Fitting An Engine

Carrera said:

Nope, not a bit. Trained mechanics can get the gears set up better than I can. They can set them up to last a while but inevitably gears decline as cables stretch or the cold and grit sets in.
One of these days I'll have Rourkes set me up a custom bike and I'll have to view my options with regard to the front derailleur. To tell the truth I'm forever having problems on both bikes with the damned thing.

Get a track bike.

Don Shipp said:

Get a track bike.

... And ride on a track.

My spouse says "is that you, Martin?"....he (my spouse) has built a midget ocean racer, fiberglass. MORC.....it is now a lawn ornament on Martin's parents' house on Martha's Vineyard....the Full Moon, that is.

He says you should tow your barge/boat to a town that has a good engineer and get it fixed.

Hope this is of some help.

damn, for a minuute there i thought we were going to have 'advice' on the repair of diesel engines from a lady...

ptlwp said:

My spouse says "is that you, Martin?"....he (my spouse) has built a midget ocean racer, fiberglass. MORC.....it is now a lawn ornament on Martin's parents' house on Martha's Vineyard....the Full Moon, that is.

He says you should tow your barge/boat to a town that has a good engineer and get it fixed.

Hope this is of some help.

Carrera said:

Nope, not a bit. Trained mechanics can get the gears set up better than I can. They can set them up to last a while but inevitably gears decline as cables stretch or the cold and grit sets in.
One of these days I'll have Rourkes set me up a custom bike and I'll have to view my options with regard to the front derailleur. To tell the truth I'm forever having problems on both bikes with the damned thing.

You must be really leaning on your gear levers to stretch the cables and move the mech.
Grit will cause rapid wear to the whole drivetrain but should not cause the problems you are describing, and what has the cold got to do with it?
Sometimes I wonder if you aren't posting this stuff for a joke.

If you are selling the boat then perhaps you could afford a Rohloff geared bike from Thorn, but you'd probably have problems with that, too.

I did do and the wagon got dented so the driver was [censored] with me for getting in the way. :p

FredC said:

You are so [censored] THICK that words fail me. There was a particular reason why Millars chain unshipped, but it's not worth explaining to a thick railway sleeper like you. I hope that you get run down by a 40ton wagon.

Thanks. I've finally got the timer belt we somehow worked out through a guess based on the casting number of the engine. My volkswagen engine was an industrial engine built in the eighties. There was only one main timer belt that fits such a model.
My cousin will fit it for me as the engine has a guard and I don't want to risk cobbling the job up myself. He works with aeroplane engines as well as cars so he's a damned good mechanic.
But I ask myself can I afford the money and time I need to invest in all of this? I work far less than I used to do and it will cost me big bucks to get the boat running. Plus, I'm a little distracted from my cycling that needs hours and hours of time spent riding if I'm really going to be as good as I want.

ptlwp said:

My spouse says "is that you, Martin?"....he (my spouse) has built a midget ocean racer, fiberglass. MORC.....it is now a lawn ornament on Martin's parents' house on Martha's Vineyard....the Full Moon, that is.

He says you should tow your barge/boat to a town that has a good engineer and get it fixed.

Hope this is of some help.

I'm going to do the job today. I'll have to buy new cable screws which are knackered with the weather. I may buy a whole new derailleur if I can get a better model. They apparently sell new screws I can use to fix the derailleur onto the frame - the screw is worn.
Yet again, I'll have to remove the cable so far to fix the new cable screw on.

Don Shipp said:

You should be able to set it up so that the gears you use are not rubbing. Doesn't matter if it rubs on gears that you don't use. Look for duplications, a large to large can give the same gear as a small to small but the chain line is different so one will rub and t'other won't.
We can help you out here, and calculate all your gear ratios; if you tell us how many teeth &c. &c.

Carrera said:

I'm going to do the job today. I'll have to buy new cable screws which are knackered with the weather. I may buy a whole new derailleur if I can get a better model. They apparently sell new screws I can use to fix the derailleur onto the frame - the screw is worn.
Yet again, I'll have to remove the cable so far to fix the new cable screw on.

Good luck..

I fixed it for now - God knows how. That's the first time I ever got a derailleur spot on with just an allen key after fitting the new screw. It works like a dream but for how long?
I'll give it 2 weeks till the chain slowly starts to rub again.
Then I'll have to reset the whole thing again.

Don Shipp said:

Good luck..

Carrera said:

I fixed it for now - God knows how. That's the first time I ever got a derailleur spot on with just an allen key after fitting the new screw. It works like a dream but for how long?
I'll give it 2 weeks till the chain slowly starts to rub again.
Then I'll have to reset the whole thing again.

You have been a little imprecise when describing what goes wrong and what you do to fix it.
Screws are rarely used anywhere on bikes, so I assume you mean bolts. The threaded items used to tune the cable tension are barrel adjusters. A bolt with a hexagonal recess is also a bolt, not an Allen key.
If the problem was with the bolt which you have replaced, it should stay fixed now. Neither cold weather nor road grit will cause the mech to move; gear cables do not stretch much and can easily be ajusted when they do. Only if the clamp is too large for the tube, or if the mech gets knocked or suffers other abuse will it move again.
Avoid running large to large and small to small, change gear early when the chain is not under load, don't mash, and you'll be fine.

Carrera said:

What happens is I tend to dismount and loosen the allen key screw before pushing the derailleur away from the chain as it stands on the biggest cassette sprocket and on the middle chain ring. But it seems to be slipping back. I'll have to change the allen key to see if I can get a tighter fit.

Change the Allen key?

If your front mech is slipping then its made for a different diameter tube that the one on your bike. It doesnt take much tension to keep a mech in place, especially on a road bike.

I got round it one way by wrapping some electrical tape round the seat tube a few times then placed the collar of the front mech round that and tightened it up. It worked great and also protected the frame paintwork. This only works if your mech has a larger diameter collar that your seat post.

20 years experience in bike building has taught me that if your mech is slipping, its the wrong size. Simple as that.