Spent all day bonking.

Just a quick update really, took the piston down to Minnow on Tuesday and spent most of the morning lying on the cold floor of the engine hole with my hands through the air intakes fitting the big end bearing back together.

Screwed the 6” bolt into the top of the piston to use as a handle then lowered the piston back in the bore until it sat on the lowest piston ring. One by one the piston rings were eased in by tapping them in with a piece of 3/8 nylon then tapping the piston down to the next ring until all rings were in and the piston was sitting down on the big end bearing

Connected, shimmed and tightened the two bolts in the big end then rotated the flywheel several times by hand to check free movement of piston/crank/bearings etc. oiled the big end bearing with the oil can before putting the two air intake covers (Bells) back on. I now turned my attention to the top end and fitted, bolted and tightened the cylinder head. Another new asbestos string gasket for the hot bulb followed by assembly of the hot bulb, the water jacket, the spindle assembly then finally the oil rod control.

By early afternoon the Bolinder was all back together and the lamp was put on. Ten minutes pre-heating and second kick and away she went with a crisp sharpness to her beat. For the next couple of hours I ran the engine and played. The rest of the afternoon was spent ber-bonking, twiddling and tweaking until I was once again happy with the performance. By tea time I had packed all the tools away cleaned all the black oily hand prints off the engine and engine ‘ole and left for home a contented man. And so, because I am in such a good mood, you can bang ‘em about as much as you want !

Blossom