Had a frustrating night in the garage recently, here's the latest.
So I went in to set up the gas lines and install the exhaust in hopes that I would actually be able to start the bike but ran into some more major setbacks unfortunately. I've been assured that it's pretty normal to run into problems but I am beginning to think that karma does NOT want me to ride this season (or at all??). Either way a lot of guys who have undertaken the task of a motorcycle rebuild will say it's a long road, one in which that can get pretty dark & dusty sometimes. I can definitely attest! I'm on the ropes over here but I'm not giving up! I feel like Clark Griswold in National Lampoons Christmas Vacation when his family tries to leave after the dog chases the squirrel around the house.
Here are my latest frustrating conundrums in list format (FML):
- gas tank has a pin hole leak which is causing the paint to bubble (yay!)
- spark plug threads are damaged on the right cylinder, plug will not torque (woo!)
- 2 threads on the left cover are also damaged, heli coils have been installed but bolts still won't torque (woohoo!)
- Custom exhaust will not fit on with the center stand! Need kick stand fabricated (probably a blessing in disguise)
- Battery over-discharged and cells are wickedly unbalanced (due to poor storage since I purchased that battery about a year ago and left it in the box in the house.. rookie move)
Fortunately I am working on some quick solutions! I don't know why I didn't think I needed to seal the tank but that is what's going to happen asap. I remember thinking that I didn't need to seal the tank after the beautiful results I achieved with the Metal Rescue and the fact that both me and the painter had gone over the tank with putty to make sure the problem areas were taken care of. I am using the
epoxy tank sealer from Caswell as I have been assured it's one of the best and easiest products to work with for this application. Painter has already agreed to do some touch ups on the paint.
For the broken threads I am going to leave them to Jeff Busch, the experienced mechanic that helped out on the engine rebuild. He's assured me that he can handle it with no problems.
Rob over at Bullit Custom Cycles is being a major major bahd by taking care of a few things for me. He's going to make me a kick stand mount, a license plate holder and a bracket for my tach. My goal was to install the tach into the headlight bucket, but that is going to happen over the fall.
I recharged the battery but was getting some weird flashing sequence on the dedicated charger that was not explained in the manual. I put it on charge and checked it with the volt meter to make sure the volts were going up. When it was done I tried to hook it back up on the bike but when I did I got some sparks and the horn sounded! The m-Unit does this when the battery is faulty to warn you of cook off... Love having that thing in my corner. After speaking with the manufacturer about what was going on they told me that my battery has been in an over-discharged state and needed to be balanced and recharged in a specific manner. They don't put this in the manual for whatever reason but emailed me the instructions and they seemed to have worked out well. I left the battery and charger on "Store" mode for 24 hours to balance the cells then recharged to just over 14 volts. I haven't tried to hook it back up but I'm not getting the error lights on the charger anymore so I am feeling
positive D) about the whole thing.
Getting closer. Climbing Mt Everest! But getting closer.
Stay tuned.