mark.drechsler

The parts arrive, and the plot thickens

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The big day had arrived. All gaskets, seals and other minor parts had arrived. All the necessary gasket glue and goo substances were ready. The Haynes manual was ready to go. A plethora of zip-lock bags quivered in anticipation of their imminent opening. And finally, at the heart of it all, the one incorrect part, … Read more

Painting on the cheap

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In my last post I had reached a bit of an impasse with the motor rebuild, waiting on parts that had to come from Japan and which would take at least a couple of weeks before arriving. This led to a question about what to do to fill the time in between. First up was … Read more

How worn is too worn?

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In my previous post I talked about the strip down, pulling the engine to bits precisely enough to replace the problematic part and then putting it all back together again. Or not. As I said before, the inherent costs in tearing down and rebuilding a motor mean that while it is apart it is a … Read more

Deconstruction

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In my last post I came to the sobering realisation that to get to the mystery blockage I would need to strip down the entire engine. This wasn’t the absolute first time I had done this. I remember the last time, it was 1990, I was eighteen, the vehicle was a Datsun 180B, and I … Read more

Let’s do this thing! (Or not)

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With the fairings ready to be sent off for painting once the Airtech upper fairing arrived, the spare motor ready to swap in and the shed cleared of crap, it was time to start the real work – removing the motor. Reading the Haynes manual made it sound pretty easy – fairings off, airbox off, … Read more