Armed Polite Society

"Still has the same stumble though."

Is it worse when it's cold and damp?

Could it be a crack in the high voltage coil block?

I ran into that with my 1997 Subaru. Once I figured out what was going on I pulled the ignition coil, cleaned it really well, and paved the cracked areas with JB weld.

Reassembled everything and it ran like a freaking champ until the day I got rid of it.

The other time it started to stumble on me was a right pain in the ass because it was a bugger to figure out.

It turned out to be the acoustic anti-knock sensor. All of a sudden it just started randomly deciding that my car was knocking up a storm and it would start messing with the timing to "cure" the knock.

Once I figured out what it likely was I had to order the part and then install it... which probably would have been easier had I hung upside down in the engine compartment from the hood. By my toes.

But once I got it plugged in... no more phantom knock problems.

It's a tough week here.

So my XR was taken offline due to a warped rotor.  I ordered parts earlier this week and they arrived today.  I replaced the rotor and brakes, and made a couple other tasteful upgrades (better mirrors, a 30mm riser on the bars to make standing more comfortable) and went for a test ride to Ace Hardware about 3 miles from home... I noticed a missing bolt on my luggage rack and headed there to get a replacement.

On the way back home, my bike died a mile after leaving Ace.  There happened to be a gas station at that intersection, so I walked it into the gas station.  It was low on gas and maybe the pickup in the tank wasn't getting fuel, so I topped the tank off and sat there trying to kickstart it for awhile.  It would sputter and then make some metallic noises from the top end.  Not a good sign.  I seem to get odd resistance in the kickstarter as I cycle through the 4 stages of the piston's operations (suck squeeze bang blow), but I haven't isolated exactly which stage is getting the odd resistance.  Two valves for intake, two for exhaust, so my thinking is one of the two valves on one of the cycles is fubar, which would allow for the half-hearted attempts to start and the engine running for a few burbles and then dying.  Hopefully the metallic noises are pissy cam surfaces or valve springs/tappets rather than piston damage.  Sigh.

Back to 0 motorcycles, and now I have to decide if I'm going to tear down the XR600R and figure out whatever valve train damage/drama it has going on, or do I want to shift gears entirely and dive into a BMW F650GS Dakar I bought awhile back, that has a blown head gasket but does actually run (terribly).

No word on the spoke nipple I'm waiting on from the Aprilia dealer for my Tuareg.  I figure I'll call them Tuesday for an update (moto shops are closed Sun/Mon traditionally).

NARF (Naval Air Rework Facility) Alameda used to to be one of the places that did P3 rework and I dreaded having to take a plane there because invariably the guys that had never been to Alameda would want to go bar hopping. Usually we would stay in Alameda but every now and then someone would want to go to Oakland. I usually went back to the hotel at that point. I can't imagine how much crime there was when there were carriers homeported in Alameda because it is nothing to get to/from Oakland in Alameda.

bob

I've done several exercises in and out of Mare Island, and Alameda (we berth over by USS Hornet). I went out on the town the first couple times, but now it's one of port where I just stay in the boat.  The Army has had to start locking our exercise participants down and not letting them off base because too many soldiers were getting mugged in Oakland.

We go explore the port towns in Djibouti, Santo Domingo, Puerto Cortes, and I've hit the markets in Baghdad.  I'll skip Oakland though.

Cultural Imperialist - Hindu views of the Earth are as valid as yours!