Fozzie

Hmmm it looks cleaner than the 20k mile engine I had, which was thrashed. But worse than the 35k mile engine I got to replace it, which seemed to have a mature owner. That said it’s not that much worse. It looks fairly clean from that photo. The oil seals on the top of the valve cover are fairly cheap, I think it’s about £10 for a full set for the engine. Before delving deeper into the engine, are you sure it’s not fuel pump or injector related? Or perhaps even a failed ignition coil? I’m not seeing the usual things that usually indicate you need to tear the engine down. Other than the glitter anyway, which does seem excessive, but I’d expect a big engine noise if anything was gone.

Take the valve cover off, and the two inspection caps on the left side of the engine (on the casing). Get a socket on the nut in the central hole and turn it anti-clockwise. Theres a T mark next to a pair of punched lines on the rotor rim, visible through the higher/smaller inspection hole. When those punched lines just past the T mark line up with the notch in the inspection hole, look at the cam shaft gear at the top of the engine. A horizontal line on the gear should line up flush with the top of the cylinder head. The rockers on top should have some play and not be acting on the valves, if they are, spin the engine 360 degrees and line them up again, and check. If you can’t get the lines on the generator rotor and the camshaft gear, it’s not in time. If you can, it is. Check the condition of all parts while you’re there, look for worn teeth on the gear, or gouge marks on the camshaft/rockers.

If the clutch failed due to a bearing failure, that would itself have been a likely result of low oil. Trouble is, if someone replaced just the blown bearing and clutch, there could have been significant damage to the others that wasn't dealt with and something else is now on its way out, causing things to grind as it develops free play. But there's usually a rumbling sound when one of the main bearings goes bad. Are you thinking the last owner started having problems and wanted rid? Is the engine in time? Cam chain tensioners are another problem child with these bikes. And even worse, I've known amateur mechanics install them without winding them before they bolt them down. So they get installed at full extension, over tighten the cam chain, which just chews the sprocket and itself up. Another project of mine, an ER5 had this issue, and it caused the engine to run really badly. And it wasn't until I tried to turn it over by hand that I noticed it was extremely tight.

I've had an older version of this engine apart recently, split the cases. I seem to remember it had a few weird gouge marks in a couple of places, the inside of the clutch cover being one of them. The clutch clears it by a healthy margin so I couldn't tell what did it, but it's weird yours has similar marks. Firstly, metal fragments in the oil is not good... The picture where it's on your finger, where did this doom glitter come from? Was it from the end of a magnetic sump plug? Did you scrape it out of the filter? How much was in the oil you drained? If you've proven fuel/spark, and it's not a weak battery (Honda's often suffer with the generator/regrec/battery) I'd start looking into what is causing the glitter a bit more. Have you checked the condition of the cam shaft and cam followers? Mine was scraped up badly from oil starvation, which moving down the engine, also caused the small end to wear and the piston/rings were eating into the cylinder wall. This could cause some glitter in the oil. Do a compression test as well if you can.

Good afternoon A long week this one, working late most days, and got a bunch of interviews to do next week for new contractors. Quick question another donator or mods can help me with. The forum subscription. Does it auto-renew if you take out a sub? Or if I pay £10 for the 5 months subscriber status, do I need to manually pay another £10 every 5 months? Cheers

Good night Got into a training session where 3 black belts of varying dan grade took me for a session to prep me for next week. Black and blue is an understatement, I was absolutely battered

Good evening! Stuck in a training course all day today, very ready for ju-jitsu now, got my grading in a week. Going through my defence work, which I find oddly fitting, as todays date sticks in my memory for being the day I took a knee to the face about 8 years back, in an unprovoked scrap. Got them restrained, but in future, would prefer to get to the restraining bit done with more technique!

Had a productive weekend. My girlfriend is away on the Isle of Wight with family as her mother is ill. I went to a drink up with my Ju-jitsu club on the Saturday, then for some food/drinks with my girlfriends dad and step-mum as they were about. Sunday I took the young lad in my block of flats to the garage and gave him a lesson on engines. I just got a old CBR125 engine delivered, and was absolutely elated to crack it open and see that despite having 15,000 more miles than the original engine, it was mint condition inside, very light general wear. None of the thick carbon deposits, and battered parts that indicated prolonged oil starvation. Young lad seemed to really like it, mother was very appreciative. Found out his dad had passed away a couple of years back, so seems she's trying to give him some positive role models, and help him choose what he wants to do for a living when he gets older. Naturally, at 13, you don't really know!

Happy birthday!

The yellow/amber lenses helps with contrast. Which in many people is the part of your vision that fails at a faster rate to other parts like distance etc. I got issued a set when I was working abroad on an oil/gas plant where the lights had to be turned down low at night. Also goes the other way apparently, street lamps with an amber output supposedly help you see better as there's less glare. I can't say I'm a fan of the new LED type lights. We installed street lights with a brown hue on a site near Australia, weird looking thing. But it made the site invisible to the sea turtles that nested there. Gave you a right big headache though if you walked around at night for too long.

