Japan Meets Britain

Vince Lupo · Post by **Vince Lupo** » Wed Jun 08, 2011 3:40 am

Heard back from John last night, and there is a possibility that the engine will have to be pulled and the cases split to replace hardened steel washer with a bronze bushing. He is trying to avoid that, so stay tuned!

e3steve · Post by **e3steve** » Wed Jun 08, 2011 4:30 am

Vince Lupo wrote:Heard back from John last night, and there is a possibility that the engine will have to be pulled and the cases split to replace hardened steel washer with a bronze bushing. He is trying to avoid that, so stay tuned!

All good fun, Vince!

Am I right in thinking that the casings can be split without dropping the motor?

Vince Lupo · Post by **Vince Lupo** » Wed Jun 08, 2011 4:51 am

Actually think it would be a bit more fun to be riding it!

I don't know about the case-splitting myself, but John's on it, so I'm not really worried. I think for him it would be more of a PIA than anything else, and I'm sure he'd much rather be working on new projects than revisiting something he already completed. I know he'll figure it out though!

Vince Lupo · Post by **Vince Lupo** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 4:37 pm

Saw John today and he's pretty certain he's fixed the problem. It was a bear to take that washer out because NOVA installed it from the inside, but he managed to get it out without tearing the engine apart. The OEM bronze Honda bushing is now in its place, and the only thing I had to do was to order a new seal from a local place that deals in nothing but seals and bearings (NOVA did not use a stock-sized Honda seal - it was some wonky size that this place in Baltimore had to order -- it's 19mm in diameter instead of NOVA's 18.216mm in diameter, but John is fine with that.

Here's a photo of the old clutch rod, and what that hardened steel washer did.....

Spargett · Post by **Spargett** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 4:48 pm

Wow. It's never fun when issues arise, the only thing being worse is when the source is elusive. Fortunately that's a problem you're having here. You'll be back at it in no time.

What's Nova have to say about this?

Vince Lupo · Post by **Vince Lupo** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 4:55 pm

I haven't told them what John had to do to accomplish these feats of greatness, but they are aware of the situation and they agree that maybe there are some things in their system that might need to be tweaked. Neither John nor I are truly pissed about the situation, and I am still ultimately glad that I went with the 5-speed, but it just goes to show that there are ways to improve what will ultimately be a more versatile mousetrap.

What I think I'll do is have John write everything down about what he found and what he did to fix the situation. I'm sure there are many things that he told me which are getting lost in translation, and it would probably be better to come from the horse's mouth. John has spoken to Graham at NOVA on a couple of occasions, so it might be better if he spoke with him directly, rather than me relaying things to Graham. I'll wait until everything is buttoned back up and it is indeed fixed. But John's pretty confident that he fixed the seeming design flaw.

e3steve · Post by **e3steve** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 5:20 pm

Good news Vince. Can't believe that an 'engineering' company could overlook such a fundamental issue!! You're only ever as good as your last cock-up......