In June both our car and my bike were due for MOTs. However, we were unable to afford to do both. I took the view that the car’s MOT would be more useful than the bike, so I mothballed the bike until July’s payday.
It was only a couple of weeks between my bike MOT ending and payday, so I used the car to get to and from work. It was a pain but not the end of the world.
Payday arrived and my first task was to replace the worn out rear tyre, refit the wheel, adjust the chain and check all those important bits. This done I booked her in for an MOT the following week. On the day before the MOT I had arranged to take her to the bike shop and be picked up from there by Chunky. I left work early to allow for any unforeseen circumstances. The first problem was that after sitting unused for three weeks she refused to start. This has happened before and usually went away after a bit of gentle persuasion. However, this particular day was to be different and the persuading came to a halt once the battery was flat. I quickly recharged the battery and tried again, but to no avail.
The second problem was that Chunky had decided to come home late from work. When he finally arrived there was only 10 minutes left to deliver the bike to the shop, which wasn’t possible anyway.
Having had a previous fuelling problem back in January I decided that I should cleanout all the fuel and replace the fuel filter. So on the following Saturday, this is exactly what I did. It involved removing my fuel tank, draining all the fuel, cleaning all the pipes and carb float chambers, etc. Having done this I refilled the whole system and tried again, with disappointing results. She very nearly started, but not quite.
On Sunday, after taking advice, I decided to check the fuel flow in the system. My Haynes manual gave facts and figures for this and the system failed miserably. Basically the fuel pump wasn’t pumping at all. At best it was spiting small amounts of petrol in the direction of the carbs.
A quick check on eBay revealed a used pump for £35. I decided to visit the bike shop to get a quote for a new one, as if it was only £50 new I rather spend the extra to guarantee the problem was fixed. However, they wanted £149 for the pump!!! I couldn’t believe it, so eBay it was.
A few days later the pump arrived and after much fiddling and messing about I had it fitted and tested. The bike started first time with out so much as a cough. It was a happy day 8-)
The following day I phoned the bike shop to arrange for an MOT, only to be told that they were very busy and couldn’t fit me in for another two weeks. AAARRRRGGHH!!
In the end I was off the road for about six weeks, not the two weeks I had planned. During that time we had some wonderful weather and it was driving me mad having to use the car everyday instead.
I have however made up for it since then, but that’s a story for another article.
Regards
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