2/43 – Coldstream Revisited: 17-20 Sep 2024

Tue 17 Sep 2024

Dave took me down to pick up the bike about mid-morning. When I started it, it sounded OK; not great, but OK. This was deceptive! Only a few kilometres down the road, power disappeared, and the engine started backfiring.

I pulled into a parking area and decided it was time to see if my US insurance roadside assistance policy would work in Canada. Happily, it did and in a relatively short time I had arranged a recovery. It would take about 90 minutes to arrive.

It was hot and I was thirsty, so I insisted that Dave return home, rather than sitting with me in the shade-less parking spot, and then crossed the road to a place called Upside Cidery to see if I could a) charge my phone and b) get a drink. I succeeded on both counts; the staff were extremely friendly and helpful, and the delightful Chelsea served me some coffee and a wonderful piece of cheesecake. There is a positive in every situation! 😊 She also offered me a cider tasting, and I came away with 2 bottles as further compensation for my troubles.

Back at base, I set about trying to resolve the problem with some help from my friends on SOHC4.net There are three things needed to get an engine to run: fuel, a spark and compression. The first two are relatively easy to check so I started there.

One set of carbs didn’t seem to be getting the same fuel as the other, so I shortened a fuel hose and confirmed that fuel was getting to all carburettors in equal amounts. A short ride showed that, which this may have contributed to the situation, it wasn’t the only problem.

A check revealed that there was no spark on plugs No 2 & 3. These are both supplied by the same coil, so the next thing, tomorrow, would be to check this out.

The weather was on my side, and would have been perfect for riding, but the consolation was a great view of the sunrise and later, on a clear night with a full moon, a splendid view of the, somewhat underwhelming, partial eclipse of the moon; apparently 8% of the surface was in full shade.

Wed 18 Sep 2024

Before removing the seat and tank, I checked everything at the points and all was well. There was proper voltage to the coils and the coils themselves checked out, so I decided to check the spark plug caps as a last possibility, And guess what! One was defective, which would explain my problem, since, if one is bad, it affects the other spark plug also.

So, I now had a diagnosis and a potentially simple solution. Haha!! Getting a replacement locally proved to be impossible. Finally, at the end of the day, I tracked down a single item, fortunately of the correct shape.

Thur 19 Sep 2024

Borrowing Katherine’s truck, I picked up the plug cap from Redline Cycle, about 40 km from Coldstream. Ian, the owner, was so taken with my trip that he offered me the plug cap as a contribution; thank you Ian. Then before leaving it back, I went to put some fuel in it. This is where my day took a dive! I put some diesel in it before thinking that, perhaps, it wasn’t a diesel engine. And …  it wasn’t!

I filled up the tank, hoping that diluting the little diesel I had added would make things OK. Some research and asking some more knowledgeable people revealed that this wouldn’t do; the tank would have to be drained, flushed out and then filled. And starting the engine was also to be avoided at all costs. The result was that I had to organise a tow to a nearby shop, Vernon Auto and Diesel Repair, where Mike, the owner, rearranged his scheduled work to get the truck sorted that same day. Roger, the tow-truck driver was also very helpful and gave me a ride from the shop back to the house, completely in the direction opposite to his return to base.

While waiting for the call to pick up the pick-up, I returned to my bike. Here I discovered that one of the other plug caps had, overnight, mysteriously failed. So now I was no further forward than before. Was I fed up, or what? 😖

Mike called mid-afternoon and I rode down to pick up the pick-up. He had drained the tank, flushed the system and added a little fuel to get it going. All was well again, on that front. Of course, all of this didn’t come cheap – tow truck, dumped fuel, repair and then more fuel – so the plug cap, in spite of Ian’s generosity, must be the most expensive one ever!

It was back online to find from where I could get the plug caps and have them delivered in the shortest possible time. I am now looking for a house to buy in Coldstream!