Winter is

truly upon us.

It’s cold outside and a little damp, so not a great deal has been happening in the garage of late, with either of the Triumphs. I did manage to break the SLK though, while preparing her for her MOT at the end of November.

As I mentioned in the last blog, albeit briefly, the washers weren’t working properly. I could hear the pump whirring away but aside form a very small dribble of water; nothing was happening. Off came the washer jets & from what I could see, they were both blocked. By this time, the pump was also struggling. So I ordered a couple of second hand washer jets and a new pump. Mercedes, in their infinite wisdom heat the washer hoses on their SLKs, so the washer jets are not just bits of plastic with holes in them, they’re wired up and new are a bit expensive, hence 2nd hand ones. After putting it all back together again, they worked perfectly. Unfortunately, while getting the washer jets off, I broke a plastic connector that attaches the brake servo to the manifold. 3 weeks later, I’m still trying to find a replacement – the joys of owning a 20-year-old Mercedes.

Trophy

Foot pegs

My Trophy has ‘brewers droop’, so said Practical Sportsbike magazine when they did their Resto SOS piece a few months back.

Both riders foot pegs were broken, something which I had in hand, sort of, well, the foot pegs were on my to-do list anyway, but at £35+ each to replace, I just needed my employer to top up my bank account before I ordered some. That was after ordering a petcock & fuel tap knob, some tyres and a few other bits.

Then eBay intervened and sent me an email for a seller who sold generic foot pegs at a very reasonable £6.19 a pair. They looked ok and for that price, I thought I’d give them a go. They arrived within a couple of days and then sat in the garage while the snow melted & the garage warmed up a bit.

I finally got around to fitting them last week. All seemed well, I had already measured the originals to ensure the new ones were the same size, and they were. What wasn’t the same size was the hole in them where the pin goes through to secure them to the bike, nor were the pins. The original pins were 10mm diameter, the new ones 8mm and 5mm longer. The upshot of this was the new pins fell straight through the holes in the mount. I couldn’t use the old pins because the hole in the foot peg was also 8mm – or could I? 

It took me longer to get my drill out & find where I’d put my 10mm drill bit than it did to drill the hole out in the new foot peg. Using the original pins, it was a 10-minute job to fit the new foot pegs to the bike. Another job ticked off the to-do list.

Petcock

I was originally going to order the petcock and knob from Sprint Manufacturing, the trouble was by the time I had sufficient funds they didn’t have any stock left. This turned out to be a good thing. Fowlers of Bristol had them in stock & while they were a couple of quid more, there was no postage, so they were actually cheaper. On top of that, the original knob I was going to order from Sprint Manufacturing was £35, ok it was aluminium rather than plastic but the Fowlers plastic one was considerably cheaper, so I saved money in the long run. This is now sitting on the bench waiting for me to fit it to the tank. 

Wheels

Last month, I thought it an idea to get a few quotes from local businesses that can refurbish the wheels. there's a few in POeterborouhg, not too far from me, so I fired off a couple of emails asking for quotes. I got nothing backfrom either of them. A call out to local TOMCC members gave me a reccomendation for wheelrite-online.co.uk who came back very quickly with a quote of £70 + VAT

per wheel. I guess they'll be getting my custom in the new year. I just need to buy some tyres to go with them.

With Christmas fast approaching and a new job (with the same employer) which commands more time at my desk & less in the garage, I suspect it will now be next year before I can get back to work on the Trophy but as it's 12th December, that's not too far away.