That little stone...

The blighter in question

You may remember the little trouble maker above from my Four Points excursion.  It successfully stopped the LHS radiator fan and then because some idiot didn't remove the stone, killed said fan.  Arrrgggggh!

Anyway, I've dragged the chain a bit sorting the issue out but finally I tracked a second-hand one down in Oz - new ones appear to be made of gold or something...

it's like a little metal flower...

Oh, and maybe the writing on it on the other side means it's good for another 40hp?

Anyway, once here, I was pretty keen to get it on the bike.  So today I tore all the plastic off the LHS of the bike and went at it.

As you can see, everything is super easy to get at with plenty of room for XXXL hands...

Anyway, I got the old one out and (with difficulty) and then started the installation of the brand new second hand one.  In the picture above you can see one bolt on the left of the fan bracket.  Well, there also happens to be one on the right (and another easy to get one on the bottom) as well.  Try imagining me getting my fat hands in that gap to start a little bolt...

What's wrong with this picture?

As you can see, somehow the plastic on the RHS of the bike has come off as well...

Crap everywhere!

To get the little bolt in, I had to unbolt the radiator so I could make enough room for fingers and tools.  While I was there I also removed the original horn which has just been catching bugs since the Stebel was installed a hundred years ago...

Doing this made the job only just possible and gave me a fair bit more practice in pulling things apart.  I think that everything is now mostly where it should be...

Before installing the last piece of fairing I thought that it was probably a good idea to see if everything worked...

Yeah, the original one was noisy too - the RHS one is actually quieter for some reason.

Anyway, pretty pleased to have that sorted as it's pretty hot here at the mo and I'd hate to cook my baby.  Moral of the story: if you ever blow a fan on your radiator fans, check the fan before replacing the fuse and starting the bike!

Having got her warmed up I finished up my maintenance tasks by giving her some fresh oil front and rear.  I reckon she still sounds sweet as a nut with 154,000km on the clock now eh?

I might keep her...