Well nothing much has been done to the RD for a couple of weeks. But that usually means that I've been up to my neck in jobs for the park. This week it was the turn of one of our OXOBikes to give me grief.

After buying them last year to hire out in the park, we've had a constant stream of niggling faults with them due to the lack of maitenance from their previous owner. A lot of it was just loose bolts and things falling of because they didn't have correct nuts and washers or safety pins. Over the last year we have sorted out most problems including rebuilding one engine from one that had hit a tree and fitting it to another that had eaten it's crankshaft big end from infrequent oil changes. This was the one causing trouble now.

After the engine refit it went like a rocket. It had obviously done little work before it lunched it's engine as it also handle the best as well. We decided this would be the best one to sell to help recoup some of the cost in rebuilding the others. We plan on importing more next year so we sold this one with 3 month warranty on the engine to maintain our reputation and to show we have faith that they aren't cheap junk like so many others that are coming in from China.

This meant I needed to give it a once over and service. Not a problem until I noticed a slight weep of green coolant coming from the rear head stud. Closer inspection revealed a crack in the cylinders water jacket. Bugger! It was meant to be leaving to go to it's new home the next day.

I had never removed the head or cylinder from these engines while still in the buggy and its a serious job to get the engine out. First time for everything then. First job was to pull the seats to get access to the engine. After removing the cam box I managed, after much wriggling, to get the camshaft out without removing it's sprocket. Next to undo the head studs and remove it. First problem. Rear head studs won't pass the chassis tube. With a bit of careful manuovring the head was off and cylinder as well. We reused the barrel and piston in the last rebuild as it didn't show much wear. After a quick hone we fitted new rings rebuilt it with new gaskets. This time I would be using a new cylinder we had on hand as well as new piston and rings.