We got the little lad who just turned 3 in for £2.50 by saying he’s 2. The 6 year old cost £27 though. The painful bit was the price of food/drink. And then the subsequent hire of a double buggy as the little ones feet were worn out after a few hours. Fortunately the grandparents picked up the bill for the kids. Unfortunately they then asked what they loved about the day, and one of the features of the day was me pushing them at speed over a bumpy bridge, play acting a car on a rally circuit. Monkey business > real monkeys, apparently.

Thanks all! Been working today, but the end of my day is looming. Snuck out this morning for a big dirty breakfast with my good lady, and she's now off with her sister and niece+nephew for the day as they're up from the Isle of Wight. Got a big family BBQ tomorrow, and possibly going Chester zoo for the benefit of the little ones. Hoping to get some time in my garage. A new engine for my CBR project turned up, and I've got a new cylinder/piston to install. Might even have this thing running in a few weeks.

Good morning! I'm ready for the bank holiday weekend now. Absolutely shattered, work has been quite full on and then I smashed my knee in training (ju-jitsu) while doing ground work. I came down hard on it as I hit the floor, then in a second round one of the sensei's came in for a tackle and his shoulder made full contact with the same bit I'd just bashed. Whole leg lit up like a Christmas tree in pain, now got a bit lump over the patellar tendon and a nice black bruise. Hopefully just a contusion, as I've got a grading in 2 weeks

I'm itching just looking at that gif Had 4 dogs all line up for cuddles at a BBQ I was at last Saturday. I took 2 anti-histamines in preparation for it, but then I forgot to put all items of clothing in the wash and I've got hives spreading up my arms from where I touched the jeans I had on. Would love to have a dog, but not sure I'd put it on a bike

I'm of the view she needs to do 2 years, and when she's offered to go for citizenship, decide then. It takes 2 years to go through the process just to earn your right to stay there and apply for citizenship from what I understand, so I think she needs to decide one way or the other if she's coming back, or staying there. I suspect she will choose to come back, but leaving early will always leave that question of "what if?". You hear of many people who go out there and stay out there, but I've noticed most of them go with a spouse/long term partner or quickly find someone out there, and then go on to have kids, so have reason not to come back. She's coming home for Christmas, so will get a better idea of what's up then. I did see her in Bali back in June, where it seemed she was wanting to come home, but that was largely as her boyfriend chose to end things while she was out there on holiday (there's no right time but yeesh that was rough). It's my birthday this week, and a 3 day weekend. My girlfriends family is up and meeting my family at a BBQ, so that will take my mind of stuff for a while. Fingers crossed my new engine for the CBR shows up before hand and gets that project back on track.

f**k you have a cool job! I used to design power gen system using Jenbacher engines, although most of what I did was with MTU. I primarily used their fossil gas engines, but with micro-grids growing in popularity, diesel backup is a serious need to maintain the power availability. In my current role, all I get to do is tell people how they should sell/design/install it. If I could get an on the tools job, I would throw this all in without a second thought.

Bit of a resigned ramble about a few things today. First is work, going into most weeks with a list of what I want to do, get to the end and I still have the same list as I'm pulled left and right to deal with things. So stuff is piling up quickly, and I've got medical leave coming up as I need an operation to fix a breathing issue, which will leave me in bed for a week and out of action for 2. My little 125 project hit a dead end. The engine can't be rebuilt, or better put, wasn't designed to be. In a nutshell, the crank was damaged rebuilding it, and not the fault of the engine builder. The crank cases are meant to go back together by hand, but you need a 10 ton press to get the bearing to sit. I spent days experimenting and trying to work out why it wouldn't go back together, and in the end it proved to be the Honda supplied bearings, don't fit the case properly. Why? I can't figure out. But I've done a lot of work on this engine to find it's a dud basically, which has been infuriating. This next one is something I'm just watching with a slightly baffled pair of eyes. I've had some screenshots sent through, and in the last 6 months my ex has been bashing me, mostly in comment sections on Instagram. I don't know if it's recent, or if this has been steadily going on since we split (officially nearly 6 years ago, unofficially, 8 years). The people who saw it only caught it by chance, so no way to know, but having to keep an eye on that now in case it's anything more insidious. My little sister in Australia is going through a lot. Her ex boyfriend really did her wrong, and while it was to his credit that he admitted this, it left my sisters self-esteem in an absolute wreck. And she's having a wobble. I've sent stuff over to her by post to cheer her up, but my family are wanting her home in the UK. And the politics of it are aggravating me, I want to support my sister, not convince her to come home even if some think that's right for her. To top it off, I've got to buy a house before the market picks up again. No one is selling because the market won't pick up. And I'm really annoyed at the point of view some people just a few years older than me have. They bought a house in 2020 for 250k, now it's worth 450k. They seem to think it was the new laminate they put down, or the lick of paint they gave it, which is why it grew £200k in 3 years (stagnant for the past 1). Girlfriend was kicking me at a BBQ every time I interjected with one girl "how does £5000 of upgrades result in a return of 40 times the investment?". It's all weighing up a bit at the moment.

