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.

Very definition of Masochism

Alright folks I couldn't wait any longer. I had to show you JUST how masochistic I am. Photos below are the before and after comparison of my fork lowers. One of the left is raw after hacksaw, files, and rough emery cloth. The one on the right is after wet sanding BY HAND with 220, 400, and 1000 grit sandpapers and an application of Mother's Mag and Aluminum polish.

It's taken me nearly a week of coming home after working and sanding that bad mama jamma!!! While it was excruciatingly painful to do, and I'm NOT looking forward to starting the next one, I believe it's worth it.

I plan on trying to get the other finished and both of them fully assembled and ready to go on the bike, along with my new seat fiber-glassed this weekend. We'll see if I'm being a little over ambitious. Till next time.

Little update (no photos)

Morning everyone, sorry I havne't been making any updates once again. I have a bad habbit of starting something on the motorcycle, getting REALLY into it and forgetting to take photos.

In my last post I mentioned cutting/shaving my front forks. Well, that's what I've been doing for the past week. It's been an EXTREMELY laborious process of hand wet-sanding the lower tubes in an effort to get them to a near mirror finish. I'm hopping to get one of them completely finished and assembled by sometime this weekend. I'll post a comparison between the new and old once I get there.

Bit of an update

Once again it's been a while since I've written an update. Here's a short and sweet update. It's getting cold here in Maine and an uninsulated garage make it sort of unpleasant to work on steel. Regardless I installed a propane heater in the garage to help with that. Here it is....

Now as far as the bike goes I fabbed up a head light bracket.

I cut the ugly chain guard flappy thing off of the left side cover of the engine as well as eliminated to old mount tabs/flanges for the mid controls that were no longer being used. Here's an before and after photo for comparison. No it's not the same side cover because I didn't want to ruin a perfectly good cover if it didn't turn out right.

I also have on order just over $500 worth of parts. Thing like carbuerator parts, fork seals and caps, seat mounts, etc. I also had an extra set of front forks which I shaved all unused caliper and fender brackets off of. I'll post and update with some pics of them once they are assembled again. The parts for assembly are in that parts order. Well till next time...



3 steps forward...

...5 Steps back. The other day while working on the bike I was standing behind it taking a look at her ass end and I noticed something wasn't right. Something wasn't right with the shocks. They looked a little cocked or twisted. I think something got a little crooked during the install and I didn't notice till now. Well, lesson learned. NEVER finish weld ANYTHING until EVERYTHING is THOROUGHLY checked and rechecked. So this is where my bike stands right now...

...not to F'ING happy!!! (SAD FACE)