Gael warning in the Congo

Thanks Jock we may well swing by (although with Luanda prices it may just be for a half and 2 straws

Jim has been busy on his bike today.

And a shout out to Albatross who has kindly despatched me his old 1150 injectors in case that's what's needed. Good mates on UKGSer!

And I found a (sadly deceased) hitch hiker on the bike
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Yesterday I found their first cousin beneath the air filter when I cleaned it.

All very tiring....back to the pool and tomorrow it's offto see the mechanic recommended by Carlos
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That's some way of carrying your eggs.. :clap :clap :clap

:D
 

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Gentleman talking on his cellphone, is that bicycle handles the lady further down is holding? How much luggage was strapped to the roof?
 
Today was about getting a local mechanic to have a look over Simons bike and improve the performance of the engine. The pike seemed to be running a bit rich(having a petrol/air mix that had too high a petrol content). We rode the 25km to the area of the mechanics workshop but took some time to find the dirt rode to the building. The building was new, clean and impressive and soon the bike was on the raised stand and analysis began.

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It was quickly established by removing and examining the spark plugs that one side of the bike was running fine but the other, the right side was not. The injector was removed and Simon went with one of the guys to have it cleaned and calibrated. While Simon was away another mechanic turned up and determined a new secondsry spark plug was needed, which he did not have. However a doner bike was identified in the workshop, this HP2. This bike is a higher performance version of Simon's bike but used many of the same components.

Here is the engineer and the doner HP2.
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On Simon's return the cleaned injector was replaced(apologies to the non-technical but this continues in a technical vein for a while).. The bike ran but still laboured on the right side. The engineer introduced an analysis tool which could be plugged into the brain(ECU) of the bike and check for error codes. This device showed errors from the timing(Hall) sensor and Simon realised he had one with him but in the hotel. While Simon went to get the part the engineers checked for other causes and made some adjustments including to the TPS.
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It was around this time that strange things began to happen. Petrol began leaking from the area of the right hand injector. This was removed and washers checked and all put back together. Soon after there was an attempt to start the bike which failed in a dramatic way. The starter motor could not rotate the engine, like it had run out of battery power. On checking, the cause was in fact because liquid petrol had partially filled one of the cylinders. Plugs were removed and the petrol expelled and I moved to a safer distance from this petrol soaked engine. At this point different theories were put forward as to why this flooding of petrol should occur and the diagnostic tool was consulted again.
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Before a cause could be established ith flooding occurred again. It was around this time that Simon returned and I had to indicate things were not as good as when he left. Once Simon had an update we let the engineers continue for a while. We did hear a strange noise from the starter motor and decided it was time to have a review of the situation with the chief engineer. We re-entered the workshop to see the mechanic removing the starter motor. I did not imagine the starter had suddenly become faulty so was surprised. Once the starter was removed the the reason for the strange noise was evident. A couple of teeth had been broken off the starter ring attached to the clutch, which the starter motor engages. This was a serious development.
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HP2 doner... wonder if they know how much that would fetch in the UK...
 
The result of this damage was that Simon's bike could not be reliably started until this part was replaced. The starter ring was part of the clutch, which would require of hours of labour to remove and replace but the bigger problem was where to find the part in Angola. You can imagine this was not one of the high points of the trip for Simon or I.

After some minutes of reflection we approached the chief engineer again. He explained his plan which was to start removing the rear of the bike to allow removal of the clutch, to work on it that afternoon even though it was Saturday and they normally close in the afternoon. He believed there was a good chance of finding the part locally, as it comes with a new clutch and there should be people who still have the old replaced clutch which would allow the part to be removed and used on Simon's bike. We were not greatly reassured but could see little alternative to this plan and after 6 hours of hanging around the workshop we left, after Simon had summarised his views on the day to the engineer, that he had brought in a working bike and now had a broken one.

I think partly to distract us from the implications of having a major problem, our local Luanda friends took us to an American diner and we drowned our sorrows in excellent milkshakes. While at the diner I noticed my team Liverpool, were losing on the big screen and this seemed to reflect our mood. Around this time we tried to begin to see this setback as part of the adventure, which it is, and begin to believe we would find a way of overcoming the problem and be able to continue the trip without too much delay. Later, I heard that Liverpool had in fact turned their losing position into a victory, and maybe this can be taken as a metaphor for the future of the trip.
There must be an Elvis song title that fits this situation well, but the best I can come up with sitting in this hotel is "All Shook Up" and "Heartbreak Hotel".
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What a bummer re the starter ring gear.. :(
 
There aint anythin' that can't be fixed Simon ;)

From Sue's catastropic compound fracture of her upper arm on the Karakorum Highway of northern Pakistan, to the gearbox locked up solid on her 650GS in the Altai desert of Mongolia ... it all gets sorted :thumb

Good luck with the repair :thumby:

:beerjug:
 
Cheers Micky!

As Jim said, I had to go back to our hotel 14 kms away to get the new Hall sensor. I combined that with helping on a motorbike delivery back to its owner in one of the exclusive compounds of Luanda, itself one of the most expensive cities in the world (that's oil for you!)
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Yes Micky, no one got hurt and all is fixable. We'll get it sorted and are off to see some graveyard ships today. Thanks for the different perspective.

Ha ha .... it was before our first trip, to Mongolia, we were talking to Kevin and Julia Sanders (Lovely couple) and they reiterated ...

"There's nothing out there that can't be fixed. Plan but don't plan too much, because it restricts you most severely. The problems you envisage are not the problems, for the most, that you will encounter, it's those feckin' problems that you would never have thought of that come rolling in and get you"

Ho so very true :thumb

:beerjug:
 
So whilst I awaits update tomorrow onival sourcing I will post this appeal here:

Has anyone got a spare flywheel starter ring gear for a 2003 r1150gs that I could buy/get sent DHL to Luanda?


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Sure Steptoe or Mikeyboy must have one laying around?
 
Spoke to Neil this morning who as always had good information but sadly none of that part


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