Hmm, I did this yesterday. I clicked on the forum link, but unsure if it worked. If not, I can advise the purchase order... Though the boots I just bought are likely going to be too big due to conflicting information on whether they run large or small online. And the size that in theory would fit me exactly aren't in stock until the end of the year apparently, so might need to wait to see if it goes through first. Good morning!

I feel like I can hear a sigh between your last two messages as you go from suggesting she throw it in the woods herself, to resigning to the idea you’re going to have to do it

In part, it’s because we are both career oriented. My mrs works in Manchester once a week, at home the rest of the time. So she wants the transport links. I by contrast work full time at home, but frequently travel up and down the UK so want the M6. Her friends are all local to south Manchester as well, whereas mine are dotted around. In theory, I just need a place with a garage, or space for me to build one. And I’m set. But my mrs likes parts of Manchester that I consider crime hotspots. And have schools with metal detectors on the gates. She had family there so she thinks it’s blown out of proportion, but after being in London, I’m more weary. She’s also more keen to spend right up to our budget, even places needing new bathrooms/kitchens that I will have to build. Whereas I want some budget to do more so we hit the ground running, rather than maxing ourselves and having to save slowly to make the place home. I already know it will go more her way than mine. But I’ve got to go down fighting

@Steve_M It was indeed one of those stressful moments in life We get on with almost everything, very few things get us bickering, and yelling. But house shopping seems to bring out some fireworks. I feel I find an exact house for her, and she finds a small reason to hate it entirely. I then find a great house right down the same road, and suddenly it's either too far from town or too close to a bit of town she doesn't like. Whereas I'm picky on the area, but not where I land in it. There will be a hard fought compromise. It's promising to hear it's meant to be difficult. Only had to buy a house/flat twice, the first house, nearly 10 years ago scarily, in my mid-20's. But this was straight forward as I'd solely raised the deposit for it, and when I dated there was always the pretext of me leaving London "I'll be going back to the north west, come if you want". I took some bad advice though and ended up financially stretched, was glad 2 years later to be selling and moving into my current flat. So it will be my 3rd move, but first where I've had to have equal agreement with my good lady. Feels very grown up, but sh*t is it difficult

Good afternoon, I'm off to go looking at houses tomorrow, at the request of my good lady. We've been debating where to move to, and in short, south Manchester is so expensive that I pitched the question "unless you want to grow old here, is there any point in going through that financial misery?". She's so far said no to where I grew up (Lymm), as it's too out of the way. And in fairness, I despair with how the place is now a bit anyway. There's some nice areas closer to Warrington than Lymm is that have caught her interest. Her favourite bit is also my favourite bit, so fingers crossed.

Got a rant about silly teams based courses. There was one the other week where I spent 2 hours being told how to deal with members of staff who get cosmetic surgery, and then want to pretend no changes have been made. Likely referring to an incident with a chap who left the company, he had a hair transplant then claimed he never had been bald. Deleted photos off social media of any where he wasn't wearing a hat. I challenged that people like that clearly had mental health issues going on, as people spotting it was inevitable, so they should be reached out to, not tip toed around. Then one of the girls presenting said men are harsher than women about the subject, to which I countered that every time I've learnt a co-worker had their teeth done, or an old school friend had their legs extended, even hearing ex's having botox/fillers, it has always come from girls. Guys tend to be more open with their ribbing, but girls more gossipy. Got told I was generalising and replied "so were you?". Came away from the course thinking how in 6 months, there will be another one arguing the exact opposite of what I was just told. It's the law of over sensitive souls, there's no one way to make everyone comfortable. And I could write a 3 page essay on the goings on at work. Or rather, what isn't going on. And I drop into the projects sometimes a bit flustered as engineers are refusing to do stuff that is technically not in their scope, but it's so f**king close, and would take so little time, I just despair at the amount of wasted time.

But seriously, welcome back! Don't know when I last saw you on here, the place has changed a fair bit!

Thanks, my day to day will luckily not change too much for now as I'd been filling a lot of the roles duties for several months. The main change is I will be shifting away from design work, and getting more into the pure engineering side of things. And also setting the strategy we follow in going for projects. It's been really eye opening to see on some jobs we've gone in with our eyes effectively closed, bidding on stuff with no way to know whether the solution that has been priced can even be connected to the grid. And I've already developed a strategy that will set us apart from our competitors. Can't publicly share details but they all make a common mistake in how they size systems, especially solar. And it has an easy fix that would let us go back to a client with a more realistic set of options. With a little technical presentation, I think I can undermine our competitors by showing their "better" system is likely a promise they have no realistic way of delivering.