It's Home

Well, she's home... Now for the details.

Went down yesterday morning to work with Dude on the last bits and pieces and hopefully fire her up. So, first things first.. Lets mount some Rubber.

Started with the front, and changed the rubber. While we had the wheels off, and all that jazz we decided that it would be a good time to clean the forks up and all that fun stuff. So we set about that with emery cloth and fine sandpaper, then put a layer of clear. I think they look pretty good. Well, after that we went after the rear tire.

Dude isn't used to GS chain drives so I was able to demonstrate the easy way of getting the rear wheel off. (Admittedly, he claims the shafties are still easier.. Oh, well).

Well, while he was attacking the rear tire (literally.. ) I worked on re-routing some cables (or did I do this while he was attacking the front.. at any rate, re routed some of the control cable lines etc). Then I dumped some oil into the engine, and put about 2 gallons of gas in.

At this point we both attacked getting the rear tire back on the bike and the chain adjusted and all that fun. Approaching 4:30 in the afternoon by this time, so it was time to turn it over. Primed the carbs, pulled the choke.. Turn the key.. Crank.. Crank.. Crank.. let off to not overload the starter.. pop.. No lights.. Something isn't right.

Well at this point I had to get back as my Kitchen pass was a little overdue. Dude said he would attack the electricals today and give me a call with the results.

So, I get the call around 4pm today, found the issue, but we have another issue.. No oil pressure (look for post in tech section coming). Decided that at this point it is time to get the bike back into my garage and I can attack it at this point as our guts are telling us the oil pump is shot (was in the bottom end I picked up on ebay for $1, and if it was bad it may have caused the original engine to eat it, thus why the bike was parted out). So, I'm going to study some diagrams and see if there might be a clog elsewhere, but like I said, our guts say it is the pump is shot. Good news is I have at least 3 of them sitting here.

So, now were talking 5:00 pm and I am ready to load the bike.

Picture time..

Here it is sitting in Dudes driveway waiting on some lovin..



And here I am Smiling that my baby is back together, and coming home:



And here she sits in the garage, next to the beast..

Better angle (can't quite see the ripped seat):



Another angle.. (where you can see the seat):



So, next chance I get I'll dig through the boxes to find the oil pump from my original engine, then drain the oil and attack.

Hopefully I'll be riding her come spring (I don't doubt it much).