Did some more work.

Unfortunately not anything that will change the bike cosmetically yet. I absolutely HAD to change out the rear swingarm pivots. I let it go for a while but the rear end flex was more than a little unnerving. It was starting to freak me out a bit and, quite frankly, I had horrible visions of catastrophic failure (unlikely but......) I decided not to wait. Got right in there and swapped them out.

Nice brass bushings freshly pressed in.

I'll start with some of the cosmetic stuff very soon. Still waiting on parts. At least this job is (pretty well) done.

One thing that I wasn't too happy about was that the inner collars were absolutely terrible! I can't seem to find these things anywhere either. Yuck.....

Cheers!

 

Another little and quick changeout.

Swapped out the giant aftermarket pipes that came with the bike (Big Berthas as I'd dubbed them) for some 12" Shorty's. Holy, what a difference. I love the sound of these pipes. I take it easy in my neighbourhood as to not tick anyone off but the Harleys in the area are still far louder.

While I was at it, I took the time to wrap the pipes as well.

As I said before, I'm really looking forward to ripping into this but the weather has been WAY too good not to ride instead of work so..............

When I did the pivots (as mentioned in the previous post) I left the chain guard off as well.

I'm dying to get my front end work done.

Anyway, I'm off for another ride.

Chao.

 

Looks like a good project going there.
Salvage yard pictures remind me of "Bob's" in Phoenix.

Moved to "project logs"

 

Looks like a good project going there.
Salvage yard pictures remind me of "Bob's" in Phoenix.

Moved to "project logs"

Thanks.....

Thanks also for moving this to the appropriate spot. New to the site here and somehow missed the "Project Logs" forum.

Cheers.

 

Pickin' away at a few more things.......

Old side covers were toast.

The new(er) side covers were rough but a little better.

So............start prepping for paint.

Stripping and masking.

After stripping and a few coats; more masking.

Then a couple coats of white.

Scrape and sharpen raised edges and VOILA!

Out with the old, in with the new. Black!

A little detail for the Japanese bike Tank badges....

Fabbed up some new indicator light mounts for the rear (new lights after powder coating) and refurbished a shift linkage (found at salvage yard) as mine was causing me some grief.

Then my new rear shocks arrived.

Slapped those on and lowered the bike a hair.

Ground off the front fender (leaving just the arch for powder coat next week) and got into bobbing the rear fender.

Progress is slow, but, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel............at least for now. :lol:

 

looking good keep the posts coming

 

Waiting for the powder coating folks so, in the mean time, I got to some polishing.

Before.......

After......You know it's done when you can see my flannel jacket in the reflection

Before......

After.........

Once that was done, I started into the forks. Couldn't believe my eyes when I poured out the oil: milk white!! Yikes........

Internals and upper legs turned out to be quite nice after some cleaning/buffing though (thankfully) and I replaced the seals without issue. Well........ALMOST no issue.

I spent hours (literally) trying to free the left leg's chromed upper "crown" but there was no way. Had absolutely no choice but to hack the **** out of it to get it off :roll:

I cleaned it up and straightened it enough temporarily so it's usable. I'll head to the salvage yard in a week or so and pick up a new one. It was going flawlessly until that point.

Oh well.

Still waiting on powder coating and now working on the clip-ons/controls etc.

Pics to follow.

Cheers.

 

Nice thread. It's amazing how stuck things get after years of neglect. Then some one comes along that wants to do the right thing

 

Nice thread. It's amazing how stuck things get after years of neglect. Then csome one comes along that wants to do the right thing

No doubt!

It started off very gentle with light twisting. Then a little more force. Then a slight bit of extra force with some lock jaws. Nervous about damage, I aborted that. I then poured the penetrating oil to it with some more attempts. Then some soaking and more attempts. Then I was back to the lock jaws with some soaking and more attempts - loads of force. Heat? Sure. A dab of heat. A dab of heat and oil and coaxing. OK Oil gentle tapping. A little more tapping. OK, a little heat, oil and tapping.........

Ah F#$% it!

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!!

There you go B#%&H!!

aaaaaand done.

:lol:

 

Today..........more work.

Since this is a "running mockup" as I like to call it, the jobs are kept small at this stage. I'm running this thing continually. That being said, this is the longest stretch I've had to experience without riding the bike: powder coating takes time.

I planned this particular part of the mockup this way, lining it up with the 12 days off that I've had lately. Although I had planned/hoped ALL of this work would be completed before heading back to my real work, but, the powder coaters kinda threw a wrench in my plans. I don't want to be too hard on them though. Let's face it, they're running a business and there are far bigger jobs in their shop bringing in far more $$ for them so........ They're busy. Good guys too so, I can wait. Popped by this morning and saw my parts ready to be put into the final stages of the process so I'm expecting to have everything back tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Unfortunately though, I also head back to work. I'll have to wait until next week to finish it up and get it back on the road and finish up phase 2 of the mockup.

What are you going to do?

So, to keep moving ahead, I chose to bust the front end up a bit.

Mounted the new clip-ons and moved the controls down.

Re-wired the new lights, and manage to get everything running (using original stuff) right down to the neutral indicator and high-bean indicator lights. Everything works. Sweet.

