tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63215816691271177362024-03-14T20:10:05.715+10:00Andrew's UKARUMPAEver wondered about the fast-paced and exciting life of a missionary motorcycle mechanic in a developing nation? Now you can find out by following my blog!Andrew the Mechanichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892382984050173618noreply@blogger.comBlogger111125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321581669127117736.post-75251464111377645262023-11-16T17:58:00.001+10:002023-11-16T17:58:25.697+10:00BAPTISMS! Am I qualified??<p> Ukarumpa doesn't have a church. Okay, that's not quite true. As the Body of Christ, we, of course, are the Church. But the members of our community come from all over the world, from many different cultural and denominational backgrounds, and as you can imagine in a missionary community, there is a higher than average number of ordained pastors per capita. But there is no "church" as you might imagine. We have a meeting house where we meet on Sundays and usually one of the aforementioned pastors will speak, or a visiting pastor might be in town and he'll speak. But we don't have a regular pastor or a regular church staff. It's all done by members of the community, which is either fantastic or really awful, depending on what you need, I guess. <br /></p><p> So some time ago my kids (all three and without any pressure from me) let me know that they all wanted to be baptised. I was happy about this and thought that probably the next time we were in the US or the UK the kids could enroll in some kind of pre-baptism training (just like I went through when I was a kid and got baptised) and hopefully God would provide a pastor or a youth group leader who they would want to baptise them. I said all this to them.</p><p> "But Dad", they said, "we want YOU to baptise us!"</p><p> Now I know that the correct should have been unbridled joy at the thought of such a wonderful opportunity, but no! I was freaking out. Was I qualified to baptise people? Didn't you have to be a pastor? At least a youth group leader?</p><p> I'm ashamed to admit it now, but I put them off. We had lots of stuff going on and no time, etc., and I knew it wasn't great to be putting them off, I mean, I really didn't want to "quench the Spirit" so to speak.</p><p> Time went by. And then several other kids in the community decided that they wanted to get baptised, and my kids decided that they did, too. I knew I should be excited, but I was filled with dread. What if I got it wrong? What if I accidentally swerved into heresy? Who am I to be baptising people? I'M A MECHANIC!</p><p> The big day came and over breakfast I let my son know what I was thinking. "What if I get it wrong?" "Dad", he said, "that's silly! You won't get it wrong." And of course I knew he was right. Looking back at Bibical baptisms, there's no great long liturgy that needs to be memorised and delivered in iambic pentameter. It's just stuff like the Ethiopian who said "Hey look! Here is water! Why shouldn't I be baptised RIGHT NOW?!" And of course Philip baptised him.</p><p> So, at 2 p.m., we and about 50 other people made our way down to a local river. One of the pastors from our community gave a short talk about baptism and the 10 kids who had chosen to be baptised that day were baptised. Some by the pastor, some by their dads, My kids were the last, numbers 8, 9, and 10.</p><p> We decided to go in birth order, which seemed to make sense. My son and I walked towards the water. At some point it sank in what we were doing and I started crying. I stopped at the edge of the water, facing away from the crowd and tried to regain my composure, but all to no avail. Others saw me and they started crying, too. It was either a really special time or a real mess, depending on your point of view, I guess. I'm super thankful that my kids were not embarrassed by my tears.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7WEL5EfcRjJiV0x-00m8j09uxsarVWAOKyH92nFYWzOTvJIVVMGJXyotfNnk3kEQGc8K6tYja9QVhT-K9H9Edc5cgQIVendL-dpNxLTONMSGhK0sDIPZC3nyC2DXHa4znjKp1J85la8JXOEpR5Xo1yE1OmGdsFYjkKCyX_XOBG18MqLd-BXIJZGes9Xkn/s2048/53330677591_901030adcc_k.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7WEL5EfcRjJiV0x-00m8j09uxsarVWAOKyH92nFYWzOTvJIVVMGJXyotfNnk3kEQGc8K6tYja9QVhT-K9H9Edc5cgQIVendL-dpNxLTONMSGhK0sDIPZC3nyC2DXHa4znjKp1J85la8JXOEpR5Xo1yE1OmGdsFYjkKCyX_XOBG18MqLd-BXIJZGes9Xkn/s320/53330677591_901030adcc_k.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p> I spoke to the crowd, and it was hard because I was crying and couldn't stop and my voice broke and it was a disaster, but a special and holy time. "I'm not a pastor", I said, "by God's grace I am a mechanic!" I paused and spoke to the crowd again, "I hope nobody will be offended if I ask my wife to help me." There did not seem to be any objection, especially as I was so emotional, and my lovely wife came forward and asked each of the kids the questions we had agreed to ask them and together my son and I walked out into the river.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7VVPzu5LywlVg3p4XOPaGQIUkW4DTCFylLH-bNA59fwUdkxuMr-Og0zG2GpwfvAUdafnQUvkMmUS6OwCAkdIarf8Q0CAQgA9SX6loTQH_pZbAEeaUCPtcNf8NRFK1kZnAAnjF6hEyqvqQNSKGsgjA47Q0lfLdCLv2bGgK7N76YjIA-XcTr_OSl6CF87h6/s2048/53330907033_f1df31c881_k.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7VVPzu5LywlVg3p4XOPaGQIUkW4DTCFylLH-bNA59fwUdkxuMr-Og0zG2GpwfvAUdafnQUvkMmUS6OwCAkdIarf8Q0CAQgA9SX6loTQH_pZbAEeaUCPtcNf8NRFK1kZnAAnjF6hEyqvqQNSKGsgjA47Q0lfLdCLv2bGgK7N76YjIA-XcTr_OSl6CF87h6/s320/53330907033_f1df31c881_k.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhptmogDHe9ZDOgZiFHc0aK8FigyX9Sr_IUV3GS6d0MJKPrcAsqaqjqn9ld5KQx4cN3uu_KohxIWSJfmJoZBn19WYwRY1_wcGWvxXamGBdi03uNwq4BGCzIxni3SJxqzMNL-xZPWhEbkxQPkD7rTur0N6lo88dTdVP_ALeaHVd7lToWCHWOfKz5oIImEdON/s2048/53331196941_54a1d92baf_k.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhptmogDHe9ZDOgZiFHc0aK8FigyX9Sr_IUV3GS6d0MJKPrcAsqaqjqn9ld5KQx4cN3uu_KohxIWSJfmJoZBn19WYwRY1_wcGWvxXamGBdi03uNwq4BGCzIxni3SJxqzMNL-xZPWhEbkxQPkD7rTur0N6lo88dTdVP_ALeaHVd7lToWCHWOfKz5oIImEdON/s320/53331196941_54a1d92baf_k.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYGUdFtVetASbJcfP5nqAJXGm3eW4HEf-NyiCNIOfgg-d4T8u6XMeXMorfOcPzfCOoyWfcClpL24xv3ed6Mdki3nCKGB1nlXMFl45rUEEBNEH_dHdJ7LKDg6SmfOLqBd8g0XZ5QyR7bKCQIczmOapkQKrr8Hcx2bu_J6tlHeUjA7WWtHxzK3qrXbA9yaFo/s2048/53333279436_abb0ba9af7_k.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYGUdFtVetASbJcfP5nqAJXGm3eW4HEf-NyiCNIOfgg-d4T8u6XMeXMorfOcPzfCOoyWfcClpL24xv3ed6Mdki3nCKGB1nlXMFl45rUEEBNEH_dHdJ7LKDg6SmfOLqBd8g0XZ5QyR7bKCQIczmOapkQKrr8Hcx2bu_J6tlHeUjA7WWtHxzK3qrXbA9yaFo/s320/53333279436_abb0ba9af7_k.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p> So that's how that went! In the end I realised what a special thing it was to be able to baptise my own kids. I am thrilled that they have made public their commitment to follow Christ and I love them all very much! Pray for MK's (missionary kids). We love them, but like all kids, they do have their struggles, some more than others. </p><p> These photos were all taken by Anita McCarthy, who is a great photographer.<br /></p><p><br /></p>Andrew the Mechanichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892382984050173618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321581669127117736.post-50936399583886142852023-05-25T09:47:00.004+10:002023-05-25T09:47:59.214+10:00Motorcycle And Small Engine Guy, And Also Other Stuff<p> </p><p> Like this big Astra 6x6 cargo truck. It needed a battery cable terminal replaced and I was the guy who heard about it first and who felt most able to just get right on it:</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW3VDbxlM028Sl8kSI8FSLiLwSnpgBpWJ6lZBvUx0XPfqGTTW9E2LiSHKBdPqI2l07p0k-yyqOGdRZwJvKaAF94meWYXStM8Z-zwxI0YcmPQBUYIoodgX6wItW9wkbKF_BSzKUJZ1U2qoHc3E6jsTHxloB_iSotgvav417EWuLcQPWRnAtBRkMMcW8pQ/s4000/P5230021.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW3VDbxlM028Sl8kSI8FSLiLwSnpgBpWJ6lZBvUx0XPfqGTTW9E2LiSHKBdPqI2l07p0k-yyqOGdRZwJvKaAF94meWYXStM8Z-zwxI0YcmPQBUYIoodgX6wItW9wkbKF_BSzKUJZ1U2qoHc3E6jsTHxloB_iSotgvav417EWuLcQPWRnAtBRkMMcW8pQ/s320/P5230021.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p> Just to give you some idea of scale, the bottom of the window in the door is almost 7 feet off the ground (over 2 meters for you metriqistas. Like that? I invented that term, just now, on the fly. You're welcome, world). </p><p> That's all for now!<br /></p>Andrew the Mechanichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892382984050173618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321581669127117736.post-61490740048655759882023-05-08T15:06:00.002+10:002023-05-08T15:06:33.744+10:00Post Earthquake Shop Clean-up<p> So I mentioned last time that we have just returned from furlough.I know, I know, we are supposed to call it "home assignment" now. Call me a traditionalist, I still call it furlough. Maybe I like feeling connected to the generations who called it that before me.</p><p> Anyway, so while we were gone, (several months ago) there was a huge earthquake that really shook up Ukarumpa. Thankfully we don't have much in the way of big infrastructure to crumble or fall down, but there was lots of little damage. We were amazed to come back and find our house almost completely unaffected, but my work area at the AutoShop was another story.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfw7bRB5s9TADol9w0rssdVwMZ4nS1Qi5RzwnVnJH6u8TF233O2eJrNvoOLzwiU_ZjTpulezPJQQndbSoZeVTT4j4jKvGLzB6khjqTli7xWuiWtb155Zs14GXIziVtIMjD7B7KqSYSWi6WBgnaCgrPA91KZKU091UVzDvMBu6Ozk2Kakuj3IyBQG8l_g/s4000/P4120323.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfw7bRB5s9TADol9w0rssdVwMZ4nS1Qi5RzwnVnJH6u8TF233O2eJrNvoOLzwiU_ZjTpulezPJQQndbSoZeVTT4j4jKvGLzB6khjqTli7xWuiWtb155Zs14GXIziVtIMjD7B7KqSYSWi6WBgnaCgrPA91KZKU091UVzDvMBu6Ozk2Kakuj3IyBQG8l_g/s320/P4120323.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p> See those shelves? The upper ones that are almost completely bare? When I left, those shelves were groaning under the weight of a large collection of motorcycle parts. The earthquake threw almost all of them right down on my floor.<br /></p><p> Several of my friends offered to clean the stuff up for me, but asked them please not to, because I knew that if they did, I would just have to go through it all again to get it organised. And so it sat, knee deep in some areas, until we returned to PNG.</p><p> When we got back, I was told I had a full month to try to get it all reorganised. Part of the reason why everything fell down was because the parts were all stored in a rag-tag collection of old cardboard boxes of various sizes. To make my job a little easier, I decided to make the shelves a little deeper, make them a lot sturdier, and then make up a bunch of plywood boxes to replace the cardboard ones. Here is how the first set turned out:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGp-VBxbIPHMOdUTrJIoPR4cxFnroGwS2Ns2HZutesIcUxMRlpUYXpu3BTvD0KqMAwHdYozDeYeGiIUQLK8oHZTDO4jjV5tei57PqiQ8he6pTZ1IbA01XVO93jBAre5OM3Ug0nUfyng31Jo1aVcP4jxynnUmHsjVxyGrvsK5tnnwVrzA-eaN1v9BY6tw/s4000/P5080007.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGp-VBxbIPHMOdUTrJIoPR4cxFnroGwS2Ns2HZutesIcUxMRlpUYXpu3BTvD0KqMAwHdYozDeYeGiIUQLK8oHZTDO4jjV5tei57PqiQ8he6pTZ1IbA01XVO93jBAre5OM3Ug0nUfyng31Jo1aVcP4jxynnUmHsjVxyGrvsK5tnnwVrzA-eaN1v9BY6tw/s320/P5080007.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p> I'm definitely not a carpenter, but I think these boxes turned out pretty nice. As you can see if you click on the image, they are sensibly labelled with things like "Headlights #1" "Scrap brass - heavy" and so on. The workbench beneath the shelves is also tidy, and perhaps most remarkably, here is the floor: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtKli41Mivw0T1hys8nulrtDusLPz2NV69A2w7to1rEAtcrtaktGfXU-TO_newjOWL4RqJh-qJ-QXTFPNXqjjm_B6pq85KzjhAbjB969n5Nrva-Vd8p_k5o7f82xmptTMIEaZhbqk-YRvKuR1X6JY08P_QvSx3_U3Ot2odt0OYHAMsRxa3aOGJ32CYhQ/s4000/P5080008.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtKli41Mivw0T1hys8nulrtDusLPz2NV69A2w7to1rEAtcrtaktGfXU-TO_newjOWL4RqJh-qJ-QXTFPNXqjjm_B6pq85KzjhAbjB969n5Nrva-Vd8p_k5o7f82xmptTMIEaZhbqk-YRvKuR1X6JY08P_QvSx3_U3Ot2odt0OYHAMsRxa3aOGJ32CYhQ/s320/P5080008.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p> I'm aware of the fact that many of you are thinking, "it's still a mess", but trust me, it has been many years since so much of this floor has been so clean. The other side of my motorcycle lift still looks like this: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuW6LpukqO-bJCg70WeiOrXOG1iQfrrl8wUoi2kyXkEGBs3ojRD2HJlZ53pR8JgrSg4PQaOx0HVghJbMleDzq62of-omVwJUZH8CeE2KmxXmIStxt_f0CuIUxy35smghSsyy2vJL465IKIx_vShDmOCXWp3qHdaiKS6U6_wRTYqX7pG7x9jhEznoIxZg/s4000/P5080011.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuW6LpukqO-bJCg70WeiOrXOG1iQfrrl8wUoi2kyXkEGBs3ojRD2HJlZ53pR8JgrSg4PQaOx0HVghJbMleDzq62of-omVwJUZH8CeE2KmxXmIStxt_f0CuIUxy35smghSsyy2vJL465IKIx_vShDmOCXWp3qHdaiKS6U6_wRTYqX7pG7x9jhEznoIxZg/s320/P5080011.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p> So as you can see, there's still a ways to go. Believe it or not, most of the 9-10 engines visible in this picture were neatly stowed away at one time. I would very much like to have seen this whole avalanche of motorcycle engines have come cascading out from where they were! It must have been something to behold and must have made an awful racket as well.</p><p> Anyway, in all I ended up making 30 bigger plywood boxes and I think 3 smaller ones. Some of the labels started getting a little goofy and I began to get "clean up fatigue":</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLAg7NUIWfZem1znb63PHdb_gpR1Gfh_XOsqq60O2oGMA5WtmBetxhYm32gWdBMoOPqLDs0bAEa0D3OsQCmiXtaZLIqPcqASGg_zOq2mJjk-NVUVYfVCB2QgRYuHMv5QF9eTkwgEpqVTa16xu_jc9QZsvAgC32m6AW3_p9RcNxdEfSRupgaZZBSdBsiA/s4000/P5080005.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLAg7NUIWfZem1znb63PHdb_gpR1Gfh_XOsqq60O2oGMA5WtmBetxhYm32gWdBMoOPqLDs0bAEa0D3OsQCmiXtaZLIqPcqASGg_zOq2mJjk-NVUVYfVCB2QgRYuHMv5QF9eTkwgEpqVTa16xu_jc9QZsvAgC32m6AW3_p9RcNxdEfSRupgaZZBSdBsiA/s320/P5080005.JPG" width="320" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUGtc7dMtfTZX6y4fEpw9RYEAYIYJaIkhTLR5RYosGYt_eLRD7MSc--nPYeM5OmjfnFlWcasHTl_GrUifKc3lbcXcJ-3WbA08ODIALdL8JLLXiURGbJJXKJ7aqpIHvrDnrABGU9L249exZNY8h8AsW0oECA8qn5UKyOVW5tzQqmdyYjl0MUDoB5oWyUQ/s4000/P5080006.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUGtc7dMtfTZX6y4fEpw9RYEAYIYJaIkhTLR5RYosGYt_eLRD7MSc--nPYeM5OmjfnFlWcasHTl_GrUifKc3lbcXcJ-3WbA08ODIALdL8JLLXiURGbJJXKJ7aqpIHvrDnrABGU9L249exZNY8h8AsW0oECA8qn5UKyOVW5tzQqmdyYjl0MUDoB5oWyUQ/s320/P5080006.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /> </div><p> Not done yet, but at least I have enough stuff cleaned up to be able to start doing regular work and can do more cleanup/organising between those jobs. The sharp eyed among you will notice that the tops of the workbenches still look pretty cluttered. You are right, they are. But my main lift is cleared, the secondary lift is cleared, that's more than enough to get us going.</p><p> Andrew, in Ukarumpa<br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Andrew the Mechanichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892382984050173618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321581669127117736.post-18761479274254543502023-05-04T17:31:00.001+10:002023-05-04T17:31:17.266+10:00About 10 Minutes...<p> Alright, so furlough happened, and we just got back what? a little over a month ago? I wasn't sure we would come back...</p><p> So backstory: over the years I've been in Ukarumpa, I've had many friends. Because of the nature of our community, people come and go all the time, but generally, my circle of friends contains a significant amount of overlap. In other words, I become friends with Bob, a year later I also become friends with Fred. Some time after that I become friends with Hank. Bob leaves, Fred and Hank are still around and by the time one of them leaves, I've also become friends with new arrivals Ed and John. And so it went for a long time. </p><p> Last term was different. Already as far back as 2018, I started losing friends at a rapid rate. One after another they all left, and new relationships were not developing in the normal way. I was older, new people coming in were younger, young enough for the age difference to be a barrier.</p><p> By 2020, most of my friends were gone. And most of them had left unexpectedly early. Some simply never returned from trips back to the US. Most were gone for family reasons of various sorts--one left because his kids had all graduated and gone back to their home country and his wife couldn't handle the idea of living so far away from them. Another left because one of his kids was struggling with life in PNG. Some left during the pandemic and lockdowns. At that time there was widespread uncertainty about what we could expect here in PNG and some people chose to go back to their home countries and ride out the storm there. As everybody else was leaving, (and almost nobody coming in), we decided (along with a few others) to extend our field term by 1 year.