Snowmobile carburetor installed on motorcycle

My father had a rather unique two wheel drive motorcycle called a Rokon Ranger which we used to ride all over the mountain on which we lived. After several years the two-stroke carb stopped working and was taken apart (probably by me) to see if it could be repaired. I don't remember, but I'm guessing some rubber components had simply disintegrated.

With the required spare parts unavailable I looked around and discovered a snowmobile carb tucked away in storage which I figured might just do the trick. With a few minor modifications I was able to install the new carb and get the bike back up and running. True, it did run a little differently than before, but it did run and was useable. The only real issue I remember was that if you stopped the engine after it had been running for a while it had to cool off before you could start it again. Looking back I would surmise that I hadn't provided adequate insulation between the carb and the engine and that it was developing "vapor lock."

As for how a snowmobile carburetor ended up in the wilds of Africa? I'll have to ask my dad...

Mud for differential gear oil

A number of years ago my dad bought an old car in Kenya with the intention of fixing it up and using it. When he got as far as checking the rear differential he found the previous owner had been using a fine clay for lubrication as a cheaper alternative to gear oil. Apparently there was no serious damage from his unorthodox choice...

Reviving sticky handgrips

Back in my college days I owned a motorcycle or two which had rather nasty grips where the rubber started to degrade and became a sticky, unsightly mess. Until I could save up for new grips I found that winding good quality electrical tape around each grip was quite effective and even looked half-decent if you did it carefully. A good tip for replacing grips is to swish a bit of alcohol into the grip before sliding it on. The alcohol makes it temporarily slippery but soon evaporates, leaving the grip firmly in place.

Pickup becomes trailer

I've seen a few variations on this theme: a few years ago a friend wanted to move a pickup truck from Rhode Island to Texas to use for parts. After investigating we decided the bed and most of the frame weren't worth keeping but still wanted to keep the front back to the cab. We first cut off the entire back including the bed and rolled it by hand to a local salvage yard (who actually paid us a few dollars for it!) Next we bolted a trailer tongue to the back of the cab, put red tape over the headlights and had ourselves a nifty trailer. And, yes, we did make it all the way to Texas without serious incident...

An Introduction to Practical Technology

Welcome - the idea behind this site is to encourage the sharing of simple, practical solutions to problems using resources readily available.

I grew up in the sparsely populated reaches of northern Kenya where the nearest hardware store or mechanic's shop might be more than a day's hard driving away over some of the roughest roads in the world. If something needed to be fixed right away, we looked at what we had on hand, did some thinking and got to work.

It's surprising how much you can accomplish with how little when you have no choice. Please share your stories, ideas, suggestions...