Carb work

The left pilot jet is definitely clogged, and the main jet might not be much better off. When I pulled the jets off to soak them it's possible that stuff got stuck in the holes that the jets screw into, so I'll have to pull the whole carb and clean it really well. Once I get that figured out I'll be much more likely to be able to get the idle smoothed out. But I won't have a chance to do this until Thursday at the earliest.

Front tire

I went and picked up my front wheel and tire from the shop that I had install it - well worth the $20 labor charge. I put it on the bike and hit the front brake with some brake cleaner and went to take it for a spin, but only one cylinder was firing and it would barely shift - oops. The carb was getting plenty of fuel so I pulled the plug and it was wet. I dried it off, reinstalled it, and it fired back up on both cylinders. I took a quick spin to make sure everything was fine. It still won't idle, so I'll need to work on that, and also take a look at the brake switches and get those working.

Front brake and rear fender

Well I just realized that the rear fender must have been rubbing during the whole half-hour ride yesterday, so I pulled it off and mounted the taillight on the rear bar:

 I also got my new front brake pulled apart only to find that it was almost in worse condition than the one I had, except this brake line and gasket were good:

I pulled it apart and combined the good parts from the two brake assemblies to make one good brake. I got it mounted and it worked - sort of. After cleaning the rotor and pad surfaces with some brake parts cleaner, it worked much better. Turns out some grease had gotten rubbed onto the rotor and was lubricating it...oops.

I took the front tire to get a new innertube installed. There's no way I want to go through that mess again only to find that I punctured the innertube....again.

The next step will be making a new seat...it should totally transform the look of the bike from "crappy bike from the '70s" to "sweet vintage racer." Or so I'm hoping.

Pictures from today

I RODE THE BIKE!

My tire came in while I was working on the bike today, and I got it mounted, fuel lines run, new (non-ethanol) fuel poured in, everything hooked up, and I rode it!

There's no front brake yet, as that took a back burner when the tire got here, and there were a couple snags. Due to larger tires, my front fender doesn't fit and the chain guard wouldn't fit. I cut the chain guard so that it went on, but I need to figure out what to do with the front fender.

More pictures soon.

Plans for this coming weekend:

-RIDE THE BIKE

But of course, that all depends on getting these things done:

-Redo fuel lines to include brass splitter and new filter
-Rebuild "new" front brake (assuming it comes)
-Mount new front tire and tube
-Re-install chain guard and front fender
-Fix front brake-light switch and wire that all correctly
-Tune carbs
-Return wrong mirror to JCWhitney (oops) and get some temporary mirrors to pass inspection until my next spending spree, when I'll get clubman handlebars and some nice bar-end mirrors

Future plans to think about:
-Custom fiberglass cafe seat
-Custom LED taillight and turn signals w/ electronic flasher
-Headlight bulb

Less than expected, but good

Well, the freaking tire took forever to get mounted, so I didn't get everything done I would have like to, but I still made some good progress today. I got both mufflers clamped and mounted and the rear tire and tube mounted and re-installed on the bike.

It's starting to look pretty good. I should have my brake by Friday and hooooopefully my front tire by Saturday. I'll be ticked if I don't, though, because that means I won't get a chance to ride the bike around until next Thursday at the earliest. I still need to re-do the fuel lines with the brass splitter and my new filter.

The bike sounds really really good with the shorty mufflers installed. It's not a whole lot quieter, but it sounds much smoother, which I think is perfect. I'm going with the Honda Civic motto: If you can't be fast, at least be loud.

Woo hoo!

Stuff is here! I'll be able to get some real work done tonight, this is exciting.

Waaaaiiittttiiinnngggg

The worst part is where I can't really do anything...

I got the front rim cleaned up, hammered into shape, and painted. I need to drill out and fix the  front brake switch. Besides that I'm waiting for my big box from JCWhitney, front brake, and front tire. With a little bit of luck all of it will be here by this coming Saturday. I don't have night class today, so after my ICE class, I'll be able to get a little work done, weather permitting.

Pod Filters

I got the pod filters installed today to find that they cause the bike not to run. I cleaned out the fuel system, ran some CLR through the gas tank, raised the main jet needles a couple notches, and it ran again. The filters just flow well enough that they needed more fuel. Hopefully that means a little bit more power, too.

Today

I got the headlight wired and installed, redid the LH handlebar switch with parts from the Honda dirtbike handlebars I picked up - I replaced the headlight hi/lo switch which involved re-soldering that, and I got the horn working as well. I sprayed some penetrating lubricant on all of the connections and everything's working much more smoothly now.

I also decided that my front brake is toast and I'll have to order a new one. The cable seems to be frozen inside the sleeve and the cable end is frozen to the brake arm, and on something as critical as the brake I'm not going to mess around.

I updated the to-do in the post under this one.