<br /></p><p> So there I was losing friends at a terrific rate, and then there was a management crisis at the AutoShop and I reluctantly agreed to manage the shop for 2 months until another guy came back from furlough to take it over again. <br /></p><p> Do I even need to tell you what happened? He never came back.</p><p> I ended up managing the department for a year. A very difficult year. We were badly understaffed, we were overworked, we had to deal with terrible supply chain problems, and at the end of that time, I got a negative review from some guy in middle management who decided to wait until I was on my way out the door before letting me know that there was any kind of problem! I was completely blindsided by this, and because of my mental state at the time, took it far more seriously than I should have.<br /></p><p> So! I was losing all my closest friends, I was stuck in a job I didn't want and was not very good at, my home country of the USA was in all kinds of political turmoil, the whole world seemed to be in a tailspin. Things just kept getting worse and worse and I began to think it was time to quit. I guess I became depressed. I was certainly burned out. Absolutely, positively, burned out. I had a very hard time caring about anything or getting excited about anything. I just drifted along, kind of numb.<br /></p><p> So finally we were off, and I for one was not at all sure that we would ever return. For the first 5 months of our furlough, I could not face the idea of speaking at churches. We visited friends and supporters, we did a 7,175 mile road trip all over the USA visiting people, and that was good. I might go so far as to say that was even somewhat healing. We based ourselves in Waxhaw, NC, which is a convenient location for us--our organisation has a training/maintenance facility there, and also has long term accommodation available. We also have friends there and it's a (relatively) short drive from there to our supporting churches and family in TN and also to family in FL.</p><p> During that first 5 months, I hung around with people I knew who had also ended up in Waxhaw, and gradually my healing began. I threw myself into my US hobbies and put Ukarumpa and PNG out of my mind as much as I could. I spent time with old friends; when we were in TN, I told the kids dozen of stories about various adventures I had when I lived there. We spent time with my brother and his family, some of the best times we have ever had with them.</p><p> At the end of that first 5 months, we left the US for the UK portion of our furlough. I'm sure I've explained this before--my wife is from the UK and when we go on furlough, for visa reasons we usually will do 5 months in one country, then 5 in the other country and then go back to PNG. We find that this gives us adequate time and opportunity to visit the people and churches we need to visit.</p><p> In the UK I got covid, (pretty sure it was covid, I never did take a test to find out) and that put me out of action for 3 months. I started off and just sick and in bed and feeling terrible, but then after that, for 3 months I was pretty much unable to leave our flat due to terrible pain in both knees, both ankles and both feet. I bought myself a pair of crutches just to be able to get around the house. I didn't know for sure what was wrong with me but when I was better we took a trip to visit friends and one of them told me that what I had experienced was one of the known forms of long covid.</p><p> While we were in the UK we made plans to go back to the USA in order to visit our churches there. So instead of going back to PNG as we normally would, this time we went back to the US, visited our supporting churches in TN, spent time with my brother and his fam, spent more time with my parents and just generally managed to get done all the things I had been unable to face doing before. </p><p> At some point, I no longer wondered if we would go back. At some point, it just became an accepted thing that was going to happen, and something that I was even looking forward to.</p><p> And so now we're back in Ukarumpa. I'm gradually developing new friendships while staying in touch with a number of those who left. For the first time in several years I am not even the assistant manager of the shop. I'm just a mechanic/road rescue guy/buyer/other.<br /></p><p> Life goes on!</p><p> Today I found myself working on part of a motorcycle which belonged to a Papua New Guinean friend of mine. He actually died while I was out of the country and so now I'm fixing this part for his heirs. But I was struck today, looking at this part--it's been sitting here at the shop waiting for me to come back and fix it since before he died several months ago, and when I finally returned and got going on it, it only took me about 10 minutes to repair. I don't know why that thought is sticking with me, but for some reason it is.<br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Andrew the Mechanichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892382984050173618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321581669127117736.post-54164205145376447202021-10-22T10:03:00.000+10:002021-10-22T10:03:22.954+10:00<p>
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<span style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Greetings from Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea!</span></span>
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<span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">We
were last in the US and the UK in 2017. For fun, I've included some
photos from that time in this update. It's almost time to repeat the
experience, which brings us to the subject of this email:<br />
<br />
<strong>You know it's time for Home Assignment when...</strong><br />
<br />
1) All of your electronics have technical problems.<br />
<br />
2) Your clothes have holes in them.<br />
<br />
3) There are few clothes left for your children to grow into.<br />
<br />
4) Your youngest will soon be the age your oldest child was when you last left the country together.</span></span>
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<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">5)
You find yourself reading 'Watching the English' because you can't
remember how to interact with people from your home country.<br />
<br />
6) You realise that some items at the bottom of the freezer may have been there a long time.<br />
<br />
7) You look forward to exploring places that are different from the ones you see every day.<br />
<br />
8) You haven't seen most of your extended family for over four years.</span></span>
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<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">9) You don't have any non-expired bank cards in the same country as you.<br />
<br />
10) You really want to be able to thank people and churches in person for their faithful and generous partnership in your work.<br />
<br />
11) Your prescription glasses are no longer a good fit.</span></span>
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<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">12) You long to catch up with friends in person, after four years of computer-based communication.<br />
<br />
13) Your spices aren't tasting too fresh.<br />
<br />
14) You realise it's been a very long time since you had a proper holiday/vacation.</span></span>
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<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Our
current plan is to be in the USA from February to June and in the UK
from July to November. We won't book tickets until nearer the time:
due to the pandemic, flights are often cancelled, and the availability
of different flights can also change.<br />
<br />
We hope to see you next year!</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: merriweather sans,helvetica neue,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;"><strong><em>Andrew and Clare Koens, with Levi, Heidi and Eowyn</em></strong></span></span>Andrew the Mechanichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892382984050173618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321581669127117736.post-32459725963535182992021-09-15T17:22:00.002+10:002021-09-15T17:23:10.435+10:002020! (I know it was a long time ago)<p> Okay, so it's been a while. My thinking, back in the first half of 2020, was to wait until the pandemic was over and then write up a little report on "how we survived the pandemic in our neighborhood". But alas! Stupid pandemic won't go away.</p><p> I'm biting my tongue firmly, staying away from the politics on this. Do I have opinions? Certainly! Quite strong ones, and those who know me well can guess which way they probably lie. But I'll steer clear, there's way too much politics going on out there.</p><p> So, 2020! How did that go for us?</p><p> Well, in March, I believe it was, there was of course the obligatory lockdown. All our employees were sent home and all our departments were closed. We bent over backwards (financially) to continue paying our employees at least part of their pay for as long as we could. </p><p> Everything was quiet. Nobody knew what to expect. Nobody knew what to do. I eventually got bored and went back to work. Why not? Nobody else was there, it's not like anybody was going to infect or be infected. Besides, the dogs still needed to be fed, and there is always something to do at the shop.</p><p> None of us knew what was going to happen next. There was speculation that we would all end up leaving one way or another. Or that there never be a way to leave at all. Some people were highly stressed, others adopted a wait-and-see attitude. Since everything was shut down and I couldn't get parts, I turned to a long term project that I had been sitting on for a while and built this: </p><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj0aIicKE6Moy_wDEcTICTn6Ff7_YIYB3luYreK0cSCW1wowVHJ3dTyleeGRmmZ1PnbZ8doyLe0UxdvprfTtIOAsvxdp7P0EFtg_PUxLeZUQo-VhX4m0W8foOSjduETuzukhKnH7DMsxlw/s4608/P1000688.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2592" data-original-width="4608" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj0aIicKE6Moy_wDEcTICTn6Ff7_YIYB3luYreK0cSCW1wowVHJ3dTyleeGRmmZ1PnbZ8doyLe0UxdvprfTtIOAsvxdp7P0EFtg_PUxLeZUQo-VhX4m0W8foOSjduETuzukhKnH7DMsxlw/s320/P1000688.JPG" width="320" /></a></div> <br /><p> New floors, new heater channels, ATV wheels and tires, it was by far the biggest car project I had ever attempted and I learned a ton. In this picture it's not even done yet, it eventually ended up with a fiberglass "Baja" kit (new fenders, trunk lid, etc.) Fortunately/unfortunately we opened back up again before I was finished with it and so it's still not quite done...</p><p> The car itself is a 1969 VW (australian market model) that had been given to me by a friend who left some time ago. I had grand plans of making it into a car for my wife to drive since her old Mitsubishi bus was out of comission, but other events transpired which made that unnecessary. I'll get into that in another post.</p><p> So as I say, we finally re-opened and things returned more or less to normal. Hard times hit the Auto Shop and we lost first one manager, then another and I once again found myself managing my department, a job which I really do not like for various reasons. </p><p> So yeah, things are more or less normal for us again now. Our local store is still requiring masks, but that's just about the only place locally that is still doing that. If you go to the city of Lae you pretty much have to wear masks any time you go into a store, but not restaurants. Some of my Papua New Guinean friends have sat down with me and asked me what the big deal is, since most people here who have gotten the virus seem to just get better again. Certainly tuberculosis and even pneumonia, (both fairly common here) kill a lot more people. And that kind of made me think: culturally, PNGians are much more used to death than people are in a lot of other countries. There are lots of reasons for this that I don't really want to get into here, but it's true. And a disease which kills so few of those who get it just doesn't seem like a big deal here. </p><p> For us here in the workshop, the biggest headache has been shipping! Stuff that used to reliably take a month or 6 weeks to get here from overseas now takes much long--6 months is not unusual! And it doesn't seem to matter what method you use for shipping, it all is taking forever, though there are some signs that things may be starting to improve, thankfully.</p><p> Guess that's all I have to say about 2020 for the moment...<br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p> <br /></p><p><br /></p><p> <br /></p><p><br /></p><p> <br /></p><p> <br /></p>Andrew the Mechanichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892382984050173618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321581669127117736.post-45878043617325508442019-12-08T15:03:00.001+10:002019-12-08T15:03:19.201+10:00What To Do With a Dead XL250R #2<br />
So you may remember that some time ago I tried to resurrect a dead 1987 Honda XL250R by stuffing a Honda CB/CMX250 Rebel engine into it. The essential problem was that I had a complete '87 XL250R sitting in my shop. It was in fine condition except for the cylinder head, which was cracked, and finding uncracked replacements is very nearly impossible these days. If you want to know more about why I didn't pick any of the more obvious solutions, (cylinder head off of a newer model XR, for example), you'll just have to go find the other post.<br />
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So! A high school kid from the community was wanting some exposure to the wild and wooly world of motorcycle maintenance and he just happened to have been given a 1984 Honda XL250R in very nice condition, but with--you guessed it--a cracked cylinder head. We decided to jump in the deep end of the motorcycle mechanic pool by repowering his XL.<br />
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I'll admit here that I haven't been too happy with how the Rebel powere XL turned out. The engine didn't have nearly as much power as I felt it should and the lady who owns it only got to ride it for a couple weeks before it broke again. I haven't started tearing into it to find out what the problem is yet, but so far the Rebel engine is not really impressing me.<br />
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So this time we decided to try using a chinese Honda clone engine. Before you flee this page in disgust, hear me out:<br />
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The engine we used is a Zongshen CG200 engine. The design of these is based on the Honda CG125 engine. Honda, I have read, designed the CG125 after complaints from South American dealers about the relatively high failure rate of the overhead cam CB125 engine. Apparently, Honda sent people to South Ameica to see why the CB/SL/XL 125 engines were failing so badly in that market when they seemed to work so well everywhere else. What they found was that in the South American markets the little OHC engine was failing primarily due to constant overloading and neglect. In short, The CB 125 was a mini race horse in a market that really needed mini donkeys and mini mules.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHNY6FYhFbkhdZspf6H7H5liFA7E1gEVFsqnHNPtwi-aqprHKyKwj6a5qzh8-ttwZdVltKOzO5MT3zsDwgo76gNYl8aLEY3WNDXORAGrkcBhbQQZ0yWgjNDeaztNXdgn6xMLPMIb0iDMJQ/s1600/Honda_CB125+from+Wikipedia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="912" data-original-width="1419" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHNY6FYhFbkhdZspf6H7H5liFA7E1gEVFsqnHNPtwi-aqprHKyKwj6a5qzh8-ttwZdVltKOzO5MT3zsDwgo76gNYl8aLEY3WNDXORAGrkcBhbQQZ0yWgjNDeaztNXdgn6xMLPMIb0iDMJQ/s320/Honda_CB125+from+Wikipedia.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<i>early Honda CB125 with overhead cam engine. --Wikipedia</i><br />
