The bike’s injectors are taken out, power is put on the pump, the pump turns, but no fuel is emerging.
Next step, the guys decide to take out the fuel pump and strip it. So all the panels come off. The bike looks like a drenched chicken once stripped. (I was so nervous at this stage that I forgot to take photos of the innards of my bike being on the outside). Power on, still nothing.
The guys at the workshop are adament they will have this bike on the road, come hell or high water and I am swept up by their unwavering enthusiasm. We can do anything, it is just the impossible that takes a bit longer. I will introduce them to you soon,
Nothing I can do here at the moment and the guys have some other cars that also need to meet a deadline. so one of the pilots kindly takes me into Chimoio to draw money, get a sim card for the S4, air time and also buy some provisions. Linda’s Lodge does not provide any meals and there is only a communal kitchen. Self-catering is the in thing there. Not that I have much of an appetite at the moment.
When I get back, we get the Diagnostic Tool, that Martin loaned after we met him and Jannie in Ai-Ais, linked up with a laptop at the pilots’ office and then we carry the whole lot down the road to the workshop and connected to my bike. I have comms now and we are talking to Alan during all this. The diagnostic report just confirms what Alan has been saying.
We need to now find an alternative solution to the problem. I am very nervous of trying anything else considering the bike electronics. One mistake, the electronics is in its proverbial ……… and then what?
In the meantime, as chances of a repair look more and more unlikely, we have started arranging with Alan to have a Fuel Pressure Sensor shipped from RSA to Chimoio. The fixed wing pilot had spoken to one of their logistics managers who would arrange with someone else, to pick it up and deliver it to their premises. I also met the big boss of Moz Beef, in their company workshop, and he said that as long as the value of the package was below R100, it would be able to come in immediately without a lengthy Custom Clearance and not take 2 weeks to get to me. (The boss of Moz Beef is a big man, with a big beard and short pants, not what you would normally imagine for the boss of a multi-billion rand company that is listed on the London Stock Exchange)
When it started looking like getting the sensor into Mozambique might prove to be problematic, I contacted Rhys in Malawi and explained my predicament. He got hold of a mate in Beira, that was going to send a truck to fetch me and the bike and then I was to be put on a plane and flown bake to RSA where I would be able to have the bike repaired.
Then, one of the guys comes up with an idea. While the fuel pump is now outside, stripped and in no way connected to the bike, he brings in a separate battery and puts power to the pump, but reverses the positive and negative connecting cables.
The pump comes to life and spurts a huge stream of thick black gunge from the reservoir out of the fuel line in the right direction.
The problem was that the positive and negative terminals were connected wrong way around and the pump came on, but it was turning in the wrong direction. Blue, yellow, red, black………………why do they not just stick with 2 colours, period?
We got it wrong. Red and blue or was it yellow, or black on yellow or was it blue? Or I could have heard wrong…………………………… (you know with me being mechanically challenged and all), but it seems that it was a good thing though that it happened like that, because if that gunge went into the fuel system and did its thing with the injectors etc., I would have had an even bigger problem.
Another lesson learnt. Filter the fuel as it goes into the tank.
O0
This version is subject to possible change as new info comes to light.