Jul 25 - confessions

... and then there's the obvious.

When I was changing the brake pads, I saw with dismay that there was a wet spot under the left front wheel.  I thought "oh no, all that twisting of the brake line ..." so I pulled the wheel and checked; looked fine, couldn't see where it had been dripping.  I popped the hood and got access to the reservoir, which is under some plastic up by the windshield, hard to get at ... and found that it had overflowed.  Well, I guess that if you push that brake fluid up the lines by compressing the wheel cylinders to make room for new pads, you can overflow the reservoir.  Whew.

It's raining outside now, Saturday, so I thought that it was a good time to have a look at the 3-wheeler.  It runs with quick start, so there's no electrical problem.  It's clearly a fuel problem, probably some dirt somewhere in the carburetor.  Getting at the carb is difficult though as it's underneath the gas tank.  There's only one bolt retaining it at the rear and it slides forward under some retaining clips, rearward to remove.  Before you pull it too far out, however, you have to remove the rubber fuel hose and, before that, of course, turn off the fuel valve.  I pulled the tank back to see how much play that I had and then started to work at the hose and then had an "oh wait" moment, which led to an "oh $hit" moment.  I sloshed the tank.  No slosh.  The tank was empty.  We're so used to there being problems with this machine that neither David nor I ever checked.  It was out of gas.  I filled 'er up and it started.  Damn.  New battery, new plugs, a full tank of gas (with some Sea Foam for good luck) and we're good to go.