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Back home in Japan they designed a simpler engine to cope with the kind use/abuse they had observed in South America. They did away with the overhead camshaft which had been especially prone to (catastrophic) failure due to low oil level or dirty oil. Instead, they mounted the camshaft down low, and used gears to dive it off of the crankshaft. An interesting, low tech, single lobe camshaft and rocking lifter arrangement was used along with pushrods and conventional rocker arms (mounted on the cylinder head), to operate the valves. The gear drive to the camshaft did away with the camchain/timing chain of the overhead cam engine, which was a component that had needed regular adjustment and occaisional replacement. The rest of the engine, (bottom end lubrication system, clutch, transmission), remained virtually unchanged from the original CB125 engine. The new engine entered the market in a motorcycle that looked very much like the CB125, the CG125.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY_G9r7Rq88cDNH-qZy76k2BW90W-HFqLx4QhCPr2fR5niXPfrrRCCpE02cKm_jfo359cwO4a25f_HC7XEf7p1N-3hHOL3kmfhJToVaDxKdJNg4gfn6go08Mg06iMc6TG_jZE1fFycN5jC/s1600/Honda_CG125_orange.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY_G9r7Rq88cDNH-qZy76k2BW90W-HFqLx4QhCPr2fR5niXPfrrRCCpE02cKm_jfo359cwO4a25f_HC7XEf7p1N-3hHOL3kmfhJToVaDxKdJNg4gfn6go08Mg06iMc6TG_jZE1fFycN5jC/s320/Honda_CG125_orange.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<i>Honda CG125; the mule to the CB125's race horse --Wikimedia</i><br />
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My personal experience with the engine starts with a collection of 3 wheeled chinese trucks that my department manager bought cheap at an auction in Lae quite a few years ago. These were basically overbuilt motorcycles in the front with a small pick-up bed on the back, somewhat like a tuk-tuk. They were all powered by chinese made 200cc variations of the original Honda CG125 engine.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkn9QHFvSqxJRV0JoRRga_OAYEJibP3kfSNra9bNQqVH-1RZ4_oAE_u62W_mzvQOy68y0cb_SGPoc3UHFLj_oA97-rHy-DfYDvSfuww24C2_hSKsi7HQeMlKk0ypI64VCFLx33ZQPkTCV0/s1600/1488306634-16-kishen-enterprises-u-limited.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="479" data-original-width="600" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkn9QHFvSqxJRV0JoRRga_OAYEJibP3kfSNra9bNQqVH-1RZ4_oAE_u62W_mzvQOy68y0cb_SGPoc3UHFLj_oA97-rHy-DfYDvSfuww24C2_hSKsi7HQeMlKk0ypI64VCFLx33ZQPkTCV0/s320/1488306634-16-kishen-enterprises-u-limited.jpg" width="320" /></a> </div>
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<i>this is what I keep referring to as a "three wheeled truck". The ones we had put up with a lot of abuse and neglect before we finally retired them for safety reasons.</i></div>
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So I greeted this little fleet of 200cc cargo carriers with a healthy dose of skepticism. I really thought that they were going to prove to be a total waste of our time, but I have to admit that they held up better and proved to be more useful than I would ever have guessed. After several years of daily use and abuse, they were finally retired, but more for safety reasons than for any other reason. We tried selling a few of them, but nobody seemed interested in buying any of them and so we eventually just stripped them down for usable parts, including the engines.</div>
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The pick-up truck variation of the engine has a transmission that is geared lower than a motorcycle transmission usually would be. In fact, in the trucks, I once discovered--by way of experimentation--that on level ground it was easily possible to start from a dead stop in all 5 gears!</div>
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So anyway. Me and the customer took one of the ex-three wheeler engines and tore it down, replacing those parts that needed replacing (not many!), and then proceeded to put it into his XL250R frame. This has got to be one of the most riduculously easy repowers that you can do. 2 of the motor mounts almost line up without modification.</div>
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Final result:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN9KU0prBIupA4CTc9SZIZnHt-J7NgQ2gBkuBlErEq3Lo_z3_jJnMfZAL5mzskY8u6IxNabcVKSlBaJafWTWZMnhzw8jYayFgLvtMxQ__LgzCqjoMhejf1kmWT0r94xG2amOzHMR23mmwM/s1600/P1000628.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN9KU0prBIupA4CTc9SZIZnHt-J7NgQ2gBkuBlErEq3Lo_z3_jJnMfZAL5mzskY8u6IxNabcVKSlBaJafWTWZMnhzw8jYayFgLvtMxQ__LgzCqjoMhejf1kmWT0r94xG2amOzHMR23mmwM/s320/P1000628.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5SGfk6v2VVlho85fej53iKo6op3uYekBEDH1qcd8C_DS-W3jL3SH2iBBqrakNeoXK7EJ42Q3Ws1AHvlxSxH0ITym7TNHXcem8lxG4kBetC9Nbutmf4f2vbG71tw_yjAT3tMWKzwCoa9bw/s1600/P1000629.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5SGfk6v2VVlho85fej53iKo6op3uYekBEDH1qcd8C_DS-W3jL3SH2iBBqrakNeoXK7EJ42Q3Ws1AHvlxSxH0ITym7TNHXcem8lxG4kBetC9Nbutmf4f2vbG71tw_yjAT3tMWKzwCoa9bw/s320/P1000629.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO9c1vO8DWX5VkcEpEzH9ez2ZqxWHuevpe7XaGKMdb2ddEyk7iKsbA7UkNflUhMbEYxpEtP2bwdPIRqBxdiyPCCZkeXDiYmQ8tuto2puEMHRlbdXxmxm1PNdUrobYKnjXJ-FXcGKi5Y2Ce/s1600/P1000630.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO9c1vO8DWX5VkcEpEzH9ez2ZqxWHuevpe7XaGKMdb2ddEyk7iKsbA7UkNflUhMbEYxpEtP2bwdPIRqBxdiyPCCZkeXDiYmQ8tuto2puEMHRlbdXxmxm1PNdUrobYKnjXJ-FXcGKi5Y2Ce/s320/P1000630.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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No, it's not any faster than the original XL was, but at least Samuel now has a working motorcycle that should be reasonably reliable, and, once we finsih hooking it up, will have electric start too, which the original XL250R did not.</div>
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Overall, I have to admit that I'm a lot happier with this bike than I am with the Rebel powered one.</div>
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<i> </i></div>
<br />Andrew the Mechanichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892382984050173618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321581669127117736.post-58274996171542672362019-08-28T22:43:00.002+10:002019-08-28T22:43:40.027+10:00Was it inevitable? Was it always bound to happen? Okay, so if you're following this blog, you know that I've got arthritis in my knees. Well, I think I may have found part of the reason why my right knee has gone on strike a couple of times--for years here in PNG, my daily rider has been a much modified 1985 Honda XR600R. <br />
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I love the old XR600. It was one of my dream bikes as a kid and so when a rebuildable one came up for sale here back in what, 2003? I bought it and gradually built it into what it is now. <br />
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What it is now is a long story. Sometimes at night when I can't fall asleep I try counting how many different bikes are represented in my old XR. It's a long list and I usually fall asleep before I get to the end of it. Suffice it say that even in it's original form the XR600R is generally not considered to be an easy bike to kickstart, and they did not come with electric start. Some of the modifications I have made to mine give it plenty of power, but also make it even more difficult to start. I can usually start it in 2 or 3 kicks, but it does take some effort, and when you consider the fact that I start it at least 4 times a day 5 days a week and usually at least twice on Saturdays, that amounts to a lot of kicking. <br />
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So, as an experiement, I stopped riding the XR and switched to a variety of other bikes, most of which belong to customers of mine and which have electric start. Interestingly, my knees seem to like this new arrangement, so I decided to finish up a long term project bike of mine that has electric start.<br />
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Unfortunately, this long term project bike was proving to be a pain to resurrect. I'll eventually get it sorted out, but it still needs quite a bit of work before it'll really be daily-rider usable.<br />
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And then it happened. Out of the blue, I learned about a 1998 Harley-Davidson XLH883 Sportster for sale in Madang:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcDJ_Dti8HTL06cFdhrZBC3iPtEHzyusWPJIIz4OJ9tUa5szoPk4DlcEuh9_gfP4NocOXWxIGcHIyupAF-s081i5fUIe__gT46dqK9ovnwXli0wrjAh_fHMyexEn765EHTk-PH784L8KRR/s1600/66442149_339458583648590_8141923658546282496_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcDJ_Dti8HTL06cFdhrZBC3iPtEHzyusWPJIIz4OJ9tUa5szoPk4DlcEuh9_gfP4NocOXWxIGcHIyupAF-s081i5fUIe__gT46dqK9ovnwXli0wrjAh_fHMyexEn765EHTk-PH784L8KRR/s320/66442149_339458583648590_8141923658546282496_n.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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My initial reaction was "No way. Not practical for PNG, plus everybody will think I spent a fortune on it." Still, it was the only Harley I had ever seen in PNG, (I have seen an incomplete WWII era wreck on one of the islands, but that doesn't really count), and that made it interesting.<br />
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Harleys and I have had a complicated relationship over the years. I've always liked them, but have never been able to justify spending the money people seem to want for them. On the rare occasion when a really affordable one pops up, (like the time I saw a complete and running flathead 45 at a flea market in South Carolina for $1,500), I've just not had the cash. <br />
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And yet people have always assumed that I had one. I can't tell you how many times people have approached me in various places and asked "is that your Harley parked out front?" I guess being a large, heavy man with a big beard it was only natural that they would associate me with large, heavy motorcycles. But for me it was hard to spend thousands on a Harley when there were so many old Hondas out there available for $1000.<br />
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But times have changed. A lot of the bikes that I used to pay $750-$1000 for are suddenly classics now and going for $5000-$10,000. Dime-a-dozen Japanese bikes that I used to haul off for scrap just because we had so many of them cluttering up the junkyard at the shop I worked at in Tennessee are suddenly being sought after by custom bike builders. Dozens of shops, (Wrench Monkees and Cafe Racer Dreams to name a couple of the better known ones), have made names for themselves by customising forgotten Japanese bikes that would once have been called "humdrum". (Incidentally, I'm super happy to see that nowdays, if you want to build a bike you don't have to start with a Harley anymore.)<br />
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So there I was, looking for something with electric start and coming to the realisation that the Harley for sale in Madang actually ticked all the right boxes for me: it needed some work but was complete and running, it was already here in PNG, it was an easy bike to find parts for, and anything I might want to do to it in terms of modifications had probably already been done by somebody else before and posted on the internet. That fact that it had less than 9,000 miles on it was also nice.<br />
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The price was reasonable, especially considering the fact that had buying and shipping any bike from the US (or Australia) would very likely have ended up costing more than twice as much by the time shipping, customs and duty charges were applied. <br />
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So I casually mentioned it to my wife, just to see what she thought. "Well," she said, "I've been praying for you to get a Harley ever since we got married!" What a woman!<br />
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Finally the last hurdle was simply the fact that the bike was in Madang, and I almost never go to Madang. Wonder of wonders, the manager of my department just happened to mention one day that he needed to go to Madang and needed somebody to go along with him, so there went that obstacle as well!<br />
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So I contacted the seller and made him an offer. He accepted, and a couple weeks later I was in Madang and loading my first Harley onto a truck to take back to the highlands. <br />
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Along the way, I learned quite a bit of the history of this bike. It was bought new in Ohio by a man who was associated with another missions organisation here in PNG. In 2008 he shipped it to Madang, but he ended up leaving PNG sooner than he expected and sold it. The man I got it from is an Australian who kept it in his bedroom, which was literally about 10 feet from the ocean. I'll admit I was a little disappointed by the amount of rust that was on it until I realised that pretty much every rusty part was one that I was going to remove or replace anyway.<br />
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I could not wait to get started! As soon as I got it home I started stripping off bits of rusty chrome. Away went the big, bulky turn signals (I'll install smaller ones later), away went the sissy bar (passenger back rest), away went various bits of rusty chrome trim. In the process I learned that it really is true--the more stuff you take off of a Sportster, the better it looks! The 11" long rusty rear shocks were replaced with 15" shocks for better handling in the dirt (and what a positive difference those made!) and finally, as a proof-of-concept, I put a used knobby dirt bike tire on the front wheel in place of the 12 year old, age-hardened and slippery street tire.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3cUTSW9KVyFRYTwnXoftIeLch-q8j7_CwRJybWmattseLuWmY0bJjKY2tjQ_VFLR0xn_nLeRfu2y4xX1fKYyvYtRX-SrxOOh1emKc_FtYgSA-X9me0myjKCWnfnsfRQua_Z1UayvE0B6n/s1600/P1000565cr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1017" data-original-width="1600" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3cUTSW9KVyFRYTwnXoftIeLch-q8j7_CwRJybWmattseLuWmY0bJjKY2tjQ_VFLR0xn_nLeRfu2y4xX1fKYyvYtRX-SrxOOh1emKc_FtYgSA-X9me0myjKCWnfnsfRQua_Z1UayvE0B6n/s320/P1000565cr.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Further modifications will have to wait until January, I think, as the parts I need are coming by sea freight. But they will include a different rear wheel, new tires, handlebars, front suspension parts and other things. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the exhaust yet--it sounds nice the way it is, but I kind of need it to move for reasons pertaining to other modifications I want to do and which I'll explain later.<br />
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At any rate, it is usable as is and I'm really enjoying it. Yes, it weighs a ton! Yes, other bikes ride better on the dirt roads of Ukarumpa! No, it will never be a fantastic dirt bike! <br />
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But I LIKE it!<br />
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<br />Andrew the Mechanichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892382984050173618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321581669127117736.post-589189468947298182019-04-13T22:43:00.001+10:002019-04-13T22:43:33.979+10:00Arthritis? Seriously?!<br />
Christmas Break, 2018. I had big plans. There were a number of home improvement and maintenence jobs that I wanted to get done, there was a personal motorcycle project that I hoped to finish, and, if time permitted, I might even have started the resurrection of a dead car. Big plans.<br />
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And then, just as the shop closed for the Christmas and New Year's holidays, my right knee decided to stop working. I could not move it without tremendous pain, could not walk, could not find a comfortable position, it was bad. I was pretty much out of commission for the entire Christmas break. So much for my big plans!<br />
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Joint pain is nothing new to me. For several years starting back in my 20's I suffered occaisionally from tendonitis in my Achilles tendons, and sometimes pain in the little bones in my feet. The first time it happened, I went to a doctor. I described my symptoms and he said, "Oh, sure, that's tendonitis." Relief flooded me, this wonderful dontor knew exactly what the problem was! "Great!" I said, "How do we fix it?" I expected him to recommend a medicine or an exercise, instead, he brought my feelings of relief crashing down when he said, "Oh, there's nothing we can do about tendonitis. You'll just have to try to stay off of it until it gets better." Sigh.<br />
<br />
Tendonitis plagued me off and on for a long time, and then, sometime in my early 40's, it just stopped. That is to say, I can't rememeber the last time I had it. It's been a few years, I think.<br />
<br />
Also, from time to time, I have suffered a bit from gout. Usually just mild cases, but sometimes more severe. There is gout on both sides of my family, and they say it is heriditary, so no surprise there, I guess. <br />
