I pulled the front forks to try to get the seals clean and found I did in fact have a blown seal on the left fork. Order to V4market for new seals once I pay some bills. The old sponge fell apart to almost dust trying to get it out. The right side wasn't a lot better but held mostly together.
I did manage to get the new site glass lenses for the master cylinders in place. Rebuilt the front brake caliper with new pistons and such and gave it a good cleaning even though I'd done most of this already when I first started this project. I also installed the new slave cylinder gasket. I need to find a source for crush washers for all the banjo fittings as I think they are all slowly giving up the ghost and letting air leak past.
While stopped at the local Cycle Gear for bike wash and wheel cleaner, I found out about a little shop behind them that will mounts tires. $23/piece. Ran home and grabbed the old rims/tires and the new ones that had just come in. $46 later, Albee's got new dancing shoes. I still need to clean up the rims/wheels really well and prolly run some sandpaper over the rotor to clean it up a bit. I'm thinking a new rotor is on the list for the coming months but I have other things to pay for right now.
In the process of pulling the forks, I removed the front fender and found a mass of rust. I initially poured in the old EvapoRust but it was so used at this point that it only sightly started to get the rust off. I did grab a couple of gallons of apple cider vinegar and poured some of that in after dumping the Evaporust. Let it sit for a good 30mins and it really started to take off that stubborn rust. I cleaned it out and rinsed it and gave it a quick 3in1 oil wipedown. I'll spend more time on that later but means I need to be really good at pulling parts to clean the rust off especially things I don't directly look at.
I have wintergreen oil that should be showing up today with which I will start reconditioning gaskets and the old carb boots that are now spares. I had already bought brand new ones before the wintergreen secret was revealed. Sol good as I like having spares of parts. I am also going to try reconditioning the float bowl gaskets as backups along with any other rubber parts I find along the way that might make good candidates for restoration.
I pulled the forks in preparation for replacing the fork seals since the left one was leaking pretty bad. Once I got them off and started cleaning out the cavity to get to the seal, I realized it might be salvageable. I wiped it all down and pulled out the plastic ring and what was left of the foam seal thingy. Then I broke out the seal saver hook and started cleaning out the seal. After pulling some junk out it started coming out pretty clean. I wiped everything down again and then started putting my weight on the fork to compress it and release it. Seeing how dirty the oil was as it compressed. Thankfully that seemed to be the problem as I was able to compress and release with no oil residue as well and compressing it sideways/upside down in order to "force as leak" and nothing further came out. I proceeded to 0000 steel wool/Marvel Oil the rusty spots as well as some oily dirty bits and got both forks pretty clean. They both need some serious polishing, but for now I'm OK with cosmetic as long as the internals are working good.
Flush with the knowledge that I don't have to shell out another $40, I went ahead and cleaned the wheels while they are off the bike. I degreased the hell out of them making sure that I protected the bearings. I scrubbed them down pretty good in the hard to reach off the bike places and gave a simple wipe down for the rest. I figure I will put her through a good full detailing once she is running again. But for now, I just wanted to get most of the grunge and oil off.
I next started on polishing off the rusty front fender, again with 0000 steel wool and Marvel oil, but they are pretty nasty/rusty. I might just have to settle for good enough on those. I also have a LOT of rust spots all over the lower frame including the controls that I will have to eventually get to. I wish I had a simply easy effective way to remove rust from chrome without elbow grease.
All in all, progress is being made. I have brake shoes coming this week and then I can clean the chain/lube and put the rear wheel back on. I also ordered dust caps which should come in soon and then I can put the front end back together. I was going to pull the carbs and start cleaning on them, but I knew that I wouldn't get to them this week unless I got lucky. But the various seals and o-rings are soaking in wintergreen/alcohol solution and should be nice and soft by then. I intend to keep the old carb boots as backups just in case.
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