I had a wonderful , stroke of luck, phonecall from a friend a couple months back telling me someone was giving away an old bike that he reckoned looked a bit like mine and did I want him to get it. Quick as a flash I was in like Flynn and that evening I had a parts bike. My friend, who happens to br pretty sorted with the tools had already had a play and turned it from a non runner into a rough smoky runner.
2 dozen beer to him (he didnt even want anything, but I like to pay the karmic bills smartly-he even bought it round to my house!) and I was back in my shed with the parts for a heart transplant.
4 bolts later and a few quick snap connections( at this point I started to think Mr Honda may have forseen engine removals/swaps and kindly eased the way for plebs like me
)I had the new engine in. A quick moment for prayer and thanks, and IT LIVES ONCE MORE!
(as you may have guessed, morale was high at this point
)But wait theres more. The new bike only had 531km on it as some young lass had bought it to ride on, had a nasty moment and lent it against the side of the shed for years before it surfaced again. My original bike had ~9780km on it,
So off I went the next day for a shakedown ride, after testing every bolt and connection twice. The only drwaback is that I spent days cleaning and oiling everything that needed it on the old engine and now I couldnt be bothered doing it all over again instead of going riding.
I am surprised I didnt get the fire brigade called as I was spreading a smokescreen 6 foot wide down the street after me
for the first 10 mins, after which the fog cleared and I was away laughing.Since then a couple of issues have reared thier ugly heads:
a) the plastic bodywork is pretty ancient and has protested the multiple removals by cracking and breaking in several places, so it'll have to out with the superglue on that
b) the sparkplug holder kept popping off. I put up with it for a while, then yesterday I swapped over the coil and holder from the parts bike and now it grips like a monkey in a tree
c) the engine needs cleaning-sigh! Will have to give it some elbow grease loving
d) theres an annoying flat spot between the bottom and second third of the rev range. So, heakening to the first rule of Spree (Clean the carb. Clean it again. Then clean it once more for good measure) I should hopefully get that sorted.
I also whipped the head off to give it a wirebrushing to remove some of the sediment and built up gunge with a wire brush wheel and gave the piston a quick scrub whilst I was there. Is now running well with minimal smoking on startup.
So all in all, I will end with a quote from the movie Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels"
"Its been emotional"
as there is no way a 1/4 turn on the idle mixture screw (or even a full turn) would effect the top end in this way. Mainly because above 1/4 throttle the idle mixture is supplying less than 1% of the fuel to the engine.