BBBC #17 and a Ural Update

This post is part of the blogger challenge titled BBBC. Today's topic is:

17. Share an animal image and explain the rationale behind your choice.

im·age

ˈimij

noun

1. 1.

   a representation of the external form of a person or thing in art.

   synonyms:

   likeness, resemblance;

From this definition on Google, I will assume that a photo of a real animal is not what was desired. This particular photo was taken near the beginning of my road trip last summer in the beautiful metropolis of Chicken, AK, on the Taylor Highway. A good place to stop for a snack as well as filling up the bike. From here to the Canadian border it's mostly gravel with lots of dust if you happen to get stuck behind an RV or worse yet, a tour bus. Most of the RVs will pull over and let you pass but not the tour buses. This was my first time riding on the Taylor and Top of the World highways but have driven it numerous times. Riding is definitely more entertaining especially on a nice day like this. I'm told that it is miserable if muddy.

Here is a favorite photo of a real, live animal (white Bengal tiger) that I took at the night zoo in Singapore back in 2013. The zoo opened up at 7:00pm so that you can see the animals when they are most active. It was a bit worrisome as they were not in cages or pits like in western zoos but something more closely resembling pens. There wasn't anything but a 3' wall separating the pen from the open tram we were riding in. The photo challenge is that no flash is permitted so this photo is ambient light, hand held. Fortunately, it was moving very slowly.

Ural Update

I picked up some Mapp gas to melt the threadlock in the clutch screws and, I suspected, on the timing cover screws. The Mapp gas burns hotter than propane to soften the red Loctite used during assembly. One of the screws on the timing cover had to be drilled out and there was one that was broken by one of the previous owners or during assembly or servicing. Raceway said that they were going to fix it but they didn't. They are small screws and it is broken inside of the case. So two of the 10 screws are broken.

I then used a three jaw puller to remove the timing gear off of the crank and then simply pulled the cam out with the timing gear still attached. The ball bearing behind the gear on the cam felt a little rough and when you spin the cam, you get one of the rotational sounds I was hearing resonating through the engine case.

The box of specialized Ural tools from Bruce in Ketchikan arrived in today's mail so I fitted the clutch tool onto the back of the engine. It fastens on with two of the transmission bolts and you screw down the center to slightly compress the clutch. This allows you to remove the six screws holding the clutch onto the flywheel. Jed was planning to come by Wednesday morning but I did use heat to melt the threadlock on two of the screws and removed them just to make sure that the procedure worked. So tomorrow (Wednesday), the clutch, flywheel, bearing retainer and crank will be removed.

Stay tuned...