Author Topic: Slide Charlie Brown Slide  (Read 791 times)

Offline Butch (cb)

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Slide Charlie Brown Slide
« on: 23.06. 2017 08:55 »
This isn’t so much a request for assistance, perhaps more of an amusement.

Wednesday night was pleasant enough at home, and so after a day spent in air-conditioned offices in the Smoke and then a g-awful train ride home I figured I’d roll out the A10 for a ride across country, maybe around 10 miles or so, to my monthly Astro Club meeting.

https://northessexastro.wordpress.com/

The bike starts easy enough anyway, and after the meeting it was still a little warm and so I didn’t even need to tickle. The normal process is to just catch it on the throttle as it fires. On this occasion, and somewhat embarrassingly (I have Goldie cans on it) it really revved quite strongly and for a second or so more than usual as it started. I figured I’d been a bit ham fisted. 

The night was still young and it also being the longest day of the year (any excuse) I pulled up at a country pub fairly local to me for a pint of foaming ale and a pipe. On leaving the pub the bike did exactly the same thing on start-up – like the throttle had just stuck open for a moment. This time it was enough to upset the two resident Boxer dogs who were animated enough to try and grab me and drag me back over the paling fence and into the beer garden.

Back home with the engine shut down I was checking that the slide was snapping closed OK on my 3.5k mile old concentric. Seemed fine until I really tightened the wire and the slide stuck fast at the very top (outside my normal riding range). I ended up having to spin off the air cleaner and coax the slide back with some wiggling of the needle. In the normal operating range it was still returning fine. I scratched my head and parked it up.

End of Part One – Last night’s dénouement to follow … thoughts so far?
Warning - observations made by this member have a 93% unreliability rating.

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Offline duTch

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Re: Slide Charlie Brown Slide
« Reply #1 on: 23.06. 2017 10:07 »

 thoughts so far...?..the days are now getting longer (for me)  *smile*....outta touch with concentrics, but first thought is the cable is sticky or unravelled  *????*
 Remove the cable from the carb and see if the slide does its' stuff without.....tag out....
Started building in about 1977/8 a on average '52 A10 -built from bits 'n pieces never resto intended -maybe 'personalised'
Have a '74 850T Moto Guzzi since '92-best thing I ever bought doesn't need a kickstart 'cos it bump starts sooooooooo(mostly) easy
Australia

Online Topdad

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Re: Slide Charlie Brown Slide
« Reply #2 on: 23.06. 2017 10:36 »
And poss attack (nicely ) the offending bit  of the slide that could have a build up of ally gunge with metal polish ,then double check the cable.
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Offline Butch (cb)

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Re: Slide Charlie Brown Slide
« Reply #3 on: 23.06. 2017 12:55 »
… Part 2;

So last night – Thursday, is Classic Bike Night at that self-same country pub down the road from me. We’re talking of a trip of no more than two miles.

My pal Meatloaf (not the actual Meatloaf – his moniker comes from the metrication and bastardisation of his actual surname; Yardley. Seemed funny back when we were all engineering apprentices) had called in on his way out to pick up his Missus later so we rolled out a couple of bikes to take over. I couldn’t quite be bothered to pull out Brown, my Kawa H1, from under covers and he’s not used to right foot shift so I stuck him on the Camel I’m using as a station bike at the moment; and I rolled out the A10 again. Despite my best efforts the Camel has a ‘challenging’ clutch, so with some stalling coupled with the high seat height and left foot kicker it took us a couple of goes before we were formating down the road.

On the drag down to the pub I suddenly had the engine dropping away on the BSA. I was running fast enough to have time to try the choke slide, the tickler and even unscrew the gas cap before rolling to a halt on someone’s driveway. I spoke to the owner about leaving the bike there (two up on the Camel would have been fun – Meatloaf and I are quite chunky blokes and it only has about a 1.5 person seat and one pillion footrest). But figured I was suffering fuel starvation and after a minute or two got the bike fired up, razzed up the road and when it quit again managed to roll all the way in to the pub car park. Much hilarity there ensued. 

