> > Well, I've been working for a while changing
> > engines in my favorite scooter. It has not
> > been an easy project, because the scooter is so
> > old. Well, younger than me, I suppose, but old
> > for a scooter.
> >
> > Somewhere in the process, I dropped a small
> > quarter inch lock washer. It went down behind
> > the air shroud, and I assumed it wound up on
> > the floor. No such luck. It stopped on the
> > bottom of the magneto which of course is
> > magnetic.
> >
> . . .
> >
> > After leaving the driveway, I started gaining
> > speed. Centrifical force soon overcame
> > magnetic attraction, and that little lost
> > washer came off. It hit the gas line, knocking
> > a small hole in it and continued on to get
> > caught between the chain and the rear wheel
> > sprocket. Since the chain had just been
> > adjusted, it was nice and tight and the little
> > washer was just enough to cause one link to
> > snap. This all happened in the blink of an
> > eye. With the chain no longer connecting he
> > engine to the rear wheel, it over reved and
> > broke the connecting rod in the engine and it
> > knocked a hole in the oil pan and blew a hole
> > through the piston.
> >
> . . .
>
> That sounds a lot like a book that I once read, called "Codgerspace" by Alan Dean Foster. In that story, the entire course of human history is changed because of a single drop of melted cheese.
>
> When I first read the book, I was 12 or 13, and I really enjoyed it then. (I'm not sure if I'd still recommend it - I'd have to read it again.) I do remember that it was fun to see the way that such a minor event could ripple out into greater and greater consequences.
>
> - E"Butterfly Effect"nigma

It's the old story about "For the want of a nail, the shoe was lost. For the want of a shoe the horse was lost." The it goes from horse to rider to battle to war, or something like that.

I have been working for weeks trying to get that engine swap made. You would think that changing an engine in a motor scooter would be a simple thing; take out four bolts, lift out engine, set in new engine,put four bolts back. But there are several hundred other things to do, and some of them have to be done over and over until you get them in the right order. It's not real technical, but it's aggrevating. Makes you have bad dreams.
Howard