So it's been a while and I still haven't solved the high-RPM miss on this bike. As long as I'm careful with the throttle and turn signals, it runs great. I swapped the stator, coil, rectifier, and carb off the XL (which runs 100%). None fixed the problem, and the same components off the CL work fine installed on the XL. Everything I bench-tested checked out, too. Kind of a head-scratcher. So a few weeks ago I spotted a NOS harness on Ebay for $50 and threw caution to the wind and bought it, thinking maybe a short somewhere would be the last straw. The harness turned out to be legit, but after installing it and also wiring dedicated grounds to the rear signals, still no improvement. Hmmm...
In other news, I've put over 3000 miles on this bike now and noticed the drive sprocket getting a bit worn, so I ordered up a new one along with a new rear sprocket and chain. What do you folks think of this weep from the countershaft seal? I probably should have dealt with it when I installed the sprocket today, but I didn't have a new one handy and I was jonesing to take advantage of the nice weather and go for a ride.
The coolest thing would be to leave the seal as-is and funnel the oil up onto the chain. Hehehe. Any ideas?
The new rear sprocket is a 40T, three teeth down from the sprocket the PO had installed. Despite the increased gearing the bike climbed right up the cabin driveway (which is like my own private hill climb), and I was very happy with the improvement in cruising RPM on the 45 MPH roads. I even ventured out onto the highway for a few miles. I still ended up hunting for 6th from time-to-time, but less than I normally do, and no doubt the motor ran significantly cooler. It worked well for a while, but now my speedo's whack except maybe 5-10% of the time, so I need to do a ride with the GPS and recalibrate.
Prepare to cringe, but I forgot to bring circlip pliers to the cabin and ended up doing this to get the sprocket off:
Kind of sketchy. But at the same time surprisingly easy and effective! With safety goggles anything is possible. I think my pliers would have been too small for this ring, anyway, so it could become a regular routine.
On the way home I stopped at one of my favorite discount tool stores and picked up a pretty nice set of 10 Husky combo wrenches, 8mm-19mm, for about a buck a piece. Perfect for the new XL tool kit. This guy kept an eye on the scrambler while I did my shopping, and for once I parked next to a vehicle even more underpowered than the bike.