It's Alive!

Today I did quite a bit. I learned to solder and fixed the wires I cut in the back--they now have connectors on them.

Then I installed the ignition module, mounted the horn, the headlight case, and correctly re-connected all the wires--I counted 7 wire bundles for a total of 3 zillion connections to figure out. Actually, the colors made it pretty easy--sort of. I wasn't sure at all if I got it right, but I installed the battery and turned the key anyway. All the lights came on! Well, everything works except the right front park light. The signal works, but not the park light--probably a bad bulb. Oh, and I left off the headlight for now, so I don't know if that's still good or not.

Then I mounted the fan in the shroud, the shroud on the radiator, the radiator on the bike, and filled the radiator.

After that I pulled the plugs, sprayed WD-40 in the cylinders, put the bike in 5th and turned the back tire. It wasn't easy, but it turned. Then I put anti-seize on the plugs and installed them, and set up a temporary fuel system. I put a hose on the secondary tank and stuck a funnel in it and raised it up, then I took the clear vent tubing from my new battery and put it on the vent hole and ran it up toward the handlebars. I then stole some gas from my lawnmower can and filled it until it started coming up in the clear tube, (tank full.) This lets me run the bike with the main tank off so I can get to all the critical stuff I don't understand. Then I cranked the bike over. It wouldn't start for hella, and then I discovered the gas was off! I turned it on, made sure the choke was on, and it started to fire. After a few tries, it was running very slow and rough.

It didn't get any better, and I never saw the cooling fan come on, (even after I freaked out and plugged it in!) I took off the air chamber so I had direct access to the carbs and sprayed carb cleaner in. In one carb that almost makes it die, then it speeds up. In the other one, it just speeds up right away. It dies if I give it any throttle or take the choke off.

After 20 minutes of running, it got worse and quit. I'm worried I overheated it or messed up something with all my carb cleaner spraying. I called it a day at this point. I was at the Hangar racing yesterday for 10 hours and working on the bike all day today, and I'm beat.

We watched 'The Rocker', and it was pretty good.

Mental note: rRmember to hook up the brake linkage before I try to back it out of the shed or it'll buckle. And don't forget the cotter pin in the thingy.