated to "Jars" Leyden Jars, ie a 10 jar Tx power or larger. Best part of this early 20th century book pair was the pipe tobacco stuck in between the sections of technical demands, obviously the owner stoked up the pipe for extended periods of concentration. The tobacco was like it got caught that day, fresh as, i kept the tobacco in place as homage to the many hours a radio operator did his best with a new technology, radio! j
 
Ramble warning... also have in stock a box kit of a Weston Cell, used in the days of galvanometer and wheatstone bridge measurements. Which i used to teach to the Engineering Students, beautiful wooden and brass test equipment from an era past, found in the college storeroom.

Mostly to demonstrate calculation technique over emerging "digital" measurements. The students would believe a digital display reading over an Avo meter, the latter i demonstrated was actually the more accurate especially at upper scale deflection.

Somewhat akin to here, showing how 50 year old engines/motorcycle can be made to keep working.... oh did you know in the USA at least, the word "Motocycle" was in use prior to Motorcycle, around 1920 was it? Can date garage signage accurately from this change of name, i gather. j.
 
Andy said:
Near A135, looks like a hot spot? Maybe the 3-pin through-hole component on the other side? Not sure if it’s damaged A135 too, you’ll need a sharp soldering iron, good glasses and a steady hand to replace any of those SMDs… not something I’m much good at 😬
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Thanks Andy. Well spotted on a low-res photo! It's actually R135 as John suggested. The board is covered in a coating of what looks like ear wax. It's thicker in some spots than others, but it scrapes off easily to reveal the underlying components. I had a look at R135 and it's just a thick blob of the wax giving it the toasty colour.

I wasn't actually expecting anyone to offer any help with this non-Laverda issue, so thanks Andy and John for taking the time to peer at my photos.

PS: Thanks John for the tip about isopropyl alcohol bleeding into the glass laminate of the LCD screen. That hadn't occurred to me. I'd cleaned an LCD screen with iso before and didn't get that problem. Just lucky I guess.
 
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LCD Front face is not as vulnerable Cam, though caution still required. If you clean the zebra contact on the underside of the LCD display is when the risk of bleed happens, hope that makes sense. Watch out if you use cotton buds dipped in Iso Prop as the cotton bud fibre is quite abrasive, can leave bud residue on edges and scratch surfaces. Chamois is better. Conformal coatings on pcb have many forms hard and soft. HTH j.
 
I guess in the future Vintage bike mechanics will be doing a lot of this. Seen it happening in the Vintage car scene, with specialist Black Box exchangers and dash rebuilders for plastic fantastic 80s and 90s stuff. They are boat anchors if this stuff fails. Lagonda Dash anyone?
 
My father used to say the same thing about 60’s &70’s bikes when I was a teenager.

Then Ducati 750’s and 860’s hit the scene, and the side of the road, with their legendary electrics ….. “told you so” 🙄
 
I have a simple Crash Bar from an Enfeild for the Atlas, After 3 months of cut and shutting it almost fits. 2 simple attachment points you might think easy as. Same with the Pannier mounts, nothing is a 5-minute job.
 
Do you have your own welder Vince? I've probably asked this before but don't remember.
Just a cheap inverter stick welder is very useful for little jobs like crash bars, luggage racks, etc.
You don't even need a lot of talent as a welder. A bit of practice on some scrap will quickly develop some basic skill. If you fuck it up, grind it out and have another go.
 
Ten minute job: Renault van is set up as a camper, attached to the passenger side rear door is a shower head. Open out the rear door and have a hot shower, nice.

This takes water from a pump, pumping hot water from a tank under the van, which is heated via a heat exchanger, connected to the vans heating. I set the temp to 28c, the water pump recirculating the hot water turns off at set temp and cuts back in at 24c.

But, the switch for the shower head pump has been inside the side door for a couple of years.

Fine in summer, finish showering and close valve, walk back to side door and turn off the pump. But in winter, you need to be partially dressed to go to the switch, rather inconvenient.

All I needed to do is run a two core flex from switch near door, wire it to another switch and hey presto; turn of water valve and then the pump from a switch mounted near the valve.

Work on that started at about 10am and I’ve just finished, almost 3:30pm🙄

Wiring went fine, simple. But, on starting the pump saw no water at the shower head FFS.

Tank was empty, filled the 50lt tank and FFS, dripping water from the outlet barb!
1.5 inch outlet sleeved down to a 13mm barb, about 4 reduction sleeves.

I couldn’t be sure, where the water leak was, so redid every threaded join with plumbers tape.

Finally, back together, refilled ….. drip drip drip FFS

Heading north to see Shajota and then a Ducati mate 🤮 further up, this weekend, needed it sorted. Another two attempts, same outcome.

I’m laying underneath the van watching the drips, wiping dry as I watch👀

Thats when I spied the water drip coming from the inside of the tanks insulated outer.

The van was parked on my slopping driveway and the tank so full, the inlet pipe breather was dripping water into the insulation, down onto the outlet fittings, and onto the ground 🙄
 
chrisk said:
Ten minute job: Renault van is set up as a camper, attached to the passenger side rear door is a shower head. Open out the rear door and have a hot shower, nice.

This takes water from a pump, pumping hot water from a tank under the van, which is heated via a heat exchanger, connected to the vans heating. I set the temp to 28c, the water pump recirculating the hot water turns off at set temp and cuts back in at 24c.

But, the switch for the shower head pump has been inside the side door for a couple of years.

Fine in summer, finish showering and close valve, walk back to side door and turn off the pump. But in winter, you need to be partially dressed to go to the switch, rather inconvenient.

All I needed to do is run a two core flex from switch near door, wire it to another switch and hey presto; turn of water valve and then the pump from a switch mounted near the valve.

Work on that started at about 10am and I’ve just finished, almost 3:30pm🙄

Wiring went fine, simple. But, on starting the pump saw no water at the shower head FFS.

Tank was empty, filled the 50lt tank and FFS, dripping water from the outlet barb!
1.5 inch outlet sleeved down to a 13mm barb, about 4 reduction sleeves.

I couldn’t be sure, where the water leak was, so redid every threaded join with plumbers tape.

Finally, back together, refilled ….. drip drip drip FFS

Heading north to see Shajota and then a Ducati mate 🤮 further up, this weekend, needed it sorted. Another two attempts, same outcome.

I’m laying underneath the van watching the drips, wiping dry as I watch👀

Thats when I spied the water drip coming from the inside of the tanks insulated outer.

The van was parked on my slopping driveway and the tank so full, the inlet pipe breather was dripping water into the insulation, down onto the outlet fittings, and onto the ground 🙄
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Not to worry, those joints probably all needed re-doing anyway. Like your fork seals 😁
 
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