Friday 17 December 2010

Heaven and Hell

So following the "30mins good work" anti-procrastination method I crunched across the icy garden to the workshop last night at about 10pm. The shed wasn't too cold inside and soon warmed up with the little fan heater on. I had some new shims to add in order to see if I could eliminated the side to side play in the swinging arm. If they didn't do the trick (a trick that needed to be accomplished without unduly restricting the normal movement of the arm) then it would mean a new swinging arm pivot at around £70. I tried a couple of combination of shims without success, and even managed to damage one. Then I thought I would have one more go - success!! At least I think so - it remains to be seen if there is any effect on sprocket alignment. Plus play is supposed to me less than 0.1mm at the pivot. I was estimating by feel given that this is amplified quite considerably at the end of the swingarm, and there now seemed to be no discernable play. It felt good as it had been playing on my mind, and even though it was now coming up to midnight (with work the next day) I decided to try and put the rest of the rear suspension in place, it was going to look great - yellow and gold Ohlins on black frame!!

That's when I tried to fit the rod-end bearing height adjusters I had bought on the Monster Owner's forum. It felt stiff as I did the up the rod-end bearings, and I should have been more suspicious. I unscrewed the rod-ends again and the bottom of the threads had been wiped out by the much harder threads of the adapters. Didn't seem to have cross threaded at all, which was weird.

Curses - saved £70 but wasted about £20 or £30 as would now have to buy another pair, plus hassle of hunting down the right type (note - keep better records). Good news today is that I have found them cheaper than last time.....

What do I learn from this. The usual stuff, don't work when tired, don't rush anything, don't force stuff etc. etc. However once again the top message  is don't beat myself up when I make a mistake - when will I keep that Omelet Principle in mind?!?

4 comments:

  1. Getting those shims right is kind of a trick!
    Good job!

    Snyder

    http://aboyandhisduc.blogspot.com/

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  2. Thanks mate - more luck than judgement! You project looks very interesting btw. Reliable light 2v motor in tasty frame - ideal...

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  3. I hope that's not a chicken omelet Pete!

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  4. Happy Christmas to You and D. mate x

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