<br />
So when my knee quit on me, I assumed that it was just a terrifically bad gout flare-up. But it didn't feel right--there was no redness and it wasn't painful to touch, at least not in the way that gout is. I lived with it for a few days, then I started feeling like other joints were hurting, so finally, reluctantly, on Christmas Day in the evening, I called the Clinic. I couldn't drive, so the nurse on call came and picked me up. As she happened also to be on ambulance duty, she picked my up in the ambulance. So I guess now I can no longer say that I have never ridden in an ambulance, though since I sat in the front passenger seat, I can still say I've never ridden in the back of one.<br />
<br />
Anyway, she studied my knee for some time, asked lots of questions, consulted the doctor, and finally said, "Maybe it's arthritis. Maybe you're just getting old." Ordinarily I might have been offended, but she was so nice about it that I just couldn't muster up any ire. In the end, she gave me a crutch to use and made an appointment for me to see a doctor after Christmas. As for the pains I was feeling in my other joints, that was probably just a result of the weird, twisted way that I was forced to move when I needed to.<br />
<br />
When I went to see the doctor, I was no longer in pain and we went through the usual question and answer time, blood pressure check and so on. We talked about my knee(s), and what the possible problem might be. Finally, she put a hand on my knee and asked me to straighten and bend my leg a few times. Halfway through the first flex, she said, "oh, wow! Yes, that's definitely osteo arthritis, it's just bone on bone in there!" Then she felt the other one and said, "Yep, that one too!" We talked about what could be done and she advised me that knee replacement surgery might be an option (sometime when I am not in PNG), but that replacement knees only last 10 years and they can only be replaced 2 times and then there's apparently not enough bone left to attach a new knee to, so many doctors won't consider doing a knee replacement on somebody under 50-60 years old.<br />
<br />
Awesome. No wonder I hate going to the doctor.<br />
<br />
I'm in my mid 40's. I don't feel old. I feel like I am way to young to have arthritis. Admittedly, I have not been kind to my knees in my life. They've been through more than their fair share of trauma, starting way back in kindergarten when I fell under the school playground carousel/merry-go-round and got dragged. While being dragged, my knee hit a big stone that was sticking out of the ground and it really hurt. Eventually it stopped hurting and I more or less forgot about it, though that knee never did like to be bent for very long.<br />
<br />
In my late 20's, I was in a minor motorcycle accident which hyper extended both knees, and of course there have been various injuries to both knees over the years that I have pretty much forgotten about. <br />
<br />
Add to all that the fact that all my life I've gone either barefoot, flip-flops or cheap steel toed work boots. And pretty much every job I've ever had involves standing and walking around on concrete floors all day. I don't think I've owned more than 6 pairs of sneakers in my life. I don't care for sneakers, the ones I have owned always disappointed me with how expensive they were and how quickly they wore out. However, because I was suffering these various pains, I tried all different kinds of insoles and looked into putting rubber mats in my work area, (those rubber pads are expensive, so I haven't gotten one yet). Eventually I discovered Merrill shoes, which are comfy and seem to hold up well, so those are what I wear most of the time now. <br />
<br />
And of course, being overweight for most of my life hasn't helped either. There have been several times over the years when I lost significant amounts of weight, but it's only ever been temporary, and the weight always comes back with reinforcements. Obviously the key here is diet and exercise, but it's tough to exercise when you can't walk and when you've been warned that your knees are worn out. It's also tough to diet when the most affordable food is bread. Lately I've just been trying the most basic of diets; simply eat less food. I eat very little sugar and I try to keep my carbohydrate intake down.<br />
<br />
Anyway. This week I've had another bad arthritis flare up. I don't know if maybe the weather has been affecting it, (it's rained every day here for weeks, there have been mudslides and road and bridge washouts all over the country). So I've been holed in in my bunker (garage) "convalescing", I guess, catching up on e-mails, communicating with a friend in Albania who is writing a book and is interviewing me for part of it, watching old movies, that kind of thing.<br />
<br />
It used to be that when this kind of thing happened I would get impatient with everybody around me and would whine and moan to God about why it was happening to me, "Lord," I would say, "I only want to do the job you sent me here to do! Why have you allowed this? People are depending on me! How is this part of your will?" Basically trying to point out to God (silly me) that there was no reason for this, and that if it just didn't happen, we'd all be better off. Silly me.<br />
<br />
And then one day I heard a recorded sermon from one of our supporting churches in England, where the pastor talked about trials, tribulation and pain in our lives and how we respond to it. "Next time you are in a situation like that," he said, "instead of saying 'Oh, Lord, why me?' why not ask, 'Oh Lord, what are you doing in my life? And try to find out what it is that he may be doing."<br />
<br />
I have to admit that when I am down for a week and incapacitated, I do spend more time in the Word and in prayer and I have been focussing on being less of a bear to be around. More than once I've had the thought, "How sad would it be if the only way that God can get my attention is when I'm incapacitated?"<br />
<br />
I've said a number of things in this post that are probably heretical and will likely raise a few eyebrows among some of my theologian friends. Don't worry, guys. I'm not claiming to have it all figured out, and I'm aware of the fact that some of what I have said here could be seen as suggestions that God hurt my knee so that I would talk to Him. That's not the thought I am intending to convey because I don't think that's how he works. <br />
<br />
Anyway, I'm still learning how to live with arthritis. I guess I just didn't expect to have to start learning that until I was, I dunno, 80 or something.<br />
<br />
I'm thinking of making myself a set of C3PO knees.<br />
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<br />Andrew the Mechanichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892382984050173618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321581669127117736.post-86530743905213479052018-10-10T00:12:00.000+10:002018-10-10T08:56:36.205+10:00And Then There Was One<br />
So! Last month the Grahams left PNG for the last time. Well, maybe not the last time, who can say if they may not come back to visit some time? But they sold their house, sold their beat-up old Toyota Hilux, packed up whatever they wanted to keep and shipped it back to the US.<br />
<br />
So who were they? They were translators here in PNG, and God blessed their efforts to translate the Bible into one of the languages of PNG. It was a long, hard slog and though it ends well, their PNG story has more than its fair share of heartbreak in it, especially in the early years.<br />
<br />
But who were they to me? Aside from being my neighbors here in Ukarumpa, (they lived just a few doors away) they were also at my POC. Not as fellow students, but as staff members. In 2002 they were on staff at the Pacific Orientation Course, the place where I learned so much about Melanesian culture and where I learned Melanesian Pidgin during my first 15 weeks in country.<br />
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<i>The students (and some of the staff members) of the February 2002 Pacific Orientation Course. All gone now, except for the hairy guy in the back row. </i><br />
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I'm sure the Grahams had their doubts about my long term PNG survival; although I was quick to pick up the language, I struggled a bit with other things. Melanesian culture is all about relationships, and I've always been a fiercely independent sort of guy. I'll admit it, some aspects of the culture are hard for me. The Grahams were always kind and gracious to me at POC, no matter what doubts they may (or may not) have had.<br />
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<i>Heading out on a three day hike during my POC training. I was elected as "hike leader" which in itself was a valuable learning experience! </i><br />
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<i> As part of my language and culture training, I lived with this family in their village in Madang Province for 5 weeks.</i><br />
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Each POC group is different. Some groups really "gel" and become close friends for the rest of their careers in PNG; others, not so much. My own POC group never got super close--after POC I think we got together one time for a picnic and that was pretty much it. We didn't hate each other, we just all spread out to different areas and moved in different circles. Still, we had all been through POC together and though we may not have made much of that fact, it was still a fact.<br />
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As the years piled up behind us, various people left for various reasons. The couple who had been the directors of our POC retired, some of my fellow students ended up moving on to other countries, others left for personal or health reasons, and some of them stayed until they felt called to leave. There are lots of reasons why people leave.<br />
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Eventually only the Grahams were left from the staff of the February 2002 POC, and only myself and the Scott family were left of the students. Then the Scotts left, and it was just me and the Grahams, last survivors of that particular session of POC.<br />
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And now the Grahams are gone, too, and, to quote Job's servants, "I alone have escaped to tell you about it."<br />
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16 years ago (almot 17 now!) I never would have guessed that I would be the last member of that group to still be here. God has been good to me, he has provided for all of my needs here and so much more. Certainly "more than I could ask or imagine".<br />
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Andrew the Mechanichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892382984050173618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321581669127117736.post-66441023924822173912018-06-27T11:09:00.000+10:002018-06-29T12:01:54.827+10:00Back at WorkOkay, so first things first:<br />
<br />
The Grand Furlough Experiment RV was a bust. Didn't work out. I never got the generator working (a blow to my personal professional pride, if I'm honest, I mean, it's just a small generator, I've repaired dozens of them before, why did this one stubbornly refuse to cooperate?). In the end, I sold it for less than I had in it, which was less than ideal, especially as I had just put all new tires on it.<br />
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*sigh*<br />
<br />
Chalk one up to experience, lesson learned. In the end I did buy a car, I bought a 2007 Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor. In it's former life it was a Raleigh, North Carolina police car. It was cheap, it runs good, drives good, and I like it. It's almost as good as the '89 Crown Vic cop car I used to have before I went to PNG. In some ways it is better.<br />
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The whole family likes it. I'm sure I'm permanently warping my kids' taste in cars, but I'm okay with that. We parked it at a relative's place when we left and I expect we'll use it again next time we're stateside.<br />
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Speaking of that, yes, we are back in PNG now. We've actually been back for several months and have gotten back into the normal swing of things.<br />
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Now, the real reason why I am writing this today:<br />
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Among the motorcycles that I work on here are a number of mid 1980's Honda XL250R's. If you know these bikes, you likely know that although they are powered by single cylinder engines, they are equipped with dual carburetors. In fact it would be more correct to think of them as a single 2 barrel carburetor, because that's how it works--at idle, only one carb is actually open, and as you add throttle the other begins to open. The linkage between the two is arranged in such a way that when the first carb is about 1/3 to 1/2 open, the other starts to open and they both reach full open at the same time. Very much like an old car equipped with a 4 barrel carb--low speed driving/riding is done using only half of the carb, but at higher speeds the whole carburetor is at work. In theory, the system gives you all of the advantages of both a small and a large carburetor.<br />
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Why is this important? Well, those old "dual carb" Hondas use a unique cylinder head. Later, when Honda abandoned the progressive carb in favor of one big carb, they changed the cylinder head casting so that the 2 heads are not really interchangeable. It is possible to bolt a single carb head onto an engine that was originally equipped with a dual carb head, but then you run into all kinds of problems when you try to put it back into a frame that was originally equipped with a dual carb engine.<br />
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Why is that important? Well, all those old dual carb heads are cracking now. It's true that the cylinder head is designed in such a way that there is very little material between the spark plug hole and the exhaust valves, (which is where they crack) but in Honda's defense, Honda probably never expected people to still be riding these bikes 30+ years after they were made. Nevertheless, they are still good bikes and as long as the head isn't cracked, they are pretty easy to keep running.<br />
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Where am I going with this? Well, over the years I have seen a number of XL250R's, (and a couple of '84-'85 XR250R's, which use the same cylinder head) retired simply because of cylinder head cracks. Finding an uncracked head nowdays is extremely difficult--in fact when I go looking on eBay, 9 times out of 10 the heads being sold there are cracked ones. I'm guessing that the sellers probably don't know any better, but if you know what to look for and if the seller has included a picture of the combustion chamber, it's easy to see. One poor friend of mine here, while on a trip to the US, paid $300 for a head from a junkyard in California, carried it here in her suitcase, and gave it to me to use on her bike, only to have me tell her 30 seconds later that the new head was cracked as well.<br />
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Anyway, the upshot of all this is that there are a number of overwise perfectly good old bikes floating around here with unusable engines. Some time ago I started wondering what other people around the world were doing with their old XL250R rolling chassis, so naturally I consulted the interweb. I had a couple of ideas that I thought would probably work, but I wanted to know what other people were doing.<br />
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Imagine my surprise when I found that there are basically NO pictures of repowered XL250R's on the internet. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, really--I mean, who would bother with a 30 year old dual sport bike? Anyway, I mean to rectify that situation today. Here is a series of pictures of 2 things that you can do to repower your XL250R:<br />
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Zongshen/Lifan engine. This would be a super easy one to do. I had an XL250R on my bench with no engine in it and so I experimentally dropped an old Zongshen 200 into it:<br />
