EGC Skates

Welcome to June 2008. I’ve been working away over the past month or so and here are some recent photos, showing the progress on my various projects including the most recent batch of EGC skate boots.

[Photo] Sanding and shaping is almost done. See if you can guess who lasts these are.

On the boot making front, I have to add some plaster back to a few areas on the lasts and raise the boot height on another (the cast was a tad low to start with.)

[Photo] Deltoro Oil Injector out of a Tomos Bullet.

I finally figured out the problem with the moped. Don’t use use 2 year old gasoline! Now that my bike has pretty much all the performance upgrades you can buy, it was time to ensure the oil/fuel mixture was consistent. Oil injectors are known to be unreliable and with a higher powered engine, more air and fuel, the Tomos oil injection system would NOT provide adequate lubrication. The recommended solution was to remove the oil injector entirely, then premix the fuel at a 40:1 ratio. The oil injector was a useless piece of metal on the bike anyway. There are some strong arguments on the moped forums on why you would want to remove the injector and go premix. Since I’m no spring chicken, when it comes to the innards of a two-stroke engine and a bicycle (though I’m no expert on these things either.) I felt that it was best, I treated the bike like an enthusiasts machine, rather than from the angle of brainless driver.

I removed the oil injector (unlike some instructions on the web, this model of moped and injector CAN be altered rather than completely removed.) Instructions on the web said to remove the injector completely. That leaves a hole in the side of the transmission, and I fear debris may get in. I found some other suggestions, like cutting a piece of sheet metal in the shape of the injector gasket (except no holes) and bolt it on top of the hole (using the original injector mounting bolts.)

[Photo] Inside the transmission body. Notice the two notches that turn the oil injector pump.

My solution was to simply remove the “gear” that turned the injector pump. This way, I could re-insert the injector body, back into the side of the transmission, and close up the hole. The pump wouldn’t work, because there would no longer be a connection to it.

Inside the injector is a spring and gear. These can be removed. The oil lines can be removed and drained. Each oil line had a small metal clip holding it onto the injectors. I carefully removed these clips and used them to clamp the oil line running between the intake manifold and oil injector. This line was then cut, drained and then zip tied to cables nearby. The other lines were removed, drained and put away in the spare parts bin for a rainy day. The oil tank, under the seat was removed and drained. The oil line holes in the transmission cap (which protects the oil injector assembly) were plugged up with epoxy putty. So not only is the bike going to run better (due to the now precise oil/fuel mixture), I now have an extra bit of space under the seat for a small storage pouch.)