Day 55 – Tavistock to Newquay

A whole day with the the wind in my face. A full 16-30 kph of it.
Pedalling down the hills kind of style.

In addition, Google decided I was a CAR and sent my down the A30.

So

THANKS GOOGLE

Pain in the ass…..

Anyway. I’m here now.

Holed up in the Griffin Inn, right in the very heart of Newquay. Party capital of the south coast.

I’m having a shower and feeling absolutely shattered.

Newquay

Fancied fish & chips, seeing as it was a Friday.

By the time I had all washed up and had a little nap, it was getting on for 9.

Some of the places had stopped serving food.

After a walk down to Fistral Beach and taking a look in the Atlantic Hotel and the Red Lion, I settled on this place, The Dolphin, which had seasonable prices and was still serving.

River Lyd
River Lyd, Conwall

Nansledan

Happened across this village.

Nanslesdan.

They have invested a lot in paint and breeze-blocks to put the place up in the middle of no-where.

It’s  another one of those ‘Poundbury’, self styled ‘good ideas’, from the same people that bought you ‘Poundbury’, (surprise surprise).

10 out of 10 for choice of colours. Bohemian, sort of reminiscent of central European housing of a certain era, with all the funny colours and what not.

It seems that central Europe has come to Newquay, or that’s the impression I got. Airlifted, and dropped in from a height, like and alien invasion.

Nanseldan, Newquay
Nanseldan, Newquay
Nanseldan, Newquay
Nanseldan, Newquay

Today, I’m taking the final leg of my trip, to Sennen, the closest village to Lands End.

Day 54 – Exeter to Tavistock

Through the National Park, which turned out to be extremely hilly.

Climbed the same height as Ben Nevis during the course of the day.
I must admit, I did some of it walking.

Clifford Bridge - Teign Valley
Clifford Bridge – Teign Valley, Devon

This particular road took me up a steep embankment from the River Teign.
It was never ending.

Google Maps

Google kept trying to turn me back from this route, (through the national park), and send me round the A30, (around the edge of the park). Continue reading “Day 54 – Exeter to Tavistock”

Bonnie Revival

That’s right!

The Bonnie Journey is to be revived. And finished!

All the way to Lands End.

Not from here in Aldermaston. But from where I left off, Exeter where I sustained my knee injury.

Exeter to Tavistock

I’ll take the train down there. Pretty pleased the weather has deteriorated slightly.

Cycling at 30 degrees isn’t always that comfortable. Especially for upwards of 5 hours a day.

Gets a bit grating.

Journey begins tomorrow, when I will begin bringing you more tales from the road.

Hungerford -> Newbury -> Aldermaston

An outing with the new waterpump.

Works fine.

The problem now appears to be fuel leaking from the bottom of the fuel governor, a mechanism that acts similarly to the carburetor on a petrol car.

Anyhow, that’s not fixable by me at present, and I have to make the boat down to Aldermaston marina for an annual service.

So that’s what I did.

Here’s some photo’s from along the way.

Kintbury Locks.
Kintbury Locks.
Marsh Benham
Marsh Benham
In Newbury.
In Newbury.

BMC 1800 waterpump

Problem.

Just resting in bed one morning, engine running. Suddenly it started making a crunching noise. Sounded ominous.

Ran out and immediately turned the engine off.

This happened twice or three times. A loud metallic crunching sound.

Next day when I started it up, it began overheating quite badly.

Overheating

Most of the coolant ended up squirted all over the engine compartment floor.

When I started the engine, after about an hour, it started ‘boiling out’. The coolant was just boiling off the top of the cylinder heads and being forced out.

This can point to a badly bled system, or a more serious problem with your cooling system.

 

BMC 1,800 marine waterpump

After talking to a couple of people, I was fairly convinced that the problem was with the waterpump.

BMC 1800 marine waterpump
BMC 1800 marine waterpump

Symptoms including:-

  1. Metalic crunching sound; the pump scraping on it’s housing.
  2. Overheating.
  3. No oil in water or water in oil: Not being a problem with the head gasket.

Procedure for removing waterpump

The waterpump resides behind the engine. The fan belt rotates around it, along with the alternator and the drive-shaft.

  1. Loosen screws on waterpump wheel: There are four nuts that need to be loosened.
  2. Loosen alternator: Slacken the belt off.
  3. Remove waterpump wheel: Fully take nuts out and gently lever the wheel from the waterpump. Keep this, you will need it later!
  4. Remove water from your system: Pick the place where the cooling system piping is at it’s lowest. Remove the pipe here and bleed the coolant out.
  5. Remove pipes: There’s a pipe which connects the waterpump to the cooling jacket. Carefully remove this.
  6. Remove waterpump: There are 4 nuts and washers holding it on. Slacken these off and remove the pump.

You should be left holding your old and broken waterpump in your hand.

You may want to dispose of this in the best way you see fit. Continue reading “BMC 1800 waterpump”