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The dawn of a new era

Another day dawns here in Sunny Cornwall. 

Its a Sunday so that means "Railway Day".  For those of you who don't know me, I am a bit of a rail enthusiast (No not a train spotter.......I like to get in and get my hands dirty)

More information on where I volunteer can be found here

http://www.helstonrailway.co.uk/

 So its off on my trusty steed.  If you were following the old blogs before I merged them, you might be thinking "What the hell is this?........That isn't a Lada/gonna pull a caravan!!!!!!!!

No folks, my daily hack is a 2007 Sukida 50cc moped.

On arrival I find out that this is what I'm going to be playing with today.  Now I get to play with this and other bits of kit in a private setting.  The skills and experience I get operating the 360 digger could earn me £9 or £10 per hour on a building site.......................if I had the right bits of paper (Stupid isn't it)

First job of the day (after greasing the machine) is to shift a load of concrete railway sleepers from one side of the line to the other............a bit pointless you might think, however where they were was all overgrown and needed the track bed prepping.  Plus we had a flail on site (those things that cut bushes on the back of a tractor) cutting back the banks and the overgrown trackbed.

Once that was done, it was down with the dozer blade and start to level the trackbed ready for the ballast (and ultimately track) to go down.  See below!!!

Time was marching on so it was off to put the machine to bed, have a general natter etc, have a coffee and head for home.

Now I'm sorry, but I couldn't resist taking the picture below.  I've seen this on the back of an old Citroen AX for a few weeks now and couldn't resist.  Definitely my sense of Humor

More later

A bit of an update

Its been a bit of a while since I posted on any of my blogs and a lot of things have happened.  The Lada has gone for a start.  I will be getting another one at some point........but there was no point keeping the blog alive

Likewise, the Caravan project has also been put on hold, which considering it was on hold anyway is a bit of an achievement in itself.

So what I have decided to do is combine all of my blogs into one.....Kernow life.

This will give me a chance to report on whatever projects I have on the go as well as general stuff like my work at the Helston Railway and my college course I'm starting in September as well as just general ramblings from living the Cornish lifestyle.

This should allow me to update a bit more often.

More later

Off on a Tangent.....

Since the Mondeo has now gone, I needed some cheap transport whilst waiting for some cash to come in, so
I recently bought this scooter for £80 and thought is was going to be a simple bolt on the battery, re attach the panels, MOT and Bobs your uncle.

Yeah Right.

it's supposed to look like this


However it arrived looking like this.


Now after some initial numptyness
http://www.scootershack.co.uk/the-workshop/aprillia-leonardo-starting-problems-t23458.html

We got to the stage of trying to start part 2http://www.scootershack.co.uk/the-workshop/aprilia-leonardo-125-starting-problems-part-2-t23528.html
Since then, the starter motor came out and the first evidence of previous botched restorations. There was only 1 bolt in the starter, the other had sheared. 

Took the starter out (with my dad) and cleaned it all out, it was completely choked with carbon. Re assembled and tested.....working fine (Thank god, not really in a position to fork out £90 for a replacement (or £400+ for a genuine aprilia one  )

Re positioned it and yeah.....it still works...............just doesn't engage in the engine 

Took the belt cover off and found that the back wheel end of the belt spins but the front part (fan?) doesn't

Then took off the other side and found everything jammed.........Oh no, not a seized engine I hope.

The plan now is to drop the engine, however I am seriously hampered by the number of rounded and seized nuts and bolts. (more bodged restorations?)

Will take some more photo's tomorrow and post them as they might make more sense than my ramblings.

This job has gone from a simple fix up job to a full on restoration.

Off came the exhaust and the covers so I could get in and see whats what.

I don't think 2 day old oil is supposed to look that colour...considering the head gasket has supposed to be done.



Thats not a good state for the alternator to be   (Not a brilliant picture, but the brushes are the same colour as the oil)



More bodging........waste of time doing the head gasket if you are only going to put 3 out of 4 bolts back in the head and leave it like that.


Now as I said earlier, this

spins quite freely by hand,


However this

and this

Appear to be seized.


However, by putting the socket on and turning they do both turn with some resistance, and the piston also moves......so no seized engine either.


The only puzzling thing is that I can get just shy of 2 revolutions (1 cycle of the 4 stroke) before everything gets jammed up (not putting a lot of force on it though)


it's the same in both directions, and from both sides.


Any idea's??????
I'm thinking the next job is to take the head off (it needs binning anyway (pic 5) and having a look to see if there's anything obvious.                                                                                                                                         

So as not to hijack this blog, further updates on the scooter can be found at   http://www.scootershack.co.uk/scooter-projects/aprilia-leonardo-125-project-t23560.html

                        

                   

No wonder Welding is so bloody expensive

I've been putting it off and putting it off, but I couldn't put it off any longer.  I've had to have a go at this welding lark.
Following a link from the Lada forum, I found this site

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/

After looking at the tutorials, there was nothing left but to grab the wing I cut off yesterday and "have a go" ............with mixed results.

Now my first mistake (I've since found out) is that I am using an arc welder.  However, cosidering the financial situation and it was loaned free of charge, I can't really complain.
If the object of the excercise was to blow holes in the metal...................I'd have done really well!!!

I did manage to get some actual welds.

Ad here.

Not looking quite so bad from the "wrong" side.

Try welding 2 bits together I was told (from the guy who I borrowed the welder from)  You might find it easier.

A little bit better.

On the positive, although it is not a very nice looking job, I did actually manage to stick one bit of metal to the other without it falling off.  To be fair this is the standard of welding that was already on the car and the guy gave up.

 

Copyright AdamG

Not sure what he was welding with be it mig or arc, but it is very rough and lumpy. Bottom line is that piece has to be cut out and I'll have to start again