Project BAMSFH™ The light at the end of the tunnel... a.k.a The Home Stretch... a.k.a. Dear gods I hope that isn't a train.
I was able to get some stuff done on the Project BAMSFH this weekend making this the final week of major things, as long as everything goes well. But of course it can never be that easy and I'm still smacking myself... and of course reminding myself that this was my first motorcycle carb rebuild as well as my first 4-carb rebuild.
Now on to the story...
This weekend I was able to get a lot of the crud out of the radiator, but not all of it. I tried vinegar soaking and even CLR/Lime-a-way and while helping, it did not get most of the visible buildup. There is solid flow through the radiator from inlet to outlet, so it seems like it is mostly external scaling. I decided it was good enough for now and flushed it several more times to make sure I wouldn't missing some big chunks that could later on find their way into the engine. I plan to run some Prestone Radiator Flush once it is running in hopes of getting the rest out .
I was also able to get the hoses replaced on the petcock -> filter -> pump setup and using my battery I manually ran it initially with water, to make sure it even worked and then again with SeaFoam infused gas. The idea there being to not only remove any gas varnish in the system, but also flush out any chunks. The pump ran well and seemed to have good pressure, so that is a huge plus.
Having finished the last of the big tasks, I was ready to start putting things back together. This includes finally reconnecting all the water, air, and fuel lines (I ended up leaving the fuel line disconnected for now so I can test the flow from the pump through the whole system) and started to put the air box back on. It came out with a little finagling, but for the life of me I could not get it to go back in. After about 10 minutes of pushing and shoving and angling and swearing, I noticed that the two bolts that hold the air cleaner to the carb plenum didn't look like they would line up even after I got the air box on.
"Huh..." Says I as I start to turn and spin things and finally go to grab the iPad with the copy of the service manual on it. I noticed at once what my problem was. If you guessed that I put the carb plenum on backwards... you win a prize!!
Having no intention of removing the entire carb assembly, I decided to try to remove just the plenum. It came off easy and at first went on easy once I nudged the carbs into slightly different angles. I went slowly and finally got it lined up right and tightened down. Then I realized I pushed one of the air tubes going into the plenum wrong and it pulled the o-ring/gasket in with it. Off goes the plenum again, I fix tube and gasket, and back on again... wiggle wiggle line up the carbs. YAY! Back on and tightened.
I get about halfway through tightening down the airbox when I look over and see the little brass cover that goes over the air tubes inside the plenum. Expletives deleted for the sake of the children. Back off goes all the panels and bits that I need to remove to get the airbox back out. Finally, after several hours longer than it should have taken, I have everything back on the bike except for the main tank.
This week I should get the last of the parts I need and if all goes well, I will be firing up the beast this weekend. I still need to do one more flush of the main tank and reattach it, drill out the sheared off caliper bolt and put in the new one, run some lube into the cables, and check the chain tension. I'm sure I have a few more little things to do, but I'm getting close.
Fingers crossed this thing will be alive by next week!
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