Natasha, not quite dead, and feeling better.

As my steady readers know, a bit over a couple of weeks ago I had another "repair challenge" set on my by Natasha, my '96 Ural Sportsman Sidecar Rig.  It was initially, apparently the death knell of my relationship with this beast of a motorcycle but things have gotten better since then.

Much like the scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, where the guy is seen hauling a cart through a plague-ridden medieval town, yelling: "Bring out your dead, bring out your dead";  I too was in that situation two weeks or so ago.

source: Google

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

I thought the Final Drive on the Ural was toast and not worth further investment of time or treasure.  I was the guy carrying a body to the death cart which was not quite dead yet.  It was Natasha who spoke to me as I took her final drive apart and said: "I'm not dead yet".  Further disassembly and research intimated that she might be "getting better".

Since then I've had quite the "crash course" I've had in basic disassembly of a Ural fulltime 2WD unit, diagnosis of problems of which there were two major ones, and the eventual replacement of same.  Ready help came from a fellow SovietSteeds member: Ron C aka n3303j online.  He'd rebuilt this model final drive before and offered me guidance, help, info, and tips on taking things apart, checking them and then putting things back together.

Thank you Ron, I am in your debt.

I'll spare you the boring technical pictures and details here.  If you're really curious, there's a picture series on picasa which details the disassembly I did and what parts got replaced:  LINK

After receiving the final part this part Saturday (and not realizing it till Sunday morning due to it being buried in snow on the porch) and spending Super Bowl Sunday working on her with my youngest son's help; Natasha was back together.  Monday, my wife and my youngest son helped me mate the tug back to the sidecar, Natasha was whole once again.  It was dark by the time I got her wired up to the battery in the sidecar and figured out some minor issues.  Went out for a very short ride, less than 1/2 mile in the snow-packed neighborhood but she seemed fine!  Those short few minutes riding about were glorious!

Today, we woke to a good 5-6 inches of snow and I used Natasha to take my oldest son, Patrick, over to school.  Man, it was fun sloshing about the deeply rutted neighborhood streets for the whole mile to the school.  We both got quite cold in that short ride, as I'd not fitted the windshields back on to the rig or the heated grips!

Here she is, mated back onto the sidecar and ready for more test rides

So far so good, no leaks from the final drive, the rear wheel remains with no wobbles and nothing has fallen off.  The windshield is back on, heated grips are wired up again, and soon she'll be ready for the forthcoming Elephant Ride on Guanella Pass this weekend!