When Ken (the other Ural owner) came over, we also realized that one of our spark plugs was fouled (he gave us one of his spares), and that there was approximately a QUART of water in the transmission (which came squirting out of a hole when we started her).  We drained the transmission fluid (which looked like a latte – see photo) and the water (which literally gushed out) and replaced the transmission fluid (Ural motors actually use motor oil in the transmission.  Weird.).  Once we realized that the battery was not being charged by the alternator, we disconnected the headlight at Ken’s recommendation, as it’s the biggest draw of power other than the engine.  So long as we keep checking the battery level, we can drive her as she is (sans regulator and thus sans recharging) until the battery dies, which is about 100 miles on a Ural.  We’re keeping our spare battery in the sidecar trunk just in case. 

Water/transmission fluid draining from the engine.

Looks like a latte, doesn’t it?

The flanges (black seal on the left of the carburetor) have dry rot and will need replacing soon, or the engine will run too lean.

So, we have now ordered a new regulator, a new horn (the old one has rusted solid), some new air intake hoses (the ones we purchased were the wrong size), a new kill switch (since the old one fell off), some spare spark plugs, and some new flanges for the carburetors (the old ones have dry rot).  Amusingly enough, the Ural community is so tight-knit that the primary spare parts dealer (Holopaw Paul of Holopaw Corvette) works primarily on the honor system!  You tell him what you need, he sends it, and if it works, then you pay him.  If it doesn’t, you send it back, and he’ll send you something else that might work.  It’s kind of hilarious, but also awesome, as that way you don’t waste money on something that doesn’t work for your bike!  This sort of community-based attitude that Ural owners seem to collectively have is one of the things that really drew me to Urals.  Then again, I shouldn’t be surprised by the collectivism considering that it’s a community based around communist motorcycles!

We took Smutyanka out for her first real road driving yesterday.  Even though the regulator is kaput, we can still drive her based on the charge the battery already has, so we drove her around the neighborhood.  Though I have driven standard/manual vehicles all my life, Marc has relatively little experience with them, and our neighborhood is very hilly, so it was something of a trial by fire for him.  We drove over to his parents’ house, and we drove to the local family-owned grocery store to pick up some beer.  We also both just sort of drove randomly around the neighborhood for practice.  I really need to work on my arm strength – you really have to muscle that bike around, and I have a hard time with sharp turns.  Unlike a regular motorcycle, you can’t lean a sidecar bike, so you have to steer it, and unlike a car, you have to work against the fact that the sidecar wheel doesn’t turn with the front wheel (imagine turning your car if only your left front wheel turned and the other three were all in a fixed, straight position – not easy).  I did very well with shifting and clutch-work though, so that was good, and I only ran over one curb with the sidecar (it’s difficult to tell quite where the edge of the sidecar is, if you’re not used to it).  Marc did pretty well with his driving – he still has trouble knowing what gear to be in, and he has trouble kicking the shifters hard enough, but in general he did quite well for someone with very little clutch experience.  I think that our abilities could be summed up as that he’s better at steering the bike, and I’m better at driving it.

We did stall out the bike once, though, when we were trying to drive off from a stoplight that was on a hill.  We both jumped off the bike and pushed it over to the side of the road quickly, which I’m sure was quite an amusing sight for the folks behind us in the lane.  It was very reminiscent of a “Chinese fire drill”.  Unfortunately, because she doesn’t have an electronic ignition, when we stall out we have to push her to the side, because it takes at least 5 seconds to get her properly back into neutral and then started with the kick starter.  But, at least it’s amusing to watch.

I took a short video while we were driving through the neighborhood.  You can see what the view is like from the sidecar, and I also took a couple seconds of video of the scary, exposed shaft drive, for those of you who are mechanically inclined.  It’s very weird to sit in the sidecar, because you’re pretty low to the road, and you’re far enough away from the driver that you can’t hear a word either of you says.  Marc and I had to work out a hand signal system for me to let him know what gear he should be in, because shouting does nothing.  Anyway, here you go:

It’s always something with a Ural, and Smutyanka is no different.

We had her up and running for two weeks, and we thought that the source of our problems was a dead battery.  As it turns out, we were half-correct.  We did indeed have a dead battery, but what we didn’t realize is that we also have an electrical short somewhere in the bike that is leeching power from the battery even when the ignition is off.

Yesterday we had some friends over, and we were going to take them out for a spin around the parking lot, but she wouldn’t turn over.  Not even a hopeful “put put”.  We tried to bump start her twice, once in 1st gear, once in 2nd.  No dice.  We checked the battery with our voltmeter and…it’s dead.  4 volts.  Considering that this was a brand new, dry cell battery, the only explanation for this is that something in the electronics is causing a parasitic drain on the battery.

The electronics on a Ural are relatively primative, but they’re also a rats nest.  The folks on the forum seem pretty sure we should be able to find the source and fix it ourselves, but it’s going to be annoying as it’s going to be a lot of trial and error.  At least by the time we’re done we’ll know a lot more about Smutyanka’s electrical system!

The Good:

For a certain period in Ural history, many of the bikes were fitted with a 35amp alternator with a terrible reputation for dismantling themselves while in use.  The Ural community has nicknamed these alternators the “Russian Grenade”, because when they go, they tend to drop pieces into the engine, thus also destroying the engine.  While some of these alternators end up being fine, most do fall apart, and so owners with those alternators tend to try and replace them with something better.  For the mechanically inclined among you, here’s an example of the inside of the “Russian Grenade” alternators, post-explosion: Example 1 (Part 2), Example 2

Smutyanka is unfortunately from the period that had these installed, and we were concerned about this.  She has very low milage, so we figured that we had awhile before we would have to start thinking about replacing the alternator with something less likely to destroy the engine.

However, as a side effect of posting about our battery problems, it seems that folks think that we are one of the lucky ones that have a bike without a Russian Grenade alternator!  The general consensus seems to be that we have the 14amp alternator that is lower power but is much more stable and reliable.  I need to take a more detailed shot for the folks in the forum so they can be sure, but from looking at this shot, they seem to think we’ve dodged that bullet:

Thankfully Marc has two days off in a row this week, so hopefully we can get some work done on her in that time.  She also needs new air intake hoses (which we have), and we will probably do some general maintenance on her while we have her in pieces anyway.  My helmet should be arriving this week and I hope that maybe by next week we will have her up and running again.