Mini ride report - Dnepr MT-11

Decided to take it for a spin today -- without regular exercise
it tends to get a bit flaky. In the best Soviet tradition
I brought along a hammer (rubber with lead shot inside).

As I expected, soon after I opened the petcock, gas started pouring
out of each carb. So I flailed away on them with the rubber hammer,
trying to agitate the floats and needle valves so they would
activate to shut off the gas (er, petrol). Sure enough it worked.
I was able to drive away with the usual clatter, commotion
and jangling without leaving twin trails of dribbling gasoline.

Life under Communism must have been... "different".

SQ

 

Dont feel too bad about it, the 400/4 is famous for the same problem.
A few taps with the handle of a screwdriver is usually enough to
wake up the recalcitrant carbs.

 

The Hammer and the Motorsickle?

 

Brilliant!

"I don't want a pickle,
Just want my hammer and 'sickle." --Arlo Guthrovich

refers to the WW2 T-34 tank transmission:

"The makers of the T-34 were clever fellows. They knew
the transmission in their tank was garbage, so they
put it right where you could get to it easily, chuck
a bad one away and shove in another. The location
in the back had one drawback for the driver: it made
the tank's gears tough to shift because of the long
drive train running through the floor. Dimitri and
the other Russian tank drivers learned to keep
a hammer under their seats for the more stubborn
moments of the T-34's transmission."
--_Last Citadel: A Novel of the Battle of Kursk_
By David L. Robbins

SQ

 

No, a Bar Tangled Spanner.

 

For most Yanktanks, the Star-Spangled Banger?

 

Wasn't the definition of the Golden Gate Bridge "The Car Strangled Spanner"?