FIDDELING AND FETTLING

Wow! I had to come down to earth after Marjorie's big day and get on with all the little jobs that became apparent after a quick run around the block.

But first thanks to Dejavw for his comment and Jacquie hopes that his reference to co-pilot relates to her, rather that five year old Emily. Also thanks to Dave from California and Sean for your good wishes.

First thing that needed attention was the tickover, I couldn't keep the engine running without choke. I ordered a pair of vacuum gauges, removed bonnet and engine cowling, connected the gauges and got the carbs balanced and ticking over at 1000RPM, but the gauges reacted differently as I opened the throttle, so I readjusted the tappets and now the gauges respond pretty much in the same way, hopefully that will stop the right cylinder running much hotter, indicated by the bluing of the header pipe. Engine not quite right yet, maybe the change of silencers and air filters requires the carbs to be re-jetted, a few more runs around the block required to determine.

Other jobs attended to was readjusting the gear linkage as initially I could only get 1st and just about 2nd gear. I moved the leaver back one spline on the shaft from the box and that made a big difference, but getting into 1st and and changing down was now difficult, fortunately every part of the linkage is adjustable so by shortening the final rod, I got it just right and now I can go up and down the box without a problem, for smooth down changes she still needs a blip of throttle,but it always did on the bike.

I have made basic adjustments to the steering; toe in and camber and Marjorie rolls much more freely now. The wheels looked nearly parallel whilst she was on the trestles, but tyre marks on the ground indicated I had far too much toe in. The steering wheel is now out of center and will have to be
adjusted accordingly.

By placing a chromed plastic edging strip around the rear I have tided up the back end, although It will have to come off when the barrel back, along with the other panels, are sent for spraying.

Next job is to find out why the speedo is not working and to glue and rivet the right side bottom panel in place. Plenty more jobs to do yet.

54321 LIFT OFF

At last, the LIFT OFF day for Marjorie Morgan arrived and thankfully it stayed more ore less dry for the 30 plus friends, family and neighbours who turned up to watch the event. Hot dogs and cava was served to keep everybody in a good mood

I was hoping to post the video on the blog, but apparently 100mb is the maximum size and my 10 minutes worth is over 2gb, so we will have to make do with the great photos taken by my chums, but I have managed to post the video onto YouTube, the link follows, for those you haven't got anything better to do.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnCo1_SWxwM&spfreload=10
If the link fails, then search for Launch of Mac's replica Morgan three wheeler.

The lifting off the trestles and lowering with the front wheel onto ramps went very smoothly, allowing room to extract the crane legs, there was some faffing about getting the crane out of the way before the bonnet could be lifted on and fastened. It was decided it would be safer to push Marjorie off the ramps rather than start the engine and with many hands pushing, after I remembered to fit the steering wheel, she slowly rolled off them and they were removed.

It was now crunch time, typical, it had started first prod of the button whilst on the trestles, but at this lower elevation it took several prods and I was beginning to feel rather foolish when at last to a cheer the engine roared to life. I gingerly engaged 1st gear slowly lifted the clutch to ensure that I wasn't in reverse and Marjorie rather reluctantly emerged from the garage. It was only after a couple of forward and reverse runs up and down the parking area, that I realised that I had left the handbrake on, silly me. After that getting Marjorie going was much easier and made even more fun with my 5 year old step granddaughter on board and Jacquie, my wife was also persuaded to climb aboard.

All went very well, until I tried to reverse back into the garage and the back end grounded out. It had been commented that the back end was much lower than the front and on a quick check underneath it was obvious that the rear tyre needed more air, but I will also need to adjust the rear springs to level it up, not a big problem and will soon be fixed.

Finally a few more photos of Marjorie on her big day