Project Frankenbike

[SlimKlim]

WOOOO-HOOO!!

It runs baby.

The parts came in Wednesday afternoon so I spent that night and Thursday putting the motor back together.

Slid the cylinders onto the pistons I had re-ringed Sunday afternoon.



I forgot to pick up the camera for a while, but I wrestled the replacement head into the frame and down onto the cylinders and torqued it down. I set the timing and tightened the cams up and put the tensioner back in. I checked the clearances and they were a little tight, but I was too anxious to worry about it, so I continued to reassemble and made a mental note to reshim in the near future. I replaced the valve cover gasket and put the cover on and lo and behold, I had an engine! A whole one!

http://jklimchuk.smugmug.com/Motorcycles...Rmx4-L.jpg

I got all worked up once I saw this and set about reassembling. I rejetted the carbs back to what they should be (147.5)



Then I put them on and hooked them up, stuck the air filter on and got a little more excited.



Then I popped the exhaust on and cranked it down (stupid move, keep reading)

All this past week my dad had been doing the body work for me, which was awesomely nice of him, and he finished clearing it Thursday night. I gave it until Friday after work and finished reassembling it. I turned the motor by hand a few times to get the oil moving before I started it up and then put the plugs in, started on the second try and I let it burn the rest of the oil out of the exhaust.

This is the problem-smoothing-out stage. The exhaust had an awful leak around the gasket and dad and I tried to shimmy it around and get it to seat better. We got it to leak a little less and I took it out and finished burning the oil out of it and got to soak in the sweet sweet sound of a clean burning motor.

I figured out that I hadn't been careful enough lining up the exhaust and had crimped down on the gaskets pretty bad, so getting a seat wasn't going to fly. I called the dealer this morning, and they don't stock them. ....Of all the freakin things to stock.... but whatever, I digress. I took one of the old sets of gaskets and very carefully lined it up and got a decent seat, i can't feel any leak but i can hear a little bit of hissing, so I'm going to order a new set for it.

Also, this morning there was a puddle of oil under it, which freaked the snot out of me until I realized I just hadn't tighten the tensioner enough, 10 minutes of work and no leak to speak of.

I put about 80 mi on it today and it rode like a dream.







I'm ordering parts to make my own instrument cluster, just a neutral/oil/turn/high light panel, I might add resistors to the turns so they flash slower, and I'm going to get another headlight that isn't dented, re shim the valves, and a handful of other things. I might also replace the exhaust with a new, not yet rusted system and have it powdercoated or something to prevent rust, then wrap it. 1.) Exhaust wrap looks freakin awesome, 2.) it will keep from blistering my brake lines and fender. But I have to decide if thats the best option, its gonna be kinda pricey.

Today is a pretty monumental day, today my project out in the garage on jackstands turned into my running/riding/fit for daily use project, that I can continue to work on at a less frantic rate. Today was awesome. 8)