Odd repairs

[amateur]

 

  On 30/4/2019 at 14:13, impala59 said:

….…..There's possibly an interesting thread there, what parts have you used to repair/make/improve something totally unconnected.

 

OK, I'll bite, though perhaps this one should be in the motoring section.

When I was an impecunious articled clerk, I used to buy cheap old British two-stroke bikes to get to work on. Never paid more than a fiver.

Having been stopped by one of Walker570's MPS colleagues for having a defective silencer on my 150cc AMC-engined James, I invested in a cheap and cheerful "fits anything" jobbie from Pride and Clarke. A week later, the end on the damned thing came unscrewed and was promptly flattened by the following car so the bike was now noisier than before and I needed the bike for work the next morning.

When I got home I found a tin of Holt's touch up paint on the garage shelf whose base diameter slotted nicely into the end of the silencer.

I drained the paint contents and punched a few holes into the base of the tin, then pop-rivetted it into the silencer body and started the bike.

It was quieter than the P&C silencer. The major benefit, though, was the significant relative improvement to the James's performance. The small outlet relative to the exhaust diameter had produced the perfect two-stroke tuning effect. I kept that bodge until the James went the way of all grey porridge.

It was only later, reading a book on tuning 2-stroke exhaust systems that I understood the harmonics of what I had done.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Did you write that on your phone?

Do you use predictive text?

Grey porridge - grey PARTRIDGE?

[amateur]

18 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Did you write that on your phone?

Do you use predictive text?

Grey porridge - grey PARTRIDGE?

No, "grey porridge" was the derogatory term used for almost any gutless Villiers engined bike. It would also include  BSA c10's, LE Velocettes and all of the Piatti engined AMC two-strokes.

I think that it was coined by "One Track" who used to write in Motor Cycle Sport in the 1970's

Edited May 2, 2019 by amateur

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Well I never, everyday is a school day.

Live and learn.

[Paddy Galore!]

When I were a lad, I made a make shift head gasket for my fizzie out of tin foil and a Weetabix box, got me through to payday and replaced with a proper one over the weekend

[spandit]

The air intake on my kit car is a flexible toilet connector. Needed it at short notice and been on nearly 15 years now

[figgy]

Once welded a car silencer onto the exhaust of a field bike so we could ride around for longer before getting chased away due to noise..

I'll use anything that works to fix something regardless of what it's off or where it came from.

 

Spandit what kit car is it ? You going to Stoneleigh this weekend?

Edited May 3, 2019 by figgy

[nic]

bit skint (due to CSA/divorce etc) needing new exhaust for only transport - a yam fj1200 - so a twin car exhaust tail pipe cut, sleeved down and fitted was a tenth of the price of a new bike one... improved sound and fuel consumption as well as hp! said on until bike went a year later

Edited May 4, 2019 by nic