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Gilera Giubileo – the curse of ancient loomings and other mysteries

Posted by on March 7, 2011

You remember that the Gilera is supposed to have ‘an intermittent ignition fault’? That it runs, but roughly? Previously, horribly twisted wiring fixes, hidden under insulting tape, chilled the heart. A points gap you could pass a spanner through can’t have been helping either. But it gets worse (better, I mean, since we are moving towards a happy ending).

Poking around with a multimeter in here – the Clapham Junction of Italian bike electrics – reveals that the words ‘current’ and ‘consistent’ were divorced some time ago. I bypass the jumble of ancient switches, fuses and bullets to bring reliable power to the coil and … bingo! We have spark! This is it!

Fresh fuel. Kick, kick, kick. Nothing, still.

This word ‘intermittent’ is beginning to bug me.

All that fresh fuel is getting through, isn’t it? Fuel pipes off. Taps on – both of them. Nothing. The workshop floor should now be awash, but there’s not a drop. Both taps are so clogged they won’t pass a whiff?

In the picture the top tap has already been unblocked, though not yet properly cleaned up. Those two holes through which fuel must flow were so packed with crud they were invisible. (I should have taken a picture but in my excitement forgot – novice bloggers, eh?) The bottom tap is still untouched, with its holes mostly blocked and the passageway behind them still completely solid.

Intermittent? I think not.

Is now the time for a topical Jethro joke?

Mate: “Bloody bike won’t start.”

Jethro: “It’s either shit in the fuel or shit in the tank.”

Mate: “How often do I ‘ave to do that?”

 

 

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