March-April 2019 - DIY
By early 2019 it became apparent that the best way to get the engine shipped down under was to go over to the UK and do it with my mate. Asking him to do all the work on that end wasn't ideal. An opportunity came up at work to fly over to Dublin, right after I had to be in Japan for a wedding. Perfect! I'll take the week off after, go to London and hang out with my mate, put the engine on the pallet and get it shipped.
Somehow, by some miracle, that actually happened.
Flying for 10 hours over Russia. Russia is vast!
Flew with Aeroflot! Flight was barebones but it got me there.
Hotdog and beer on the stopover at Sheremetyevo international airport
Over the 3 weeks, I flew from Melbourne -> Tokyo -> Moscow -> Dublin -> London -> Dubai -> Melbourne, spending about a week each in Tokyo, Dublin and London.
The B230FK and M90 had been waiting for a while (almost a year at this point!) for me to come collect it
Once we went to find the parts stored out back it turned out that some pikies pinched some of the parts kept outside that were to be shipped, but it wasn't too many of the important ones so that was okay.
This top bloke helped us to pull out the engine with his enormous telehandler
Because of australian quarantine rules, I either needed a recently heat treated pallet or a plastic pallet to put the goods onto. No worries, found someone selling plastic pallets nearby so got a couple of different types.
Damn quarantine rules. We then set out planning for how we would build a structure to keep it all together and secure on its journey down under.
And made up some engine mounts out of scrap to secure it.
Had to drain all fluids. No biggie.
We made up engine mounts for the engine to attach directly to the pallet, and a frame to go around the pallet with strapping so that things could be strapped down with ratchet straps easily.
One cleaned M90 and B230FK ready for export
Over the week in london, we mucked around with modifying motorbikes (his primary hobby), caught a gig in town (slaegt, ketzer, etc. at Nambucca), cleaned up the shop, and generally had an excellent time.
Putting a 160cc Husqvarna engine in a tiny pit bike!
About halfway through cleaning up all the parts (again, quarantine), we had the thought that it would be better if we shipped two M90 boxes down under, because two is better than one, and since they're not a servicable item and they're not *that* common in Australia.. if I need a replacement or backup, I'd be stuffed or at least up for a lot of cash. So after some messages asking mates of mates, we found another one nearby, and also got some items that had been pinched from the original lot (like a shifter!) so that was good.
One M90? Is ok..
TWO M90? More betterer.
Strapping it all down including some bits I'd need for the conversion. Managed to get the clutch hard line in there safely!
Hopefully it holds
The legend that has made this all possible!
Eventually, we got everything loaded onto the pallet, wrapped up and I was back on a plane home while it waited to be picked up. Flew back on easter weekend. See you in 50-ish days?
