Sunday, August 22, 2010

Making repairs to the bike

By the time we surfaced, Chuck had already called his friends in Asheville and arranged for us to take the cover in for repairs. Chuck and Deana very generously gave us their car to make the trip to Asheville. They were both really busy getting ready for a series of three art fairs, the first being this coming weekend, so could not afford the time to take us there.

We found the business easily and explained our predicament. The people there took the cam cover and tried to TIG weld it. Every tack weld cracked, and the metal sparked and popped as they tried to weld it. Our guess was that it was an alloy containing magnesium. Looking inside the casting a little later Chris saw >MgAl9Zn1< which suggests it does indeed contain magnesium.

Plan B was to glue the crack with epoxy. We drove to the nearby Lowe's hardware store and found something that promised to do the job. We also purchased some degreaser and more oil for the bike.
 
Back at Chuck and Deana's, Chris ground out a "V" along the crack, degreased the cover and rinsed it off. After giving it time for the water to dry he applied epoxy liberally along the crack on the outside of the cover, forcing it through to the other side for maximum strength. Chuck had some scrap steel mesh and Chris glued a length of that over part of the join with a second application of epoxy.
 

It was already mid afternoon, so any plans we had to leave that day were forgotten - the epoxy would need time to attain maximm strength. Chuck and Deana were very happy for us to stay an extra night, even though they have to leave at 6:30 am tomorrow.
 
Late in the afternoon Chris fired up the bike and let it run until it was hot to ensure the repair had been effective -  which it was, much to everyone's relief.
 
Chuck cooked us some really great omelettes for dinner, and we had an early night in anticipation of an early start tomorrow.
Serene views outside.
 

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