December 1, 2008
May 2, 2008
Pullin the Motor
I planned on doing as full a resto as possible… so of course, this means splitting the cases…ugghh. I will probably ship the whole motor to someone and have them do a complete bottom and top end overhaul. My thoughts are – in the end, it will probably cost less and save a whole bunch of time. Otherwise i’ll have to go part by part and be here for years
My boy Michael lending a hand…he’s 3
Gotta remember the wiring paths
Well to pull the motor, of course you’ve got to pull the swingarm bolt. So start with pulling the suspension struts, disconnect shock, take the nut off and give it a few taps, should slide right out. Well, not after 26yrs of no grease… good news was I was able to move the bolt an inch or two in each direction so I had hope…
After spending about an hour and not being able to move the swingarm bolt anymore than 1″ or 2, I figured i’d better come up with another method other than a big breaker ratchet. I bought a $4 chisel from HD since I don’t have any punches, and ground the blade off it until it looked like a good width that wouldn’t butterfly the bolt as I pound it with a sledge.
It worked with some WD and another 15min of pounding. Here’s the bolt, you can see the end is still wrecked. Will need a new one.
Motors out…
Tearin it Down
After installing a much needed worklight in the garage, I teared off all the plastic and gas tank in no time. Lots of rusted bolts already..oh boy. The more I took off the bike, the better it looked. Looks like it wasn’t really ridden that hard, not too banged up. Its just got the normal rust, oil, dents, and gop… gas tank is a mess – that will be a challenge to restore but tranny feels ok, top end feels ok (i’ll be rebuilding anyway), rims look ok…
I can smell the 2-stroke now.. ahhhhh
Years of buildup..
I’d love to save the original ‘floater’ stickers…
Look at the angle on the levers….true old skool
Not bad for an hour’s work and a metallica rock block on WRAT..luckily no seized bolts yet..but read on.
Bike Arrives
Bike arrived on Wednesday, April 23, 2008. So I guess thats my official start date. The pictures are deceiving because of the tank cover and the plastic was painted some bright yellow, so it looks much worse when you’re standing next to it. Its in ok condition, a lot of missing bolts, zip-ties, etc.. but thats expected.
Here’s a look at what we have:
All the plastic is shot!
