Finished!

Well, not exactly

We finished it tonight (July 20, 2008). Its back on the road at least. There still are some things to do, but its painted yellow and its running better than it was last year, and everything is working - lights, tach, everything.

Today we discovered that some total idiot prior owner had put oil in the front brake system rather than brake fluid. So I had to pull the front brake system off and clean it out and put it all back together.

I cleaned by completely disassembling it, including the master cylinder and then washing everything in hot soapy water. Then dried it, then rinsed it all off (out) with isopropyl alcohol and blew it off with compressed air. Reassembled, fill and bleed. Voila!

There was some confusion on the part of the current owner (Alex) about the fact that the bike won't crank if the kickstand is down and the machine is in gear. Once that was cleared up, the bike would start pretty easily. Then there was some confusion about the fact that the fuel petcock must be on while operating. Once that was cleared up, the bike would run pretty well.

The tail lights weren't working. Both bulbs were burnt out. They are common 1157s and I had two laying around in my tool box, so that took care of that problem.

It looks much better yellow than the orange color. It needs to be rubbed out some and I scratched the tank cover with an allen wrench when I was working on the brakes (dang!). Hope we can touch that up OK.