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This would be a super easy mod to do--the front and rear upper motor mounts almost line up as is! You'd probably have to line up the rear upper mount, then make up new mounts for all the others, at least that's the way I'd do it. The downside of course, is that you'd be going down a fair amount in power, but if you're living in a place like PNG, where just getting the bike going again is the most important thing, you could certainly do a lot worse than a Zongshen or Lifan Honda CG clone. You could even work out a way to hook up the electric start.<br />
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There is plenty of clearance for the exhaust pipe.<br />
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and the intake is even more or less pointed at one of the intakes to the original dual carbs! It's almost like it was meant to be. This would be a super easy repower.<br />
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Access to the oil filler is not too good, but a bit of the frame (the flat part immediately above the swing arm pivot) could easily be cut away here without sacrificing too much strength.<br />
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And here is my OTHER idea, the one I'm somewhat excited about and I'll tell you why in a minute:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuR4bbjLNko-5ERcAmYiFRLoYbQCzu7pok7hIsNtcK7t03wZhxQ5JReqJu0CDlZmF83e54CcfqiuzymZIfRITm9ZFSvkRm_twDschCVf3-FB_Wh8GpcoO7Df-eiKEVi2-ASJrqXKXemDiE/s1600/P1000314croppedresized.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1286" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuR4bbjLNko-5ERcAmYiFRLoYbQCzu7pok7hIsNtcK7t03wZhxQ5JReqJu0CDlZmF83e54CcfqiuzymZIfRITm9ZFSvkRm_twDschCVf3-FB_Wh8GpcoO7Df-eiKEVi2-ASJrqXKXemDiE/s320/P1000314croppedresized.jpg" width="254" /></a></div>
A Honda CMX250 "Rebel" engine. Okay, so it's not the most obvious choice, but let me explain why I like it. 250 Rebels (and their ancestors, the CM185 and CM200 Twinstars) have been around since the late 1970's. Engines are fairly cheap and easy to find. This one I built out of parts of three motors, including all the kickstart mechanism of an old CM185, since the Rebels don't have kickstarters and I like any bike that is being used here to have a kickstarter, even if it's just a back-up for the electric start. But Rebel parts are easy to get and there are millions of them out there. If you are not familiar with the engines, they are 250cc twins and they have appeared in numerous Hondas around the world, such as the CA250 Benly, the CB250 Superdream, CB250 Nighthawk, CM250, CMX250, and possibly others I am forgetting. On top of that, the chinese have copied it for various different bikes (and possibly ATV's?), so some really inexpensive parts are available out there if you don't mind buying chinese.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl1qZREO7sSU9xogzP-dSbWYwCcpwi6RAbLIUROlCfVe_lTzs6vpGYlTWyHxoAABZPrKtqQ-07Pku6U2jBFKrTquuRABxhgGi-6zUqGZXbPdF4cGUV8GrT546vZBXINnVZlJV1Z251UUlh/s1600/P1000315croppedresized.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1430" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl1qZREO7sSU9xogzP-dSbWYwCcpwi6RAbLIUROlCfVe_lTzs6vpGYlTWyHxoAABZPrKtqQ-07Pku6U2jBFKrTquuRABxhgGi-6zUqGZXbPdF4cGUV8GrT546vZBXINnVZlJV1Z251UUlh/s320/P1000315croppedresized.jpg" width="229" /></a></div>
In this case, I made up some mounting plates that picked up the original XL250R front mounting points. I was pretty happy with how these turned out. The Rebel engine's front mounts are 3mm wider than the XL's frame mounts, and the way I mounted this engine, all of that 3mm ended up on the right side, which means that there is a 3mm thick shim between the frame and the mounting plate on that side. I also had to relieve the frame a bit to clear the starter--this was probably the hardest part of the job so far, but I'm happy with how it turned out. The starter motor in this picture came from the same CM185 engine as the kick start mechanism did, which means that it is a 6V starter. I'm planning to just leave it in there and see how long it will last. My 12V VW beetle had a 6V starter in it for years and it seemed to work just fine, naturally a 6V motorcycle starter isn't nearly as big as a 6V car starter, but we'll see how long it will last.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSNQiDexF4Bqik0Y2d4wprmGSflgiMQxaktFHcQH8gzrrmW0f6F8Nrw_pixETfsmO6Z6i75Nw93LKRCyRhCzZ4I8sPh01pSVA7NEeOOR1ZlIavqo10w6mTC2Ilu3GsF8kaExL7safw5AFz/s1600/P1000319croppedresized.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1276" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSNQiDexF4Bqik0Y2d4wprmGSflgiMQxaktFHcQH8gzrrmW0f6F8Nrw_pixETfsmO6Z6i75Nw93LKRCyRhCzZ4I8sPh01pSVA7NEeOOR1ZlIavqo10w6mTC2Ilu3GsF8kaExL7safw5AFz/s320/P1000319croppedresized.jpg" width="256" /></a></div>
Here you can see how I relieved the frame for the starter--there is actually a carefully shaped plate welded over the hole that resulted when I relieved the frame.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIXDfkrIOHd3RvRkX2pvcmNX_lBMFyhL_jBpMMkVcqcEFpxrTwZ-bXk2YM9mRSIbVHl5nUEjb3SZ-MVWhzsxaJJXrz2zAbwDVXSMgpdhCXcRm6rZfePfI47UyVPBnE59m7N1mqxfS9AHq4/s1600/P1000321croppedresized.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="716" data-original-width="1024" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIXDfkrIOHd3RvRkX2pvcmNX_lBMFyhL_jBpMMkVcqcEFpxrTwZ-bXk2YM9mRSIbVHl5nUEjb3SZ-MVWhzsxaJJXrz2zAbwDVXSMgpdhCXcRm6rZfePfI47UyVPBnE59m7N1mqxfS9AHq4/s320/P1000321croppedresized.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Here's the rear mount I made up--the gray part. It bolts in where the original engine's upper rear mount went. It has two tabs welded on to it that reach down and pick up the Rebel's upper rear engine mount.<br />
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Underneath, I found that the lower rear Rebel engine mount was the same width as the original XL250R, so all I had to do there was cut out the original mounts and make up new ones to weld onto the stubs of the old ones.<br />
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I still have not got the exhaust made up, but I don't anticipate any problems there. I'm a little more apprehensive about the carburetor--rather than using the original Rebel single carb (it would run into the rear shock so I can't use it) I am going with a dual carb set-up such as is used on the European version of the CB250. I'll let you know how it goes!<br />
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So there! Now I've fixed a gaping hole in the internet. Now thee are pics of what you can do with an old XL250R chassis.<br />
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<br />Andrew the Mechanichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892382984050173618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321581669127117736.post-91125284484431569712017-08-28T15:07:00.001+10:002017-08-29T00:57:25.586+10:00The Grand Furlough Experiment<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
“Clare?” I hollered over my
shoulder, “Fridge!” It was pretty much routine now.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
“I'm ready!” she called from
somewhere in the dark far behind me.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The kids were all sleeping, the
thundering of the mighty 454 V8 next to me slowed as I lifted my foot
off the throttle and gently applied the brakes. Carefully, I eased
into the curve.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
So we're on furlough now. I
know, it's supposed to be called “secondment return period” or
“home assignment” or something like that these days, but in my
mind, it's still just “furlough”. Like so many things in life, it's good and it's bad. Good to see family and friends, good to experience so many of the freedoms we have in the US and the UK, bad because it involves incessant traveling and doing that part of my job that I am least confident about my ability to do well, that is speaking in churches. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
We have in the past often dreamed
about how nice it might be to have a motorhome for our travels in the
US. New motorhomes are well beyond out price range, but hey, I'm a
mechanic, how hard could it be to pick up an old one and fix it up?
Right?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
So we decided to do an
experiment. I started looking through craigslist ads in the area
where my parents live and asked them to look at several of the more
promising ones. We set ourselves a limit of $5000. We eventually
ended up with a 1988 Coachmen Catalina for $4000. It's 31 feet long
and, somewhat remarkably, had only a little over 25,000 miles on it.
Also the roof had recently been sealed with a quality sealant.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDVtX0d4IxlFTmecJs_DynUScSWh-jG4BF8TjFHDQofqoFGS6TOf9jPWxtqBi7Np-Z7FD298PqRn-jFVyDwkbikyYOBvWuae2UR4BmQTE2tTf2rDeHuFwbskJ2mJ977F_jvEj83LJzKJi-/s1600/1988+Coachmen+Catalina.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDVtX0d4IxlFTmecJs_DynUScSWh-jG4BF8TjFHDQofqoFGS6TOf9jPWxtqBi7Np-Z7FD298PqRn-jFVyDwkbikyYOBvWuae2UR4BmQTE2tTf2rDeHuFwbskJ2mJ977F_jvEj83LJzKJi-/s320/1988+Coachmen+Catalina.jpg" width="320" /></a> </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Normally, when I buy a used car,
the first thing I do is put new tires on it. I know how important
good quality tires can be for safety, but in this case the previous
owner assured us that it had new tires on the rear. So we decided to
get new ones only for the front. As they were kind of an odd size,
we ordered them online. While waiting for them to arrive, I
discovered that the previous owner had not been perfectly honest
about the condition of the rear tires—they were old, and out of 4
tires, 3 different manufacturers were represented. One of then
looked like it had good tread on it, but it was the lowest quality
one of the bunch. In fact, an identical one that had been on the
front had gone flat while the previous owner was driving the motor
home to my parents' house. And another one, also flat, was found on
the spare wheel.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
We also discovered that the
generator was not working, though it looked like it could be
repaired. Since we were planning to be in Waxhaw, North Carolina on
the 21<sup>st</sup>, I had the new rear tires and the parts to repair
the generator shipped there.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
And then something happened. When the
new front tires arrived, there was only one of them. The other was
supposed to show up in a couple days, maybe. Anyway, we ended up
with an extra week in Florida waiting for it to arrive, much to the
delight of my parents!
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Since we had time to kill, Dad
and I did some work on the brakes, on the lights, and on various
other things that needed attention. Eventually the missing tire
arrived and we had it installed.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Was it all ready to go? Not
really. We had new tires on the front, the engine ran good, the
transmission shifted properly, the brakes worked, the lights worked,
it was good enough for the 600+ mile trip to Waxhaw. During my last
test drive, the refrigerator tipped over when I went around a curve,
but I put it back into place and made a mental note not to take
corners too fast. As the dash board AC wasn't working and the roof
AC wasn't usable on the road, we decided to travel at night. Night
time would also mean cooler road temperatures, and I was hoping that
would make life easier for the rear tires. I knew that if I could
keep the tire temperatures down, that would maximise the chances of
them lasting 600 miles.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
So finally the day came. We
spent much of the day loading up our stuff, (how have we ended up
with so much stuff?), and at around 7 p.m. we headed out onto the
road. It started to rain pretty heavily, which was fine with me as
it kept road temperatures and ambient temperatures down. Travelling
at night, raining, and keeping our speed down around 55-60 mph, I
figured our rear tires just might make it.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The journey was not without
it's little hassles. Every time we went around a right turn the
fridge would tip over. (Clare and I worked out a system where I
would call out “Clare! Fridge!” and she would rush over and
brace herself against it to keep it from tipping.) The cruise control
didn't work. It was hot and the windows weren't really big enough to
get a good breeze in, but the wind noise was pretty loud, loud enough
to make conversation difficult without shouting. When it got really
dark, we also discovered that none of the 12V interior lights were
working, nor was the water pump for the sink, toilet and shower. On
the plus side, the engine ran great, the temperature gauge never got
hot, the oil pressure was perfect, the charging system was rock
steady at around 13 volts. And driving in the rain had not revealed
any leaks.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
We made it out of Florida, then
through a small part of Georgia that we had to cross. We crossed the
border into South Carolina and I was feeling pretty confident. Only
150 miles to go. Once or twice I looked down and realised that I was
edging up to 65 mph.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
And then something else happened. A little
after 3 a.m., a little north of Savannah, in the middle of nowhere,
BANG! Clare was up in the front seat and yelled “What was that?!”
“We've blown a tire!” I hollered back. We were in no immediate
danger—there are 4 tires on the rear axle, so with one blown out we
could continue rolling on 3. My greatest concern was that the
remaining tire was now overloaded and might blow out in turn, or that
pieces of the blown out tire might cause damage to the remaining good
tire. I turned on my hazards (emergency flashers) and slowed down to
45 mph. Thankfully, we were only a mile from Exit 28, (Coosawatchie,
South Carolina) so I decided to limp into there rather than try to
put on the spare on the side of the road.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Exit 28 proved to be almost
completely empty. I followed signs to the nearest gas station, which
was also a small truck stop. I investigated the rear tires, and sure
enough, one of the inside tires, (the low quality one that had the
best tread) was blown out. No problem, I had a spare. Admittedly
the spare was not in any better condition than the other rear tires
had been when we set out, but...</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
So I got out the tools to change
the tire. I wasn't real happy with the jack, but it was there, so I
put it in place and started lifting the motor home off of the ground.
It was extrememly hard to use and eventually, (before the wheels
were lifted off of the ground), it broke. It was then that I took
another look at it and realised that it wasn't a jack at all, it was
a leveling jack, which was never intended to bear the full weight of
the vehicle. I made a mental note to buy a good quality hydraulic
jack as soon as I could.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Frustrated, tired, hot and
absolutely drenched in sweat, (rivers of it were running down my
nose!), I climbed back in to the driver's seat and moved the motor
home into an empty parking spot next to a semi/lorry. Before we had
left, a good friend of mine in Waxhaw had told me to call him if we
had any trouble, so I asked Clare to give him a ring. It was around
3:30 in the morning.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Well, long story short we didn't
get ahold of our friend until almost 8 a.m., and it took him a little
while to get ready. We spent the time trying to catch up on sleep,
(tricky to do with temperatures around 90F when you are not used to
it and when you are covered in a mix of sweat, axle grease and South
Carolina sand). I managed to doze a bit, and a little after 1p.m. he
showed up. He had with him several jacks and other tools and parts.
Together he and I got the spare tire on and then he followed up most
of the way back to Waxhaw.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
So that was our first motor home
experience! Things to fix:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
--dashboard air con. This will
make it much less tiring to drive.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
--cruise control. This will make
it much less tiring to drive.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
--generator. This will make it
much easier to actually live in.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
--12V power in the house part. So
that we can have working lights, outlets, and running water even when
we are running down the road.<br />
--get the new rear tires installed.<br />
--get a good jack that is big enough to do the job!! </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
--that cabinet under the
refrigerator!