Went back today, cleaned up the wiring the best I could and finalized the bar and control positions (pic below). Doesn't look too bad, for now really. When the full mockup is complete and I have everything in order, I'll be tearing the entire bike down and redoing the whole wiring harness so........ Like I said, good enough for now.

Now that I see the gauges up there though, the look MASSIVE. I will no doubt be swapping them out at some point as well.

I also despise the OEM controls. Anyone know where I can get some nicer aftermarket stuff or newer OEM stuff with most (if not all) the functionality intact? By that I mean, has the starter, horn, indicator etc. switches present?

I'm not building a cafe here. I'd like keep all the controls. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

 

Control pods that fit your clip ons with the switches you want are what you're looking for. They can be from any bike at all since they'll have all of the wires, just different colors/connectors. BMW's have pods that have a T/S switch on each pod, some of the Ducati switch pods are pretty sharp looking. Figure out if you're going to mount mirrors off the switch pods or not, that'll make a difference in selection.

 

Control pods that fit your clip ons with the switches you want are what you're looking for. They can be from any bike at all since they'll have all of the wires, just different colors/connectors. BMW's have pods that have a T/S switch on each pod, some of the Ducati switch pods are pretty sharp looking. Figure out if you're going to mount mirrors off the switch pods or not, that'll make a difference in selection.

Right on. Thanks for the response. I was wondering if other manufacturer's stuff would actually work. I guess that really opens up a lot of possibilities for me.

As far as mirrors go, I'm using the bar end type - as seen in the last shot (left bar).

Cheers!

Steve.

 

Gauges can be mounted lower spaced to clear the headlight, or UNDER the bars. I've seen many builds with the gauges mounted to the sides of the fork tubes. CrazyPJ's 360 comes to mind.

 

Gauges can be mounted lower spaced to clear the headlight, or UNDER the bars. I've seen many builds with the gauges mounted to the sides of the fork tubes. CrazyPJ's 360 comes to mind.

Any links? Sounds interesting.

 

I know I'm new at working on this bike but, I'm pretty flippin' sure these bolts that slip into the cush drive (or bushes) are supposed to come out. I beat the snot out of them trying to get them out but shut it down for fear of breaking/bending the sprocket. Used heat and penetrating oil as well but, no go. Just wanted to clean the sprocket up a bit......

Any other suggestions? I want to eventually replace the chain and sprockets but since this is all I've got right now, I don't want to be out a bike because I was a little too forceful. Any other ideas for freeing them or are they a lost cause?

Thanks.

 

...So mail me those now-no-longer used Z bars....LMAO!.... :lol: :lol:

E-mail if you want to dispose of them....Steve

 

Put the nuts back on, screwed down to @.010-.020" clearance from the gear. Support the gear on a deep socket with the pin inside. Hit the nut. As they work their way out just loosen the nut a bit and smack again.

 

Thanks guys. I'll get to that in the next few days for sure.

Ended up getting my parts from the powder coaters.
Put the fender on and connected the rear markers. Looks good. Not a show bike good, but, good.

Got the new rear light up just to see roughly where it is going to sit. That's pretty close.

I ran out of time though so had to shut the project down for a few days. Like I said......back to work tomorrow. I had to go and pick up the kids from school too so.....

In between getting the fenders and lights on, I started working on the wheels as well. I just got them back from the powder coaters who were kind enough to give them a quick sand blast. They were pretty rough so it saved me a ton of time.

Just put some primer on and did some light sanding. They're still rough but...........I'll make the best of it. I'm thinking a whole new wheelset next year anyway. I'll start working on them over the winter. As long as I have a working set on the bike, I'm fine with that.

Really wish I had just a couple more days to myself. I could be riding it very soon....

Oh well.

 

Side note to the build..........

I guess I made an appropriate song choice for the video on the previous page not only because of its release date but also because, as I've just learned, Mick rode one back in the day as well.

Who knew?

 

Bigger pic...

 

Move the plants.................dry the wheels.

Get it setup and visualize what's to come!

While the tires get mounted and wheels get balanced, make up some plugs for the triple to fill the holes where the old handle bar mounts once were.

Wheels back.........quickly installed and soooooooo close to being done for a while. Had to stop a hair short of completion to pick up the kids again.

Will finish and ride tomorrow.

Here's how it looks for now. Needs a good wipe down. There are greasy fingerprints all over the place. :lol:

So close.

I think it looks great all blacked out and lowered...... IMO at least

Another angle.

 

Very nice

 

Well, as I said, back at it.

Got the final little things done as well as install the tail light today. Here's how she looks now.......

Threw the plate on and off I went for a 1 hour rip and shakedown.

Unfortunately, not without at least SOME interuption..... :lol:

Bike runs awesome! Pretty stoked. That fork is so much nicer now that it actually functions as it was meant to and actually had good oil in both legs (as opposed to half water in one and NO oil in the other :shock: )

Still loads to do on this build but not right now. I'm gonna run it a while.

Anyone know where I can get a shorter front brake cable that won't cost me 100 bucks or more? Any other stuff out there compatible with it?

Cheers.

For the road - a random artsy shot during some work on the front end.

 

Nice job man! Looks killer!

Gersh

 

Thanks!

Burned an entire tank of gas yesterday! Thought the bike was starting to act up but then realized what was happening. I had to swing to reserve to make it to the gas station! Wowza! Out all day.

Tons of riding. Head back to work on the weekend