Workshop disasters revealed
Mechanic Dr Tepi on the perils of Blu Tack fixes and swarf in your wiring
When a scooter came in for an MoT at Doncaster Motorcycles, it failed because of an intermittent highbeam. Spannerman Kev ‘Dr Tepi’ Hollingsworth’s first port of call was the switchgear where he discovered the cause pretty quickly – a ball of Blu Tack used as a quick fix. “The owner had run it for a few years and genuinely seemed to know nothing about it. Needless to say I
soldered it back where it belonged and Robert’s your father’s brother. I didn’t charge him,” said Tepi.
He also faced another switchgear conundrum when a mildly modified Honda CB900F Hornet came in sporting a set of flat Renthal bars. “It also came with its own ghost. It would randomly start and stop without warning or a key in sight. Apart from that, the bike looked lovely; it was lowmileage and didn’t look like the loom had been damaged. The bars had just been replaced, but the wiring into the switchgear hadn’t needed modifying and it was all routed correctly and well insulated,” he said.
As the Renthal bars are pattern items that can fit most popular makes they come without any locating holes for switchgear pins to be positioned in, to stop the switchgear rotating. You have to drill a 3-4mm hole, depending on design. The Hornet owner had offered up the switchgear with the bars already bolted into the yoke clamps and carefully marked the drill site to get the angle right, then wielded his drill. The trouble was that he had left the split switchgear dangling underneath and a load of swarf had dropped into it as he drilled away. “When I showed him the cause, he looked a little nonplussed, and muttered something about not realising it would make a difference,” chuckled Tepi.
‘The owner had no idea who had put the Blu Tack there’