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
Andrew the Mechanichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892382984050173618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321581669127117736.post-55626738847719786582016-11-29T17:00:00.001+10:002016-11-29T17:00:14.460+10:00The CHEVOTA Part 2 engine installed So Ben left PNG a few weeks ago now. But before he left, he and I managed to get the Chevy 350 engine into the Land Cruiser:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt8wFuvNw89rFc7Qaj9zZgfABvNd20ba3_x5vKRUYeG-SZVbX31hTqA8u5Ecwre2wF9i-GC160l303b_VOHTV1jJMMh9vvYLacb7I4pO832d1JrL7FmEuhlrWQdHs8GHavtgZtco_I-ON8/s1600/IMG_1420.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt8wFuvNw89rFc7Qaj9zZgfABvNd20ba3_x5vKRUYeG-SZVbX31hTqA8u5Ecwre2wF9i-GC160l303b_VOHTV1jJMMh9vvYLacb7I4pO832d1JrL7FmEuhlrWQdHs8GHavtgZtco_I-ON8/s320/IMG_1420.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnW41A72okwRjy9cBdqu0QIySo-Trvqpulfebz4-8xeXa0EUDTEFaTVm-tWapDRiDUwPsE-1WiWGxtjjaL5i7FlDYnWJrAnwY4jly2qVQKN8qhxelE80TRiC_Q-5ZuAZl_b8g9CRvuQOSn/s1600/IMG_1425.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnW41A72okwRjy9cBdqu0QIySo-Trvqpulfebz4-8xeXa0EUDTEFaTVm-tWapDRiDUwPsE-1WiWGxtjjaL5i7FlDYnWJrAnwY4jly2qVQKN8qhxelE80TRiC_Q-5ZuAZl_b8g9CRvuQOSn/s320/IMG_1425.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBJVURz6jJIhZaAOm38w68_nb1Md-PK6bpSl3Ac7d6FYcIbbUGzLHbmaFyqv8lNZs1NjUNa9jAOdX28ZmuD8_QvcrbInZHdZvZXGr6SSBLPZG5jY7zirO24kdTVbIiyCNIQ46O53ujXi-c/s1600/IMG_1437.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBJVURz6jJIhZaAOm38w68_nb1Md-PK6bpSl3Ac7d6FYcIbbUGzLHbmaFyqv8lNZs1NjUNa9jAOdX28ZmuD8_QvcrbInZHdZvZXGr6SSBLPZG5jY7zirO24kdTVbIiyCNIQ46O53ujXi-c/s320/IMG_1437.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip6V4O6_aF11C55OwhYFuLAoj0bg_MGqt90M3c-6qtGJQXdFMbziBXUlaaMoaFRzXnOb5MNKrVh0slJPQ04ejBtnWRl54U_y9hg6tZmm9mLNOJwI6UtnXtpbwVHYmtzhNjqiJFrXJIQDeO/s1600/IMG_1446.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip6V4O6_aF11C55OwhYFuLAoj0bg_MGqt90M3c-6qtGJQXdFMbziBXUlaaMoaFRzXnOb5MNKrVh0slJPQ04ejBtnWRl54U_y9hg6tZmm9mLNOJwI6UtnXtpbwVHYmtzhNjqiJFrXJIQDeO/s320/IMG_1446.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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And because the internet is so slow these days, it just took me 15 minutes to up load these 4 pictures. Will add more later.Andrew the Mechanichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892382984050173618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321581669127117736.post-89113327490764105102016-06-27T10:19:00.002+10:002016-06-27T10:21:43.044+10:00Andrew the Mechanichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892382984050173618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321581669127117736.post-41715025885795688592016-06-27T10:19:00.001+10:002016-06-27T10:24:20.812+10:00the CHEVOTA, part one: the V8<br />
Alright, so if you've been paying attention, you know that some time ago we got a new rescue truck for the shop, a 2002 Ford F350 with the big, bad, beautiful 7.3 litre International turbo diesel V8. And it has been great. Going out on a rescue knowing that you have enough power, weight, and traction to pull a Land Cruiser out of a ditch SIDEWAYS is an awesome feeling (if you are into that sort of thing, and I am). Also, having 6 big, lockable tool storage lockers is something you quickly come to appreciate after you've had a few tools and jacks stolen. That and still having a full length cargo area and 4-6 seats in the cab, (I could go on and on); suffice it to say that our F350 is truly an awesome PNG rescue vehicle and one I thank God for providing every time I use it. <br />
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Our old rescue truck was a late 1990's Toyota Land Cruiser pick-up truck, (an HZJ75 for those who want to know). Old, beat-up, half-a-million hard kilometers on it, seems like every time we took it out we discovered yet another area where it was lacking something we needed. And yet...<br />
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There are times and places where the Land Cruiser is still the better vehicle. A rescue out in a place where the bridges are nothing more than a couple of logs laying across a river, or where the risk of damage to the rescue vehicle is particularly high either due to road conditions or due to unrest among the tribes in the area where the rescue needs to happen. In short, if we have to lose one or the other, we'd certainly rather lose the Toyota.<br />
<br />
So the Land Cruiser is lighter than the Ford, has good 4x4 capability, and is more expenadable. It is also (perhaps surprisingly in a country where Toyota is pretty much far and away #1 in sales of new vehicles) harder to support. The Ford is no problem; if we need a part, we simply look up the part number, contact our co-workers in North Carolina, ask them to buy it and ship it to us and in a month or so it's here. No drama. The Toyota on the other hand can be a huge hassle. Finding part numbers can be a pain, trying to figure out exactly what you need with the dealer (often while communicating in a mix of English and Pidgin) can be a pain, and then it still takes a month to get the part from Lae (around 250 km from here). Then we often discover that we've been sent the wrong part and have to start all over again! And before you suggest it, getting parts for a General Export Market Land Cruiser from Australia or from the US is not the neat solution you might think it would be. In their infinite wisdom, most car manufacturers make very different cars for different markets, and I'm not talking about just different engines or different emissions control systems, oh, no! Simple things like tie rod ends, ball joints, suspension parts, things that we have to replace all the time here are usually not interchangeable from one market to the next. Plus a car sold here as new in 2005 might not be anything like one that was new in Australia in 2005, but might more closely correspond with one that was new in say, 1997. So we've learned over the years that it's best to try to get the parts from our local dealers, even though it's a hassle and they tend to be very expensive.<br />
<br />
So back to the Old Black Land Cruiser. We had another similar truck in the fleet that was due for retirement. We stripped it down and transferred a lot of its good parts to the Black Land Cruiser, which caused it to become the old Black and White Land Cruiser now. The engine from the retired truck was still good, but we saved it for another truck, which means that the Old Black (and now White) Land Cruiser was still suffering with a worn out 1HZ diesel engine. Because a lot of us in the shop are sort of natural born hot-rodders, we used to laugh and joke about how cool it might be to put a 350 Chevy engine in the shop Land Cruiser. "Hahaha!" we'd say, "cool idea, but it'll never happen." this was usually followed by a collective sigh. Not that we dislike the original diesel engine, it's fine, and not bad for a diesel, but it's nothing special, either. 1HZ fuel mileage is terrible, power is so-so, they don't handle abuse terribly well, and they can be expensive to support.<br />
<br />
So when it became clear to us that we needed to keep the old truck around as a general use/extreme rescue truck, (replacing it with a new truck wasn't an option for us--I won't get into that right now), and when it became clear that we needed to either rebuild or replace the engine in it, we did a feasability study. We checked on what it would cost to rebuild the original engine, (doing the work ourselves here in our own shop) vs. replacing it with a brand new small block Chevy V8 and the assorted adapters needed to install it. After months of research, it eventually became clear that the cost of rebuilding the Toyota engine was going to be almost exactly the same as converting to Chevy power.<br />
<br />
At the time, me and Ben were managing the shop, so it became our decision. We thought about it for a while. On the one hand we'd end up with a rebuilt Toyota engine, an engine that was adequate at best, got lousy mileage (for a diesel) and really wasn't the best engine for our use (lots of short trips) and on top of all that was hard to support and getting harder to support. On the other hand, we'd end up with a completely new engine, one that is perhaps the easiest engine in the world to support and (perhaps surprisingly) gets just as good a fuel mileage.<br />
<br />
Yeah, it wasn't a hard decision. Last Saturday Ben and I started getting the engine ready for install (happy, happy, happy):<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxlQx_yklHGSGhXMcU37BwjefUAgLbuYNi0NqFk04vVZOHBY1Um47p_vsOux-ADau1o_qQ9JmC5AvuOFUUqerNIZiA4pnSQ4Tqds5kKsrks7DR_UrNBxkn6UGdi-bFNT9S-hp8ExP5WHrB/s1600/IMG_1165.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxlQx_yklHGSGhXMcU37BwjefUAgLbuYNi0NqFk04vVZOHBY1Um47p_vsOux-ADau1o_qQ9JmC5AvuOFUUqerNIZiA4pnSQ4Tqds5kKsrks7DR_UrNBxkn6UGdi-bFNT9S-hp8ExP5WHrB/s320/IMG_1165.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Andrew the Mechanichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892382984050173618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321581669127117736.post-86825529397183288782016-04-06T16:04:00.000+10:002016-04-06T16:04:35.360+10:00Ben Parry<br />
Over the years, I've seen dozens of people come and go from this place. A lot of the guys who work on the support side of missions, (mechanics, plumbers, welders, carpenters, etc.) seem to have a very difficult time raising the funds they need to be able to stay here long term. And so, every couple of years or so, we lose valuable workers and good friends.<br />
<br />
Take my friend Ben Parry, for example. Ben is a good mechanic, but like many of us who are good with our hands, he's not very good at selling himself. He'd rather just plug away at his job, quietly doing good work and being as low maintenance as possible. Such people are often important, even vital to supporting the work of Bible Translation, and yet, because they are not good at being "squeaky wheels", they are easily overlooked, forgotten, or taken for granted.<br />
<br />
Ben's financial support is not so hot. Because he is not very good at hyping himself, I've decided to write a letter about him and about how important he is to the work that is going on here in PNG. Here it is:<br />
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<i><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>22nd
March, 2016</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<i>
</i><div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>To Whom It May Concern:</span></i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<i>
</i><div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>My name is Andrew Koens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would
like to talk to you about Ben Parry, and what a great asset he is to the
Ukarumpa Autoshop,but first a little background as to who I am and why I am
writing this. </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<i>
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<i><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since 2002, I have worked in Papua New Guinea
with Wycliffe Bible Translators.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am
primarily a motorcycle and small engine mechanic, but because we are usually
understaffed, I have had to learn to do and be many other things over the
years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Welding, auto electrical, buying
and shipping parts and equipment from overseas, these are all areas where I
have needed to become proficient.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Lately, we have been critically short on managerial staff and I have
been learning to do that as well.</span></i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<i>
</i><div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>From time to time over the years, our workshop has been fortunate enough
to be fully staffed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those are the times
when our shop functions best, when we can offer the best possible support for
the Bible translators and when we can offer the best training to our national
co-workers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we are fully staffed,
we are able to help people from other missions and people from communities all
over PNG.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we are fully staffed, it
becomes possible to devote time and energy to exploring new (or old)
technologies that might be appropriate for use here: Technologies like
sustainable alternative fuel production, methods of generating electricity in
remote villages,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>coming up with a
vehicle that would be truly "PNG proof", that sort of thing.</span></i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<i>
</i><div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Perhaps the biggest barrier to our being fully staffed is finances.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Men who are great mechanics and good at
hands-on, nitty-gritty, behind-the-scenes support work are seldom good at
raising the finances they need to be able to stay here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know because I have seen many of them
come, work here for a while, and then have to leave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fixing and improving machines is hardly the
stuff of legends, our culture typically doesn't make heroes out of guys who fix
trucks or repair generators, nobody would watch a webcam feed from our
workshop, it'd be boring. </span></i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<i>
</i><div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But nevertheless, these people who quietly plug away behind the scenes
are needed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here in PNG, there are
dozens of translators from around the world and from within PNG who depend on
us to help keep their four wheel drive trucks running so that they can get to
the remote locations where they work, their generators working so that they can
keep computer batteries charged up or as back-up for their solar panels during
the rainy season, their chainsaws working so that they can mill the lumber
needed to build village houses and translation offices and training
centres.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thousands of people all over
PNG rely on our workshop to maintain the huge, heavy duty lawnmowers which they
use to keep their airstrips open in some of the most remote, hard-to-reach
areas on earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of the services we
offer are simply not available anywhere else in country.</span></i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<i>
</i><div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Ben Parry has been a member of our team for some time now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He brings expertise and a good attitude,
which are extremely valuable to us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ben
is a talented mechanic who has a good understanding of the 4 wheel drive trucks
and other vehicles and machines that he encounters here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our Papua New Guinean co-workers often ask
for his advice and opinion when dealing with complex maintenance or repair
problems, and he willingly helps them to understand the issues and how to
resolve them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He also takes time when he
can to teach about various automotive technologies, aiming to increase the level
of expertise out on the shop floor, so that our employees/trainees can become
really proficient at what they do.</span></i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<i>
</i><div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Ben has also become something of an expert at sourcing hard to find
parts for some of the vehicles we work on here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For a lot of reasons, cars and trucks used by missionaries here are a
bewildering mix of Australian, American, Indonesian, Japanese and General
Export market specification vehicles, so keeping up with what vehicles need
which parts and where to get those parts can be very difficult, but Ben has
really done wonders in spite of this challenge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He also has a good sense of what needs to be kept in stock and what
doesn't, and since he started working here at the AutoShop he has helped us to
save thousands of dollars per year by cleaning up our inventory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His contributions in this area alone have
been invaluable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I cannot overemphasize
how much of an asset he has been just in this one area.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He has really turned our parts room around.</span></i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<i>
</i><div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Personally, I have greatly appreciated Ben's efforts in the past few
months.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In December the manager of our
department was forced to go back to the US for family health reasons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This left us without a manager and since I
was the assistant manager, a lot of that job has fallen to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Without me asking him to do so, Ben has
stepped up and supported me, even though, like me, he is not a manager and has
no interest in managing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nevertheless,
