Blown Seal

After the run out to the Corbridge Show on the R12 the next outing was to the VMCC’s Scarborough Touring Week.

As this meant a week away under canvas I opted to take the old girl down there on a trailer behind the car. Reason for this was simply that I would have been unable to carry all the gear for a weeks camping for myself and the two dogs on the outfit.

On this event there is a road run each day and there is the social side each evening so it makes for an enjoyable week away.

Day One was the Friday with the run down the A19 towards York and then across to Scarborough. I chose this longer route because there are severe hill climbs with tight bends on both of the shorter routes, one being up Sutton Bank and that’s bad enough without a drag behind you!.

Anyway I got to the campsite in good time, offloaded the outfit and set up camp in time for the first evenings socialising.

The Saturday was a short run out, only some 60 miles around the area and everything seemed ok but when out on the Sunday problems arose.

The R12 has a separate Magneto/dynamo unit sitting on top of the engine. This necessitates a seal between the two and this blew. There is a carrier plate with a felt seal against the magneto end plate with a cork ring gasket sealing the plate to the engine housing and this is what blew, covering the left side of the motor in oil.

The oil got onto the plug lead and gave the spark on that side a pathway to track to ground and short out the plug.

Just to be awkward it would only track when the motor was under load, as when on a steepish climb, but when light loaded she ran OK! Typical!!.

I limped back to the main road on about one and a half cylinders and once on the main road it was a level run back to the camp-site so, of course she ran sweet as you like under the light load.

Monday was a run out to the aircraft museum at Elvington, near York, and rather than risk things I went over there with the two dogs in the car and had a good look round but I’d have preferred to be on the bike.

Tuesday was the “Extreme Hill Run”. I’ve done this run before using my R80/2 convert rig and it had tried the brakes on that lady so I had opted not to go on that run when I booked for the event.

This gave me a day “on site” when I could have a go at fixing the bike.

I tried various options at the “roadside get you home bodge” level but without success, it seemed the inner felt seal had gone and I was going to have to take the magneto unit off the bike to fix things.

This would have meant losing the magneto timing and this was not a job I wanted to undertake on a camp site, it’s not all that difficult but it is rather involved with an R12 outfit, meaning taking the sidecar off for access and then removing the gearbox to access the timing marks.

Wednesday I opted to stay on site again as the weather was rather inclement, i.e. it was p—ing down and while I could have gone in the car, I don’t see the pleasure in driving in rain any more than in riding in it!

Thursday dawned a nice day, but owing to other commitments at home I needed to back by Friday so it was a case of see the Thursday run out off, then pack up and drive home.

So, to fix the R12 I’ll need to get new seals and some other bits for her. These will have to be ordered up, probably from Germany, so it looks as if she’ll be off the road for the rest of the month, I’ve the R80/2 combo off the road with a repair to the sidecar so I’ve only a solo on the road at the moment.

Means I’m restricted in what I can do because of the two dogs, Looks like I’m just having to go to local events till I get an outfit back on the road.