No-one seemed to have any tools with them and we ran a sweep on how many float bowls full and hence stops would be required for me to get home – oh for a monoblock with the boy racer float bowl extension. And also whether I would get myself squished on the A120 roundabout I would have to cross before getting on to my road. We’re a caring sharing bunch.

So after another fine foaming ale, a bowl full of wild cherry and a juicy burger it was time for the return. The bike wouldn’t tickle at all and was reluctant to fire. But it did (and with that overly long roar again) and off we blasted. To pull up not so very far down the road. The float bowl challenge was looking to be a long one, so instead I left Meatloaf with the bike, whizzed back home on the Camel, picked up a rope, pulled out Zed my Rexxer, which would surely be a more suitable tug, and then headed back. From whence we tied the recalcitrant Beezer to the back of the Kawa and he dragged us home.   

So a good night out for the more sporting gentleman, and just like being 17 again.

The problem is clearly fuel starvation and I’m thinking that the weird revving of the night before was in some way indicative of this. The slide sticking at the top of its travel will just be a red herring. So the bike will go up on the table and the filters on the taps and the carb will be checked and the slide will come out for a look. I have a tank liner, which looks good and hard where you can see it on the tunnel from the filler cap – but will there be horrors lurking lower down? It will be some weeks before I find the time to do this, but I’ll report back eventually.
Warning - observations made by this member have a 93% unreliability rating.

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'58 S/Arm Iron Head Flash Bitza


Offline Butch (cb)

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Re: Slide Charlie Brown Slide
« Reply #4 on: 15.07. 2017 17:22 »
Back from sunny hols now so figured I'd take a look. I have a two tap feed into the bottom of a concentric - so a std set up.

Dropped the filter off the bottom of the carb and that looked clean enough. Removed the hoses from the bottom of the lever type taps. One tap would feed no fuel at all. The other could at least manage a small but continuous dribble. Drained the tank - which of course was full all bar 15 miles worth.

The taps were replacements I'd fitted probably 7 years a or more ago when I just couldn't get the corks in the plunger types to seal anymore. The filter towers on each of them were fine. The blocked one had some kind of swarf detritus in it - possibly from manufacture (??? - did I not check them before I fitted them?). But even with that picked out it was still no good. They have a circlip that holds the assembly together but I couldn't get either of these out. Looks like a rubbery gland in there has swollen.

I found a nice brass lever tap in my Sunbeam box and an adapter that would fit that into the tank. Then ran a 3mm drill through the better of the taps that I had removed. And refitted everything. All seems fine with no leaks, and feeds the carb OK on the bench. I'll test ride another time.

The carb slide seems to snap back OK from anywhere I consider in the operating range so I've fooled no more with that. Worst case I have the magneto kill button on the LH bar.

Ethanol at work on those glands? Maybe, though I've always used high octane on this bike which should have kept any exposure to a minimum.
Warning - observations made by this member have a 93% unreliability rating.

Of Bikes; various, including ...
'58 S/Arm Iron Head Flash Bitza


Offline duTch

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Re: Slide Charlie Brown Slide
« Reply #5 on: 16.07. 2017 00:48 »

 In case I missed something;
 Did you check the breather hole in the cap?
Started building in about 1977/8 a on average '52 A10 -built from bits 'n pieces never resto intended -maybe 'personalised'
Have a '74 850T Moto Guzzi since '92-best thing I ever bought doesn't need a kickstart 'cos it bump starts sooooooooo(mostly) easy
Australia

Offline Butch (cb)

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Re: Slide Charlie Brown Slide
« Reply #6 on: 16.07. 2017 15:02 »
Yeah, I'd actually unscrewed and then replaced it whilst still spluttering to a halt.
Warning - observations made by this member have a 93% unreliability rating.

Of Bikes; various, including ...
'58 S/Arm Iron Head Flash Bitza