he saw that I was struggling under the load and has taken some of it on to his
own shoulders, for which I am very grateful.</span></i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<i>
</i><div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Ben's generally sunny disposition makes him fun to be around and this is
more valuable than you might expect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sometimes he has just the right funny story or comment needed to lift
people's spirits.</span></i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<i>
</i><div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Unfortunately for us all, Ben's financial support is low, and he needs
to raise more monthly support in order to be able to stay here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ben is a valuable asset to the work here and
if I were I able to pay him myself to stay here, I would do so, but I
can't.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Please consider helping him to be
able to stay here and keep working with us to support Bible translation in
Papua New Guinea.</span></i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<i>
</i><div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Yours sincerely,</span></i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<i>
</i><div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Andrew J. Koens</span></i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>SIL AutoShop</span></i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Ukarumpa,</span></i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>EHP 444</span></i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Papua New Guinea</span></i></div>
Andrew the Mechanichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892382984050173618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321581669127117736.post-46810928177177857312015-08-18T22:52:00.004+10:002015-08-18T22:52:39.020+10:00Why I almost Never Turn Down Free JunkA long time ago, shortly after I arrived here in 2002, I bought this:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpL1jvIXLcgHhVHSXoHdUOm93d1JQOX6dUMb2epnlgnv9AaS4jfpfVhK4alFNVIL5L7UbidT09A-0eqQnP5DGh7msITjkEAUbbYDRXBeTqr8a8DiNAFHgTpet4gSf0r7vAJ6y8u78-OCnG/s1600/fire+truck+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpL1jvIXLcgHhVHSXoHdUOm93d1JQOX6dUMb2epnlgnv9AaS4jfpfVhK4alFNVIL5L7UbidT09A-0eqQnP5DGh7msITjkEAUbbYDRXBeTqr8a8DiNAFHgTpet4gSf0r7vAJ6y8u78-OCnG/s400/fire+truck+001.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
It was a circa 1965 Toyota Land Cruiser that had been made into a fire truck. It had been used as a firetruck for many years, but then was replaced and was wasting away. I paid the princely sum of USD $133 for it. I removed the firefighting equipment and made it into this: <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMeiV3bkp8apSgohqmn24rUG-Y1eUIMAJyo-ciFBE3T0XowArTxYOcuZGwlsGHNK5yxs2wXYM3W5S8phcFrhNkPbr4oBMSHRoCS2TiXFOWdUXhg4cNaQohg8vi7cg1lrGaQO3shSRCMTlB/s1600/side+on%252C+window+up%252C+x.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMeiV3bkp8apSgohqmn24rUG-Y1eUIMAJyo-ciFBE3T0XowArTxYOcuZGwlsGHNK5yxs2wXYM3W5S8phcFrhNkPbr4oBMSHRoCS2TiXFOWdUXhg4cNaQohg8vi7cg1lrGaQO3shSRCMTlB/s400/side+on%252C+window+up%252C+x.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
That was fun for a while, until I realised just how impractical an open top car really is in Ukarumpa. Eventually I sold it to a Papua New Guinean friend of mine for something in the neighborhood of $70. I didn't really have time for it or a place to store it and I really wanted him to have it. It did not take him long to turn it into this: <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_QOiNJMxD7ObJAw8kVuE5mO8lufpi1BQQHPjQFIFSMAs7T-A1uOcVKzkFAV0aIF5qkMcZ4GgxIYUsVqXeVR2JfvTcIwevozX-HvQWDZbLuS8uUGjzujAm1kgDTNYmYe607adcI9TWnQkZ/s1600/P1040712.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_QOiNJMxD7ObJAw8kVuE5mO8lufpi1BQQHPjQFIFSMAs7T-A1uOcVKzkFAV0aIF5qkMcZ4GgxIYUsVqXeVR2JfvTcIwevozX-HvQWDZbLuS8uUGjzujAm1kgDTNYmYe607adcI9TWnQkZ/s400/P1040712.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
which got driven all over the place, including back and forth to Madang, which must have been an all day trip in that truck, which had a top speed of around 45 mph. I was amazed at how well it held up. Eventually, the new owner swapped out the petrol/gasoline engine for a diesel, and then left the faithful old petrol engine sitting in his backyard for a couple years. One day he came by the shop and asked me if I wanted the original engine back, and if so, I was welcome to just come pick it up for free. So together me and my friend Ben took a tractor out to his place, lifted up the engine and brought it back to the shop, where I used an old chinese three-wheeled truck to make up an engine stand for it:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_Ot_1rKCgClUFCvN0N2_Ae6TTS0Q2h5AM3ojQrCjp9Esrsp0FpdM9YUqQXlxZSl5OI2pLxkw5oTfj3XdJ55w_fYrcfO2Vv2CcpEPtFr_VGSKtPzkNk4FwoC9fmErpqxnklX_6YCAi8-qQ/s1600/AK+LC+%252834%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_Ot_1rKCgClUFCvN0N2_Ae6TTS0Q2h5AM3ojQrCjp9Esrsp0FpdM9YUqQXlxZSl5OI2pLxkw5oTfj3XdJ55w_fYrcfO2Vv2CcpEPtFr_VGSKtPzkNk4FwoC9fmErpqxnklX_6YCAi8-qQ/s400/AK+LC+%252834%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I was assured that it still ran, and sure enough, after a little bit of fiddling with the ignition system, it started right up and sounded really good. So now I had a good running 1965 Land Cruiser engine without a home. It sat on the engine stand for about 6 months or so. And then something interesting happned--a missionary working near Goroka told a friend of mine that he had a "dead" Land Cruiser sitting on his property that he needed moved and that anyone who wanted it could have it just for the price of moving it off of his property. He had no idea how long it had been sitting, but it had been a long time, there was a 20 foot tall tree growing through the frame in the back. Well, my friend didn't want the truck, so I took it. Now I had a good running Land Cruiser engine and a "dead" Land Cruiser. Here's what it looked like when we got it back to Ukarumpa: <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik8yNziPu3x0TVWxuFgRtRVZ4DsUXZQP8BEWGMQ2wfY285ryyWoZQMSNLh0gFZkoSkmDFk6imR8g6lL0AofvTBRIiLmMXK1sVnDzel4bhxBNm80yI_b-tKpi0BrtfxTMqJzd5Eio-vqmfT/s1600/AK+LC++%25284%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik8yNziPu3x0TVWxuFgRtRVZ4DsUXZQP8BEWGMQ2wfY285ryyWoZQMSNLh0gFZkoSkmDFk6imR8g6lL0AofvTBRIiLmMXK1sVnDzel4bhxBNm80yI_b-tKpi0BrtfxTMqJzd5Eio-vqmfT/s400/AK+LC++%25284%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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So! without me even really looking for one, a classic Land Cruiser has fallen into my lap. Yes, it does need quite a bit of work, but it's all stuff that I can do here. I've never had a pick-up/ute here, and I am looking forward to getting this one going. I hope to build it up to be good enough for road trips, as right now none of the cars we have is really suitable for that kind of thing. Here it is after I've started cleaning it up. In this shot the original engine has been pulled out, the seats removed and about 3 tons of mud cleaned out of the cab. Because this truck sat for so long, it has dozens of peoples' names scratched into the paint. I would like to preserve that graffiti if I can, just because some of it is interesting, some is funny, and a lot of it is cryptic in the way that PNG graffiti so often is: <br />
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All for now!Andrew the Mechanichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892382984050173618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321581669127117736.post-61929357534015911722015-08-04T00:22:00.002+10:002015-08-04T00:22:56.894+10:00Arrrrgh! I wrote a whole blog post about this:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiayqfF71oT35S2vDE89fv9auz1Y7NeuWQmFPD3nWvHUvNG4iU-RyYALGIE7lHVZbrgd489NORoDqxND9KHFVW88RATIWSKDLd8pqVwcvBNtjclVDgzBR6BFVZQ0cSq0tGhcTaHaqTWHsGI/s1600/AK+LC+FJ45+%252812%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiayqfF71oT35S2vDE89fv9auz1Y7NeuWQmFPD3nWvHUvNG4iU-RyYALGIE7lHVZbrgd489NORoDqxND9KHFVW88RATIWSKDLd8pqVwcvBNtjclVDgzBR6BFVZQ0cSq0tGhcTaHaqTWHsGI/s320/AK+LC+FJ45+%252812%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />
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<br />
and then lost it! Now it's too late to try writing it again. I'll try again another day.<br />
Andrew the Mechanichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892382984050173618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321581669127117736.post-81738601524205998322014-09-25T08:35:00.001+10:002014-09-25T08:35:09.192+10:00New Bridge is up! But not quite done yet...Check it out!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOch6IKjlwUA4ntFfkW6faLB62FG7NZOjgExBr5Kh49WYQiB9rMrTYHnALsVg5RFvBTDlAohVCCRtc8ZkWwbnxxsZSoGcsOd_ztw6w0yr6BnqgX-0NfY0ZUMioBXtq47FNmh6E-4xleVbR/s1600/2014+K92+temp+bridge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOch6IKjlwUA4ntFfkW6faLB62FG7NZOjgExBr5Kh49WYQiB9rMrTYHnALsVg5RFvBTDlAohVCCRtc8ZkWwbnxxsZSoGcsOd_ztw6w0yr6BnqgX-0NfY0ZUMioBXtq47FNmh6E-4xleVbR/s1600/2014+K92+temp+bridge.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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The new bridge is up! It looks good, but the approaches on each end are still not quite done--the local Department of Works says that the bridge is still temporary, as they are building a new foundation. The new foundation is being built next to the bridge, when ti is done, they'll shift the bridge over on to the new foundation.<br />
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Needless to say, the entire Aiyura Valley is happy about the new bridge.Andrew the Mechanichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892382984050173618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321581669127117736.post-51575450589178955972014-08-18T20:16:00.000+10:002014-08-18T20:16:07.311+10:00Kingston Bridge part II<br />
So this morning Evan (the boss) and I went down to the bridge to see how things are progressing down there. We'd heard rumor that the government had lit a fire under the backsides of the local works department in an effort to get things moving, and it looks like it worked! This was the scene from above a couple days ago: (photo by Gavin Jones)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdbSQWE1bIoxiONXxUMBf1iPggx3SIRZVPis57k0es8eou-9Dq0ulhD6S1N6b9YT14YPfMgrdXzzDUiBBw_8ezdbD5H_P29D5ceedNISySxWAEBNc-Q84MDJ2hiscBKL3i05dfDsCl_hv6/s1600/IMG_0136%5B1%5D+cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdbSQWE1bIoxiONXxUMBf1iPggx3SIRZVPis57k0es8eou-9Dq0ulhD6S1N6b9YT14YPfMgrdXzzDUiBBw_8ezdbD5H_P29D5ceedNISySxWAEBNc-Q84MDJ2hiscBKL3i05dfDsCl_hv6/s1600/IMG_0136%5B1%5D+cropped.jpg" height="246" width="320" /></a></div>
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and here was the scene this morning at 10 a.m.:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNmWa8dhL_F6fCfsJLgyPzZOUQuufgIqUiyJewNVtfaJjSf7dg-JdyAuEDYEV6mw3IRQZZZ_JTZyEAjj-YLIA49Qgu7x2Z0gabAK4l4m_P-r6a_EXl4yzjJDm4x0OXdLXG3wPM6pkQVspA/s1600/P1100570+cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNmWa8dhL_F6fCfsJLgyPzZOUQuufgIqUiyJewNVtfaJjSf7dg-JdyAuEDYEV6mw3IRQZZZ_JTZyEAjj-YLIA49Qgu7x2Z0gabAK4l4m_P-r6a_EXl4yzjJDm4x0OXdLXG3wPM6pkQVspA/s1600/P1100570+cropped.jpg" height="172" width="320" /></a></div>
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At that time, it was already more than halfway across the river, and I heard later in the day that it was already all the way across! We may actually be able to drive across it again before the end of the week. It's astonishing to see how fast these guys are working. I'll post more photos of the finished bridge.<br />
Andrew the Mechanichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892382984050173618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321581669127117736.post-20828352682706446052014-08-06T22:39:00.001+10:002014-08-06T22:39:26.424+10:00Well, it FINALLY happened!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLVwWXgBZNg8k1OVC8GqKWgy9kF44d36Acc0vN_xDdJS3VNxtZOnVD-3SK_3ZwreSFRupq42OVyb_eriifwlUODCHP-k82eTMMruARUZ0W7U3XMLQ_g40LXpfQEXGRxe4WSAXI5w2-BJRr/s1600/P1100564+cropped+resized.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLVwWXgBZNg8k1OVC8GqKWgy9kF44d36Acc0vN_xDdJS3VNxtZOnVD-3SK_3ZwreSFRupq42OVyb_eriifwlUODCHP-k82eTMMruARUZ0W7U3XMLQ_g40LXpfQEXGRxe4WSAXI5w2-BJRr/s1600/P1100564+cropped+resized.jpg" height="178" width="320" /></a></div>
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Yup. After at least 52 years of heavy use and very little maintenance, this old Bailey bridge in Kainantu has finally given up. The tanker truck in the river had 2 people in it--the driver had a couple of broken bones, but the crewman was unhurt. It looks as if the truck rolled completely over and the fuel tank (containing 20,000 litres of diesel) broke off of the back<br />
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The bad news is that this bridge is the only road link between the Aiyura Valley and the rest of the world--almost. There is a rough dirt road (which crosses over another partially falling down bridge), which for the moment is open to dirt bikes and smaller 4x4 trucks.<br />
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Andrew the Mechanichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892382984050173618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321581669127117736.post-87005874166656053982013-11-23T00:32:00.000+10:002013-11-23T00:32:15.273+10:00Andrew in the UK Sanity Enhancement Device<br />
So yeah, we made it safely back to Great Britain and now are settled into something of a routine while we wait for Baby to arrive.<br />
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One of the biggest differences for me this time in the UK is my Sanity Enhancement Device. This has taken the form of an old Armstrong MT500 army motorcycle--I mentioned it here before when I bought it. Having a project of my own to fool around with and ride has been a huge improvement for me over previous times that we have been in the UK. Previously I've struggled to find a satisfactory outlet for my fix-it urge while on the Green and Pleasant Isle, but this time, this time I've got a genuinely interesting thing to work on. Here's how it looked when I got it:<br />
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And here's how it looks now:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4BJblMmyrrHOKtFv9hvzUCs5eDiaHr3UBK86Aw2eH1k0bacn462IhORZ5JsCq5wvFygoLtblSHHfHuPMes3ybrzmdGHwQI-OHQgixhmx0qAcCkqGhaAK2lQ2mjsNa6cEeF5dGAOU_wGrt/s1600/P1100216+color+modded+and+resized.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4BJblMmyrrHOKtFv9hvzUCs5eDiaHr3UBK86Aw2eH1k0bacn462IhORZ5JsCq5wvFygoLtblSHHfHuPMes3ybrzmdGHwQI-OHQgixhmx0qAcCkqGhaAK2lQ2mjsNa6cEeF5dGAOU_wGrt/s320/P1100216+color+modded+and+resized.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Admittedly there's not a lot of visual difference--just new tires, a couple of reprints of vintage decals, and a current tax disc. It had been sitting for 10 years before I bought it, so I had to go through the carburetor. I've also replaced the timing belt, (yes, it has a belt rather than a chain), the belt tensioner and idler, the inner tubes, and a few other things. I've greatly enjoyed getting to know this bike and am happy to have finally gotten it all legal to ride. A friend of mine in Bognor Regis gave me a nice warm coat to wear, I've got a good helmet and nice warm motorcycle gloves, so I'm pretty much set for winter motorcycle riding. Yeah, I know, maybe not the best weather for riding in, but I'll take what I can get!<br />
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Baby #3 is not here yet, 2 weeks till the due date!<br />
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Andrew the Mechanichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892382984050173618noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321581669127117736.post-27943569747599125972013-10-01T20:08:00.001+10:002013-10-01T20:15:33.673+10:00Rescue Trip in the 5 Ton!<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqeFaCGvFzPMhTaHK5RTSH7PvT3KbbU1yz1lexoSDrEVMdFvdl5rAVes1zFw46IBi3Zss4fbV3C26QxwUJg5hwGaoLo4B8LFZAW8B5bJWff0xnsOmQR5TXuSgoCAnr7N344Mev2eSATNPt/s1600/P1080133.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqeFaCGvFzPMhTaHK5RTSH7PvT3KbbU1yz1lexoSDrEVMdFvdl5rAVes1zFw46IBi3Zss4fbV3C26QxwUJg5hwGaoLo4B8LFZAW8B5bJWff0xnsOmQR5TXuSgoCAnr7N344Mev2eSATNPt/s320/P1080133.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This photo is not from today's trip--it's from some other trip.</td></tr>
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So, today, around 2:45, my department manager came to me and asked about doing a rescue. "Some local guys have a big Hyundai truck (HD65) that needs work--they've left a K1,000 deposit and they want to know if we can go get the truck now--they are afraid to leave it parked where it is overnight because people might vandalise it or steal parts off of it." I wasn't really in the mood, so I tried to push the job off on another guy, but he was otherwise engaged, so I asked Evan if he wanted to go on a rescue and away we went. We took the 5 ton, (M813A1 cargo truck) because the admittedly sketchy details of where the Hyundai was parked made it sound like it would be too big of a job for the decrepit shop Land Cruiser. I felt just a twinge of foreboding as we left in a huge cloud of dust (it's been super dry here for months).<br />
