In 1975 had to take off the timing cover on my Velocette to re-set the timing gear which had shaken itself loose. Rain, dusk and a disgruntled but patient new wife watching and praying.
I've taken the engine out of a Beetle at the road side, got a lift home and come back with a replacement.
In 2009 at a Pembleton rally to the Pyrenees a friends' clutch plate disintegrated. Another pal and I had the engine out and separated outside the Gite de Commune within a couple of hours and back in the following day with a new plate. Other stuff like broken mudguard stays, dodgy condensers etc. one just takes in ones stride. That's me in the black T-shirt underneath
Not really in the same league, the most noteworthy I can recall is suffering a split radiator in Moreton-in-Marsh, removing same and hitching lifts with it the 100 miles back home, soldering it up and persuading my father to return me to the Cotswolds to refit it - alas, no photos ...
I had to take the sump off my car in the paddock at Wiscombe Park last weekend between first and second practice after I dropped a magneto cap thumbscrew down the oil filler.
As a Student with a tenement flat in Maryhill ( Glasgow) was swopping beetle engines at the side of the road ( donor car no tax or mot) when one of the neighbours complained I was working on the Sabbath and called the police ,who didn’t accept it was a minor repair and I would be booked if I had not moved in the next couple of hours. Luckily I had a friend with a lockup where I finished the job.
Ian
(19-05-2019, 09:52 PM)Ruairidh Dunford Wrote: Not nice Charles - I can recall a few like it, just irritating.
Especially when my smart idea of using studs rather than bolts to hold the sump on meant that the sump got caught on the chassis nose piece when I tried to drop it!
In my youth I raced motorcycles, once had a primary drive chain break on my BSA wreaking the clutch and casing. Fortunately it was a local so laid the bike on its side shot off home, tore apart another engine, rushed back to the paddock fitted parts and back out there! Numerous road side and occasional trackside dodges but I have been fortunate with my sevens not to needed anything major other than the time I was heading to see the maiden flight of the first air worthy Mosquito since they were decommissioned after the war. On that occasion I broke the crank at high RPM on a motorway totally destroying the engine, and I mean blitzed it, almost nothing was saveable, I was close to the airfield so got towed there and then trailered home at the end of the day so nothing heroic at all.
I have several more mishaps to share and hope others will continue to come forward to tell similar.
One February I was travelling in the Ulster from Glasgow to Tayvallich, a route that involves going up and over the Rest and be Thankful Pass- half way up the flywheel came off it's taper and I made it up with some gentle clutch pressing.
We took the engine out at the top, which is incredibly exposed - much to the delight of a coach full of Japanese tourist who pulled up alongside mercifully protecting us from the wind. The nut was tightened with a pair of Molegrips and the engine put back in as it began to snow and then blizzard.
The flywheel stayed on for the trip to Argyll and was then attended to properly the next weekend.
