One fork down

As I sit here belly rumbling from lack of food and the BASS that I'm sure is pissing off the neighbors I figure I'd share a minor accomplishment. That is that I've just finished assembling at least one of my new forks. Drool over the eye candy!!!!

Carbs assembled

Carb's are all pre-assembled. I am going to try and tune them up a bit and install them to get the motor running this weekend. Hopefully that works out. Anyways, here's some eye candy. Aren't they pretty?

Carbuerator Horror

So here's a brief update, hell it doesn't even contain ALL that I did last night. Oh well. You know how it goes, get going on a project and just forget to take photos of what you're doing. But anyways...

Here you can see the cracks in the carb diaphragms I found during disassembly. Yeah wasn't too happy about finding that seeing is how new ones from almost ANY source I could find would cost $70 a piece. Luckily I found a link on www.xs650.com to a guy who makes diaphragms for $20 a piece.

So here's the carnage after I removed both diaphragms. The stock ones were held in place on the slide by those plastic rings. That's why replacements are generally so expensive. The diaphragms come WITH the slides. But luckly http://jbmindustries.com/ makes and sells JUST the diaphragm. If any of you reading this have Mikuni carbs and need diaphragms I suggest this site.

Here is the new diaphragm installed on one of the slides. Very easy installation. Hardest part was removing the plastic rings and sanding off any sharp corners from the slide or the carb body.

Just another angle of the diaphragm installed. After I took this picture I just went to town on pre-assembling both carbs. Make sure I'm not missing any pieces and all of the pieces went together correctly. I installed a brand new carb kit on each carb as well as new floats in each. So I need to adjust the new floats. Warm weather is coming and I'm feeling the pressure of getting the bike on the road. Can't wait to see you all the road. I'll be that guy on the bare steel, wires hanging, mismatched paint job, unfinished bike next to you grining from ear to ear while you point and laugh!!!

Brief update

Well, once again it's been a while since the last post. I'll keep it short and sweet.

Finished the other fork leg (no photo necessary) but realized I forgot to order fork seals so I can't assemble the forks. Will post a photo once all parts are in and they are fully assembled.

Sand blasted, high heat paint coat x2, and fully wrapped exhaust. Check it out.

Coped and partially welded cross member for springer seat mounting.

Seat rail gusset cut from 16 gauge sheet metal.

Seat rail gusset fully welded between the seat rails.

Two angles of how the seat is being mounted. Still have some small details to iron out before I can call the seat fully mounted. More will follow eventually.

And here is a partial overall of how the bike looks to date. The pipes wont be going on until everything is ready to rock. Don't want to screw up the exhaust wrap.

Till next time. Laters.