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We eventually found the Hyundai parked on the side of a narrow dirt road just above a pretty steep incline. When we got out of the truck to survey the situation, we were told "oh by the way, the Hyundai has NO brakes." Swell. That meant that simply towing it out of there wasn't going to be an option. Another problem was that the Hyundai (and the 5 ton) were both pointed the wrong way on the narrow road. They were both pointed UP hill when we needed to go DOWN hill. We scouted around for a good place to turn around, then finally decided that backing the 5 ton down the hill and turning it around at the first hairpin curve would probably be okay. <br />
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So I cautiously backed down the hill, putting the transfer case into LOW range (which gave me better control as the speeds were much slower and also engaged drive to the front wheels). At the curve I backed into the bush at the side of the road on the outside of the curve, then carefully (with lots of help from Evan directing me from outside) pulled forward into the bush on the inside of the curve. The road was quite steep right here and the whole truck seemed to be listing to the right about 30 degrees. Reverse once more, then turn down hill and voila! we were pointed the right direction. By this time, a pretty good sized crowd had gathered, maybe 50 people? Men, women, children, we were apparently the best show in town this afternoon.<br />
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Now I got Evan to stand on the passenger side running board and help direct me as I reversed up this steep hill, squeezing past the throngs of curious onlookers and past the disabled Hyundai. Once we were past it, we stopped, tied a tow strap between the Hyundai and the truck and then the fun began.<br />
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Naturally, the Hyundai was parked at the only flat spot on the hill, so naturally it wouldn't roll. Also naturally, whenever a disabled car needs to be moved here, throngs of men rush in and start pushing. So now we've got 10-15 men pushing this Hyundai, which has no brakes and which is tied to the M813 with a short tow strap. Naturally this means that I need to keep the 5 ton moving whenever I see the Hyundai moving! So, with EXTREME caution, I carefully pulled forward while the men pushed the Hyundai until it finally started to roll. Once it started to roll, I gently lowered it backwards down the hill to the same curve where I had turned the 5 ton around.<br />
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Of course this was not without its own share of difficulties. Before we had quite managed to get the dead truck turned around, it got stuck on ruts in the road and had to be muscled back into motion while I ever so carefully followed along behind, trying to keep some slack in the tow strap and not to run over any of the men pushing the Hyundai. It was mildly nerve wracking.<br />
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Bear in mind that during this whole process the Hyundai has NO brakes, which is why we had to be so careful about not letting it run away. We eventually got the Hyundai more or less pointed down hill with the 5 ton attached to it with a tow strap, but unfortunately, because of the curve in the road and the wide turning radius of the M813, we were no parked 90 degrees to the rear of the Hyundai. Eventually we realised that we were driving a 12 ton truck and that the rear end of the Hyundai was probably pretty light, so we just put the 6x6 into reverse and pulled the rear end of the Hyundai across the dirt road until we were all lined up a bit better. Evan and I were pleased with how easy this was to do, I don't think the 5 ton even realised that the Hyundai was even out there. It simply backed up and dragged the rear end of the Hyundai behind it.<br />
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So now we're all lined up and pointing down hill. I put the truck into 1st gear, LOW range and away we go. 1st gear LOW is waaay too slow (about 2 mph) so I went up to 2nd LOW and that was a bit better, though men jogging along next to us still had no trouble overtaking us. They jogged along the road in front of the Hyundai, waving pedestrians off of the road hollering for people to get out of the way.<br />
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This method of lowering a brakeless vehicle down a rough dirt road worked quite well. The road never really leveled out, only got more steep in some places and less steep in others, so gravity assisted us all the way to the bottom. We were quite popular all the way down, people waving and smiling, everybody loves the 5 ton. Every time we take it out it's a Public Relations boost.<br />
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Once down on the flat we moved around to the front of the Hyundai and dragged it the rest of the way back to the shop. In the rear view mirror I could see that the rear tires on the Hyundai were spinning forwards on one side and backwards on the other, which meant that the driver was trying to use his seized-up engine and clutch as a crude brake, but the 5 ton was just overwhelming his available traction. We slowed down a bit and carried on without incident UNTIL...<br />
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Home again, home again, we picked a place to park the dead Hyundai in front of the shop, on a slight downhill. As I braked gently to a stop, the Hyundai plowed straight into the rear of the 5 ton! The only way I knew that anything had happened at all was because I heard somebody shouting about it from the side of the road, never felt a thing in the truck. I guess the driver must have forgotten about his crude brake and just coasted right into the back of us without remembering to stop. I felt bad for him, but I didn't want to shame him, so I pretended not to notice anything, even though the front of the poor Hyundai now has a massive dent in it. Thankfully his windscreen was already broken before we started, so the extra damage that happened to the glass when he ran into us won't really make a difference. I was surprised to see that we made it back in almost exactly 2 hours--it sure felt longer than that. <br />
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Another interesting trip in the M813! That truck is 12 tons of Adventure Mobile. Since we left in such a rush, I didn't have time to run home and get a camera. I may try to get a photo of the front of the Hyundai in the next couple of days. <br />
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Andrew the Mechanichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892382984050173618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321581669127117736.post-24583657017227992922013-08-19T23:37:00.001+10:002013-08-19T23:37:46.772+10:00UK bound once more... So we're off to the UK again in a couple of months. And once again it's to have another baby! Number 3 is due in early December.<br />
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Last time we were in England (2011), I had a hard time because I wasn't allowed to work (wrong kind of visa), and it's hard for me not to have some sort of machine to fiddle with. I got desperate last time and even went so far as to dig bicycles out of rubbish tips in an effort to build my own "custom" bicycle. The resulting bicycle was moderately cool; it had drum brakes and a three speed hub, both of which were things I had never had on a bicycle before (bear in mind that the last bicycle I had was a single speed, coaster braked, Schwinn Scrambler when I was 11). but without the magic of internal combustion, it was not as much fun for me. Plus I put the wrong sized tires on it, so it was hard to pedal (I'll fix that this time, though).<br />
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But this time will be different. My loving wife, who could not bear to see me so miserable again, gave me her blessing to buy this:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRV_BFwk5vZY7RRAn32QJLN9mYeJPiAd3TqJ4LBxOGCOIHDlVtvPabGYLLNebpmPTGZPEXfIqNkBkfbc_Aye6TAOVP0JHernfY_lSToBXJyB0jChLtQbcIAs9tAUpGhyiTWfn40WfsPihT/s1600/1986+Armstrong+MT500+a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRV_BFwk5vZY7RRAn32QJLN9mYeJPiAd3TqJ4LBxOGCOIHDlVtvPabGYLLNebpmPTGZPEXfIqNkBkfbc_Aye6TAOVP0JHernfY_lSToBXJyB0jChLtQbcIAs9tAUpGhyiTWfn40WfsPihT/s400/1986+Armstrong+MT500+a.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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It's a 1986 Armstrong MT500, ex army bike! I've been wanting one of these for years, so I'm excited about it. It ticks all the right boxes for me, it's a little unusual, it's different from any bike I've owned before, it's a street legal dirt bike, it's black, and the MT's have a reputation for being hard to break and easy to fix. It's got the legendary air-cooled Rotax 4 stroke, and parts are still easy to get for it. So yeah, I'm happy. <br />
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I even bought some tools to work on it with and have plans to maybe customise it just a little (like maybe a disc brake front end off of the later MT350, maybe different tyres, perhaps a different headlight and tail light/rear mudguard). Hopefully I can figure out how to get it legally ridable and may even get a chance to pootle about a bit on it. If not, well, worst case scenario is that it becomes another one of my long term projects, something to keep me busy whenever we are in England. In the absolute worst case, I suppose I could sell it again when we leave, but I'm hoping it won't come to that. We shall see!Andrew the Mechanichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892382984050173618noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321581669127117736.post-43896360340126767662013-08-02T21:05:00.003+10:002013-08-02T21:16:43.812+10:00And Now For Something Slightly Different<br />
Thursday the phone rang on my desk. I very rarely answer my phone at work, most of the time I just let it ring. This is because I am already too busy at work to take on any more work and because I enjoy celebrating the freedom I have NOT to answer it. It seems that not everybody is able to simply not answer a phone, but I am. I refuse to be a slave to some box of wires and diodes that screams incessantly at me. If the person on the other end were standing next to me and saw that I was busy, doubtless he'd wait for a more convenient time. Phones allow us to be unaccountably rude, screaming at people electronically and demanding that they speak to us. On the whole, I much prefer e-mail. <br />
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Call me and we'll talk about it.<br />
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Anyway, so on Thursday afternoon my phone rang and for some reason I was sitting there when it rang and for some other reason I answered it. It was Dave, who works in another department:<br />
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"Hey, can we use the truck to move a big empty fuel tank from Aviation to the main centre?"<br />
"Ummmm, well, how big is it?"<br />
"30,000 litres." He might as well have said "20 baths, a hin and two ephahs". 30,000 litres sounds big, but I really had no idea how big that might actually be. I thought about it for a second, then decided that I could always drive there, decide it was too big and decide not to do it, and Aviation is only a few miles away, so...<br />
"Yeah, we can do it."<br />
"Great! Do you want to drive or should we use one of our drivers?" Hmmm. Their truck driver tends to drive a little too fast for my tastes, and this sounds like a big, awkward load.<br />
"I'll do it."<br />
"Okay, see you around 9:00."<br />
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Next morning, around 8:50 or so, I fired up the truck and started letting it warm up. I asked Ben, who is a fairly new guy, if he wanted to get checked out in the truck as it seemed like it might be a good opportunity for training more truck drivers. He said yes and hopped in.<br />
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At the Construction and Maintenance department we spoke with several different people who all had different ideas about how big the tank was. One said 6 feet in diameter, another said 2.5 meters, another said something else. Nobody seemed to be absolutely certain. We threw a couple of tie down straps into the truck and off we went.<br />
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When we got there, this is what we found:<br />
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That tank is about 7 feet in diameter nad 23-24 feet long. It also is pretty heavily constructed and weighs around 5 tons (!), and somehow nobody remembered to tell us that it had a bunch of pipes and stuff sticking out of the top of it that made it look like a small submarine.<br />
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Well, we decided to go ahead and give it a go--the loader was able to lift it, but it couldn't go high enough to lift the tank over the side without the loader's back wheels coming off the ground, so he lifted it up just higher than the bed and Ben and I backed the truck up under it. Once in place, the loader operator lowered the tank on to the truck and we tied it down. The loader had to keep the tank lifted up just a little bit or else it would have tipped out of the truck while we were trying to tie it down.<br />
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At first we had the tank tied down with heavy loading straps, using the original military tie-downs on the sides of the bed, but once we had it tied down that way, we weren't happy. Right about then, Dave showed up in a pick-up truck with a bunch of chains in the back, so we used those and chained the tank down to the bed at the container twist-lock points--that made us feel much better about things.<br />
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So now it looked like this:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXaokPBIr7IN13lb3zvhgTnC4jfG4URfB7eAgliBSq-dpnZbFYufwFzI-kIrYvS4z-YB3CybrcwDtznJB3y77BcmtBMl9R2WAXzJ8_lYSUsAibkgCeMfl9fOTbJJacxU83C4oXkUzMbWnp/s1600/DSCN1107.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXaokPBIr7IN13lb3zvhgTnC4jfG4URfB7eAgliBSq-dpnZbFYufwFzI-kIrYvS4z-YB3CybrcwDtznJB3y77BcmtBMl9R2WAXzJ8_lYSUsAibkgCeMfl9fOTbJJacxU83C4oXkUzMbWnp/s320/DSCN1107.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Loaded on to the back of the truck, from the ground to the top of the highest pipe sticking out of the tank is just over 21 feet. So now we're taller than a double decker bus. I don't remember what I was doing when this was taken--doubtless looking at that tall pipe and wondering if we were going to fit under the power lines.<br />
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Rather than try to drive out the main gate from Aviation, (which leads down a number of tight turns and under a bunch of low power lines, etc., we decided to drive straight down the airstrip and out a gate that we were told was down there. I asked the Aviation director to get us a key for the gate, he decided to just go open it himself. By the time we got to the end of the runway, (we were going pretty slow because the heavy load was a little unstable) the director and a couple of the employees had decided that the truck was too wide to fit through the gate and so they decided to just take down the fence instead. Here I am driving through the fence:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE6HU-AyuilWCsrVyUU3ApEaagwMeCwGerNYuMuGaCS8YduH1B0Hh70Dr5a7FinYS70Sl-TWlQ5U7yS3XGQIATPXy7QnwldbD-pk-VyXUfYKB_Y0pE4Ageq4z_n9u2zyBESrhJMx1zKqsF/s1600/July2013.4+012.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE6HU-AyuilWCsrVyUU3ApEaagwMeCwGerNYuMuGaCS8YduH1B0Hh70Dr5a7FinYS70Sl-TWlQ5U7yS3XGQIATPXy7QnwldbD-pk-VyXUfYKB_Y0pE4Ageq4z_n9u2zyBESrhJMx1zKqsF/s320/July2013.4+012.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
From there I was able to turn on to a better road with only a few power lines over it, all of which turned out to be high enough for us to drive under.<br />
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We made it to Ukarumpa without too much difficulty after that, though the entry gate had to be quickly modified in order for us to fit under it. The load shifted quite a bit on the way, rolling a bit to the right. Once back at Ukarumpa, the loader unloaded the tank. In spite of our average return speed of 1 miles an hour, we beat the loader back and had to wait a few minutes for him to arrive. Here we are, waiting for him to help us start unloading:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXwUmwQJbP5kJcKTH4aoSMttE2DE_j9OiQQdxuEoj50TeokTWgZQeUopM843wODC4jr4OZxlCLBjWq9mpVtFOh5XZfhT_d7_Yt3wyUYRFl_KyqaLx46TXPbmEOMo-dLoBC4gk8hQKK_MXY/s1600/July2013.4+017.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXwUmwQJbP5kJcKTH4aoSMttE2DE_j9OiQQdxuEoj50TeokTWgZQeUopM843wODC4jr4OZxlCLBjWq9mpVtFOh5XZfhT_d7_Yt3wyUYRFl_KyqaLx46TXPbmEOMo-dLoBC4gk8hQKK_MXY/s400/July2013.4+017.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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So! All in all a successful move. And the mighty Heavy Metal Thunder proves its usefulness once again.<br />
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In other news, I am way behind at work. I'm having a lot of trouble keeping up with the load and it's starting to get me down--I'm tired of telling people "I'm sorry, but I don't have time for that." but it's true--I really don't have time for any more work--I think I'll be hard pressed to get the stuff that is in the shop done before we leave in October to go have a baby. So if you know any motorcycle or small engine mechanics who might be interested in this weird life I live, send them my way!!! <br />
<br />Andrew the Mechanichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892382984050173618noreply@blogger.com1