Edited to-do

-LH handlebar switch
-Turn signal bulb and lens screws, and mounting screw
-Headlight
-Tires and tubes (on the way!)
-Paint rims and headers (tomorrow morning, hopefully)
-Cut front fender
-Fuel hose clamps/filter (purchased, will install when I get filter)
-Exhaust clamps and mufflers
-Brake caliper rebuild and front brake switch
-Rubber washers for gauges

Paint

I put a few coats of high temp Rustoleum enamel on the headers, exhaust flanges, and rear rim. Here's a before and after of the exhaust flanges. There's a difference, I promise.


Here's everything painted up and drying:



And my solution to the lack of a gas tank latch:


I drilled a tiny hole in what was left of the latch and JB Welded a cut up allen wrench in there. I'm hoping this works...

To do

Here's the list I threw down during class:
-LH handlebar switch
-Turn signal bulb and lens screws, and mounting screw
-Headlight (on the way!)
-Tires and tubes (on the way!)
-Paint rims and headers (tomorrow morning, hopefully)
-Cut front fender
-Fuel hose clamps/filter
-Exhaust clamps and mufflers
-Brake caliper rebuild and front brake switch
-Rubber washers for gauges

Yee hawww

Lots of parts on the way. Excited.

Pod filters

I just picked up a pair of these on eBay. Once I get them and the new mufflers on I'll have to retune the carbs. Should be fun!

More purchases

I just submitted an order to JCWhitney for a couple mufflers, a helmet, a fuel filter, a mirror, innertubes, and a couple rim strips. I have one tire on the way and I'm in the process of buying the other tire. This is exciting.

Update

It wouldn't start when I tried again yesterday, so I did a few things. I pulled the float bowls off of the carbs and cleaned the junk out of them. I drained the gas (it was orange) and pulled the petcock and cleaned all of that out. After that, it fired back up. I was able to shift through all of the gears, so that's exciting. I'd like to get my tires ordered today, and I'll need a tank cleaning kit as well. At that point, I can start riding it around. I'll probably head to the parking lot at a park nearby to get the hang of it.

Today Was a Good Day

Lots of progress today. I got the old handlebar switch pulled apart, installed new switches, and got everything rewired.

Here are the header pipes when I got them:

And after some time with the wire brush (no paint yet - that will come soon though):

Most of the other parts I received gave me the impression that the donor bike was pretty rough, so I wasn't sure what to expect as far as the carbs went. I the first one open to find some pretty bad corrosion and the needle valve was sticky.

The second carb, though, looked absolutely perfect. The outside was grimey and gross, but the inside was completely spotless - like it was brand new:

I hit both carbs with a considerable amount of carb cleaner and scrubbed the bad one with a toothbrush to get all of the gunk off.

I got the carbs installed and installed my new throttle cable:

After that I installed the battery and attached the wiring harness up front.

The next few hours was spent trying to figure out why my battery fuse blew every time I turned the ignition on. I swapped the current voltage regulator for the gross looking spare I had and re-checked every connection, and the fuse suddenly stopped burning out.

It turns out my left handlebar control is pretty much toast. The blinker switch works (the lights don't blink though - I need to swap on my spare blinker relay) but the horn and headlight hi/lo switch are both bad. At this point, the bike would crank, so I buttoned all of that back up. I installed the new petcock onto the fuel tank, ran the new fuel lines with my temporary plastic y-splitter and stole some gasoline from my roommate's mower gas can. Time to start it.

At first, it just cranked with no firing. I only cranked it for 10-15 seconds at a time and gave the starter motor plenty of time to rest in between cranks. Then suddenly I hear a burble and the tach jumped - something was happening. I alternated between choke on and off, and cranked the throttle. After a while, it started trying to fire, occasionally throwing sparks out of the exhaust. Then suddenly, it was running! There was a bit of hesitation and it was a bit rough, but it was running.

It currently idles around 1500 rpm, so that will have to be adjusted, and there are definitely some rough spot that will need smoothing out, but it runs!

To do list:

-Left handlebar switch
-Headlight
-Confirm transmission is operable
-Tires and tubes

-Front brake rebuild

-Seat cover

-Blinker relay

-Install chain

-Clean and install chain cover

-Install rear blinker lights and covers

-Front brake light switch

-Install a mirror

Today was a good day.

More parts

Between yesterday and today, I picked up a throttle cable, handlebar set from a Honda dirt bike, and a new petcock. Keeping my fingers crossed, I should have all of the parts I need to try and get it running by this coming Saturday.

Gasket

A little gasket material, a sharpie, and an exacto knife, and voila, a gasket!

Jackpot!

I got a pretty sweet deal - headers, plastic cover, carbs, intake tube, and drivetrain adjuster for $60. I just need a couple more pieces to get it running!

I Love Asians.

I got my new clutch and brake levers today, shipped air mail from Thailand.

Gas cap

I just picked up a gas cap gasket on eBay for $10 shipped. Now I just need to figure out...neigh...engineer a way to latch the gas cap.

Legalities

I looked into a few of the legal details of my bike today. Insurance should be pretty cheap at about $75 per year. Registering the bike might be tricky though. Because I don't have a title I'm going to have to get a bonded title, meaning I'll need to get everything on the bike functional before I know if I can even register the bike. This could be tricky, so I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed.

Pictures

Here are pictures from Saturday's progress.